Kitley Heritage -Bastard quartering Pollexfen impaling Poulett.

19/ Or a Chevron azure Quartering 1 & 4 Argent a lion rampant gules 2 & 3 Azure Impaling Sable three swords displayed their points all in base the blades argent the hilts or – Bastard quartering Pollexfen impaling Poulett.

Following their inheritance of the Kitley Estate (q.v. shield 14) the family seat of the Bastards was transferred from Gerston to Kitley, and many Bastard sons also took the name Pollexfen as one of their forenames, also quartering the arms of their ancestors – to which, of course, they were entitled, the Pollexfen inheritance deriving from a sole heiress (q.v. shield 14). The first of the new line was christened Pollexfen Bastard on 1st Aug 1696 at West Alvington, son and heir of William Bastard of Gerston (q.v. shield 14). He married Lady Bridgett Poulett, daughter of John, 1st Earl Poulett, a descendant of the Plantagenet line (q.v. shields 2 & 16).

An important observation should be made here regarding the impalement, and the arms borne by later Bastards. For, note, the marriage was into the Poulett family, and not the Plantagenets. And, although descendants of King Henry III , the descent to Lady Bridgett Poulett had passed through twelve female lines in the seventeen previous generation, so the right to bear their arms had not been lost to another, more direct, line of Plantagenet inheritance. The Bastards, therefore, had no right to bear the Plantagent coat – which is why, of course, it is not seen in any of the Bastard quarterings or impalements. This fact is obvious, but it has other implications too.

For it is not unreasonable to suggest that the arms of the Plantagenets strictly have not place at Kitley, for they are not directly connected with the main family line(s), those of the later generations of the families who were ultimately descended from them. Most likely, they were displayed above the entrance for show, to demonstrate the fact that there was royal blood in the family, albeit from some distant ancestors some way removed from the main line(s) of descent. No doubt the fact that the Plantagenet arms were displayed in the hall, signifying an illustrious ancestery, was a talking-point amongst some of the guests at Kitley dinner parties – which was the obvious intent!

It is nearly certain that it was for this very reason that the Courtenay arms were displayed in the very first shield on the main walls (q.v. shield 5), another coat whose direct connection with the Bastard ancestral lines is also rather obscure. Strategically situated in the corner, this was the impalement upon which the eyes of many of the Bastard’s guest would first alight upon being received into the great entrance hall – after having seen the large quartered coat directly in front of them (q.v shield 25). It would have been too presumptuous to have placed the Plantagenet coats here. But the Courtenay arms were the next best – they were, after all, the Earls of Devon!