The armorial bearings used by the Middlemores-per chevron, in chief two moorcocks-like most ancient heraldry, are very simple in character; and further, they obviously belong to the "canting" or allusive class of coats-of-arms. The crest-a moor-cock sitting in the middle of reedy grass, or as in the middle of a moor-is evidently a further play upon the name. It does not seem possible to ascertain the source of these arms. They were certainly in use in the fifteenth century; and from the fact that all armigerous branches of the family have continuously quartered the arms of the Edgbaston heiress, it is reasonable to infer that they were borne by the Middlemores at a still earlier date. However this may be, and whatever be their origin, these arms were allowed without question at several of the Heralds' Visitations.
These arms are of course rightfully due to all the descendants of Thomas Middlemore and Isabella Edgbaston who bear his name; but- John Francis Richard Middlemore, who was the younger surviving son of Richard Middlemore of Grantham and a descendant of the Middlemores of Haselwell, bore, as his plate still existing in Henry the Seventh's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, under the banner of the Earl of Tyrconnel, his kinsman, whose esquire he was when that nobleman was created Knight of the Bath, shows-per chevron argent and sable three moorcocks counterchanged. And the Middlemores of Enfield recorded their pedigree at the Lincolnshire Visitation in 1634, giving for their arms a chevron between three moorcocks sable, and as their crest a moorcock. Probably some difficulty in the way of satisfying the heralds by adequate evidence that they were descended from the Warwickshire family will account for the adoption of these variant arms. Indeed, the arms of the Enfield Middlemores are entered without colours, with the reference " Vide Warr & Midd." In neither case can any authority for their use be discovered.
As far back as we can trace them, the Middlemore family has been found in the ranks of the gentry, and their position is indicated by a sentence occurring in some old Chancery pleadings : "The family of the Middlemores is an ancient and honourable one.”