Our coat of arms
The new coat of arms registered in the name of the Association des Lepage d'Amerique INC. at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office last April were unveiled at the general meeting held on 2 July 2011 in Rimouski, as part of the 15e anniversary of the Association. At the request of the board of directors, the presentation was made by Jean-François Lepage (member 0336), son of Firmin.
The design of the coat of arms used by the Association since 1996 was owned by the House of Names of Ottawa. To register our coat of arms on behalf of the "Association des Lepage d'Amérique inc." in order to make them official, a new drawing had to be produced. In order to maintain continuity in the appearance of the coat of arms, several modifications were made to the drawing provided by the House of Names and heraldic corrections were also required. The unveiled armorial bearings are the culmination of a long research and heraldic art work.
Small glossary
Coat of Arms: shield with interior and exterior ornaments
Shield or coat of arms: shield with inner ornaments only
Blazon: transposition into heraldic language in written form of the design of the coat of arms
The coat of arms is a powerful symbol of coming together and members of previous boards of directors have always been keenly aware of it. From the beginning of the Association in 1996, the first president, Mrs. Jacqueline Lepage, and her colleagues took steps to illustrate this new family reunification with a coat of arms. They obtained very good information from the House of Names in Ottawa and made the illustrations used since. We still have a strong symbol for the Lepages, the eagle.
We often make the mistake of thinking that a coat of arms is exclusive to royalty or nobility. This is totally wrong. In fact, the primary purpose of a shield is to be a clear and strong sign of recognition, as well as a symbol of the values that we want to achieve.
In the Middle Ages, when they first appeared, coats of arms made it possible to recognize combatants on the battlefield. Surrounded by hundreds of knights in armor, unrecognizable, it was necessary to avoid hitting the cousin or the neighbor! Then, around the 1300s and a little later, the trade guilds, blacksmiths, upholsterers, merchants or bourgeois adopted coats of arms to make themselves known and show their membership. It was not until much later, towards modern times, we are talking about the beginning of the colonization of New France, that the Kingdoms of Europe found a way to tax the aristocrats who always wanted to be seen well. of the Court. We had to pay to have a coat of arms.
Specialists in heraldry or the art of coats of arms will tell you: " Nothing prevents anyone from having a coat of arms ". However, there are a few rules that must be observed for a coat of arms to be considered valid, including the first: " Never usurp another's coat of arms ».
The new coat of arms is therefore not that of René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, first Lord of Rimouski, as one would be led to believe, for those who know them. They are really original. The main difference being at the level of the eagle's talons which do not have spurs here, unlike René's coat of arms. Why? For two reasons. The first is to prevent usurpation. The coat of arms of the Lord-founder of Rimouski was granted in due form by Louis de Buade de Frontenac, in the name of the King of France, to René and his descendants. Unfortunately, it could not be used by other Lepage branches, from other parts of America or Europe.
The second reason is a desire to be inclusive. These coats of arms want to bring together all the Lepage branches of America under a single coat of arms. You can therefore be proud to display them and make them your own! The Association wants to provide you with as much support as possible in this regard!
The eagle has been kept as an emblem because it appears that the eagle was the primary emblem used by at least three branches of Lepage families from France, the United States and Canada.
But a coat of arms cannot be complete without its blazon. What is that? The coat of arms is simply the detailed and written description of the coat of arms, in a heraldic syntax and vocabulary, which makes it possible to ensure that an artist is able to reproduce the design. As you can imagine, when the European Kingdoms decreed taxes on coats of arms, the magistrates responsible for collecting coats of arms were not all champions in painting or engraving! We therefore wrote the blazon, rather than producing the illustration, in the armorials of the time, the registers of the moment.
The blazon of our coat of arms reads as follows:
"Argent, an eagle Sable, armed, languid and pecked Gules,
(silver or white shield, black eagle, talons, tongue and red beak)
The whole surmounted by a silver helmet, nailed and decorated with gules and gold,
(silver helmet with nails and ribbons red and gold)
Cimé of a lion issuant gules turned to dexter,
(helmet with a lion hat half raised and turned to the right of the bearer of the shield)
And accompanied by a valance of azure and gold. "
(blue and gold lambrequin)
The Scream : "Association des Lepage d'Amerique inc "
Currency : "Labore, Justitia"
(Work and Justice)