variant / Afrikaans

Arms apparently adopted in 1869 by Bishop William Macrorie. The blazon reads:

Per fess; in chief Azure a saltire Argent, above it an estoile Or; in base Argent, on waves of the sea a lymphad[1] banners flotant and oars in action proper.

Brownell[2] writes: “When John William Colenso was ineffectually declared deposed as Bishop of Natal by the Metropolitan, Robert Gray, in 1863, he refused to give up his episcopacy or vacate his Diocese and continued to use the Diocese of Natal’s episcopal arms of ‘Azure, a saltire Argent and in chief an estoile Or’.

“W K Macrorie who was appointed the ‘official’ Bishop of Natal by the Church of the Province of South Africa in 1869 thus had no alternative but to adopt different arms for ‘his’ Diocese, which was known as the Diocese of Maritzburg, since Colenso still styled himself Bishop of Natal.

“From 1869 until Colenso’s death in 1883, there were thus two rival Bishops in Pietermaritzburg. The Diocese of Maritzburg reverted to its original name and arms after A H Baynes became Bishop in 1893.

“In Bishop Macrorie’s signet ring these arms impale his personal arms, but in his episcopal seal the diocese is represented only by ‘Azure a saltire Argent’, without an estoile, impaling his personal arms.”

variant of arms with a sailing ship instead of a lymphad

Brownell also illustrates a second version of the arms of the Diocese of Maritzburg, as illustrated in Woodward’s Ecclesiastical Heraldry of 1894:

Per fess; in chief Azure a saltire Argent, above it an estoile Or; in base Argent, on waves of the sea a ship proper.

Brownell writes: “In this version of the Diocesan arms, Woodward has depicted a 17th or 18th Century merchantman similar to that used by him in his version of the arms of the Diocese of St Helena. The vessel illustrated in Crockford’s Clerical Directory is, however, clearly a lymphad, or ancient galley, with a single mast and oars in action.”

Brownell also notes: “Although blazoned as ‘Or’, the estoile is depicted by Woodward as ‘Argent’.”

In the year following Bishop Macrorie’s appointment, his area of responsibility was reduced by the appointment of T E Wilkinson as Bishop of Zululand.

Gesny: in die skildhoof ’n skuinskruis van silwer, waarbo ’n golwende sespuntige ster van goud; die skildvoet in silwer, op golwe van die see ’n Skotse seilskip wat van roeispane toegerus is, van natuurlike kleur.

Gesny: in die skildhoof ’n skuinskruis van silwer, waarbo ’n golwende sespuntige ster van goud; die skildvoet in silwer, op golwe van die see ’n seilskip van natuurlike kleur.

[1] The term lymphad is of Gaelic derivation and literally means long-boat. Built for both rowing and sailing, it was used in the Hebridean isles and is highly conventionalised in heraldic art. (Definition taken from An Encyclopædic Dictionary of Heraldry by Julian Franklyn and John Tanner [Pergamon].)

[2] Heraldry of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, 1847-2000, by F G Brownell, published by Heraldsholme CC, Pretoria 2002.

The paragraphing is my own.

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Source of image: Line drawing in Brownell’s book, coloured by the webmaster using MS Picture It!

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Comments, queries: Mike Oettle