Skidmore and Scudamore

Family History



The website of the

Skidmore/Scudamore One-Name Study

and the Skidmore Family History Group


The Scudamore Stirrups, and the family’s use of Personal Seals during the Late Middle Ages.


Photographs of stirrups from sites around Britain.




The motto ‘Scuto Amoris Divini’


Translates as ‘with the shield of Divine love’.


It was not the origin of the name Scudamore, as has been stated in certain older texts (and unfortunately is still repeated on blogs). It was adopted in the 17th century and appears in the arms of the Scudamore family as the motto of the 3rd Viscount Scudamore (born 1684, died 1716, when the title expired).

It was a whimsical play on the name itself. See Warren Skidmore’s paper Lady Mary Scudamore (c.1550-1603), Courtier.


It has since been adopted as the motto of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs.


As a family motto it was not exclusive to the Scudamore family.

The first known use of the Scudamore stirrups on a seal found on an original charter at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

It belonged to Petri de Escudemor and was used on a charter dated 24 August 1323.

Drawing from the original made by Warren Skidmore.


The family’s familiar stirrups as depicted in a church window in Upton Scudamore, England.

Gules three stirrups with leathers or.