This Bearing, some of their Heralds tell us, was official, because, they say, the Family had been Hereditary Masters of the King's Horses and Stables, of which employment this instrument was indicative. Such official Charges and Sur-charges were common in Scotland: thus, CARNEGIE, Earls of Southesk, charge the Breast of their Blue Eagle with a Cup of Gold, being Hereditary Cup-Bearers to the Kings of Scotland. But this will not hold good as to the CONYNGHAMS; though their Sur-charge of a Man on Horseback upon the Shake-Fork may perhaps be such an official Bearing. Different conjectures have been brought forward; and Mr. Camden and some others have interpreted the Fork to have been an Archiepiscopal Pall; for which surmise a very vague reason is given, viz. that an Ancestor of the Family was concerned in the Murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Which Bearing, Mr. Nisbet observes, would in such case operate rather as an abatement than a badge of honour[305]. This conjecture, however, will not hold good on heraldic principles; for a Pall, when used as a Charge, is very differently represented, the three ends of it being square, and even touching the borders of the Escocheon; whereas the device before us is pointed at the ends, and does not come in contact with the edges of the Shield. But what has the Pall to do with the Motto? We must therefore advert to other circumstances for an interpretation of both the reason of the Armorial Bearing and the Motto, which generally assist to explain each other. The account which comes nearest the point in the present question is given by Mr. Nisbet from Frederick Van Bassen, a Norwegian, who, he says, was a good Genealogist, and left in MS. an account of the rise of some Scottish Families, and among the rest of this of Conyngham; from which MS. Mr. Nisbet gives this account--"that Malcome, the Son of Friskine, assisting Prince Malcom (afterwards surnamed Canmore) to escape from Macbeth's tyranny, and being hotly pursued by the Usurper's Men, was forced at a place to hide his Master by forking Straw or Hay above him. And after, upon that Prince's happy accession to the Crown, he, the King, rewarded his Preserver Malcome with the Thanedom of Cunnigham, from which he and his Posterity have their Surname, and took this Figure to represent the Shake-Fork with which he, Malcome, forked Hay or Straw above the Prince, to perpetuate the happy deliverance their Progenitor had the good fortune to give to their Prince." Admitting this to be a fact, or even a legendary tale, credited by the Family when this Bearing was granted or assumed, there is an affinity between the Device and the Motto not to be found among the other conjectures. [305] Becket's Murderers were Four Barons, and Knights, no doubt, of course; _viz._ Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto. [Consult Lord Lyttelton and his Authorities.]