English: Arms of Dillon of Chymwell in the parish of Bratton Fleming, Devon:
Argent, a lion rampant between three crescents an estoile issuant from each gules over all a fess azure. (Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.284, with obvious printer's error in that the field is given erroneously as
azure, with a fess also
azure, in contravention of the "Rule of Tinctures", and would not show fully. Pole gives the field as
Argent, but gives the location of the crescents incorrectly as on the fess. A relief-sculpted image of these arms survives on the large monument of
Wikipedia:John Chichester (died 1569) of Raleigh, Pilton, Devon, see image:
File:HeraldicPanelChichesterMonumentPiltonDevon1569.JPG, which shows the correct arrangement of the crescents and estoiles, althouigh the tincture of the field has been wrongly re-painted as
or ). The Dillon family was a co-heir of the Fleming family. Chymwell was one of the largest demesnes in Devonshire.(
Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.329). These are canting arms (lion/leon). The Dillon family (or
de Leon,
de Lune, etc.) was a cadet branch of the ancient Breton house of de Leon, a member of which accompanied Prince John (later King John) to Ireland in 1185 and was granted extensive lands in Counties Longford and Westmeath (Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.621, Dillon of the Hermitage) called 'Dillon's Country'. The title
Viscount Dillon was created in 1622 for
Theobald Dillon,
Lord President of Connaught.