Re: Leckie Family Crest - uncovered
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In reply to:
Leckie Family Crest - uncovered
5/12/01
I am from the Canadian branch of the Leckie clan descended from John and Elizabeth Leckie who left Glasgow for Canada in 1821 (sixth generation descendant). In our book The Leckie Clan, by Barbara Clendenning and Bernice (Leckie) McLean, there is a page about the family crest. We had a picture of the family crest similar to what you describe which was done by my Uncle Keith (Leckie). In the book it says that Uncle Keith redesigned our family crest around 1975but his notes on his work were lost so we don't know all of the information he had. We do know that the original Leckie crest had a blue background, a red chevron on which was an anchor and chain, and a field of red roses. Keith felt that there were few family members who were sea farers, so he took out the anchor and chain and changed the background to white. The helmet is from the Clan McGregor, of which we are a sept. It once had a boar's head on the top which could be changed by order of the chieftain for various members to indicate brave deeds. Ours was changed to the sword to be used by everyone. (Uncle Keith was chieftain of our clan of descendants of John & Elizabeth for many years, as was my father). The original Leckie motto was Deus Gubernat Navem = God guides the vessel. However since the anchor and chain were removed the motto had to be changed. It now reads At Spes Non Fracta = With faith unbroken (I have also seen this translated more commonly as "But [my] hope is not broken").
This crest does not have a ship foundering in stormy seas as Thomas mentions, but other than that it is pretty much as he indicates. I have here a black and white line drawing of it that I could scan and send to anyone who would like to see it, somewhere within my family there is a colour painting of it that Uncle Keith did that I can probably track down and get scanned as well. There are also enamelled pins that the clan had made for one of their reunions, but I'm not sure how accurate the colours are - I'll have to check on that.