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Arms illustrated by
heraldic artist Gary Smith.
The arms represent
various aspects of the armiger's family heritage, which is primarily
French, Irish, and Scots, and consequently incorporate a diverse
number of elements derived from traditional Western European heraldic
symbolism.
The shield is composed of two main elements: the saltire azure on a
field or, which represents the armiger's descent from the Silver
family of Scotland, and (charged in escutcheon) the eagle sable on a
field or, which is the historic heraldic emblem of the Daigle/Daigre
family, originally from the city of Aigre, in the Charente region of
France.
The armiger is a descendant of Olivier Daigre, who emigrated to the
North American colony of Nouvelle France in 1663, and is recognised as
the original progenitor of a widespread family group. This branch of
the family later settled in the region known as Madawaska, in what is
now northern Maine, and founded the towns of Daigle and Saint David,
from which latter place the registrant's surname is derived.
During the second half of the 17th century, Olivier Daigre and a
number of his male descendants farmed some 2,000 acres in the Acadian
region known as the Grand Pré,
near the French colonial city formerly known as Port-Royal (now
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia). Thus, the arms granted to Nova Scotia
by King Charles I
have also served as a model for the armiger's bearings, which echo in
several ways the composition of those devised for the colony in 1625.
The armiger's crest is composed of a stag's head affronty (which
represents the Scots origins of the Silver family), bearing between
its antlers an annulet Or, meant to symbolize the gold annulus worn by
members of the Roman equestrian (knightly) class, ancient Latin
prototype of the modern orders of knighthood and merit.
The motto, ATTENDRE ET ESPERER ("To Wait and To Hope") was adopted by
the armiger in honour of the great French writer Alexandre Dumas, pere,
author of Le Comte de Monte Cristo, from the closing lines of which
work it was drawn.
In recognition of the armiger's efforts to collect, preserve, and
donate documents related to the history of French orders of chivalry,
he was appointed a Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite
(Knight of the National Order of Merit) on December 31, 2003, by a
special decree of President Jacques Chirac of France. A depiction of
the insignia of a chevalier of this order is thus pendant below his
shield, and a knight's helm (affronty, with visor open) rests upon the
same.
Formerly a professional keyboardist, vocalist and composer, the
armiger is now a freelance writer, as well as a teacher of both
English and French. He has played and taught extensively throughout
the world, the latter most recently in France, Italy and the People's
Republic of China, and is the author of one work of fiction, a darkly
comic novel set in a not-too-distant American future.
He is also the composer/arranger/performer of two CDs of solo piano
pieces, In The Palace of Dreams and The Ghosts of Saint-Denis, as well
as one album of original French songs, Tu me vas si bien. |
