Designed by Harriet Peck Jones, wife of founder and first Headmaster William E. Peck, Pomfret's Coat of Arms is derived from that of the Lords of Pontefract Castle in the town of Pomfret in West Yorkshire, England. In Elizabethan times, the castle and the surrounding medieval market town of Pontefract were referred to as "Pomfret". England's King Richard II died in the castle, by starvation or murder, and the castle has a significant role William Shakespeare's plays "The Life and Death of King Richard the Second", V.i, V.iii, and the penultimate scene V.v which is set entirely in Pomfret Castle; and "The Tragedy of King Richard the Third", II.iv, III.i, III.ii, III.iii, all set in Pomfret Castle, and V.iii.