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Tenney Crest - Definition - Tenney Family Skip to main content

The Family Crest is defined as:

Tenney, Salsbury per Chevron sable and Argent, three Griffin’s heads erased and countercharged.

tenney-crestBeing translated signifies the following:

Chevron means slanting from the middle each way. Sable means black. Argent means white. Griffin, a fabled animal, a mixture of Lion and Eagle, denotes power. The head, talons, wings and claws were those of the Eagle; neck, body, legs and tail, of the Lion. Erased means torn off. Countercharged means white heads on black ground and black heads on white ground.

Crest, Griffins’ head, couped gules

Couped means cut off as by one stroke of the sword. Gules means Red; the crest must be red.

  • The original description of the Arms (Shield) is as follows: De Gu. Au Chev.D’Or Ch. De Trois Annelets du Champ Et Acc. De Trois Fleurs-De-Lis Du Sec”
  • When translated the Blazon also describes the original colors of the TENNEY Arms as follows: “Red; a gold Chevron charged with three red rings and accompanied by three gold Fleurs-De-Lis”.
  • Above the shield and helmet is the crest which is described as: “A silver castle surmounted by two silver towers, each tower surmounted by a red banner, floating to the right”.