A Hingerty Banner?

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Do the Hingertys have a family coat of arms or banner?

This question has a number of problems.

1. Coats of arms are granted to an individual named person and their heirs. Therefore, arms are not related to, nor belong to, a surname- even though there are many suppliers of family arms paraphernalia on the internet who would have you believe otherwise.

2. Coats of arms were initially a very English affair. They developed as a system of identification- for seals, shields and the surcoats of men in armour from about the 12th century. The College of Arms was established in England in 1484. The Ireland Register of Arms was founded by King Edward VI of England in 1552. Heraldry came to Ireland with the nobles and military forces of the English.

3. Even if we allowed for the fact that a surname does not own a coat of arms and decided to adopt an existing coat of arms, which design would we adopt? Probably the closest would be the so called Harrington banner with its motto "In a firm knot" and its black and white depiction of the "Harrington Knot".

4. But- which Harrington does this banner belong to? There were multiple origins for the name Harrington in England and in Ireland three distinct septs adopted the name as the anglicised version of their gaelic name: 

the O hOirechtaigh sept of Connacht; the O hArrachtain sept of Tralee and our own O hIongardail sept of Cork.

 These were all very separate groups who independently adopted the same English name at around the same time. Sir Henry Harrington  was a leading figure in Elizabethan Ireland and this may have influenced the choice of surname.

In relation to the O'Hingerdells of Cork, the O'Hingerdell name was problematic at the time as they had fought against the English in the Nine Years War and had been declared traitors after the Battle of Kinsale. For some members of the O'Hingerdell clan it must have seemed that a name change to Harrington would be a good idea at this time.

The Harrington Knot belongs to the Harringtons of England NOT those Irish who changed their name to Harrington to sound more English/less Irish.


Conclusion

So, no, unfortunately there is no Hingerty Coat of Arms, which is a shame as I quite like the Harrington knot........

If you would like to know more about arms and heraldry visit the The Heraldry Society and The National Library of Ireland.

If you would like to see some lovely colourful Harrington Coats of Arms- just Google it - but remember, this is NOT the Hingerty banner even if the online shops would like you to think so.....


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hingerty@one-name.org




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