James Howe, Jr., was son of James, Sen., of Ipswich, County Essex, Mass., and grandson of Robert, “who lived in Hatfield, Broad-Oak, county Essex, England, where Sir Francis Barrington lived in Woodrow-Green; James, son of said Robert, lived in a place called Hackerill, or Bockerill, in Bishop-Stortford—in the happy and gracious reign of King James I.” The mention of Sir Francis’s name in this connection suggests some particular attachment, of which Mr. Howe had, no doubt, informed his children, and which he wished them to remember and cherish. Sir Francis’s family name went into England with the Conqueror, 1066, as Du Barentin. The old feudal burg and barony which cradled the name, near Rouen, is now Barentin. The Conqueror gave Baron Odo Du Barentin a grant of land in county Essex and the descendant office of ranger or keeper of the forest of Hatfield. Early in the seventeenth century the name was anglicized Barrington. The special mention of Sir Francis’s name, noted above, could hardly indicate a family relation; it may have been a correlation, as ranger and subranger, or assistant, a lucrative station of Sir Francis’s gift. The charge, a wolf’s head, which has characterized the Howe arms for centuries, suggests forests and an encounter. THE COAT OF ARMS JAMES, JR., AND ELIZABETH [Illustration: BY THE NAME OF HOW] Of the arms “_Gules_ (red) a chevron _argent_ (silver) between three cros-cros-lets _or_ (gold) three wolves’ heads of the same,” said to have “adorned the walls of the ‘Wayside Inn’ or Howe Tavern, in Sudbury, for over a hundred and fifty years,” “Ye wolfs are ye fams. Arms, ye cross, for gt accts don by ye 1st El.,” who lived around A.D. 1500, or the time of Henry VII or VIII. The seat of the family bearing the above arms was in county Warwick; the seat of Robert Howe and the place of the original Howe arms: “_Argent_ (silver) a chevron between three wolves’ heads couped _sable_ (black)” was in county Essex. [Illustration: Coat of Arms] If the query is now suggested, why did not our James Howe claim a coat of arms if he were entitled to one, this answer is persuasive if not conclusive; so early created and so long unused, it was forgotten; or maybe, in New England practical home life its value was considered zero, or negative. It may be said, further, that the Howe coat armor, the Howe family, the Barrington family, and the King’s forest—each and all—belonged to Hatfield, county Essex, and it may be thought strange that the ancient Howe arms should not include our James, the immigrant, in its descent. On the whole, there is a preponderating impression that the wolf’s head on the Howe arms was captured in the Hatfield forest by a Howe.