Extract of Matriculation  of the Arms of Berwick upon Tweed

The Mayor Alderman and Burgesses of the Borough of   Berwick-upon-Tweed in the county of the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, acting by the council, having by petition unto the Lord Lyon King of Arms Shewn; That Berwick-upon-Tweed was anciently a Royal Burgh of Scotland, and bore Ensigns Armorial as such a version of which said Ensigns have since been matriculated for the County of Berwick in Scotland in the Public Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland.

That ancient seals of the Burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed included in the flanks of the design two shields of the Arms of the King of England, videlicet:-first and fourth France; second and third England the shield on the sinister being debruised of a label of three points; but these shields do not appear to be part of the Borough insignia and were presumably for the sealing of documents relative to the Town Customs and Excise of the Burgh.

That the insignia of the Burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed were known and regarded as Ensigns Armorial prior to the middle of the Seventeenth century, when there is reference to alterations proposed upon the Arms of the Burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed: That the Arms of the Burgh being expressly refered to in 1650 in relation to the said alterations proposed by Oliver Cromwell it is accordingly shown that the Burghal insignia was used as Ensigns Armorial in the reign of King Charles I; And the petitioners having preyed that Ensigns Armorial appropriate to the Borough might now be matriculated in the said Public Register in the name of the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed as Ancient user prior to the statute 1672, cap. 47, and with supporters and a Compartment of form assigned as suitable to a Burgh of Scotland. The Lord Lyon King of Arms by interlocutor of date 28th October, 1958 Granted Warrant to the Lyon Clerk to matriculate in the Public Register of all Arms and Bearings of Scotland in the name of Berwick-upon-Tweed the following Ensigns Armorial videlicet:-per pale, Azure and Gules, upon a mount in base vert a wych-elm proper and in front of the same bear passant proper, muzzled and chained to the base of the tree with a chain Or. Below the shield, which is ensigned of the Coronet proper to a Royal Burgh, upon a Compartment suitable to a Burgh Royal, along with the Motto VICTORIA GLORIA MERCES, are set for supporters two bears   propper muzzled and chained with chains reflexed over the backs Or. Matriculated the fourteenth day of November, 1958 Extracted furth of the one hundred and third page of the fourty-first Volume of the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland this ninth day of December in the year of our Lord, One thousand nine hundred and fifty eight.   

Berwick upon Tweed

Coat of Arms