Thomas Lord

It is generally recorded that the patriarch of the first and major line of Lord in America was Thomas Lord:

Thomas Lord, with wife Dorothy and seven children, embarked in the Elizabeth and Ann, from London, 29 April, 1635. His eldest son, Richard, had preceded him, and was a proprietor at Newtown (Cambridge, Mass.) in 1632, and admitted freeman of Mass., 4 March, 1635. Both the father and son removed to Hartford, among the earliest settlers, and were proprietors there in 1636.
The Heraldic Journal, 1866.

It is here, over 350 years ago, that inevitably we find the roots of the several theories about the correct coat of arms of the Lord family in America.

These arms, in their most elaborate and apparently compelling form, exist as published by the Rev. George Sayles Bishop, exactly one hundred years ago. It was from Rev. Bishop that the painted and framed coat of arms mentioned above, and pictured at the beginning of this section, came to our family.

Since that coat of arms is directly attributable to Bishop, his 1892 publication is an appropriate starting point for this discussion. For that reason, the first page of his presentation is given here in its entirety.

It can readily be seen that these arms are identical to those displayed by our family and presented by Bishop as the arms of Thomas Lord.