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The Great Seal of Carolina

THE ROYAL CHARTER which erected the Province of Carolina created the colony as a county palatine, similar to Durham, Chester, and Lancashire back in England. However, instead of being ruled by a Count Palatine (or Prince-Bishop in Durham’s case), Carolina, named after England’s martyr-king Charles I, was to be ruled by eight Lords Proprietor, the eldest of which would hold the title of Lord Palatine of Carolina. The charter even allowed for the granting of titles…

…to Men well deserving the same Degrees to bear, and with such Titles to be Honoured and adorned, AND WHEREAS by our form of Government It was by our said Predecessor Established and Constituted, and is by us and our Heires and Successors for ever to be observed, That there be a certain Number of Landgraves and Cassiques who may be and are the perpetual and Hereditary Nobles and Peers of our said Province of Carolina, and to the End that above Rule and Order of Honor may be Established and Settled in our Said Province.

The granting of the titles of ‘landgrave’ and ‘cassique’ never really took off, but the Lords Proprietor did have a rather splendid Great Seal for their own private fiefdom in the New World, an impression of which is happily preserved by the good people of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History down in the Palmetto State.

The obverse (above) shows the arms of the Province of Carolina with two cornucopias in saltire. Joseph McMillan, Director of Education for the American Heraldry Society, has posited that this is the probable origin of the cornucopia depicted in the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina, the larger of the two Carolinas. The motto reads “Domitus Cuitoribus Orbis” which perhaps some learned reader could translate properly. The reverse (below) depicts the eight heraldic shields of the Lords Proprieter, surrounding a simple Cross of Saint George. Some readers may recall this configuration being used, in a much simplified form, in the heraldic achievement recently devised by the College of Arms for the Senate of North Carolina, mentioned and depicted previously on this site. The arms of the North Carolinian Senate also show the cornucopias in saltire in the crest above the shield.

UPDATE:

The commenter below is correct; the motto is ‘Domitus Cultoribus Orbis’ or ‘Tamed by the Husbandmen (cultivators) of the World’, as shown clearly in this alternate depiction which I have discovered.

Published at 2:22 pm on Friday 4 August 2006. Categories: Heraldry History Monarchy.
Comments

I believe the second word is cultoribus, in which case:

Domitus Cultoribus Orbis
Latin, “Tamed by the Husbandmen (cultivators) of the World”

With a play on the other meaning of cultus, “refined, civilized”.

— Anthrakeus 5 Aug 2006 1:03 pm

Interestingly, the arms of the Bank of Ireland are something similar, I’m guessing azure, in base two conucopiae in saltire or, in chief a castle with two towers argent flamant proper.

— Peter in Dublin 14 Aug 2006 11:45 am

Is this anything to do with it?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254832100117

— Richard 11 Jan 2021 6:43 pm
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