Farringdon Ward Club Heritage - The Coat of Arms

The Club has for a long time displayed the coat of arms of Nicholas Faryngton, Mayor of London in the years 1308, 1313, 1320 and 1323.  He was a Goldsmith, and in one record at the College of Arms on Queen Victoria Street, he is described as a knight but does not style himself as such in his Will of 1334. Nicholas purchased the land in the City in 1279 and became an Alderman in 1281, at the time it was not unusual for wards to be named for their Aldermen.

Some fifty years earlier, one William Farrindon had been, in 1281, "Shreife" of the City of London, and to him were attributed Arms similar to those borne later by the Mayor Nicholas Faryngton, who was William's son-in-law.  William Farrindon's origins are traceable perhaps to Farringdon, a place name in Devon, which occurs also as "Ferentone", Ferhendone" and "Ferndon".  As "Ferhendone", meaning "Fern clad down", it occurs in Domesday Book.

The blazon of the coat of arms is 'Or semi of cross crosslets fitchy sable on a fess gules three lions heads to dexter argent langued sable'.