ARCHIBALD -- UT REFICIAR

My daughter, Ali, a lovely, gorgeous wisp of a girl with lots of energy, get-up-and go, loads of curiousity that has spurred on since she was a toddler, lots of fun as a child and adult, creative, mischievous, very caring, a hairdresser, stopped by my house recently to remind me of our family's historic roots. It intrigued me that she had gone to so much trouble to find out facts about our own family on my father's and mother's side that I knew dimly, but really did not know in depth. Ali gave me the depth from her own research and filled a huge gap in my life, as I did not know in depth the actual roots of the huge global family Archibald going back centuries. Archibald is not a name you find much in the phone books or when you plug it in on Google. The motto of the family's coat-of-arms going back before 900 AD is "Ut reficiar" -- which translated is "That I may be replenished." Yet we have a traceable proud history going back many centuries before the Battle of Hastings in 1066 to Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and ultimately America, as Archibald emigrés moved to California, then back to Europe in the 1920s for several decades, then to England, back to Canada in 1955 and Virginia, athwart the immigation bureaucracy despite great sponsors -- horse farm owner and arts philanthropist Paul Mellon, thoroughbred horse owner William Perry of Newstead Farm at the time, and champion show rider Morton "Cappy" Smith, one of the nicest person and best accomplished horsemen I ever knew. Our immigrant sponsors didn't come greater than Cappy Smith, who was a legend on the horseshow circuit for many years. Cappy Smith recognized and appreciated the horse history in our family, going beyond my father's father who rode the winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1911, and my father, champion steeplechase jockey who rode of hurdles and the English Grand National seven times. My mother's father, Henri Jelliss, also was a champion jockey in England for many years before becoming Lord Asdtor's trainer at Beverly House in Newmarket, son of Belgium's champion jockey, Charles Jelliss, for 14 straight years. Both my grandfather George Archibald and father George Archibald were born in Oakland, California, at Merritt Hospital, which still exists. The Archibald family roots go back to the Norman French, the family name was originally Arcenbaldus, thwen after the 1066 Norman invasion of England changed to Archambault. According to the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086 by William the Battel Abbey, church records, the Curia Regis, Pipe Rolls, Falaise Roll, tax records, baptismals records and archibald was first found in southern England as Erchenbaldus. Arcenbaldus and Arcebaldus familes married and sons married, their sons and daughters married, and the Pipe rolls for Gloucester in 1210 record the name of Robert Archibald, descended from Normans commonly believed to be of French origin, but more accurately descended from Vikings, who under their Jarl, Thorfino Rollo, invaded France about 911 AD, defeat French King Charles the Simple, who surrendered and conceded all of northern France to Rollo, who became the firse duke of Normandy. Duke William, who invaded and defeated England in 1066 was descended from Rollo and took a census of England in 1086, recorded in the Domesday Book. The Archibald surname was recorded as a notable English family name  in Duke William's census, tracing back to Hastings, with families then also in lowland Scotland. The Feat of Fines for Suffolk, England, in 1239 show Archibald as a notable family throught England, as the Subsidy Rolls for Yorkshire in 1327 recorded Agnes Archebaud, and Seath Archbutt appeared in the Register of the Freemen of the City of York in 1616. In Scotland, Archibald families were mostly in Roxburghshire and around Edinburgh, where they are still plentiful. In the late 1800s, the most well-known family member was John Frederick Archbold, an attorney and prolific author of legal textbooks, best known of which was "Criminal Pleading, Evidence, and Practise" published in 1822, and a mainstay in university law schools for more than a century. Archibald settlers in Catholic Ireland were known as Prtestant adventurers. They mostly settled in Leinster until James Archibald established his farm and estate in Eadestown, Kildare, in 1650. His grandfather, James Archibald, also a farmer and horseman, migrated to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1627 and his grandson, also James Archibald, settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1823. His cousin, John Archibald, settled in New Hampshire in 1728. Most of thewir amily members headed westward in wagon trains auring the time of the Revolutionary War, some loyal to King George III of England went back to Canada and were known as United Empire Loyalists. Distant relatives include Steve Archibald, Scottish soccer player born in 1956; Robert Archibald, U.S. basketball player born in Scotland in 1980; and John Archibald, linguistics professor at the University of Calgary in Scotland. Our family coat-of-arms used in battle during the Norman invasion of England in 1066 is a silver shield with three silver crescents on a blue bend. The crest is a crescent. The ancient practice of families representing themselves with such symbols goes back to feudal times when heralds developed an extensive armory that distinguished upper-class members from each other, whether at court or on the battlefield. Heraldry since grew into a complex geneological history -- even a science. Silver, which the French valued as "argent," was one of the two metals used in heraldry, usually represented on a shield by the colors gray or white. The metal represented nobility, peace, and serenity and was associated with the qualities ofr purity and chastity because the metal withstood fire and brutal force. The crescent stood for one who had been "enlightened and honored by the gracious aspect of his sovereign," so most Archibalds were knights and warriors for the British realm. Knights returning from the crusades introduced the crescent, the badge of Islam, into the artistic representation of heraldry. The Archibald family heraldic crescent has a very deep base and curving horns that quickly sharpen to points close together. The crescenmt also represents the moon that lights the night sky for travel, though it does not resemble the shape of a crescent moon very closely. I English arms, this was also a mark of cadency, signifying the second son. The reversed crescent on the Archibald coat-of-arms, represented by horizontal lines, has horns turned down -- an increscent indicating a crescent with horns facing the observer's left and decrescent facing the observers right. The color blue of the coat-of-arms was called azure by heralds because it represented the color of an eastern sky on a clear day. It corresponded to the color of tin metal. Azure came from the east during the Crusades, signifying piety, sincerity, equated with autumn. The bend of the coat-of-arms is a broad, diagonal band across the shield, representing either a scarf worn like a sash or the shield suspender of a knight or military commander. The Archibald coat-of-arms bend signified the high honor of being the defense or protection of the sovereign or his son in battle. The bend sinister, following the opposite diagonal, termed a "bendy," represents a mark of illegitimacy in the family. That was obviously the case, as Archibalds through the ages, male and female, were quite randy. My own mother caught my father in bed with a stable girl in the early 1950s, kicked her out of Savile House, beat my father up, but the stable girl had a baby a year later -- my relative I never met or knew. Certainly a bender. Every family has skeletons in the closet. The Archibalds made a mark over the ages and had their healthy share of many skeletons -- especially my grandmother, Claire, who married Cecil Rhodes, nephew of the diamond tycoon who founded Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in Africa, after my grandfather died of cardiac arrest the day he rode five races at Newmarket in 1927, winning four and placing second in the fifth ride. A champion to the end, as were my father and mother. The beat goes on. With four daughters in their twenties  -- only one married with a new daughter, Claire -- and two unmarried nephews in their thirties, a lot of benders in the offing. The Archibald family coat-of-arms will be kept polished on our end.