Editing Broad arrow (section)

===Origins===
The origins of the broad arrow device used by the Board of Ordnance are debated. The symbol is widely supposed to have been derived from the pheon in the arms of the Sidney family, through the influence either of [[Sir Philip Sidney]], who served as Joint [[Master-General of the Ordnance]] in 1585–6; or that of his great-nephew, [[Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney]], who served as Master-General from 1693 to 1702.<ref>{{cite book |first=Philip |last=Sidney |title=The Sidneys of Penshurst |place=London |publisher=S. H. Bousfield |year=1901 |page=262 |quote=... [Henry Sydney] caused his arms, a pheon, or double broad-arrow, to be cut on all Crown property, a practice that has survived to this day ... |url=https://archive.org/stream/sidneysofpenshur00sidnrich#page/262/mode/2up }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Keith |last=Spence |title=The Companion Guide to Kent and Sussex |edition=3rd |place=Woodbridge |publisher=Companion Guides |isbn=1900639262 |year=1999 |orig-year=1973 |page=[https://archive.org/details/companionguideto00spen/page/204 204] |quote=... perhaps [Henry Sydney's] greatest claim to fame lies in the fact that, as Master of the Ordnance, he adopted the broad arrow or "pheon" of the Sidneys as the mark of government property. |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/companionguideto00spen/page/204 }}</ref><ref>''Army Ordnance'', Volume 14, American Ordnance Association, 1933, p. 162</ref> However, as noted by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', "this is not supported by the evidence", as the use of the device predates the association of either Sidney with the Board.<ref>{{OED|broad arrow}}</ref>

The earliest known use of the symbol in what seems to be an official capacity is in 1330, on the [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] used by Richard de la Pole as [[butler]] to [[Edward III of England|King Edward III]].<ref name="lond93">{{harvp|London |1956–58|p=93}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Ailes |chapter=Medieval armorial seals in The National Archives (UK) |editor-first=Laura |editor-last=Whatley |title=A Companion to Seals in the Middle Ages |year=2019 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-04-38064-6 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xBeJDwAAQBAJ }}</ref> In 1383, it is recorded that a member of the butlery staff, having selected a [[English wine cask units|pipe]] of wine for the King's use, "''signo regio capiti sagitte consimili signavit''" ("marked it with the royal sign like an arrowhead").<ref name="lond93"/> In 1386, Thomas Stokes was condemned to stand in the [[pillory]] by the [[Court of Aldermen]] of London for the offence of having impersonated an officer of the royal household, in which role he had commandeered several barrels of ale from brewers, marking them with a symbol referred to as an "arewehead".<ref>London 1954–55, p. 93; citing {{cite book |editor-first=Henry Thomas |editor-last=Riley |editor-link=Henry Thomas Riley |title=Memorials of London and London Life, in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries |location=London |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co |year=1868 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/b2485881x/page/489 489]–490 |url=https://archive.org/details/b2485881x }}</ref> The device was also used in the 15th and 16th centuries as an [[Metallurgical assay|assay]] mark for [[pewter]] and [[tin]].<ref name="lond93"/>

An alternative theory is that the device used on naval stores and property was in its origins a simplified and corrupted version of an [[Anchor#Anchor as symbol|anchor symbol]].<ref>{{harvp|Fairbrother|1914|p=481}}</ref> Thus, a set of "Instructions for marking of Timber for His Majesty's Navy" issued in 1609 commands:
{{blockquote|... the sayde Commissioners to marke the same [selected trees] with an axe bearing His Maj[esty's] letters and an anker to distinguishe them from the rest as appropriated to His Majestys Navye lest in the general sale they should bee soulde away.<ref>Quoted in {{harvp|Fairbrother|1914|p=481}}.</ref>}}