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The
arms depicted here
represent various
aspects of the armiger's
family heritage, which
is primarily French,
Irish, English and
Scots, and thus feature
well-known Western
European heraldic
components.
The shield is composed
of two main elements:
the saltire azure on a
field or, which
represents the armiger's
descent from the Silver
family of Scotland, and
(charged in escutcheon)
the eagle sable on a
field or, which is the
historic heraldic emblem
of the Daigle/Daigre
family, originally from
the city of Aigre, in
the Charente region of
France.
The armiger is a direct
descendant of Olivier
Daigre, who emigrated to
the North American
colony of Nouvelle
France in 1663, and is
recognised as the
original progenitor of a
widespread family group.
This branch of the
family later settled in
the region known as
Madawaska, in what is
now northern Maine, and
founded the towns of
Daigle and Saint David,
from which latter place
the armiger's surname is
derived.
During the second half
of the 17th century,
Olivier Daigre (ca.
1643-1695), laboureur,
and a number of his male
descendants farmed some
2,000 acres in the
Acadian region known as
the Grand Pré, near the
French colonial city
formerly known as
Port-Royal (now
Annapolis Royal, Nova
Scotia). Thus, the arms
granted to Nova Scotia
by King Charles I have
also served as a model
for the armiger's
bearings, which echo in
several ways the
composition of those
devised for the colony
in 1625.
The armiger's crest is
composed of a stag's
head affronty (which
further represents the
Scots origins of the
Silver family, ancestors
of the armiger’s
paternal grandmother),
bearing between its
antlers an annulet Or, a
depiction of the gold
annulus worn by members
of the Roman equestrian
(knightly) class,
ancient Latin prototype
of the modern European
orders of knighthood and
merit.
The motto, ATTENDRE ET
ESPÉRER (To Wait and to
Hope) was adopted by the
armiger in homage to the
great French writer
Alexandre Dumas, père,
author of Le Comte de
Monte Cristo, from the
closing lines of which
work it was drawn.
In recognition of the
armiger's independent
writing, research and
document preservation in
the domain of French
chivalric history, on
December 31, 2003, he
was appointed a
Chevalier de l'Ordre
National du Mérite
(Knight of the National
Order of Merit), by a
special decree of
then-President Jacques
Chirac of France. A
depiction of the
insignia of a knight of
this order is thus
pendant below his
shield, and a knight's
helm (affronty, with
visor open) rests upon
the same.
As a result of his
ongoing work in the
realm of Napoleonic
history, in 2006 the
armiger was named a
Fellow of the
International Napoleonic
Society. In recognition
of his independent
research on modern
Catholic beliefs and
practices in rural
China, in 2008 he was
elected a Fellow of the
Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and
Ireland. In 2010, he was
granted the degree of
Master of Theological
Studies (MTS) by the
Harvard University
School of Divinity,
where he pursued a
concentration in the
History of Christianity,
with a minor focus in
East Asian Religions.
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