Hi all.

A few years ago, I was able to document my descent from several Swedish families who used coats of arms during the 17th and 18th centuries. I recently completed a study of my ancestors’ armorial seals and grants of arms, and I commissioned a painting
by the heraldic artist Carlos Navarro. Here are some images of this amazing work by Carlos: https://dockvapen.tumblr.com/archive

At the base of the painting is the name of a Swedish soldier, Bengt Henric Docken (1738-1782), who is my 5x great-grandfather in the direct male line. My branch apparently dropped the Dock name in favor of patronymic surnames sometime during the 19th
century, and then it became fixed and anglicized as Nelson when my great-grandfather immigrated to the United States. Bengt’s paternal grandfather is Carsten Dock (1660-1718), a merchant from Hamburg and sometime quartermaster in the army of Charles
XII who settled in the city of Malmö. Bengt’s father Johan Docke (1693-1767) was a cavalry officer who married a daughter of Major General (later Baron) Johan Vilhelm von Beckern and Baroness Maria Helena Rehbinder. The arms used by Carsten Dock and
Johan Docke are only known from surviving seal impressions, so any colors or metals (if any) are unknown. The blazons can only be guessed at, but apparently the only similarities between the arms used by father and son are ordinaries charged with three
flowers and flowers in the crests! Although there is no evidence of arms used by Carsten’s wife Botilda Rasmusdotter, I decided to cheat and include the arms used by Botilda’s brother Kjell Rasmusson to balance the composition of the painting. Kjellâ€
™s crest appears to be the goddess Fortuna holding a sail.

The arms of Bengt’s maternal grandfather, Johan Vilhelm von Beckern, include two bear’s paws or gambs sable on a field azure. The quartered arms of Bengt’s maternal grandmother, Baroness Rehbinder, include an inescutcheon of pretence charged with
the Arabic numerals 333, each numeral crowned, as well as ten mullets. These curious numerals were included in the grant made to Baroness Rehbinder’s grandfather Henrik Rehbinder. The numerals were apparently based on their ancient arms which were
originally charged with three crowned and writhing snakes! The ten mullets were also included to honor Henrik Rehbinder’s ten sons in the service of Sweden.

Cheers,
Sebastian

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