Letter from Dorothy to Amy Walker, 17 Apr 1957, page 2 — with traced Drayton Hall coat of arms (after Motte Alston Read)
Book 1, Page 611 ·1957
Transcription
Typewritten continuation at the top of the sheet:
The only suggestion I can make is that you write to Miss Charlotte Drayton, 25 East Battery, Charleston, who owns Drayton Hall, I believe. Perhaps you know her, or know someone who does who wouldn’t mind asking her.
If I can ever locate a sketch or description among my father’s papers or anywhere else I shall certainly remember your request and send it to you.
Please remember me to Puck, and I hope you both will be over this way sometime before long.
Affectionately,
[signed in ink:] Dorothy
Below the letter, occupying the lower half of the sheet, a hand-drawn sketch of a coat of arms in blue ink, with handwritten captions:
“Coat of arms — Drayton Hall”
[Sketch: a heater-shaped shield charged with a bend running from upper (dexter) to lower (sinister), bearing three small annulets (circles). No tincture, no helm, no crest visible.]
“The crest has been broken off.”
AI Notes
Second (continuation) leaf of the 17 April 1957 typed letter from ‘Dorothy’ to Amy Walker (begun on p607). Top half: the closing paragraphs and Dorothy’s signed-in-ink sign-off ‘Affectionately, Dorothy.’ Bottom half: a hand-drawn blue-ink tracing of the Drayton family coat of arms — a heater-shaped shield charged with three annulets on a bend. Captioned in cursive ‘Coat of arms — Drayton Hall’ above and ‘The crest has been broken off.’ below. As Dorothy explains on p607, this sketch is a tracing of a sketch made by Motte Alston Read that she found at the S.C. Historical Society — the same genealogist behind the FitzSimons typescript at p023. ‘Miss Charlotte Drayton, 25 East Battery, Charleston’ (mentioned as owner of Drayton Hall) is Charlotta Drayton (1884–1969), the last private resident-owner of Drayton Hall before its 1974 sale to the National Trust. ‘Puck’ is James Pickens Walker Sr., Amy’s husband.
Per Dorothy’s letter on p607, the sketch is a tracing of a small Drayton-arms sketch made by Motte Alston Read that Dorothy located at the South Carolina Historical Society. The historical Drayton arms blazon (per published heraldic sources) is azure, on a bend argent three annulets gules — the bend-with-three-annulets pattern shown here.