CHALMERS - HERALDRY

In 1672 a law was passed by the Scottish Parliament to set up "The Lyon Register" - a "Public Register of All Armorial Bearings in Scotland." Unless a coat of arms is registered in the Lyon Register, it has no legal standing in Scotland. As the Lyon Register is a public register, anyone can inspect it at the Lyon Office in Edinburgh. Heraldry in Scotland did exist as early as the last quater of the twelfth century

If you are Scots, or of Scots descent, you have no coat of arms unless you can prove you are heir to a properly matriculated Scots coat of arms. If you use some other persons coat of arms or make up your own, then you are committing an offence and may be tried at Lyon Court, a court of law.

Arms belong to the person who records them and the heirs of that person. A coat of arms in Scotland is considered heritable property and thus can only be held by one person at a time. It is still possible to apply for a coat of arms and the Lord Lyon will devise a coat of arms for you.

It is acceptable to for a Scot to wear clan badges, which usually take the form of the crest from the full coat of arms of the clan chief.

These pages are devoted to those Chalmers's who Matriculated Coats of Arms, mainly in Scotland, but with a few other exceptions.