The Duncans and the Donkins
by Mike Oettle
THE arms of the Duncan family of Scotland are perhaps best known in South Africa thanks to their use by the city of Port Elizabeth, which assumed the arms of its founder Sir Rufane Donkin.
Born in Ireland, Sir Rufane belonged to an old Northumberland family (north-eastern England) which in turn was a branch of the Duncan family of Scotland. As early as the 12th century AD, branches of that family had been established not only in Northumberland but also in Somerset (south-western England).
Both these English branches of the Scottish family spell their name as Donkin, but are not to be confused with other Donkin families (of Irish origin) who are to be found on the south-western and north-western coasts of England.
The surname is derived from the Gaelic name Donnachadh. The clan claims descent from Duncan I (1034-1040), King of Scots from 1034 until his death at the hands of
Macbeth (king from 1040 to 1057).
The first recognised chief of the Clann Dònnchaidh was Donnachadh Reamhar (in English Stout Duncan – stout in the meaning of dependable or resolute), from whom both the Robertson and Duncan families of Scotland are descended. Donnachadh Reamhar led the clan at Bannockburn. However, the Clan Dònnchaidh gets its English name from Robert Riach (Grizzled Robert), and is known as Clan Robertson.
While a clan may include various surnames, coat-armour is a matter of one’s name, and the Robertsons and Duncans bear quite different arms. The arms of Robertson of Struan, chief of Clan Robertson, is a red shield charged with three wolves’ heads erased (roughly slashed off at the neck) in silver.
In recent years a group of Duncans has been pursuing the goal of obtaining recognition from the Lord Lyon, the Queen’s chief heraldic officer in Scotland, as a distinct clan, and a number of them have obtained either grants or matriculations[1] of arms from the Lord Lyon.
They also run a website for Clan Duncan, which shows a Duncan armorial – a collection of coats of arms that enable one to see straight away that Sir Rufane belongs to this family.
Sir Rufane’s arms – and those of Port Elizabeth – feature a red field, a chevron coloured argent (silver or white), two cinquefoils (formally drawn flowers of five petals) coloured or (yellow or gold), a hunting horn (also known as a bugle horn), also or, and three black buckles on the chevron.
These devices are also to be found in the arms of several Duncans. The red field is shared by (among others) Aitkin-Duncan, Beveridge-Duncan, the Earl of Camperdown (the senior representative of the family), Duncan of Ardownie, Duncan of Jordanston, Duncan of Parkhill, Duncan of Seaside, Duncan of Mott, Duncan of Sketraw, George Duncan, John Duncan of Aberdein, McDougal-Duncan and Morison-Duncan.
Clearly more distantly related are the Duncans who have a shield with an argent field – Duncane, Duncanson, Duncanson of Argyll and Robert Duncanson. All these gentlemen also have a black chevron, rather than the argent one of the red-shield Duncans.
Sharing Sir Rufane’s argent chevron are Duncan of Aberdein and McDougal-Duncan, while Duncan of Ardownie and Duncan of Jordanston also have buckles (in blue) on their chevrons.
Duncan of Parkhill, Duncan of Seaside and Duncan of Mott have chevrons in gold (called or in heraldic terminology), while Duncan of Sketraw has a chevronel (a narrow chevron). The Parkhill shield shows the chevron with an engrailed edge, while Mott also has buckles on his chevron.
Several of these arms also feature cinquefoils, and the hunting horn also features prominently among these examples. Some of them show a plain hunting bugle (made from the horn of a bovine), usually banded in a contrasting colour, while others show it corded, the cord shown decoratively with an elaborate knot in it. So also the horn of Sir Rufane, and that of Port Elizabeth.
The arms of the Earl of Camperdown, interestingly, lack a chevron. (Note: The red field in this peer’s arms fills the 1st and 4th quarters of a shield that incorporates the devices of other families ancestral to the earl.) However they do include the cinquefoils and the hunting horn (these are in silver, and the horn has blue cording).
Replacing the chevron in the form of an augmentation of honour[2] is a naval crown,[3] from which is suspended the Large Naval Gold Medal and, in gold lettering, the word CAMPERDOWN.
Sir Rufane’s shield had two augmentations of honour added to it in recognition of his military service. Firstly there is a chief in or marking his service in India, notably in the successful British campaign against the Mahrattas in 1817-18.
The chief, which is embattled (shaped like a battlement at the bottom edge), bears an Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) statant (standing) and facing to the dexter[4] side of the shield. Above the elephant is the word INDIA in black.
Secondly there is a small red canton (a square corner) bearing a mural crown,[5] beneath which is suspended a medal, the Peninsular Gold Cross, awarded for his part in the capture of the Spanish city of Talavera de la Reina (on the route to Madrid) during the Peninsular War (1808-14). Beneath the medal is the word TALAVERA in gold.
These two augmentations on Sir Rufane’s arms and that on Admiral Duncan’s arms are all typical examples of poor 19th-century heraldry. The use of lettering in a coat of arms is regarded as bad practice.
Sir Rufane had two mottos. On a ribbon below the shield was the wording Tu Meliora Spera, and on a ribbon above the crest, Bona Spes. Since he was a Knight Commander of the Bath, he also displayed the two mottos of that order. On the collar of the Order, which encircled the shield, was the wording Tria Juncta in Uno. And displayed on an additional ribbon was the motto of the Prince of Wales, Ich Dien.
