Family Crests
Here’s a little information about the crests that I know of.
Do you know of any others ? Let me know …..
Here’s the modern new ‘digital crest/logo’ we’ve created for today’s clan.
We see Upton Castle in the centre, with a knight’s helmet on top and the Welsh dragon on the right, all representing our heritage.
The Elephant on the left is something I am sure we can all relate to as a regular nickname that we used to be called (some I know still have it today!)
It was designed and created by Sophie Maliphant [##49024] as part of the 2020 website revamp.
Click on the image and take the share option (
) if you would like to take a copy.
It is also available with a white or transparent background here.
Working with Sophie, Randy Harris [##45003-49001] has created a typeface that you see here (also as the header and title on every page) and quite obviously it is called … Malifont !
Click here to download a copy if you would like to use it elsewhere.
Many thanks to Sophie and Randy for their help and their skills!
That turned up the crest (which Upton were already using) and part of the Lord’s Prayer on one wall.
This crest came to me from Chris Maliphant [##48029].
I don’t know of the origins at this time, but will find out and update this note!
This crest came to me from Ken Maliphant [##48047].
He tells me:
I met a chap from Nottingham on the Isle of Mull (as you do).
He was fascinated by the name and claimed to be an expert in Heraldry.
He volunteered to research the coat of arms and this is what he came up with.
This crest came to me from Claire Nabrotzky [##44008-48001].
She tells me:
I sent away for a coat of arms from a heraldry site and this is what came back.
Make of it what you will, but that site says:
The surname of MALIPHANT is of French origin, a baptismal name the ‘mal enfant’ a name given to a naughty child. After the Crusades in Europe, in the 11th 12th and 13th century people began, perhaps unconsciously, to feel the need of a family name, or at least a name in addition to the simple one that had been possessed from birth. The nobles and upper classes, especially those who went on the Crusades, observed the prestige and practical value of an added name, and were quick to take a surname. Early records of the name mention Geoffrey Malenfant, 1205, County Suffolk. Edward Malphant was documented in Surrey in 1300, and Thomas Malphant of Yorkshire, was recorded in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. The earliest French hereditary surnames are found in the 12th century, at more or less the same time as they arose in England, but they are by no means common before the 13th century, and it was not until the 15th century that they stabilized to any great extent; before then a surname might be handed down for two or three generations, but then abandoned in favour of another. In the south, many French surnames have come in from Italy over the centuries, and in Northern France, Germanic influence can often be detected. During the Middle Ages, when people were unable to read or write, signs were needed for all visual identification. For several centuries city streets in Britain were filled with signs of all kinds, public houses, tradesmen and even private householders found them necessary. This was an age when there were no numbered houses, and an address was a descriptive phrase that made use of a convenient landmark. At this time, coats of arms came into being, for the practical reason that men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. The associated coat of arms is recorded in Rietstaps Armorial General. Registered in France. (Malenfant).