Merks Family Coat Of Arms

GRANT OF ARMS

TO ALL TO WHOM theses presents shall come or whom the same may in any way concern, GREETING:

BY Robert Douglas Watt, Chief Herald of Canada:

WHEREAS JOHN JOSEPH MERKS of the Town of Wolfville in the Province of Nova Scotia, dairyman, President of Merks Farms Limited, Valley Transfer Limited, and John Merks and Son Poultry Farms Limited, director of the Avon Cornwallis and Annapolis Farm Cooperative, member of the Nova Scotia Milk Producers Association and Holstein Friesian Association and of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish Council , who married Lucia Maria Van Herwijnen on the 28th day of April 1953, has represented unto the Chief Herald of Canada that he is desirous of bearing arms by lawful Authority:

AND WHEREAS a Warrant dated the 18th day of June 1993 has been issued by Lieutenant-General James Cyrille Gervais, Commander of the Order of Military Merit, Deputy Herald Chancellor of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, authorizing the Chief Herald of Canada to grant and assign the armorial bearings unto JOHN JOSEPH MERKS as he deems fitting and appropriate;

NOW KNOW YOU that pursuant to the authority vested in His Excellency the Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn, a Member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Military Merit, one of Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the Law, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, by Letter Patent dated the 4th day of June 1988 to exercise the armorial prerogatives of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the terms of my Commission of Office, I, Robert Douglas Watt the Chief Herald of Canada, do by these Presents grant and assign unto John Joseph Merks the following arms:

Vert goutty d'eau on a cross Argent five maple leaves in cross Gules in dexter chief a bull's head caboshed Or armed and annelled Argent which arms are to be borne debruised by a label of three points Gules by the petitioners son John Hildebrand during the lifetime of the petitioner, by a crescent Vert by the petitioner's son Wilhelmus Leonardus, by a mullet Vert by the petitioner's son Andre Daniel and by a heart Vert by the petitioner's daughter Diane Maria;

And for a crest:

Upon a helmet mantled Vert doubled Argent from within a wreath of these colours and rising out of a circlet of maple leaves Gules two demi-lions combatant the dexter crowned with an antique crown Or the sinister Sable holding in their forepaws a sword inverted proper hilted and pommel Or;

And for a Motto on a scroll beneath the arms:

DEO DUCE COMITE INDUSTRIA

And I do further assign and grant the following badge;

On a saltire Azure fimbriated Argent a bull's head caboshed Or armed and annelled Argent;

As the same are more plainly depicted in the painting herewith provided and entered in Volume II, page 304 of the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada to be borne and used for ever hereafter by said JOHN JOSEPH MERKS and his descendants with such due and proper differences as may be provided according to the Laws of Arms in Canada;

GIVEN under my hand and the seal of the Canadian Heraldic Authority at Rideau Hall in the City of Ottawa this fourteenth day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand nine hundred and ninety-four, in the fifth year of His Excellency's service and in the forty-third year of Her Majesty's reign.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the Herald Chancellor, Judith Anne LaRouque, and the Deputy Herald Chancellor, James Cyrille Gervais, have hereunto subscribed their names.