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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. |
