Digital rendition of the lesser achievement, by Earl Wiler

This coat of arms was specially granted to the Reverend Cornelius Cardew of Truro, Cornwall, in 1787. The arms were granted by King George III, and a patent of arms was commissioned and delivered to the Cardew household soon after. This patent of arms has survived to this day in extraordinary condition, due to valiant and effective preservation and protection efforts by members of the Cardew lineage.

The original patent of arms is currently stored safely within the household of Elisabeth Cardew, who was wed to former armiger George Evelyn Cardew until his passing in July of 2025.

The patent of arms reads as follows:

To all and Singular: to whom these presents shall come. Sir Isaac Heard, Knight Garter Principal King of Arms, and Thomas Lock, Esquire, CLARENCEAUX King of Arms of the South, East and West parts of England from the River Trent Southwards, send greeting:— Whereas Cornelius Cardew, Doctor in Divinity, Vicar of Ewny-Lalent in the County of Cornwall, hath represented unto the Most Noble Charles Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshall and hereditary Marshall of England that he is uncertain of any Armorial Ensigns pertaining to his Family and requested his Grace's Warrant for our devising granting and assigning to him and his Descendants such Arms and Crest as may be proper to be borne by him and them according to the Laws of Arms. And forasmuch as his Grace did by Warrant under his Hand and Seal bearing date the fifteenth day of January instant authorize and direct us to devise grant and assign such Arms and Crest accordingly. Know ye therefore that We, the said GARTER and CLARENCEAUX, in pursuance of the Consent of the said Earl Marshall and by Virtue of the Letters Patent of our several Offices to each of us respectively granted under the Great Seal of Great Britain have devised and by these Presents grant and assign to the said Cornelius Cardew the Arms following that is to say Or on a Cross engrailed Gules between four Bees volant proper a Dove Argent And for the Crest on a Wreath of the colours a Cross Calvary Or entwined by a Serpent proper as the same are in the Margin hereof more plainly depicted to be borne and used for ever hereafter by the said Cornelius Cardew and his Descendants with due and proper Differences according to the Laws of Arms without the Let or Interruption of any person or persons whatever. In Witness whereof We the said GARTER and CLARENCEAUX Kings of Arms have to these Presents subscribed our Names and affixed the seals of our several offices this twenty sixth day of January in the twenty seventh Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith, and in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven.

Isaac Heard, Garter Principal King of Arms. Thomas Lock, Clarenceaux King of Arms