Knighthood conferred

In a victorious encounter with Irish rebels in March 1600, Francis Shane is credited with having slain fourteen of the enemy with his own hand. In recognition of this service, the ‘old and very good servant to the queen’ was knighted by Lord Deputy Mountjoy on 6 April 1600 in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. Significantly, the blazon of arms (right) recorded for Shane on the occasion appositely comprises a shield bearing his ancestral O’Farrell arms, surmounted by a crest described in heraldic parlance as: ‘An arm in armour embowed, the hand holding by the hair a human head couped at the neck, distilling drops of blood all ppr’.