Isaac Heard

Sir Isaac Heard ( 1730 – 29 April 1822) was a British officer of arms who served as Garter Principal King of Arms, the senior officer of arms of the College of Arms in London, from 1784 until his death in 1822. In this role, he oversaw several notable cases and also officiated at all the funerals of the royal family.

A native of Devon, Heard had a brief career in the Navy, before switching careers at age 29, when he became the Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary. He would go on to hold the posts of Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary, Norroy King of Arms and Brunswick Herald. Heard was knighted in the Order of the Garter in 1786.

In London, Heard met the Deputy Earl Marshal, Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham, who noticed Heard's interest in antiquities. Effingham helped Heard began his heraldic career as Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary in December 1759. He would go on to hold the posts of Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary, Norroy King of Arms and Brunswick King of Arms. In 1784, he was appointed Garter Principal King of Arms. It was in this capacity that he helped to plan the funeral of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson. Heard became a close confidant of his stepson.

His wife Katherine died in 1783. Four years later, Heard married a second time to Alicia Felton née Hayes (d. 1808), widow of John George Felton, a customs inspector-general for the Leeward Islands. Heard had no children of his own with either wife. Argent, a chevron gules between three bougets sable. Crest: A demi-goat proper, horns, hooves and tufts or with a crown or about its neck with the motto:Toujours fidèle ("Always faithful").

Heard was granted arms in 1762 when he became the Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary. His arms portray his near-death experience at sea, as does his motto, Naufragus in portum ("Shipwreck brought me into port").

Epitaph by Thomas Moore Heard is mentioned in the poem Epitaph on a tuft-hunter by Thomas Moore 1779-1852:

Lament, lament, Sir Isaac Heard, Put mourning round thy page, Debrett, For here lies one who ne'er preferred A Viscount to a Marquis yet.

Beside him place the God of Wit, Before him Beauty's rosiest girls, Apollo for a _star_ he'd quit, And Love's own sister for an Earl's.

Did niggard fate no peers afford, He took of course to peers' relations; And rather than not sport a Lord Put up with even the last creations;

Even Irish names could he but tag 'em With "Lord" and "Duke," were sweet to call; And at a pinch Lord Ballyraggum Was better than no Lord at all.

Heaven grant him now some noble nook, For rest his soul! he'd rather be Genteelly damned beside a Duke, Than saved in vulgar company.