The Pootman Coat of Arms
What do the reports of
the Putman Coat of arms indicate?
A look at the following sources:
Eben Putnam's Report
American Armory Report
Wendell Putman's Report
Rutger Putman's Report
Eben Putnam’s Report
Eben Putnam of the late 1800's,
New England, a member of the unrelated English Putnam family, in Putnam
Leaflets, November and December, 1895, said:
The
shield and crest shown herewith is that in use in several branches of the family
descended from Jan Poutman of Albany. The
coat of arms while resembling that of at least one English family is undoubtedly
of Dutch origin. The early history
of the original from which the engraving was taken is unknown:
Arms
of Poutman, Putman, Putnam descended from Jan Poutman—Gules [red background]
on a fess argent [a silver bar running horizontally through the middle of the
shield] between three boar’s heads erased close, or, [two boar’s heads above
the fess, one below the fess, of gold color], a lion passant, sable, [a black
lion in the fess walking to the left].
Eben Putnam wrote that the
American Putman family used the spelling "Poutman"; however, I have
not found a period document that shows that the family used the spelling
Poutman, except Eben's work, which came much later.
There are about twenty of thirty European coats of arms that seems to be similar in
part to the that of the American Putman family in that they used boar's heads.
Heraldry
says that beneath the shield in English heraldry is a ribbon with the motto or
slogan of the family. In Scotland
and on the Continental heraldry, the ribbon, called the escroll, and is at the top
of the shield.
The ribbon on the Putman coat of
arms is at the bottom, which indicates that the coat was English at least
as it was reported.
Above
the shield there is a helmet of rank that shows by it shape and direction the
social position of the armiger.
On
the Continent, a knight had a simple coronet of rank between the shield
and the helmet.
A coronet is not found on the
Putman coat of arms.
On
the crown of the helmet there is often a circlet or wreath composed of two
strips of silk twisted together in six bands of the primary colors of the
shield.
The Putman coat has a wreath
with nine bands, which may indicate it was of a higher rank.
Above,
or in place of, the wreath sometimes is a crest coronet.
In public women whose family rank just below a sovereign sometimes wore a
small crown or coronet. A
coronet is found in English coats of arms and shows that the person held a
high-ranking office or was a county officer.
Out
of the wreath or crest coronet raises the crest, which in the case of the
American Putman coat of arms is a boar’s head.
American Armory's Report
An
American Armory says the following about the Dutch-American Putman coat of arms:
Putman: Azure
[blue shield] a chevron verte bet [upside down “V” between] in chief 3 boars’
heads argent [3 boars’ heads at the top, silver] and in base a lion ramp,
sa,
[at the base a walking black lion] all within a bordure verte [all within a green
border].
Crest: a lion rampant.
From
a tile owned by a descendant of Jan Putman in the Mohawk Valley.
A copy with the lion argent painted on a wooden plate about 1840 (8 inches wide is owned by Eben
Putnam of Salem, MA).
This
suggests that a chevron may have once been used by the family and also the
color’s blue and green instead of red.
Rutger Putman's Report
A
very popular story of the parentage of Johannes Pootman was
that Johannes was a decendant of Rutgerus Putmanus of Germany, whose family moved to Deventer in the
Netherlands. Rutgerus was a rent master in Leipzig, German.
Information
about the Putman family of Germany and Holland comes from an article in The Putnam Leaflets,
by Eben Putnam, which Eben wrote from a translation that De Witt Putman had done
of the Dutch
“History of the Family of Putman in the Netherlands”.
Rutgerus
Putman was born in Hamm, Westphalia and was the Advocate Fiscal and Land Steward
for Count Van Der Lippe. He married
Agnez Bosch and died in Lipstadt, Germany, in 1575 at age 65.
Agnez died in 1588.
They
had at least two children: sons John and Abraham.
John was born in 1566 and his brother Abraham in John in 1567.
Rutgerus would have been 56 and 57 years old respectively. He may
have had other children.
Rutgerus'
son Abraham studied law while his son John studied theology. Both
left Germany because of the Reformation. Little
was known of Abraham except that he went to London, England, and left descendants
there.
John
married Matilda Meyer and died in 1658 after having sons Rutger and Abraham.
Rutger
was the pastor at Weerselo and Goor and married Joanna Van Den Burgh.
After their marriage, Rutger became chaplain with the Landgraf of Hesse
Cassel. He later settled in
Dresden, Netherlands, and was Pastor there.
He became pastor of Delden in 1634 and stayed there for 40 years.
Rutger
had Sarah, John, born in 1645, and Paul, born in 1648.
One
member of this family reported that it was Rutger’s son John, born in 1645,
who was Johannes Pootman who immigrated to the New World about 1661. This
is unlikely.
A
Dutch father almost always named one of this first sons after this father then
another after his grandfather.
Victor, David, and Cornelius are
not found in this German Putman, and the name Rutger is not found in the family
of Johannes Pootman. This seems to precluded the German Putman family and
Rutger as progenitors of the American Dutch Putman, or Pootman, family.
Also,
none of Johannes Pootman’s children were given the name Sarah, Paul, or
Joanna.
Eben
Putnam in the article on the Putman family of the Netherlands, The Putnam
Leaflets, says:
Mr.
Putman [DeWitt Putman?] writes that in 1695, Geesje Van Der Lyppe, widow of
Dirck Van Der Lyppe, conveyed to Johannes Putman of New York two pieces of
property for a small consideration. He
notes that Rutger Putman in the above account is mentioned as rent-master for
Van Der Lippe in Hamm, Westphalia. He
quires if Gessje may not have been a relative of the grantee.
Colonel
Putman of Guelderland in a [then recent] letter states that Jan Putman was a grandson
of Abraham the son of Rutgerus.
He
says that Abraham was born in 1567 and his brother John in 1566.
Also, that Abraham on account of the Reformation of Religion went to
England via Amsterdam in 1590 and died in 1650.
He had a son who was born in 1597, who married in 1644, and had John,
born in 1645 who he claims was the emigrant to America.
For
Abraham Putman to be the grandfather of Johannes Pootman, Abraham would have had
a son named Victor, which seems to be the name of Johannes Pootman's father..
Johannes
Pootman, however, didn't have any close descendants that had the name Abraham.
The coat of arms of Rutger Putman who married Johanna Van den Berg is described
in Dutch, from personal records obtained from Warren Putman, it reads as
follows:
Twee Wapens:
I.
Drie putemmers, 2 en 1 [Coat of Arms: 3 buckets, 2 at the top and 1 at the
bottom].
II.
Sic Rutgere faces cum coninge prolegue chara [For Rutger, it seems to mean,
countenance with a coronet. Preface, prologe, or crest?, a chare, or char, which
is like a pike. ].
III.
Sic
Putman taces vox ubi clara tua [For Putman nothing shown to indicate renown].
IV.
Sit
nunc in tumulo mutum sine sanguine corpus [Layout now towards cover, crest?,
mute, without, and red body].
V.
Eschilarent
animam gaudia nulta poli [Shield embellished with white].
The coat of arms of the Putman,
Gelderland, Netherlands, is below:
Wendell Putman's Report
Wendell
Putman in his manuscript “Memoirs,” which he wrote about 1970, said the
following about the American Putman coat of arms:
In
the 1950’s the son of my cousin Henry Van der Veer Putman attended MIT and
there met the son of Henri Putman a Belgian professor of mathematics in a French
university. I corresponded for a
time with the professor and told him about the pioneering Putman in America, but
I lacked information and time for a good response.
His information was much better. He
told me that in the early 1400’s the name Putman was recorded in the Rhineland
Duisberg area of the German-Dutch border. Putman
was a land overseer for a German duke [this sounds like Rutgerus Putmanus
Licentius], rating a coat of arms with a row of boars’ heads at the top and
what appeared to me to be a row of coal-hods at the bottom with writing
between.
This seems to be a
high-bred of, or something between, the coat of arms of the American Putman
family and that of the Putman family of Germany and Gelderland, Netherlands.
Rutgerus
Putmanus Licentius was born in 1510 supposedly in Hamm, German.
The
coat of arms may of the "Putman's" may have been marshaled or had elements
added or dropped.
A
coal-hod is a pail for coal or a scuttle.
Mark Putnam's Report
The Pootman
family name was not originally Putman, but only came to be Putman in the late
1700's with the influence of English speaking people.
The family name was, it seems, spelled Pootman and probably earlier Poortmann.
Perhaps, the family is related to Victor Pootman of Aalburg, North Brabant, The
Netherlands, who was a schoolmaster beginning about
1645.
