I’ve been compiling a list of Luce, Lewes, and Lewis coats of arms (and crests) in hopes we might find a clue to the origin of Henry Luce (c1640-1689), an early Massachusetts immigrant.
Henry Luce has been speculated as a member of the Luce family at Horton in Gloucestershire. The Luce family of Horton is often said to be a branch of the Norman family de Lucy, although there is no evidence other than a similarity of names. The relationship is unlikely but not impossible. One branch of the de Lucy family lived at Newington in Kent, just 9 miles from Horton. However, Henry Luce, the immigrant to America belonged to a y-chromosome haplogroup that originated in the British Isles, suggesting a Welsh, not a Norman, descent.
Coats of Arms
Arms of Lewes, of Hedon (near Hull, Yorkshire?): Gules a bend ermine between six owls Argent (Morant’s Additions to Burke, citing Glover’s Ordinary, a roll or arms created about 1308-1314).
Arms of Lewes, of London and Wales: Unknown. Crest: An eagle displayed Sable the claws resting on the wreath, holding in the beak a snake around the body proper (Fairburn’s Crests: Lewes of London; also William Price Llywelyn Lewes, Llysnewydd, Llandyssil, South Wales).
Arms of Lewis, of Mardy: Unknown. Crest: An eagle displayed Azure charged on the break with a bee volant Or, holding in the break a scroll of paper (Fairburn’s Crests: Sir William Thomas Lewis of Mardy, Aberdate, South Wales).
Arms of Lewis, of co. Monmouth: A griffin segreant Sable. Motto: Ha persa la fide, ha perso l’honore (Fairburn’s Crests: Charles Edward Lewis, of Saint-Pierre, co. Monmouth).
Arms of Llys, of Llysnewedd: Gules three serpents nowed in a triangle Argent (Burke’s General Armory).
Arms of Luce: Azure a crescent Argent (Burke’s General Armory). See also the 1782 grant of arms to [. . .] Lewis of Plymouth, co. Devon and Wales (Harl. MSS. Vol. 68 (1917), citing Grants of Arms XV, fo. 18).
Arms of Luce, of London, Antwerp and Channel Islands: Azure a crescent Argent. Crest: an eagle wings displayed regardant in the dexter claw a sword erect (Burke’s General Armory: Luce and Lucie or Lucy, Antwerp and London, 1730; Fairburn’s Crests: Luce, England). Woodward (p. 306) notes these arms also used by Lucy and says that they are allusive (Luce = Latin for light).
Arms of Lucie, of London: Unknown. Crest: a crescent Argent (Fairburn’s Crests).
Arms of Lucy, co. Dorset: Gules a pike hauriant Or.
Sources
- Burke’s General Armory
- Fairburn’s Crests
- Joseph Foster, “Grantees of Arms Named in Docquets and Patents Between the Years 1687 and 1898 Preserved in Various Manuscripts.” Publications of the Harleian Society. (London: Boworth & Co., 1917). Online at https://archive.org/details/granteesofarmsna68fost/page/226/mode/2up?view=theater
- Glover’s Ordinary
- Morant’s Additions to Burke
- Woodward
Revised July 11, 2025.