In connection with this impalement there are a series of interesting and important historical facts, namely: The family of Richard de Avranches was the only one in this part of England using as their arms the wolf head erased of the field. The male line of this family ended with Richard, third earl of Chester, who died childless, he and his bride having been drowned by the sinking of the Blanche Nef. Richard was the nephew of Isabella Lupus and son of her brother Hugh, earl of Chester. The generation of Isabella was therfore the last in which a female might have endowed her children with this device with which to impale their father's arms.In the next generation after the marriage with Isabella Lupus, our ancestor acquired the manor of Peshale. As a consequence his son called himself Robert de Peshale, whereby we obtained both our name and our coat of arms. This Robert de Peshale married Ormunda de Lumley de Stafford, a princess of the royal line of kings and earls of Bernicia, Northumberland, whose arms are a lion rampant Gules crown d 'or and double queve, whereby some bore arms argent, a cross formie sable and exxunt fleur de lis, on a canton in chief gules, a wolf head erased argent, with an escutcheon of augmentation bearing the arms of the royal house of Bernicia, as above described.
There were good reasons why at this time it was not advisable for the members of our family to call attention either to their relationship to the family of Avranches, or to that of the Bernician nobility, so for several generations our family appears to have borne the arms of Werlac without any impalement or augmentation whatsoever. There is now no good reason reason why the American branch of the family should not adopt the impalement and augmentation that was permissible when our family name began, hence our arms would be as shown below.
The reader, however, must be careful to keep in mind that the arms of the family are the arms of Werlac, to wit the cross with the fleur de lis as already explained, and that the only limit of augmentation is the number of generations that have since intervened until the family came to America. Such a design would of course represent the height of armorial variety. The families in England today are represented by descendants who call themselves Pearsall, Parshall, Pexall, Pascall, Peshall and Swinnerton. The latter name needs an explanation. Robert de Peshale, grandson of Robert de Peshale and his wife Ormunda de Lumley de Staffored, called himself de Swinnerton, he having also been given by his parents the manor of Swinnerton. One of the lines of descent from him, viz: The DeSwinnertons, appear to have quite uniformly adhered to the arms of Werlac, while as to the other line of descent, de Peshales, there has been considerable difference in augmentation and impalement.
