Appendix VIII: Arms of the Bissets

According to Nisbet’s “Heraldry,” the Bissets of Lessendrum are now chief of that name, and bear the ancient arms of the family - the plain coat azure, and the bend argent. Neither motto nor crest is given, but the crest assumed by the family is a gnarled oak sprouting, with the motto, “Abscissa viresco.” These indicate pretty correctly the history of the family. The oak has often been cut down, but has grown again.

Alexander Nisbet 1657-1725 is the main source of the few details of the Bisset Arms. He was the youngest son of Sir Alexander Nisbet of that Ilk. He matriculated at Edinburgh University in 1682 and for some years followed the law but devoted himself ever increasingly to heraldry and antiquities and was described by his contemporaries as a “professor” and “teacher of heraldry”. He wrote several books on the subject but most of his arms which are quoted by modern writers seem to have come from a collection known as “Alexander Nisbet’s Heraldic Plates” originally intended for his “System of Heraldry” these plates were published in 1892 by Andrew Ross, Marchmont Herald and Francis J. Grant, Carrick pursuivant.

The Arms accredited to the English Bissets as shown by Nisbet (1722) are bezants or on an azure shield. The bezants (besantee) are displayed 3–3-2-1.The bezants in heraldry represent a Byzantine coin and only came into use after the first crusade.

Bisset of Beaufort from Workman's MS 1566	Bisset of that Ilk from Forman's Roll 1562	Bisset in England from Nisbet 1722	Bisset of Beaufort from Balfour's Register, 1650

The first reference to these arms in use which I have found relates to the cast of a seal dated 1535 credited as being held by the Devizes Museum in Wiltshire and attributed by Mathew Paris to a John Bisset. I now know that the museum does not hold or know the whereabouts of this cast. The original is held by the curator of Medieval Historical Manuscripts, Charters and Seals at the British Library.

The seal is part of charter 40072 which does bear the seal showing the bezants and is dated 4th March 1535 and is a bond between Richard Jenyns, prior of Maiden Bradley and a Sir Walter Hungerford. We know that Maiden Bradley was Bisset charity but interestingly no Bisset appears on this charter which is in any case very late for the English Bissets so presumably the prior was by this date using the Bisset seal as the priory seal.

I have subsequently found further references to Bissets using variations of the Bezant:
A Bisset of York – Az, ten bezants 4,3,2,1.
A Bisset of Warwickshire – Az, 3 bezants, also a six bezant, 3, 2, 1.
as shown in “The Grand Armoury” by Sir John Burke of 1888, also “The General Armoury” vol 2, Cecil Humphries-Smith.

As the use of bezants only came into vogue after the first crusade, the bezant representing a Byzantine gold coin and as we have no record of any of the main English Bisset family going on crusade we have to conclude that the Bissets adopted this form of arms at a later date.

A more telling aspect is that these arms are also the arms of the Zouche family (see next appendix) and when I put this to Thomas Woodcock Esq., then Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, he seemed quite relaxed that the Bisset family could adopt the arms of another family in this instance the Zouche family.

The most likely explanation for the use of these arms must be that they are related to the period when the English Bisset estates were held “at the kings pleasure” during the reign of King John and were administrated by Roger la Zouche on behalf of the crown. After these estates reverted back to the Bissets Roger la Zouche married Margaret Bisset and would have come into possession of Bisset property by dower.

During the period of administration and later during his marriage Roger la Zouche would have been quite legally putting his own seal (showing his arms) to Bisset documents and the Bissets seem to have adopted these arms rightly or wrongly from this time and subsequently continued to use them in England as their own. What the Arms if any of the earlier Anglo-Norman Bissets were I have yet to determine.

The arms of the Scottish Bissets are as previously stated the differenced arms of an early shield of the House of Mar and would indicate that at some point a Bisset married a Mar heiress. These arms continuing down through the Lessendrum line until the late 20th C. My understanding is that there is no male heir to the Lessendrum Bissets and the line is now defunct.

The arms of other members of the Scottish Bissets may well have been different and not survived; I have so far been unable to find any other Arms for other branches of the family in Scotland other than those noted on personal seals, see below.

The following notes are taken from Scottish Heraldic Seals, vol ii A-J 1940 by John Horne Stevenson K.C. and Marguerite Wood PhD and give details of all known Seals attributable to the name Bisset.

A French collection of European arms includes:.

BISSET. - Grande-Bretagne.

De ... a la bande d'argent chargee de trois etoiles de gueules.
C. : un tronc d'arbre ecote de quatre pieces, poussant a dextre, de la deuxieme piece, un rameau.
D. : TEMPUS EDAX RFRUM. [Coll. Qnantin].

Appendix VIII: Arms of the Bissets