John Carter "the Vintner" - Coat of Arms

Holly,
The use of coats of arms on Geni has been a point of discussion for some time. Most people use them as visual clues that they have the correct family and do not concern themselves if the crest was actually used by the person whose profile displays it.

If you have access to a correct coat of arms or crest, please feel free to add it to the profile. It will help many. Remember, you can use the description field when adding media to explain why that crest is the appropriate one.

That specific coat of arm seem to be one of the many fabricated arms made by companies who want to make money on them. They are easily recognized by being too perfect (made by a computer) and the banner below.

I made a test on some of the companies: They monitors coat of arms searches and when they get enough searches on a name they fabricate a coat of arms for it and put up some fantastic history about the origin of the name. All fake...
My surname does not have a coat of arm, but when I and some others fed their search engine with the name Brox over a time period this one popped up, definitely fake:
http://www.houseofnames.com/brox-coat-of-arms

You should also know that a real coat of arm may change over time, and you never inherit it from your mother, but if she was from a powerful family which had their own coat of arm it happens that a symbol from her coat of arm get included in the coat of arm from her husband. Knowing the different symbols you can get a good indication of the family origin.

My coat of arms collection on Geni is a public album: http://www.geni.com/photo/album/285725352490006131?album_id=6000000...

I have a copy of a 2007 document that was prepared by the DNA Donor for Carter Kit # 218088 in R1b-32 (Family Tree DNA) claiming that, as a direct male line descendant of Robert "King" Carter, he has a right to the coat of arms as follows:

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The Arms were: Argent, a chevron between three cartwheels vert; and the Crest, On a mount vert a greyhound sejant argent, supporting an escutcheon argent charged with a cartwheel vert. [Coll Arms ms EDN57/62]. Ex. 24 (St. George, The Visitation of London 1633-35, Vol. I at 142 (Howard & Chester, eds., London, 1880).

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I have not been able to find an image of the coat of arms used by Robert "King" Carter and his family but I did find this book excerpt that claims the coat of arms is on his tombstone and on a seal used by his son Landon:

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http://books.google.com/books/about/Virginia_heraldica.html?id=nk4S...

"Virginia heraldica: being a registry of Virginia gentry entitled to coat armor, with genealogical notes of the families"
William Armstrong Crozier
The Genealogical Association, 1908 - 106 pages

http://books.google.com/books?id=nk4SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA97&vq=%2...

Page 97 - Argent, a chevron between three cartwheels vert. CREST— On a mount vert, a greyhound sejant argent, sustaining a shield of the last, charged with a cartwheel vert.

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The DNA Donor for Carter Kit # 218088 claims this coat of arms was originally granted to a Richard Carter of Garston, Watford, Hertfordshire, England in 1546. The manor at Garston was inherited by Richard's eldest son, William. Richard's third son, Thomas Carter, moved to London and became a merchant and vintner. The document also says "Thomas had as many as nine and possibly 11 children by two or three wives." The document also has that the "London vintners were the Carter descendants of the Garston Manor Carters."

I do not have a way to verify this information but if it is correct, then I would think the coat of arm image (if the correct one can be found) should go on Richard Carter of Garston.

The John Carter who was the father of Robert "King" Carter may be the same John Carter who is named as a son in the 1630 Will of a John Carter "Vintner of London" married to Miss Benion but if Richard Carter of Garston had three sons then it is possible that there were several men in this family with the name John Carter.

A coat of arms similar to the one described for Robert "King" Carter is found here for Robert Carter of London (4th image down):

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http://www.heraldry-online.org.uk/carter/carter-arms.htm

Robert CARTER
of London

Argent a chevron Sable between three Catherine wheels Vert. Harleian Society's The Visitations of London 1633/4

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The difference being that the one pictured on the webpage above has "Catherine wheels" and the one for Robert "King" Carter has "cartwheels". Catherine wheels have spikes on them.

I realize that a lot of Americans "adopt" British or other European coats of arms to which they have no official grant. Personally, I don't care if Americans want to purchase beer mugs with some tourist-magnet coat of arms on them but if they want to use a coat of arms for genealogical research then they should understand the rules for the time and place in question.

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.htm

"There is no such thing as a 'coat of arms for a surname'."

"Coats of arms belong to individuals. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past."

A picture of the coat of arms for the Carter's of Garston is here:

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43308