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The Rock Coat of Arms and Motto

The Rock Coat of Arms featured on this website is authentic, it is the only true one I am aware off. It appears in Burke's General Armory and is well described. There is an excellant website, where you can download it for your own personal use: http://www.araltas.com/heraldry/. Just click on the letter R and scroll down to the Graphic, do send an email to the designer and ask him about it.

Here is a scanned reproduction of the original: Rock Coat of Arms

The official Description is as follows: "The Shield, "or, two lions pass. in pale sa, on a canton of the second a chessrook ar." When translated the blazon decribes above is as follows: "Gold; two black lions walking placed one over the other; a black upper corner charged with a silver chessrook." Above the shield and helmet is described the crest "out of a marquis' crown, a right arm in armour, cut off at the elbow, grasping in the gauntlet a naked dagger all naturally coloured".

Note: Gold in modern representation [computers] is rendered as yellow.

The Coat of Arms was issued in the 1820, to James Rock esq., of Dublin, extract is from Burke's General Armory.

The Chess-rook is interesting, the "Rook" featured is not a Bird but a Castle, the origin of the Rook/Castle chess piece is from French, meaning a fortress upon a Rock.

If anyone has a description, or a more accurate rendition, I would be grateful if you could share this with me. Now Coat's of arms are actually issued too specific individuals not too families, however it is issued to him and all his descendants. So for now, until I know more, I am using it as it is the only one I know off.

Motto

The official motto associated with the Coat of Arms is the much abused and misinterpreted "nil admirari", which is "to be astonished at nothing" a phrase used by the Greek philosopher Homer. This has been reinterpreted by Coat of Arms manufacturers as "Not to admire", definetely NOT the correct interpretation. This motto is also used by the surnames, Kidd, Johnson, Fitzgibbon and Harris. The motto information has been supplied by Aaron Rock.