The description of the Doughty / Doughtie Blazon is in two parts - "Arms", which is the portion on the shield, and "Crest", which is the portion above the Arms.   Note that the Heralds who recorded a family's heraldic description used words, and did not attempt to draw a sketch.

Arms - Argent, two bars between three mullets of six points Sable pierced Or

Crest - A cubit arm erect vested per pale crenelle Or and Azure cuffed of the first holding in the hand proper a mullet as in the Arms

Some terms are in Old French:
Argent - silver
Sable - black
Or - gold
Azure - blue
mullet - spur

Essentially, the shield has a silver background, with two 6-pointed spurs above two black horizontal bars, and one 6-pointed spur below.  The spurs are pierced with a gold "hole".

Since this is a fairly simple shield, history tells us that it is a very early one.  The above description comes from the British government's College of Arms in London.  William G. Hunt, the Windsor Herald, who did the research for me, sent not only the Blazon, but also the record of the Doughty / Doughtie family descendants.  Typically, only the eldest son inherits the right to use the Arms.

In 1592, Queen Elizabeth sent her Heralds to find out who bore Arms.  The Visitation of Lincolnshire (an English county north of London) describes Doughtie family members back to James, who may have been born in 1392.   The 1634 Visitation of Lincolnshire (required by King Charles I) included many more from this family, and a spelling change to Doughty. 

The Windsor Herald referred me to Burke's General Armory, published in 1884, which says that "Doughty" is of county Surrey (an English county south of London), descended from a Saxon family named Dohtiy.  Note that the Angles and Saxons emigrated from north Germany in the 400s (!).  Old Saxony was a large portion of north Germany west of the Elbe.  Three states of modern Germany include "Saxony" in their name.

Very little of the data is also available from online sources, such as ancestry.com

The information sent to me is now online.  To see the ten generations of this family, click on "Chart of Descendants".

I have additional information from the 1687 "Visitation of London", which will be added to the data.

So far, there is no connection between the Doughty / Doughtie family and our Edward Doty.

© 2003-2011 Adam Gaus 
Send feedback to the webmaster
Updated July 08, 2011