Sam
Sweet's Tree
The SWEET family Coat of Arms and Crest
In days of olde, when knights were bolde... and you couldn't tell which knight in shining armor was in which shining armor, it became necessary to come up with some obvious form of identification that could be readily recognized on the field of battle. Shield decorations that initially distinguished one knight from another, gradually became standardized and came to represent specific surnames.
Beyond the age of chivalry, these shield ornaments, or "coat of arms" became symbols for the names of nobility and registries of the various coats were maintained. The coat of arms could be described by a language unto itself, in the form of a blazon of arms. In latter years there were occasions beyond the battlefield that warranted inclusion in these registries, usually for some significant civic contribution.
There is no specific record that I have found indicating whether the Sweets were warriors or civic contributors, but I would bet on the latter. At any rate, there is a Sweet coat of arms that is described in Burke's "The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales."
A modern recreation of the Sweet coat of arms and crest is represented below, including blazon of arms descriptions.
The Sweet coat of arms as described in the following blazon of arms:
Arms: Gules, two chevrons between as many mullets in chief and a rose in base argent, seeded or, barbed vert.
Crest: A mullet between two stemmed roses argent petaled gules.
Motto: Nunquam non paratus. (Never unprepared)
Source: Burke's The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
Below is a photograph of the Sweet (Swete) coat of arms carved in stone. Note both the name "Adriani" (son of John Swete II) and the location "Train" (also known as Traine or Trayne, ancestral home of the Sweets/Swetes.)
