Complex sentence: The town's arms are those formerly borne by the Counts of Gerolstein-Blankenheim, the former landholders, and are from as early as 1567 when they appeared in a seal used by the town's "Schöffen" (roughly "lay jurists").
Split into simpler sentences: The town's arms are actually those formerly borne by the Counts of Gerolstein-Blankenheim, the former landholders. The composition is known from 1567 when it appeared in a seal used by the town's "Schöffen" (roughly "lay jurists").