FITZRANDOLPH
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The Arms are described as: Argent, a chief indented azure.
Crest:
Legend:
Compendium of American Genealogy
Below the shield is a ribbon with the motto: Jamais Arriere (Never Behind) which is the motto of the Clan Douglas
Coats of arms do not belong to a family name. They belong to individuals who are acknowledged as their owner or who receive a grant for them [from a foreign government] or who make them up for themselves.
A coat of arms may be claimed by a male descendant of an unbroken male line of any person who has a legally recognized right to a coat of arms.
Daughters have the right to use their father's coat armour as long as they remain unmarried or they may combine [by impaling or escucheon of pretense] their father's arms with those of their husbands. If their spouses have no arms, daughters may continue to use their paternal arms for life, but this right is not inherited by their children and expires with their death.
If a person [an armiger] who has the right to bear heraldic arms has no sons but only daughters, the daughters are heraldic heiresses and their children may quarter the arms of their mother with those of their father. If their father has no arms, the right is lost unless the arms are regranted to them as heirs of their maternal grandfather. [Ref: "Heraldry For United States Citizens," The Board for Certification of Genealogists, The Report, Ohio Genealogical Society, Vol. 36, #1, Spring 1996.]
To summarize, unless you are a male who descends in an unbroken male line from a person who rightfully possessed a coat of arms and you can prove the relationship generation by generation back to the original grantee of the arms, you have no right to claim it as your family coat of arms on the basis of the surname alone. If you're a female descendant, forget it!
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