Dow Coat of Arms
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The Dow Coat of Arms shown on this site is only one of several that are marketed as the Coat of Arms of the Dow Family Surname. In reality, the American Dow line has no Coat of Arms.  Read on to learn why.

There is really no Coat of Arms for a family surname.  Instead, the Coat of Arms is issued to a certain individual who has performed a heraldic act and is passed down only among direct male descendents.  Therefore any given surname may have several individuals who have been issued a Coat of Arms.

The above coat of arms is is simply one artist's rendition of the cryptic short-hand entry in the giant registry "The General Armory" compiled by Sir Bernard Burke in the 1880's. This entry would have been for one particular individual and their descendants, and not all Dow descendants. The actual entry reads: OR, on a Mullet SA, a Pigeon AR Translation: Gold; on a Black Star, a Silver Pigeon

Here is more information about Coat of Arms and Heraldry:
http://www.genealogytoday.com/columns/recipes/tip18.html
 http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/faq.htm

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From The Book of Dow:
With heraldic devices this Book has little concern, altho the vanity of Dow is constantly appealing to his sympathy.  No Dow in America has any right whatever to any arms and the whole idea is repugnant to our sturdy original yeomanry.  We are yeomen, neither nobles or peasants, never Saxon serfs.  To say, as was said in a genealogical weekly newspaper, that the Dow arms are: Sable a fesse dancette ermine between three doves argent, is a lie, i. e., deliberately intended to deceive.  A number of families of Dow have received arms from the College of Heraldry, and the basis of all is the dove crest, the three doves, generally in a sable star, and the rib , enerally with the word "patiens."  A Scotch crest, figured in Fairbanks, is a pegasus rampant.  Those who have received Dow arms are of three classes, --- have paid cash, had some mayoralty or petty preferment, or been polite to the King's mistress.  There was no grant of arms to a Norfolk. Dow, altho some of them did enter the gentry by marriage to some heiress.     		 Another Dow Coat of Arms:

Coat of Arms: Three silver doves.
Crest: Emerging from the knights helmet is a tower on which a dove perches, its wings expanded for flight.
Motto: Patiens