The first quarter (dexter, or left upper quarter of the shield) bears the arms of Nassau, the House of Orange, and recognizes the Dutch settlers, who founded the college under the aegis of the Dutch Reformed Church.

The second quarter (sinister, or right upperquarter) includes the armorial devices of King George III combined with Queen Charlotte’s. George III granted the Charter of 1766 to Queen’s College, named in honor of Charlotte of Mecklenburg, his consort.  George III’s arms represent his dominions of England, Scotland, and Ireland; the two small escutcheons, centered, his ancestral right to bear the arms of Brunswick and Saxony. The crest, on the dexter small escutcheon, is the Crown of Charlemagne, which George III, as Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire, was entitled to show. The arms shown on the sinister half of this quarter are Queen Charlotte’s and represent the German states ruled by the House of Mecklenburg.

The third quarter, dexter, is the emblem from the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey, which Rutgers as the state university is entitled to show. Fittingly, the plows depicted also symbolize Rutgers’ designation as one of the original land-grant colleges.

The fourth quarter, sinister, is the Coat of Arms of Colonel Henry Rutgers, an early benefactor of Queen’s College, and descendant of Rutger Van Schoenderwoerdt, who settled in New York in the 17th century. The family name was changed to Rutgers in 1636, and the college was renamed in 1825 to honor Colonel Rutgers, as trustee and benefactor.

The shield includes Rutgers’ colors (scarlet-black) as one of the original nine colonial colleges.  The remaining colleges were likewise uniquely identified by colors in their university shields:  Brown (brown-white), Columbia (light blue-white), Dartmouth (green-white), Harvard (crimson-white), Pennsylvania (red-blue), Princeton (orange-black), William and Mary (green-gold-silver), and Yale (blue-white).

In honor of these symbols of the University’s heritage, The Queens Guard includes the crown of Queen Charlotte, the “1766” founding date and Rutgers colors in its identifying emblem.