STARS AND STRIPES | More Shreds of Evidence

The Grand Union flag carried by the Continental Army,
 1775. The Union Jack in the canton united the English
St. George's cross with the Scottish St. Andrew's saltire
 (diagonal cross). After April 19, the canton had to go.

For three years, I have been trying to sort out "shreds of evidence" to solve a longstanding historical puzzle–the origins of the American flag, and especially (in my view) the stars in the canton.

The puzzle is still unsolved, but I believe I’ve identified some new pieces of the puzzle that may help answer the question: Was George Washington's coat of arms a factor in our flag’s design, and, if so, what is the theory of how and why it entered the design?

My search led me to focus on the counties on the border between England and Scotland, where the Washington family was settled (what is now the county of Wear and Tyne, with Newcastle as the principal city), before the family moved to Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire.

These connections appear to have eluded heraldry experts. My theory is that George Washington and his friends employed some misdirection to deflect questions about the obvious fact that the young American flag clearly echoed Washington's family arms, of which he was hugely proud. No other president has taken such a delight in using his family's arms as a motif in his household. The problem for Washington and his political associates is that they were determined to avoid the fate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which left the tyranny of the British Monarch only to find a tyranny of their own. Washington resisted any talk of recreating the monarchy in the new United States of America.

The time frame for the break with Crown and the creation of the Stars and Stripes is well defined. Before 1775, most of the protesting colonists were eager to assert that, despite their grievances, they still considered themselves loyal subjects of the Crown, King George III. Hence, as Sir Charles Fawcett explains at length in a 1937 article, the East India Company flag was initially an acceptable one with which to 

indicate a union of the thirteen States in revolt, each of which had previously used a flag of its own. It seems to be established that it was first flown by Lieutenant Paul Jones on the Alfred, the flagship of the Congress Navy, on 3 December 1775. It was undoubtedly hoisted on 1 or 2 January 1776 by Washington at Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he assumed command of the united forces of those States [and is therefore called the Cambridge flag].

The meaning attached by the colonists to the 13 stripes in the Grand Union flag was the 13 colonies. This carried forward to the Stars and Stripes formally adopted by the Congress via a resolution of June 14, 1777.  The flag's origins may also be credited to the Sons of Liberty, originally nine Boston citizens who in August 1765 objected to the passing of the Stamp Act. They adopted the "rebellious stripes flag" with nine vertical stripes, five red and four white. This came to mean the nine colonies represented at the rebel Stamp Act Congress of 1765. Participants from the other four colonies eventually joined in, so the nine stripes became 13. In 1767, the Sons of Liberty adopted the 13-stripe flag, identical to the East India Company flag and began recruiting supporters. In December 1773, the Sons of Liberty united against the Tea Act and poured tons of tea into the Boston Harbor.

The perspective of London was that the King's troops cleared the French and the Indians from the colonies, and the cost of keeping the troops there should be borne by the colonies. British regular troops were the vanguard in that war, under Scotsman General Braddock, who led the troops and died in the effort. George Washington was a colonel in this war and Braddock was his mentor and hero until Braddock died after the Battle of Duquesne (today's Pittsburgh, named after Pitt the Elder).

The Stamp Act and Tea Act were two of the ways the Crown chose to pay for the cost of maintaining British troops in the colonies. For Virginians, another way was more worrisome–the Quebec Act, in which the Crown claimed all the land that Virginia had been selling off to raise revenue.

The colonies had a different perspective. The militias of each state, not the British troops, bore the brunt of the fighting with the French and the Indians. If the colonies were to be taxed by London, they wanted a voice in the London Parliament. That would be the same deal that England made with  Scotland.

The Continental Army in 1775 marched under the Grand Union flag, with Britain's Union Jack in the canton (the upper left corner) because they were hoping to trade their loyalty to the King for a voice in Parliament. Their attitude changed completely after the morning of April 19, 1775, when 700 British Army regulars arrived at Lexington Common as the sun was rising. The British regulars found 70 minutemen waiting, alerted by Paul Revere. Someone fired a shot and a battle was on. The Crown was shooting at its own subjects.

It didn't last long, as the regulars outnumbered the defenders ten to one and had superior weapons. The regulars killed eight Lexington defenders, wounded ten more, and scattered the rest. The regulars moved confidently on to Concord, but there they found more resistance. They turned tail back to Boston, pursued all the way by minutemen; the Revolution was on.

So it was not until after Lexington and Concord that the Union Jack became an enemy flag. It took more than two years for the colonies to decide on a new flag, but meanwhile the need for one was on everyone's mind. Forget the voice in Parliament. Now they wanted independence, and that meant a  new flag with no Union Jack on it. ASAP.

The key was the canton. The stripes, as noted above, already had rebel significance as the flag of the Sons of Liberty. It was the Union Jack had to be replaced. But with what??

Many people proposed new symbols. One famous one conveyed the colonists’ growing fury–a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike, over the slogan "Don't tread on me.”

The canton design of white stars on a blue field was presented by Washington to the Congress on June 14, 1777, with the description "a new constellation". There have been only two major changes since then:

• The number of points in the stars was changed in 1777 from six to five.
• The number of stars and their ordering within the canton has been changed as states have been added.

Elements of an "achievement", including the coat of
arms and the rest. Source: Berkshire History for Kids.

So. the key to the puzzle is... where did those white stars come from?

George Washington’s coat of arms features three stars and three stripes. In heraldic parlance, the blazon of the Washington shield is: Argent two bars and in chief three mullets gules. What looks like a stripe on a coat of arms is called a bar and what looks like a star is called a mullet, except in Scotland, where a star is a star. Argent is the metal silver. Gules is the tincture red.

This Washington shield is now used as the flag of the District of Columbia, which is co-terminous with the City of Washington. No one disputes that the D.C. flag is derived from the Washington family arms.

Washington's coat of arms has also been widely discussed as the likely source of inspiration for the flag, and this was the common view in 1876, when the Stars and Stripes were celebrated at the centennial of the Declaration of Independence.

But a letter to the editor of the New York Times, cited by mainstream historians since 1914, flatly rejected any connection with the Washington arms. Typical is a statement by Joseph McMillan, director of research for the American Heraldry Society, who wrote in the first issue of the group’s American Herald journal, in 2006:

Ever since the 19th century, many have been unable to resist the conjecture that the American flag and coat of arms are derived from the armorial bearings of President Washington. Unfortunately, there is not a shred of evidence that the one had anything to do with the other … [N]owhere in the records of [the government’s flag and great seal committees] is there any indication of a desire to honor Washington with the flag or the seal, honors which it would have been quite out of character for Washington to accept, considering how he reacted to other attempts to create a cult of personality around him.

Elements of an "achievement". Source: Fleur de Lis.

Has Mr. McMillan considered the possibility that the desire to honor Washington might well have been raised but was squashed for the obvious reason that it would have been out of character for Washington to accept such an honor?

Is there really "not a shred of evidence"? Or has no one looked at the evidence seriously?

I will assemble here a few pieces of evidence for the connection between the flag and the coat of arms as I am searching for some new evidence in the origin of the stars on the flag, which I believe to be the key to the puzzle.

1. Sulgrave House Manor. In Northamptonshire last year I took a photo of the frame above the portrait of George Washington, contributed by the Colonial Dames of America. They strongly assert the connection between the Stars and Stripes and the Washington coat of arms. They used a design of Paul Revere, who had prepared it for William and Mary University. Paul Revere attached himself to the view that Washington's coat of arms was connected to the Stars and Stripes. Remember that no one wants to assert too close to a connection out of respect for Washington's democratic posture.

2. Tupper Play. In 1876, on the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, a popular English poet named Martin Farquhar Tupper wrote a highly successful play in which the character of Benjamin Franklin asserts that friends of Washington, unknown to him, made sure that the U.S. flag reflected the George Washington coat of arms. This was the widely accepted view at the time.

3. Douglas Wardrop. In 1914, in The New York Times, G. Douglas Wardrop, described as an Assistant Secretary to Theodore Roosevelt, asserted, "There is very little doubt that the three stars and the three stripes [on Washington’s coat of arms] furnished the idea for the American flag."

4. Mr. McMillan himself.  McMillan supplies evidence to answer his last sentence, about George Washington's avoidance of anything to do with the cult of the individual, earlier in his own article. Take a look at the long list he provided of Washington's purchases of objects bearing his coat of arms or crest or were defined by it. The Father of Our Country started buying these costly armorial objects when he was just 23 years old! I have greatly abbreviated the detail in his list and have ordered it by year to make my point. Does the following collection not suggest someone who would be deeply grateful if the new American flag were to echo his family's arms?

George Washington coat of
arms with raven crest, coronet
and helmet. The arms are now
used in the D.C. flag.
Source: Arms and Badges.

1755: Unspecified goods ordered, marked with his crest [Washington appears to use the word crest loosely in heraldic terms, sometimes referring to his coat of arms with crest, sometimes just to the arms].
1755: Livery suits ordered from London for his house slaves and servants based on the red-and-silver (gules and argent) colors from his coat of arms–translated into scarlet and off-white, with lace trimmings. Washington owned slaves since his father died 12 years before and bequeathed to him ten slaves; when Washington died, there were 318 slaves at Mount Vernon. Washington's will provided for the freeing of all his slaves after his widow's death.
1757: Arms engraved on a silver cruet set made for him in London.
1758: Arms on the wax seal on a document he signed.
1768: Request to a London firm to manufacture a new carriage– requiring "my Arms agreeable to the impression here sent ... On the harness let my Crest be engraved.”
1771: A walking stick ordered from London with the arms engraved on the head, and the famed "rococo" bookplate with the Washington arms. In his will, Washington left his two canes to his cousins Lawrence and Robert Washington.
1771: Two seals ordered from the London carriage maker, one preferably of topaz in a gold locket, “with the Washington Arms neatly engrav'd thereon," and another stone in a second gold locket “with the Washington Crest.”
1790: Request to a Philadelphia firm to repaint a coach specifying:

 [M]y crest without any cipher [motto] is to be on the four quarter panels, all to be enclosed with the original ovals. If it is thought best that the crests should be painted (as Silver does not show on a light ground) they may be painted. But quere, whether of some ornamental painting within the Oval, and around the Silver crests (the colours of which should form a contrast to the silver and not be inconsistent with other parts of the work) might not look well.

1796: The Washington crest appears on the inkwell in the famous Lansdowne Portrait of Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart, now owned by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
1802: In the estate sale following the death of Washington's widow, his nephew Samuel Washington purchased a "Seal with W. arms" for $36.
1802: A second nephew, William Augustine Washington, bought another two seals, one with an ivory handle and another attached to a gold chain, most likely with the crest on them.

Many pieces of Washington armorial silver survive, notably at Mount Vernon:

• A set of silver cups Washington used during the Revolutionary years.
• A number of small silver items, such as spoons.
• Numerous items of silver made in London before the war.
• A silver service made in Philadelphia after the war. 

All this shows that Washington was fiercely proud of his ancestors and their coats of arms. He was justly proud, as they certainly were distinguished. The arms, according to several sources, appear to date back to the 1346 Battle of Crécy, following which victory over the French his ancestor William de Wessyngton, knighted by Edward III, adopted the red bars and mullets for his shield. Washington may have resisted a cult of personality, but he succumbed early in life to a preoccupation–rising even perhaps to what we might today call an obsession–with this coat of arms.

The Hopkinson flag adopted by Congress in 1777.
Note that his stars were six-pointed. The Washington
family used five-pointed stars. Why the change?

If, however, we ignore all this and other evidence, and follow the post-1914 orthodoxy, accepting the current Wikipedia pronouncement that any connection between the Stars and Stripes and George Washington's arms is "erroneous", what then is the conventional view of the inspiration for the stars in our national flag?

Hopkinson Arms. Source:
My Heritage Wear.

Francis Hopkinson

Enter Francis Hopkinson, a multi-talented signer of the Declaration of Independence who was an employee of the Continental Navy Board, which operated as a rudimentary Navy Department. He was asked to deliver a flag. He did not change the red-and-white stripes and proposed that instead of the Union Jack in the canton there be 13 six-pointed white stars on a dark blue field, as shown above left.

His arrangement of the stars with a five-star diagonal echoes the English cross and Scottish saltire in the Union Jack. Hopkinson is credited with the design, although Congress didn't pay him his invoice of a "Quarter Cask" of wine because other people were involved and anyway he was already being paid for his services to the Navy Board.

Many authorities take all this at face value. Francis Hopkinson invented the Stars and Stripes, therefore it has nothing to do with George Washington. End of story.

Another Version of Hopkinson
Arms in Red (Gules).

However, I haven't seen it noted anywhere as of any significance in this context, but Hopkinson's family originated from Yorkshire and, like Washington's coat of arms, the coats of arms of the Hopkinson family have three stars in them.  The star-like charges on the Hopkinson coats of arms differ slightly:

• They are wavy "estoiles" (Old French for "stars") rather than the straight-sided "mullets" (which are supposed to be the spur-revels on the heel of a knight's boot) on the Washington crest.
• They are six-pointed, whereas the Washington mullets are five-pointed. The original Stars and Stripes flag presented by Hopkinson had six points. Was he trying to assert that the Hopkinsons had a superior charge on their escutcheon? 

The connection between the Washington and Hopkinson stars would surely have been noticed by both of them. Although the Washingtons were based in Durham, their properties and influence extended from inside Scotland down to contiguous northern Yorkshire, as shown, for example by the Washington coat of arms in the 15th century stained glass window of the Benedictine Abbey at Selby, Yorkshire, well south of Durham. I have visited the Abbey, having attended a sister institution, Ampleforth College, for three years.

The so-called Betsy Ross star
cut. But the "one cut" is no
 time saver, as nine steps are
required before the cut.

When Scotland was getting ready to vote on independence earlier in 2014, leaders in the counties of Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire toyed with trying to follow them out to become another independent country. Up there, London can seem far away. While Scottish soldiers often crossed the border to fight, in the north it was more of a domestic dispute.

In 14th century Oxford, students were divided into "northerners", meaning north of the River Trent (roughly, the old Danelaw territory), and southerners, meaning from England south of the Trent, or Wales, or Cornwall or Ireland (the old Wessex area).

Is it possible that:

• Francis Hopkinson was selected to design the flag because Washington, or his loyal comrades like Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere, liked the idea of white stars on a blue field and they expected the outcome of the Hopkinson deliberations to be what it was? 
• The final version of the stars on the flag went to five points because Washington's powerful fans preferred the connection to him rather than to the less-reputed Hopkinsons?
• The Betsy Ross story that five points are easier to cut than a symmetrical six–which is counter-intuitive–was promulgated as a convenient cover for the real motivation. The intent was to honor Washington without stirring up fears of a new monarchy.

(Next: The Douglas and Moray coats of arms. See also: Unsourced notes on George Washington's arms and the origin of the name.)

STARS AND STRIPES | Scotland's Influence (Updated Jan. 18, 2016)

The U.S. Stars and Stripes and the
Scottish saltire of St Andrew.

Scotland's example and descendants played a crucial role in the independence from Britain of the American colonies.

How this evolved can be told through five stories associated with the Scottish flag. The first three of these stories are well known by vexillologists. The fourth and fifth stories and their implications represent my own contribution to explaining the origins of the Stars and Stripes.

St Andrew is martyred
in Greece. X=Ch[rist]

1. Why Is the Scottish Flag a White Cross on a Blue Background?

Scotland's flag is the cross of St Andrew, a white-on-blue saltire (i.e., a white X on a blue background).

St Andrew was the first Apostle and brother of Peter, who preached the Christian message in Scotland. By legend, he was crucified at his own request on a diagonal cross in Greece. Two explanations are offered: (1) The Greek letter Chi (X) represents the first letter of Christ's name; (2) St Andrew out of humility did not want to be crucified on the same kind of cross as Christ.

In AD 832, King Óengus II of Scotland had a dream the night before a battle, while encamped with his army of Picts and Scots facing the Angles under Æthelstan. St Andrew appeared promising victory to the Scots if Óengus promised to make Andrew patron saint of Scotland. The next morning, a white X cloud covered the blue sky. Awed, Óengus made his promise... and the Scots won the day.

Spooky! St Andrew's Cross over Sebastian, Fla. Photo by
JT Marlin on the Indian River.

So what do you make of the fact that the same day I wrote the previous paragraph I see a white "X" in the sky over Sebastian, Fla. (check out the photo)?

The town is named after another martyr who is usually depicted as being killed by arrows but actually survived this execution and was then clubbed to death at the order of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

The Scottish flag symbolizes what Óengus saw in the sky in 832, namely the white X cloud on a blue sky.

Keep that in mind as we continue this thread in the direction of understanding what is behind the Stars and Stripes.

2. The First Union Jack, 1707

English flag – St George's cross.

The original English flag was the cross of St George, patron saint of England–a red cross on a white background (much like the Swiss flag of today).  The origins of the flag are said to be the crusaders' flag, the first crusades having begun in the 11th century.

The flags of St George and St Andrew were combined in 1707 when Scotland was formally united with England (for 22 years, 1603-1625, England and Scotland had been only temporarily united under James I of England, aka James VI of Scotland). The official British Parliamentary history says that the 1706 deal traded a promise from Scotland to accept the Hanoverian dynasty when Queen Anne died in return for England's promise that Scotland would get access to colonial markets.

Combined crosses of Sts George and
Andrew; the original Union Jack. 

(This deal would be reversed by a vote on September 18 for Scotland's independence. Today the debate is more about the powers of the Scottish and British Parliaments than about royal succession, but the economic concessions to Scotland remain on the table.)

The Union Jack of 1707 is not the same as the one we know today, because it is lacks the red St Patrick's saltire, which was added in 1801, after the American Revolution.

3. The East India Company Flag

The "Cambridge Flag", identical to the
East India and Grand Union Flag, 1775.

Before 1707, the St George's flag was in the canton (upper left corner) of the East India Company flag and other colonial flags. The East India Company flag had seven red stripes and six white stripes, as noted in a 1937 exegesis by Sir Charles Fawcett.

The flag that was first raised to represent the 13 colonies in December 1775 had the Union Jack of the time in the canton. The rest of the flag was devoted to the 13 stripes that remain today, identical to the East India Company flag. Evidence for this includes six paintings from about 1732–numbers 36, 37, 40, 45, 46 and 48 in the Military Committee Room, #197, at the India Office in London. These sources are in the article by Fawcett.

The Red Ensign.

The East India Company flag could have been readily created by sewing white stripes on the more widely available Red Ensign. The flag was displayed in the American War of Independence as a symbol of the union of the 13 colonies. Since it included the Union Jack, it was not a symbol of rebellion against the Crown. It was flown by Lieutenant Paul Jones on the Alfred, the flagship of the Congress Navy, on December 3, 1775. On January 1 or 2, 1776 General George Washington raised this flag upon assuming command of the united forces of the 13 colonies at Cambridge, Mass. (hence it is called the "Cambridge Flag").

4. Scottish Influence on the Declaration of Independence

Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. This Declaration is modeled on the 1320 Scottish Declaration of Independence, during the time of King Robert the Bruce. It was a letter to Pope John XXII from the Abbot of Arbroath Abbey, supported by 39 nobles, with the seals of at least that many. It asserted Scotland's position as an independent kingdom against the Pope's recognition in 1305 of the claim of Edward I to rule over of Scotland, based on the idea  that independence was the prerogative of the Scottish people:

[F]or, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honors that we are fighting, but for freedom. (Translation from the Latin by Sir James Fergusson.)

It justified the rejection of King John in whose name William ("Braveheart") Wallace and others  rebelled in 1297. A contract between King and people was an explanation why Scotland did not accept rule by John de Balliol, whom the Pope favored. The Pope temporarily accepted the Arbroath request, doubtless hoping for Scottish knights'  supporting another Crusade. The Pope asked Edward II to make peace with the Scots.

Douglas (L) and Moray coats of arms.
The Good Sir James Douglas was
called "Black Douglas" in England. 

Edward II refused, and attacked Scotland multiple times, being again repulsed with heavy losses by armies led by the Good Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, who with his son Andrew, the 2nd Earl, supported King Robert the Bruce against Edward I and Edward II. They engaged in a "secret war"–i.e., a guerrilla war against numerically superior English troops. I have not been able to find any explanation for the use of the stars in the shields of the Douglas and Moray families, but it could refer to the "secret war" and the fact that they operated under the cover of darkness. In Scottish heraldry, stars are stars; they do not have to be"mullets", i.e., spur-revels on the heel of a knight.

Thanks to the secret warfare, Scotland prevailed against Edward II. After he died regents for young Edward III in his name renounced English claims to Scotland, via the treaty of 1328.

The military prowess of Douglas and Moray would have been known to many Americans. At least one-third of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence were of Scottish origin. The American Constitution was subsequently written, largely by people of Scots ancestry, and was modeled on the constitution of the Scottish Kirk (the Presbyterian Church).

Coat of arms of the Coldstream Guards,
southeast Scotland. Note stars on azure (blue)
and vert (green). Motto: "Second to None." 

George Washington's ancestors came from a part of England that is just south of the Scottish border, and when Washington was a Colonel in the French and Indian wars, he served under Scottish General Edward Braddock.

As Gen. Braddock was dying after the costly but tide-turning battle for Fort Duquesne (in the area that is now Pittsburgh), he gave his red sash to Col. Washington, the only senior officer who survived the battle. Washington proudly wore Braddock's sash in portraits  of him that were painted long after the Revolutionary War.

George Washington would also have been aware of the white stars on blue and green fields of Scotland's Coldstream Guards because General Braddock was a Coldstreamer.

5. The New American Flag, 1776

Washington shield (L) with red stars and stripes and the
U.S. Stars (white on blue) and Stripes shield at Sulgrave
Manor, Oxfordshire, UK.

After declaring their independence, the American colonies were now states in a new nation at war with George III.

The red stripes were fine, and the fact that there were 13 worked well with the fact that there were 13 colonies. All Congress had to do was change the canton.

Gen. George Washington presented a new flag to the Congress, substituting 13 white stars on a blue background for the Union Jack. So the   Stars and Stripes flag was created by resolution of June 14, 1777. Washington explained to Congress that the white stars represented "a new constellation".

The Douglas Stars or Mullets

Where did the stars come from? My theory is that fans of Scotland and of George Washington played a big part. The stars may have originated on the Scottish side of the border, as the shields of the Douglas and Moray families, who were most responsible for Robert the Bruce's military victories, the men who were innovators of the "secret [guerrilla] war"–Douglas and Moray. Both have white stars on a blue background (azure, stars argent in Scottish heraldic language). The blue likely came from the blue in the St. Andrew's saltire, which in turn represents the sky in Óengus's vision of the St. Andrew's cross.

Why would the Washington family have adopted the arms of "Black" Douglas, as he was called on the English side of the border? Because he was viewed with respect, and by changing the tincture from azure to gules, blue to red, the association with the English side was maintained. Changing the blue of the Douglas and Moray arms to red would Anglicize the Scottish arms while honoring Douglas. It's a theory.

From Douglas to Washington – The Battle of Crécy

The origin of the five-pointed gules (red) mullets (stars) in the Washington coat of arms seems to be the historic Battle of Crécy (August 26, 1346), in Normandy. Edward III had successfully campaigned in Scotland and having established his rule there he claimed the throne of France as well. His victory at Crécy appeared to augur success. By that time, at any rate, the Scottish and English were not actively fighting.

Washington's ancestors lived near Newcastle, just 100
miles south of Edinburgh. The family coat of arms appears
 in a stained glass window in the chapel of Selby Abbey,
south of York.

The battle of Crécy was one of the most decisive battles in world history. Edward brought with him 10,000 longbowmen, who outnumbered and outclassed the 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen brought by Philip VI of France. At the end of the battle, Edward III counted only 100 deaths out of his army of 14,000. Philip lost 1,500 knights and esquires; in all, one-third of his army. Edward continued his victorious march to Calais, which surrendered the following year. From this date, England became a world power equal to France and the knight became of decreasing importance in battle.

Records suggest that Edward III in 1346 awarded arms with three red stars and stripes (gules mullets and bars in English heraldry) to Washington ancestor Sir William De Wessyngton (or De Wessington), at the same time as the king awarded his son Edward (the "Black Prince") his knight's spurs. By that time, Scotland was no longer at war with England and it would not have been surprising for Edward III to acknowledge the battle skills of the Scottish soldiers who were now part of his army by awarding an officer from Durham a red (for the cross of St. George) version of the Douglas arms.

From the Washington Family to the Stars and Stripes

So how did George Washington's ancestral coat of arms, which were three red mullets/ stars in chief above two white and two red stripes,  play in the decision to use the stars in the American flag?

In a late-19th century play at the time fo the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, the character of Benjamin Franklin says that Washington's supporters (not Washington himself) advocated using stars along with the stripes in honor of Washington. Washington's ancestors were from just outside of what is now Newcastle, in northern England, near the border with Scotland–just 100 miles from Edinburgh.

It was a small step in 1776 to put 13 white-on-blue stars in the canton of the Grand Union Flag, to pay homage to General George Washington and generate the Stars and Stripes. Forever.

Formally, the stars were proposed by General Washington to the Congress as signifying "a new constellation". But they also were reminders to the colonies of Scotland's history of both unity and independence:

• unity in 1775 through the combination of the St. Andrew's saltire with the St. George's cross nearly 70 years before. Unity among themselves is what the colonists were seeking in 1775. 
• independence in 1777 because the stars were reminders of the long wars of independence by gallant and resourceful Scots.