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Family Crest

Although we are trying not to be a heraldry verification site, understanding the armorial family crests and seals in use can be a help at understanding family branches and their possible linkage to one another. To that end, we cover what is known about any family crests and seals associated with this surname and branches we investigate here.

Officially, there are very few Baronets who can use the seal. And only the current Baronet is the one that can use it. The two still current are part of this project. These are the "banking Hoare's" of Barns Elm and the Annabella Hoare line of Ireland. Both received titles for separate and independent reasons but are genetically shown tied to the same family back in the 1200's and captured in the B13 study page. See Wikipedia for a description of the current Baronets. Heraldry and Coats of Arms are managed by the College of Arms. Only one of the Orr lines in North America is tied to these lines and back from before the titles were bestowed.

Earliest Known Seal

103x130 Logo with transparent border of William le Hore Seal (founder of Pole Hore family, Wexford, Ireland)
Our co-admin Malcolm Hoare had discovered and posted the photo of the seal of William le Hore that was discovered in County Louth, Ireland. We have used this image to adorn or "logo" our project pages as it matches with the earliest recorded use of this surname in the Doomsday book. Namely, a William le Hore of Pembroke, Wales whose namesake descendant later went to Ireland as Strongbow's flagbearer to retake Ireland for the deposed Irish king.

Double Headed Eagle

B&W Logo of Double Headed shield of Hoar families (Coat of Arms).  From Jose Hoard website background.
The Double-Headed Eagle crest is associated with many Hore and Hoare lines. It has been used to justify a connection between many family branches. Before 1600 not much is recorded about many families. But many have regurgitated the stories of the Risford Manor Hores of Chagford, Devon; of the Pole Hores of Wexford, Ireland, and of Willieam le Hore of Pembroke, Wales (a Norman Knight). And the double-headed eagle seems to be associated with them all.

The earliest known recording of this double headed eagle crest with the College of Heraldry is that reported by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in his 1819 book on the Banking Hoare family of Buckingham. But many others reported the crest was long in use by other families and, in particular, by the Risford Manor Hore family. When Ken Smallbone found the Double Headed Eagle crest on a wax seal at the bottom of a legal document regarding Thomas Hore of Axminster, it was used by Ken to be the final proof that the Hezekiah Hoar group, that descended from Thomas, was in fact a non-inheriting son of the Risford Manor Hore family of Chagford, Devon. Ken documented this in his NEGHR articles as well as a yet-to-be-published book from 1997 entitled Double-Headed Eagle.

Books and Articles

  • Smallbone, Ken, The Double-Headed Eagle: The Medieval Ancestry of Hezekiah Hoar of Taunton, Massachusetts, final draft, April 1997 (in the possession of Jose Hoard; based on research conducted by Lyon Jackson "Jack" Hoard, Hugh Peskett, and Ken Smallbone)
  • Hoare, Sir Richard Colt, Pedigrees and memoirs of the families of Hore, of Rushford, co. Devon; Hoare of Walton, co. Bucks; Hoare, of London, co. Middlesex; Hoare, of Mitcham, co. Surrey; Hoare, of Stourton, co. Wilts.; Hoare, of Barn-Elms, co. Surrey; Hoare, of Boreham, Essex, 1819, Bath, England (Stourton)  (see WorldCat for 7 copies cataloged in various libraries in UK, Australia and Sweden). Scanned Copy and 2-Sided, 8.5x11 now available.