There are a number of descriptions of the Pootman or Putman coat of arms: The most likely depiction of the Dutch-American coat of arms comes from American Armory:
The Dutch-American Pootman family surname was not originally spelled Putman.
The early name Pootman was changed to Putman in the late 1700's from the influence of English speaking people and the American Revolution.
Our family name was originally spelled Pootman and likely meant pitman or poolman if our family originated in Germany.
If was indeed Dutch in origin, the name Pootman likely meant gatekeeper or portman or from the Dutch word "poot" planter of nurseyman.
Iohannes Pootman the ancestor to the Dutch-American Putman family was likely born in 1644 and was a son of Victor Pootman of Aalburg, North Brabant, Netherlands.
Victor was a schoolmaster about 1642 in Aalburg and married Maria Davids.
Victor Pootman may have been born in Germany.
A Victor Puettmann who was born about 1700 near Munster and Duelmen, Germany is of interest, but his family was Catholic while our Pootman family was known to be evangelical.
It is possible that Victor Pootman's ancestors were German and also used the name Poetman.
The Dutch-American Pootman/Putman family's DNA is identical to the of the Vom dem Brohl de Plater family of Westhemmerde, Germany, who lived just south of Flierich, Germany, and the Victor Poet, Poit, or Pott family.
Possibly, our Pootman/Putman family may be connected with the Victor Poet family!
An American Armory says the following about the crest of the Dutch-American Putman family:
Putman: Azure [blue shield] a chevron verte bet [upside down “V” between] in chief 3 boars’ heads argent [3 boars’ heads at the top, silver] and in base a lion ramp, sa, [at the base a rampt or walking black lion] all within a bordure verte [a green border].
Crest: a lion rampant.
From a tile owned by a descendant of Jan Putman in the Mohawk Valley. A copy with the lion argent painted on a wooden plate about 1840 (8 inches wide is owned by Eben Putnam of Salem, MA).
This coat of arems uses the colors blue and green.
Perhaps, blue indicates a water pool.
The coat of arms describe by An American Armory is very similar to the one pictured above that uses two boars heads instead of three.
This depiction may be the accurate crest for the Pootman family.
Eben Putnam was a New England publisher in the late 1800's and early 1900's He was a member of the English Putnam family, which is not related to the Dutch Putman family.
In The Putnam Leaflets, November and December, 1895, Eben wrote the following that addresses the coat of arms of the Dutch-American Putman family:
The shield and crest shown herewith is that in use in several branches of the family descended from Jan Poutman of Albany. The coat of arms while resembling that of at least one English family is undoubtedly of Dutch origin. The early history of the original from which the engraving was taken is unknown:
Arms of Poutman, Putman, Putnam descended from Jan Poutman—Gules [red background] on a fess argent [a silver bar running horizontally through the middle of the shield] between three boar’s heads erased close, or, [two boar’s heads above the fess, one below the fess, of gold color], a lion passant, sable, [a black lion in the fess walking to the left].
I note that Eben Putnam used the spelling Poutman for the Pootman/Putman family; however, I have not found any other document that shows that the Dutch Pootman/Putman family used the spelling Poutman.
Heraldry says that beneath the shield in English heraldry is a ribbon with the motto or slogan of the family: Eben describes the motto of the Dutch-American Putman family as "Deum Non Alium Timeo" or God No Other I Fear.
In Scotland and on the Continental heraldry the ribbon called the escroll and is at the top of the shield.
The ribbon on the Putman coat of arms described by Eben Putnam in this case is at the bottom that indicates that it is an English depiction.
Above the shield is a helmet of rank that shows by it shape and direction the social position of the armiger.
On the continent, a knight had a simple coronet of rank between the shield and the helmet: A coronet is not found on this crest.
On the crown of the helmet, there is often a circlet or wreath composed of two strips of silk twisted together in six bands of the primary colors of the shield.
The Putman coat has a wreath with nine bands that this crest who a family of rank that is higher.
Above or in place of the wreath sometimes there is a crest coronet.
A coronet is found in English coats of arms that shows the person held a high-ranking office or was a county officer.
Out of the wreath or crest coronet raises the crest that in this case of the American Putman coat of arms is a boar’s head.
Wendell Putman in his manuscript “Memoirs” that he wrote about 1970 said that the the following was the American Putman crest:
In the 1950’s the son of my cousin Henry Van der Veer Putman attended MIT and there met the son of Henri Putman a Belgian professor of mathematics in a French university. I corresponded for a time with the professor and told him about the pioneering Putman in America, but I lacked information and time for a good response. His information was much better. He told me that in the early 1400’s the name Putman was recorded in the Rhineland Duisberg area of the German-Dutch border. Putman was a land overseer for a German Duke rating a coat of arms with a row of boars’ heads at the top and what appeared to me to be a row of coal-hods at the bottom with writing between.
Both boars heads and "buckets" are included.
I wonder if boars heads may mean the that family root the earth, were diggers, or pitman.
DeWitt Putman in the late 1800's republished the family history and coat of arms of the Rutgerus Putmanus of Hamm, Germany, whose members removed to Deventer, the Netherlands.
Rutgerus was rent master in Leipzig, Germany, in the late 1500's.
DeWitt Putman's uncovering of the history of the Rutger Putmanus family was published by Eben Putnam in an article in the Putnam Leaflets titled “History of the Family of Putman in the Netherlands”.
De Witt Putman did not say that the Dutch-American Pootman family descended from Rutger Putmanus, but that it was a possibility.
There was no proof.
Rutgerus Putman was born in Hamm, Westphalia, was Advocate Fiscal and Land Steward for Count Van Der Lippe, married Agnez Bosch, and died in Lipstadt, Germany, in 1575 at the age 65.
Agnez Bosch-Putman died in 1588.
They had at least two children: sons John and Abraham.
John was born in 1566, and Abraham was born in 1567 . . . Rutger would have been 56 and 57 years old, respectively, so there may have been a gap in this history.
John Putman studied theology while Abraham Putman studied law: Both left Germany because of the Reformation.
Little is known of Abraham except that he went to London, England, and left descendants there.
As far as we know this family did not use the given name "Victor" or the surname "Pootman".
The Dutch-American Pootman/Putman family only used the name Putman by the time of the American Revolutionary War.
John Putman married Matilda Meyer and died in 1658: Their sons wee Rutger and Abraham.
Rutger was pastor at Weerselo and Goor and married Joanna Van Den Burgh, and after their marriage Rutger was chaplain for the Landgraf of Hesse Cassel.
Later, Rutger settled in Dresden, Netherlands, and there was also Pastor.
Rutger became the pastor of Delden, Netherlands, in 1634 and stayed in Delden for 40 years.
Rutger had Sarah; John born in 1645; and Paul born in 1648.
Rutger Putman’s son John Putman who was born in 1645 has been identified with Johannes Pootman who immigrated to the New World about 1661; however, this seems incorrect, certainly.
This was simply a guess by many people in the 1900's who want to connect with the English sounding name Putman while the Dutch-American Putman family originally used the spelling Pootman.
Dutch families at this time and place named one sons after their father of father-in-laws and then grandfathers and grandfather-in-laws.
Johannes Pootman the imigrant ancestor of the Dutch-Amerian Pootman/Putman family named his first son Arent and his second son Victor.
Following sons were David and Cornelius.
These given names were not found in the naming patterns of the descendants of Rutgerus Putmans!
Certainly, the Dutch-American Pootman family did not descend from Rutgerus Putmanus.
Also, the coat of arms of the Rutgerus Putmanus family is not similar to reported Pootman/Putman coats of arms.
The following is a description of the Rutgerus Putmanus coat of arms:
Twee Wapens [The Coat of Arms]:
I. Drie putemmers, 2 en 1 [Coat of Arms: 3 buckets, 2 at the top and 1 at the bottom].
II. Sic Rutgere faces cum coninge prolegue chara [For Rutger, it seems to mean, countenance with a coronet. Preface, prologe, or crest?, a chare, or char, which is like a pike. ].
III. Sic Putman taces vox ubi clara tua [For Putman nothing shown to indicate renown].
IV. Sit nunc in tumulo mutum sine sanguine corpus [Layout now towards cover, crest?, mute, without, and red body].
V. Eschilarent animam gaudia nulta poli [Shield embellished with white].
The Belgium and Netherlands families that include the Pulleman, Putman, Poot, and Pootman families are described in a document at the following link. to simply that document, in Belgium and the Netherlands the surnam "Poot" often means planter or nurseryman.
The surname Pootman has also been suggested to mean nurseryman.
In Belgium and the Netherlands Pootman has also been said to be a form of poortman, or gateman.
In Germany, Pootman means well-, pond-, or poolman.
Since the Pootman DNA is close to the Vom Dem Brohl de Plater family of Westhemmerde, Germany, I would suggest that the Pootman surnam means poolman.
Forms of the name in Germany included: De Puteo, Van de Putte, Putte, Pott, Pote, Poet, Poot, and Puttmann, Poetmann, Pothman, and Pootmann.
Click the following link for information on the Belgium and Netherlands families: