HOCKING COAT OF ARMS
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HOCKING |
"In the time of War with
France, at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, a French ship cruising
in the Bristol Channel, came to anchor off an estate called Godrevy, in
the parish of Gwithian, then in possession of the Rev.John Hockin, who
was one of the principal inhabitants of the parish, and it being
conjectured that the Frenchman's intention was to send in a boat to
plunder the house, which stood alone, and to carry off the cattle from
the estate, the said John Hockin and his family became alarmed, and
collected their friends and neighbours to keep a watch that night on the
cliffs. At daybreak, they all dispersed. thinking that the danger over,
but just as Thomas Hockin, then a young man, was getting into bed,
another person whose fears had taken him out there more than once to
take a view, came in great hurry, and told him that a boat full of men
was making for the shore. At hearing this, the said Thomas Hockin
slipped on his clothes and catching up a gun, and a pole to feign the
appearance of another man, ran out and passed down a steep hill to the
sea in sight of the boat from which he was fired at several times, he
how ever got behind a rock which served him as a kind of breastwork, and
thence with his gun, he fired at the boat with so much vigour and effect
as to prevent the crew's landing, and at last made them turn about and
row back as fast as they could." For the above action, the Hockin family was granted, in 1764, their coat of arms (the fleurs de lis are in disarray, to denote the French in confusion). |
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