Sir Hugh Hamersley

There is a large monument to Sir Hugh Hamersley in the church of St. Andrew's Undershaft in London (opposite the new Lloyds building). This monument consists of life-size statues of Sir Hugh and his wife, Mary Derham, and also includes a coat of arms. These are described as:-

Gules, three rams heads couped or (Hamersley)

Impaling quarterly:-

Sable [actually azure], a stag's head emboshed or (Derham)
Argent, on a cross engrailed gules an annulet or (Green - the Audleys and the Greens inter-married)
Gules, an eagle displayed or
Per cross, azure and gules, a cross argent, between in the first and fourth cantons, a fleur-de-lys and, in the second and third cantons, a lion passant gardant all or (See my comments below).

Crest:

A demi-griffin segreant or, in the dexter claw a cross-crosslet fitchee, gules (Hamersley)

An intruiging mystery

The 4th quartering (above) is essentially the royal arms of England (i.e. three gold fleur-de-lys on a blue background - for France, quartered with three gold lions passant gardant on a red background - for England), except that Sir Hugh's arms show one fleur-de-lys and one lion instead of three. My guess is that there was not enough space to show all three, so this is a form of heraldic shorthand. The other difference is that the vertical and horizontal divisions of the shield (the quarterings) are overlaid with a white cross (a cross argent), which, I guess, is a form of differencing. I am reasonably certain that this is intended to refer to Mary Derham's royal ancestry, though which royal ancestor I can only guess. Her nearest royal ancestor was Constance, Countess of Gloucester (d. 1416), daughter of Edmund, Duke of York, son of Edward III, Mary Derham's great-great-great-great-grandmother. Constance's natural daughter (by Edmund Holland, Earl of Kent - himself of close royal descent), Eleanor, married James Tuchet, Lord Audley (1398?-1459). See Harleian Visitation of Norfolk, page 10. Eleanor Holland claimed that her parents were married and actually took the matter to court.

The Harleian Visitation of Norfolk records the Derham arms as above (items 1 to 4) but the eagle (item 3) is recorded as argent not or and the fourth quartering is described as ' Gules, three dexter gloves pendant argent, a canton checky or and azure', so the substitution was quite deliberate.

Drawings in the Guildhall Library. I am not sure how these relate to the description above. The first appears to be the same except for the fourth quartering. I don't understand the lower one at all.