In one of Robert Carroll’s letters to his cousin Thomas Greer MP, he mentions that Sarah Whinnery née Carroll knew of the Carroll shield and crest. On hearing some one boasting of having a crest, Sarah maintained that the Carroll family could exhibit a coat of arms and crest too; but she remarked how vain such things were and said our conduct should be our coat of arms. This became part of the family traditions of the Carrolls in Ohio.
As farmers in Antrim, the Carrolls would have no need for such fripperies which were associated with the Anglo-Irish Ascendency. However, as the Carrolls in Cork became ever more successful in their businesses, their place in society fuelled their interest in the “family” coat of arms.
The earliest record I have found of the use of the shield and crest by the Carrolls in Cork, is on the two memorial stones that were erected in St.Nicholas church in Cork. A grieving widow and mother chose a memorial stone bearing the Carroll shield and crest to remember her husband John Carroll (died 1869) and sons Joshua (died 1870) and Hargrave (died 1872). The crest shows a hawk on the stump of a sprouting tree, but its wings are not open. It has been suggested that this was to show that these Carrolls had not left Ireland with the Flying Geese in the seventeenth century. The motto has been changed from the warlike “in Fide et in Bello Fortis” – strong in the [catholic] faith and war – to “Semper Meliora Certans” – Always striving for better.
Joseph Hatton Carroll had some bookplates engraved with his name. This followed the same pattern as the two gravestones.
In January 1891, John Thomas Carroll obtained a painted illustration of the Carroll crest from the Ulster King of Arms. He was puzzled by the word “Forte” which he thought should properly be Fortis. He was still debating this in 1934 when he sought the view of his grandson, Charles Brian O’Carroll. The conclusion was “Fortis”.
In February 1892, John Carroll wrote to his father Joseph Hatton Carroll from Streatham, Surrey about the crest. “The crest and motto I believe to be as on the serviette rings I sent you at Christmas but though Keating in his history gives the Hawk or Falcon as rising, and other books do likewise.” It seems from this exchange that father and son were debating the form of the shield and crest which they should adopt.
The family silver shows the hawk at rest but does not include the motto. The small spoons bear a Dublin hallmark for 1892, but other items bear London hallmarks for 1898/99 and 1899/00.
In 1898, Howard & Crisp (Visitations of Ireland) gave the shield and crest for the Carrolls of Hyde Park as being “On the stump of an oak tree sprouting, a hawk rising, all proper, belled or.” The motto was given as “In fide et in bello fortis”.
It would seem then that the interest in the Carroll shield and crest began in the late 1860s about the same time as members left the Quakers.
There is a certain dichotomy between wishing to adopt a shield and crest awarded by the English King and the adoption of Irish ways such as the readopting of the name O’Carroll. I guess we can pick and choose which parts of our Irish heritage to highlight.
Colin O’Carroll researched the Carroll emblem.