Würzburg Coat-of-Arms

It is well known that there were Kresses living at Würzburg at the time our earliest ancestors were living at Nuremberg. It is thought that the Kresses at Nuremberg and the Kresses at Würzburg were related, but no evidence has survived to ever prove this. It is thought they used a different coat of arms, but little evidence was found of examples of that coat of arms being actively used. See the supposed coat of arms below.

The description of it consisting of two horizontal zigzag fesses can be read in the book of documents at St. Stephan, Würzburg. A picture of it is to be found in C. von Alberti's Directory of Nobility and Coats-of-Arms in Württemberg under Kress(e), a family who lived at Buettelbronn, superior bailiwick Oehringen. Eberhardt, called "Cresse", was mentioned in the foundation settlement of the monastery at Kirchheim at the Ries, 1270, Johannes, called "Kresse", was in 1315 an alderman in a legal dispute between Wolfram von Michelfeld and Werner Schmaltreu, with reference to an estate at Michelfeld. Most likely the same was mentioned, in 1352, by Weissbecker as having lived at Büttelbronn.

The coat-of-arms (above) is in accordance with the coat-of-arms of Goteboldus Crehsso, Würzburg, in 1264, as described in the summeries.

According to the "Description of the Superior Bailiwick of Oehringen", p. 347, Castle Waldenburg in Württemberg was used as a prison by the vassals of Hohenlohe, among others, in 1362, by Cress von Büttelbronn.

The colors of the escutcheon cannot be seen form the seals. However it had possibly developed out of the coat-of-arms, which the bishop of Würzburg bore as Duke of Franconia, namely divided in zigzag lines, red over silver.

The document of August 26, 1265, (summeries) indicates a close connection of the Kresses at Würzburg with the Hohenlohe-Brauneck. It, therefore, seems striking to find the beginning of the Kresses of Nuremberg (Krafshof) in a neighborhood where the Hohenlohe-Brauneck had large possessions, and relations were also existing with the family Strobel, from whom the wife of Friedrich I Kress at Krafshof descended and that part of the Kress possessions north of Nuremberg were formerly fiefs of Brauneck. The fiefs of the family von Eyb at Kraftshof were originally fiefs of Hohenlohe-Brauneck. They consisted of half an estate at Burgstall, half of small tithes, four days' work meadows at the Grundlach near the stonebridge at Neunhof, an estate at Fürth and another one at Uttenreuth.

At Uttenreuth were the Strobels. Margaretha Strobel was the wife of Friedrich I Kress at Kraftshof. The oldest deeds of enfeoffment are of the time from 1476 to 1477. In the oldest of them, for which the seal of von Brauneck had been used, Ludwig von Eyb on behalf of Margrave Albrecht invested Hieronymus Kress at Nuremberg with a fief, consisting of half an estate at Burgstall. The Hohenlohe-Brauneck passed out in 1448. In 1448 the estate of Brauneck came into possession of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Margrave Albrecht gave the fiefs of Brauneck, without the castle Brauneck and its chattels, to Albrecht Ludwig von Eyb the Elder.

Gotfried von Brauneck and his wife Margaretha von Grindlach sold on February 8, 1326, their castle Gründlach, the right of market including the patronate over the church and all chattels, which belonged to it; further their estates at Gründlach, at Neuhof, at Steinach near Grindlach, the mill at Fleehsdorf, the fishing waters at Vach and Eltersdorf, further the Imperial fief of the mill at Bruck and the honey-tax at Tennenlohe, the fiefs of the bailiwick at Hohenstadt and Viehberg, at Sickenbach, at Malmsbach, and at Behringersdorf to Burggrave Fiedrich of Nuremberg.

All these connections make it seem probable that the Kresses of Nuremberg and those of Würzburg were of the same race, and that the former descended form the latter.

The differences in the coats-of-arms between that of those at Würzburg and the one of the Kresses at Nuremberg may under no circumstance be taken as a reason for concluding that there is also a difference of family.

It must not be forgotten in what early times such a change of coat-of-arms must have taken place, for the time in question is the middle of the thirteenth century. Considering the fact that in western Europe a real custom of coat-of-arms did not develop until the middle of the twelfth century and become more pronounced toward the middle of the thirteenth century, at a time when the difference of the Kress coat-of-arms appeared, one cannot take this difference as a sufficient reason for a difference between the families.

Mallet Coat-of-Arms

There appears to have been a coat-of-arms using 3 silver mallets on a black shield. Alsace is an area in Eastern France near Germany. In fact, this coat of arms has been connected to the Kresge surname as well suggesting Kresge is a variant of Kress although possible from a Kress/Kresge family arising from a different area. The Kresge family are famous for Kmart.

A description for these arms reads:

Alsace – De sable à trois maillets d’argent Cimier un buste d’homme barbu habillé aux armes de l’écu couronné d’or.

Google Translate detects that as French with a rough translation as follows:

Alsace - Sable with three silver mallets Crest a bust of a bearded man dressed with the arms of the shield crowned with gold.

No direct connection

There are some records of people bearing the Cress surname which don't seem to fit any known direct ancestors beyond themselves to place them in our family tree. For example, in his book One Tough German: George Cress & His Descendants, author David Carl Attride was unable to find a direct connection and concludes that George Cress was possibly from another Kress family. Attride goes so far as to use DNA evidence to support his claim that at least two Cress families are unrelated.