The Arms of Sir John Smith-Dodsworth, Bt
Noel Cox
first published (Summer 2003) 85 New Zealand Armorist 12-13
Sir John Christopher Smith-Dodsworth, eighth baronet Smith-Dodsworth of Newland Park, in the baronetage of Great Britain was born in 1935. He succeeded in 1940 to the baronetcy. Sir John lives in the Coromandel, at Driving Creek, and maintains the family seat of Thornton Watlass Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire, where there is still as estate of 1,000 acres. His eldest son and heir, David John Smith-Dodsworth, lives with the first Lady Smith-Dodsworth, in Thornton Watlass Hall, a small (forty-room) county house.
The family of Smith traces its descent from John Smith, of Newland Hall, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His son, Sir John Smith, of Newland Park, and Birthwait, Yorkshire, married in 1761 Henrietta, daughter of John Dodsworth, of Thornton Watlass, in the county of Yorkshire. Through the Dodsworths the family can trace a direct descent from King Edward III.
Sir John Smith was created a baronet in 1784, and his eldest son assumed, by royal licence 1821, the surname of Dodsworth in place of his paternal surname. His siblings remained Smiths.
In 1846 the third baronet assumed, by royal licence, the surname of Dodsworth, and the arms of Dodsworth quarterly. This name has remained the name of the family. Smith was retained as a Christian name by subsequent generations of the family, and is now used as an additional surname.
The arms of Sir John Smith-Dodsworth are quarterly, first and fourth, Argent, a bend engrailed Sable between three annulets Gules. These are the arms of the Dodsworths. The annulets, or plain rings, are suggestive of the circle of eternity, but are more directly connected with the tournament tilting-ring.
The second and third quarters, representing the Smith family, are per saltire Argent and Sable two trefoils slipped in pale Gules. The trefoil is a leaf with three pear-shaped lobes, and is generally borne slipped, that is, with a stalk.
There are also two crests. The first, or dexter crest, is a dexter cubit arm in chain mail Or, the hand Proper, grasping a broken tilting-spear the broken part imbued Gules. This is from the arms of the Dodsworth family.
The second crest, from that of the Smith family, is, out of a ducal coronet Or, a boar's head, couped at the neck Azure, crined, gold.
The baronet's motto is Pro lege senatuque rege.
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