Quote Originally Posted by Cygnus View Post
I'm very surprised by how many variations one can get, especially with such a simple "undifferenced" shield.



I also think the difference between billettey and compony is more immediately obvious than the difference between chequey and compony counter compony. So, for those who may be following along (and who are visual learners like I am), here's the same chart with the "mystery" shield filled in.
(I assumed it would still be a bordure divided per pale even though MacMillan of Rathdown didn't say so in his description, so please tell me if it's incorrect and I can modify it.)
This is spot on. Now imagine the next generation with their bordures ratched 90* around to the right, with the top half of the shields white with the bottom half "coloured". Another generation and imagine the shields with quartered bordures. That's 13 distinct families descending from the third son of the original armiger before altering the line of partition on the bordure. PHEW!

And to think John Stodart did this before the invention of computers.