The true blazon of the former coat.
“Parad.Yes, it shall be amended, and your errour also corrected. Did you euer see a fret thus formed before (I mean nayled?) To correct your blazon, learne by this: Hee beareth Sable, a Musion, Or, oppressed with a Troillis G. cloué dargent; for this, which you call a fret, is a lattice, a thing well knowne to poore prisoners and distressed captiues, which are forced to receaue their breath from heauen at such holes for want of more pleasant windowes, &c.”
1590.
Sir William Segaris, I believe, the first of our heralds who published on the subject. His ‘Book of Honor and Armes,’ enlarged and republished in 1602, under the title of ‘Honor Military and Ciuill,’ relates as its designation implies, not to the art of blazon, but to dignities. His zeal for antiquity, like that of his contemporaries, outruns historical truth, as a proof of which it may be mentioned that he deduces the origin of knighthood from the fabulous Round Table of King Arthur. His work possesses, however, great merit, and exhibits much learning and profound research. Many of his unpublished MSS., genealogical and otherwise, are still extant.
Segar, who was of Dutch extraction, was bred a scrivener,and obtained his introduction to the College through the interest of Sir T. Heneage, vice-chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Here, at length, his talents raised him to the post of Garter, thene plus ultraof heraldic ambition. He died in 1633.
1592.
William Wyrley, author of ‘The Trve Vse of Armorie,’ is the next heraldric author who had any official connexion with the College of Arms, in which establishment he rose, however, no higher than the degree of a pursuivant. He was a gentleman by birth, a native of Staffordshire, and died in 1618. He did not confine his attention to heraldry, but studied antiquities at large: his collections he bequeathed to the College. The ‘Trve Vse,’ his only published work, is a scarce quarto of 162 pages, and is freer from the irrelevant rubbish which blemishes most of the treatises of this century than any one which preceded it, or any one which for a long time subsequently issued from the press. Sir W. Dugdale makes great use of this work in his ‘Ancient Usage of bearing Arms,’ 1681, and in return somewhat ungratefully, robs Wyrley of the honour of its authorship, ascribing it, upon hearsay evidence, to Sampson Erdeswicke, the historian of Staffordshire.
We now come to a name which has shed more lustre upon the office of the herald and the science of heraldry than any other our country has produced—that of the justly-celebratedWilliam Camden. Any biographical notice, however brief, of so eminent a personage seems almost uncalled for in these narrow pages. It will be sufficient, for the sake of uniformity, merely to mention a few particulars respecting him. This laborious antiquary and historian was born in London in 1551, and received his education first at Christ’s Hospital and St. Paul’s School, and afterwards atOxford. He quitted the University in 1570, and made the tour of England. At the early age of twenty-four he became second master of Westminster School; and while performing the duties of that office devoted his leisure to the study of British antiquities. Here, after ten years’ labour, he matured his great work, the ‘Britannia,’ which was first published in 1586. Four years previously to its publication he visited many of the eastern and northern counties, for the purpose of making a personal investigation of their antiquities. The ‘Britannia’ immediately brought him into notice, and he lived to enjoy the proud gratification of seeing it in its sixth edition. It was written in elegant Latin, and in that language passed through several of its earlier editions, the first English version having been made, probably with the author’s assistance, by Dr. Philemon Holland, in 1610. This great national performance, which Bishop Nicholson quaintly styles “the common sun whereat our modern writers have all lighted their little torches,” has been so highly esteemed in all subsequent times, that it has been many times reprinted. The last edition is the greatly enlarged one of Gough. In 1589 the bishop of Salisbury presented him with a prebend in his cathedral, which he retained till his death; and in 1597, the office of Clarenceux king of arms becoming vacant, he was advanced to that dignity.
After his establishment in the College he published several emended editions of The ‘Britannia,’ ‘The Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,’ ‘An Account of the celebrated Persons interred in Westminster Abbey,’ and that very interesting little volume, ‘Remaines concerning Britaine,’ which, as he tells us, was composed of the fragments of a projected work of greater extent, which his want of leisureprevented his executing. All these works, except the last, were written in Latin, a language for which he had so great a predilection, that he even compiled pedigrees in it. As an antiquary, Camden deserves the highest praise; as an historian, he is charged with partiality towards the character of the virgin queen; and as a herald, he was confessedly unequal to some of his contemporaries. In the latter capacity he was much indebted to Francis Thynne, or Botteville, Blanch Lion pursuivant, and afterwards Lancaster herald, of whom Anthony a Wood gives a high character. Camden was concerned with that delightful old chronicler, Holinshed, in the production of his famous work. He was mainly instrumental in the formation of the original Society of Antiquaries, whose discourses have been printed by Hearne. He was a great admirer of the father of English poetry, and contributed many additions to Speght’s edition of his works. He left many unpublished MSS. amongst which was a ‘Discourse of Armes,’ addressed to Lord Burghley. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at the village of Chislehurst, co. Kent, where he died in 1623, in the 73d year of his age.
Ralph Brooke, Rouge Croix pursuivant, and York herald, was contemporary with Camden and his violent adversary. His skill as a herald has rarely been questioned, but his whole career exhibits the character of a petulant, envious, mean, and dishonest person. He pretended to be a descendant of the antient family of Brooke of Cheshire; but it is unfortunate for his pretensions that his father’s name was not Brooke, butBrokesmouth. He was bred to the trade of a painter-stainer, and became free of that company in 1576. How he obtained his introduction to the College does not appear, though it is certain that it wouldhave been better, both for himself and that body, had he never entered it. Noble characterizes him as “so extremely worthless and perverse that his whole mind seemed bent to malice and wickedness:” unawed by virtue or by station, none were secure from his unmerited attacks. His enmity towards Camden arose out of the circumstance of the antiquary’s having been appointed, on the demise of Richard Lee, to the office of Clarenceux, to which, from a long connexion with the College, and greater professional knowledge, he considered himself entitled; and it is but justice to admit that he certainly had some ground for complaint, though the mode in which he chose to give vent to his spleen cannot be defended. Camden’s great work, the ‘Britannia,’ had passed through several editions unimpeached as to its general accuracy, when Brooke endeavoured to bring its well-deserved popularity into contempt by a work entitled ‘A Discoverie of certaine Errours published in print in the much-commended Britannia,’ a production overflowing with personal invective. To this spiteful book Camden replied in Latin, treating his opponent with the scorn he deserved, exposing his illiteracy, and at the same time adroitly waiving such of the charges as were really well founded. Never was reviewer more severely reviewed. ‘A second Discoverie of Errours’ followed, and, as it remained unanswered, Brooke might in some sort have claimed a triumph, particularly as Camden, recognizing the maxim “Fas est ab hoste doceri,” availed himself, in the subsequent editions of the ‘Britannia,’ of his adversary’s corrections.
In 1619 Brooke published a ‘Catalogue and Succession of Kings, Princes, and Nobilitie since the Norman Conquest,’ a work of considerable merit, though it did not escape censure, for Vincent, Rouge Croix, an adherent of Camden, ina ‘Discovery of Errors,’ printed three years afterwards, controverted many of its statements. Brooke still continued his paltry and litigious proceedings, and was twice suspended from his office; and it was even attempted to expel him from the College.[292]He closed his unenviable life in 1625, and was buried in the twin-towered church of Reculver, co. Kent, where a mural monument informs us that
“quit of worldly miseries,Ralph Brooke, Esq., late York herald, lies.Fifteenth October he was last alive,One thousand six hundred and twenty-fiveSeaventy three years bore he fortune’s harmes,And forty-five an officer of armes,” &c.
Robert Glover, Somerset, temp. Elizabeth, wrote a treatise entitled ‘Nobilitas Politica vel Civilis,’ which was posthumously published in 1608, the author having died in 1588. He was a most learned and industrious herald, and his authority in genealogy and heraldry is much relied on by the officers of arms of the present day. His MSS. are in the library of the College.
In 1610 appeared ‘The Catalogue of Honour, or Treasury of true Nobility peculiar and proper to the Isle of Great Britaine,’ by Thomas Milles, esq. of Davington-hall, co. Kent. This large folio of eleven hundred pages is professedly a compilation from the MSS. of Glover, to whom Mr. Milles was nephew; and although reliance is not to be placed upon all its statements, it constitutes a remarkable monument of the persevering labour and research of that herald.
Edmund Bolton, a retainer of Villiers, duke of Buckingham, was author of several works. His principal heraldric composition is a small volume entitled the ‘Elements of Armouries,’ to which are prefixed commendatory epistles by Segar and Camden, honourable testimonies of its merit. In his remarks upon the lines of partition, &c. he displays more geometrical than heraldric knowledge. His religious opinions are discovered by his wish for a new crusade. His style is highly pedantic, and the reader would scarcely thank me for a specimen.
John Guillim(Rouge Dragon pursuivant in 1617, in which office he died in 1621,) was of Welsh extraction, and a native of Herefordshire. His ‘Display of Heraldrie,’ one of the most popular of heraldric treatises, has passed through numerous editions. Anthony a Wood asserts that the real author of it was John Barkham, rector of Bocking in Kent,who composed it in the early part of his life, and afterwards thinking it somewhat inconsistent with his profession to publish a work on arms, communicated the manuscript to Guillim, who gave it to the world with his own name. What authority Wood had for this assertion does not appear, but from the erudition displayed in the work, it is evidently not the production of a very young man; and besides this, in the dedication to the king, Guillim himself does not hesitate to claim the merit of originality, for he says “I am the first who brought a method into this heroic art.” It is remarkable that three of the most celebrated books on our science, namely those of Dame J. Berners, William Wyrley, and John Guillim, should have been ascribed to other parties than those under whose names they have gone forth to the world. The highly complimentary verses prefixed to this volume by Guillim’s seniors in office can hardly be supposed to have been written to sanction a fiction in allowing him the merit of another’s labours.[293]The eulogium of one G. Belcher not only commends the work in the highest terms, but, after enumerating the several authors who had written on the same subject, namely Wynkenthewordius,[294]Leghus, Boswell, Fernus, and Wyrleius, adds
“At tu præ cæterisGuillime.”
The ‘Display’ may fairly claim to be considered the first methodical and intelligent view of heraldry published in England; and the addition of the name of the family to every coat of arms cited as an example (which in all earlier treatises is wanting) has conduced as much as its intrinsic merit to give to Guillim’s book the popularity it enjoys.[295]
Henry Peacham(whose name is more familiar to the non-heraldric reader than those of most other armorists of early date, in consequence of Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, referring exclusively to him as an authority for terms of blazonry,) wrote ‘The Compleat Gentleman,’ which professes to treat of every necessary accomplishment befitting that character, and of course, among other things, “of armorie or the blazon of armes.” The 13th chapter, devoted to this subject, is a compendious and scientific production. ‘The Compleat Gentleman’ was one of the most popular books of its time, and between 1622 and 1661 passed through six editions. In 1630 Peacham published another work called ‘The Gentleman’s Exercise, or an exquisite practise as well for drawing all manner of beasts in their true portraitures, as also the making of all kinds of colours to be used in lymming, painting, tricking and blazon of coates and armes, with diuers others most delightfull and pleasurable obseruations for all yong Gentlemen and others.’
The twoMarkhams, Gervase and Francis, were brothers, and flourished in the early part of this century. The former republished the Boke of St. Albans, under the title of ‘The Gentleman’s Academy;’ and the latter wrote a ‘Booke of Honour,’ one of the dullest of books upon a very dull subject.
The ‘Titles of Honour’ of the celebratedSeldendemands for him a place among heraldric authors.[296]
Hitherto, a review of our sixteenth and seventeenth century armorists presents us with the names of men of erudition or of professional heralds, but another class of authors now occasionally demands, each in his turn, a passing remark. This is composed of the persons, who, possessed of few qualifications beyond a knowledge of the technicalities of blazon and an ardent zeal in the pursuit, have ventured to add to the already extensive stock of heraldric lore. The earliest writer of the class alluded to isJames Yorke, the Blacksmith of Lincoln, who in 1640 published ‘The Union of Honovr,’ containing the arms, matches, and descents of the nobility from the Conquest. Appended to it are the arms of the gentry of Lincolnshire, and an account of all the battles fought by the English. It is dedicated to Charles I; and there is also an epistle dedicatory to Henry, son and heir of Thomas, earl of Arundel, earl-marshal, in which Yorke very candidly avows his lack of erudition. “My education,” says he, “hath made me but just so much a Scholler as to feele and know my want of learning.” He hopes, however, that his noble patron will find the work “decent.” “I undertooke it not for vaine-glory, nor assume the credit of mine authours to my selfe, onely am proud nature inclin’d me to so Noble a study:long was I forging and hammering it to this perfection, and now present it to your Lordship, as amaster-piece, not yet matched by any of my trade.” In his address to the courteous reader he expresses his apprehensions that “some willsmutchhis labours with a scorne of his profession.” There was, however, little to fear on this head, for the book is really a very ‘decent’ production.
Fuller includes Yorke among the ‘Worthies’ of Lincolnshire, and gives the following quaint account of him and his work:—“James Yorke, a blacksmith of Lincoln, and an excellent workman in his profession, insomuch that if Pegasus himself would wear shoes, this man alone is fit to make them, contriving them so thin and light, as that they would be no burden to him. But he is a servant as well of Apollo as Vulcan, turning his Stiddy into a Study, having lately set forth a Book of Heraldry, called theUnion of Honour, &c.and although there be some mistakes (no hand so steady as alwaysto hit the nail on the head) yet it is of singular use, and industriously performed, being set forthanno1640.”
The plain common-sense of our unlettered blacksmith presents a singular contrast to the inflated and bombastic style ofEdward Waterhouse, a gentleman, and a man of education, who, twenty years later, published ‘A Discourse and Defense of Armory.’ Anthony a Wood speaks of this writer and of his works in terms of the highest contempt, characterizing the former as “a cock-brained man,” and the latter as “rhapsodical, indigested and whimsical.” Dallaway says, “The most severe satyrist whose intention might be to bring the study of heraldry into contempt could not have succeeded better than this author, who strove to render it fashionable by connecting it with the most crude conceits and endless absurdities.” Waterhouse is supposed to have contributed the principal portion of the two works published under the name ofSylvanus Morgan, an arms-painter of London.
The character of this last-named author must have been already inferred from the quotations I have made from his works. The ponderous volume, entitled ‘The Sphere of Gentry,’ and its successor, ‘Armilogia, or the Language ofArmes,’ may be safely pronounced two of the most absurd productions of the English press. That the former contains much useful information is proved by the eagerness with which it is sought after in the formation of an heraldrical library; but this is so overlaid with crude, unconnected, and irrelevant jargon, that although I have had the volume many times upon my table, I never could muster the patience to read three consecutive pages of it. Of the ‘Armilogia,’ we are told on the title-page that it is “a work never yet extant!” This volume has the imprimatur of Sir E. Walker and Sir W. Dugdale, kings of arms; but, singularly enough, the terms of the license are so disparaging that the printer has very judiciously placed it on the last page; for had it been on the first, nojudiciousreader would have proceeded beyond it. “In this book are such strange conceits and wild fancies, that I do not know of what advantage the printing of it can be to any that soberly desires to be instructed in the true knowledge of arms,”—is one of the severe things said of it by Dugdale.
Morgan died in 1693, at the age of 73. He seems to have been countenanced by the members of the College of Arms. Gibbon, Bluemantle, who knew him well, describes him as “a witty man, full of fancy [too full], very agreeable company ... and the prince of arms-painters.”[297]
Almost equal to Camden, in a literary point of view, and perhaps his superior in his qualifications as a herald, stands the name ofSir William Dugdale. Independently of his great works, ‘The Baronage of England,’ and the ‘Monasticon,’ his ‘Antiquities of Warwickshire,’ and ‘History of St. Paul’s Cathedral,’ would have served to hand down his name to posterity among the literary worthies of hiscountry. Sir William died in 1685, at the age of 80 years, nearly thirty-two of which he was a member of the College of Arms, having passed through all the gradations of office to the post of Garter, king of arms. It would be supererogatory, even if I had space, to give the simplest outline of his life, by no means an uneventful one; as his memoirs have been often written, and are accessible to every reader.
Elias Ashmole(1617-1692), the friend and son-in-law of Dugdale, was the son of a tradesman of Litchfield. His talents, which were of the most versatile order,[298]raised him into notice and procured him many offices of honour and trust, among which was that of Windsor herald. This situation he obtained at the restoration of Charles II, and resigned, from motives of jealousy, in 1676. His great work is the ‘History of the Order of the Garter.’ He was an eminent collector of rarities, and founded the Museum at Oxford which bears his name.
Francis Sandford, Esq., Lancaster, published, besides several other works of great value, ‘A Genealogical History of the Kings of England,’ one of the most lordly tomes that ever appeared in connexion with our subject. It was originally published in 1677, and was reprinted in 1707. It is well executed, and Charles II pronounced it “a very useful book.” The fine plates, by Hollar and others, of the royal arms, seals, and monuments, with which it is embellished, give it charms to a larger circle than that which includes the mere students of heraldry.
In 1688 appeared decidedly the most curious heraldrictreatise ever printed. I mean Randle Holme’s ‘Academie of Armory, or a Storehouse of Armory and Blazon.’ Mr. Moule characterizes it as “a most heterogeneous and extraordinary composition, which may be well denominated a Pantalogia. The author was not a learned man, nor has he adopted any systematic arrangement of its multifarious contents, but he has contrived to amass in thisstorehousea vast fund of curious information upon every branch of human knowledge, such as is not to be found in any other work, and of a nature peculiarly adapted to the illustration of the manners and customs of our predecessors, from the highest rank to the lowest menial.”
It is one of the scarcest of books, there being, according to Mr. Moule, not more than fifty copies in the kingdom.
It will be interesting to the general reader to know that “Dr. Johnson confessed, with much candour, that the Address to the Reader at the end of this book suggested the idea of his own inimitable preface to his Dictionary.”[299]
The volume, a large folio, is illustrated by numerous plates of objects borne as charges in arms, as well as many that never entered the field of heraldry. “The author’s object,” says Mr. Ormerod, “appears to have been the formation of a kind of encyclopædia in an heraldic form.”[300]To give the merest outline of the subjects treated would occupy many pages; suffice it to say that every imaginable created being, spiritual and corporeal; every science and pseudo-science; every gradation of rank, from the ‘emperour’ with the ceremonies of his coronation, to the butcher and barber, with the implements of their trades; hunters’ termsand the seven deadly sins; palmistry and the seven cardinal virtues; grammar and cockfighting; poverty and the sybils; an essay on time, and bricklayers’ tools; glass-painting and billiards; architecture and wrestling; languages and surgery; tennis and theology, all find a place in this compendium, and are all adorned with “very proper cuts,” in copper.
I have had the good fortune to procure a copy of this amusing work. It has, opposite the title, an engraving containing the external ornaments of a coat of arms, the coat and crest being neatly inserted in pen-drawing. Beneath is the following in letter-press, except the line in italics, which is MS.:
“The Coat and Crest ofThe ever Honoured and Highly EsteemedSr. James Poole of Poole, Baronett:To whom this First Volume of the Book EntituledThe Academy of Armory is most humbly Dedicatedand presented, from him who is devoted yoursRandle Holme.”
This was probably a compliment paid to every subscriber, and it displays, as Mr. Moule observes, the finest illustration extant of the “œconomy of flattery.”
The following extract will give an idea of a large proportion of the contents of this famous ‘Storehouse,’ which, like many other storehouses, holds much that is of very little value. Honest Randle blazons one of his fictitious bearings for the purpose of introducing the names of the implements and terms employed by that useful personage the barber.
“LVII. He beareth Argent aBarber bare headed, with apair of Cisersin his right hand, and aCombin his left,cloathedin Russet, hisApron Chequéof the first and Azure, &c.
“Instruments of a Barber.The instrument case, in which are placed these following things in their several divisions:The glass or seeing glass.A set of horn combs, with teeth on one side, and wide.A set of ivory combs with fine teeth, and toothed on both sides.An ivory beard comb.A four square bottle with a screw’d head for sweet water, or Benjamin water, &c.The like bottle with sweet powder in; but this is now not used.A row of razors, &c. &c.”
“Instruments of a Barber.
The instrument case, in which are placed these following things in their several divisions:
The glass or seeing glass.
A set of horn combs, with teeth on one side, and wide.
A set of ivory combs with fine teeth, and toothed on both sides.
An ivory beard comb.
A four square bottle with a screw’d head for sweet water, or Benjamin water, &c.
The like bottle with sweet powder in; but this is now not used.
A row of razors, &c. &c.”
Then follow
“Terms or Artused in Barbing and Shaving(!!!)Take the chair, is for the person to be trimmed to sit down.Clear the neck, is to unbutton and turn down the collar of the man’s neck.Cloath him, is to put a trimming cloth before him, and to fasten it about his neck.Powder the hair, is to puff sweet powder into it.Walk your combs, is to use two combs, in each hand one, and so comb the hair with one after the other.Quever the combs, is to use them as if they were scratting on each side the temples.Curle up the hair, is to rowle it about a pair of curling or beard irons, and thrust it under the cap.Lather the face, is to wash the beard with the suds which the ball maketh by chaffing it in the warm water.Hand the razor, set it in a right order between the thumb and fingers.Shave the beard, is to take off superfluous hairs.Hold him the glass, to see his new made face, and to give the barber instruction where it is amiss.Take off the linnens.Brush his cloaths.Present him with his hat, and according to his hire, he makes a bow, with your humble servant, Sir.”[301].
“Terms or Artused in Barbing and Shaving(!!!)
Take the chair, is for the person to be trimmed to sit down.
Clear the neck, is to unbutton and turn down the collar of the man’s neck.
Cloath him, is to put a trimming cloth before him, and to fasten it about his neck.
Powder the hair, is to puff sweet powder into it.
Walk your combs, is to use two combs, in each hand one, and so comb the hair with one after the other.
Quever the combs, is to use them as if they were scratting on each side the temples.
Curle up the hair, is to rowle it about a pair of curling or beard irons, and thrust it under the cap.
Lather the face, is to wash the beard with the suds which the ball maketh by chaffing it in the warm water.
Hand the razor, set it in a right order between the thumb and fingers.
Shave the beard, is to take off superfluous hairs.
Hold him the glass, to see his new made face, and to give the barber instruction where it is amiss.
Take off the linnens.
Brush his cloaths.
Present him with his hat, and according to his hire, he makes a bow, with your humble servant, Sir.”[301].
But, although the ‘Academy of Armory’ abounds in passages equally useless and totally irrelevant of the subject of arms, it must be acknowledged to contain a great body of information which, at a time when Encyclopædias were unknown, must have been of considerable utility.[302]
Alexander Nisbet, Gent. appears at the beginning of the 18th century as an heraldric writer. In 1702 he published ‘An Essay on Additional Figures and Marks of Cadency;’ in 1718, ‘An Essay on the Ancient and Modern Use of Armories;’ and in 1722, ‘A System of Heraldry,’ which are all characterized by great intelligence and research. In the preface to his ‘System’ he tells us, in a style bordering upon the egotistical, yet in perfect accordance with truth, “Though I have not been able to overtake some things in the system of Heraldry as I first intended, yet I have explained the true art of Blazon in a more ample, regular, and distinct manner than anything I have ever yet seen on the subject.”
Nisbet’s illustrations are principally drawn from Scottish heraldry, and he must be acknowledged to occupy a very high, if not the first, place among his countrymen in this department of literature.
John Anstis, a gentleman of fortune, was born at St. Neot’s, co. Cornwall. He sat for St. Germains in the first parliament of Queen Anne, and was afterwards elected for Launceston. He was a strenuous Tory, and, being attached to heraldrical pursuits, obtained a reversionary patent for the office of Garter, king of arms. On the accession of George I, he was imprisoned under the suspicion of a design to restore the Stuarts. At this critical time the office of Garter becoming vacant, he petitioned for it in 1717, and received his appointment the following year. He wrote many works relating to heraldry, and edited ‘The Register of the Garter,’ with an introduction and notes. “In him,” says Noble, “were joined the learning of Camden, and the industry, without the inaccuracy, of Dugdale; he was a most indefatigable and able Herald, and though he lived to the age of seventy-six, yet we wonder at the greatness of his productions.”[303]He died in 1744.
Glover, Brooke, Vincent, Dugdale, and others had long since paid much attention to the genealogy of the noble families of this country, whenArthur Collins, Esq. projected a more complete account of existing houses in his afterwards celebrated ‘Peerage.’ This work, which first appeared in 1709 in a single octavo of 470 pages, was augmented in successive editions, until the last, edited by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1812, reached the goodly number of nine volumes. This work is too well known to require theslightest eulogium. In 1720 he published the first edition of his valuable ‘Baronetage,’ and subsequently one volume of a ‘Baronage,’ and several independent family histories. Upon the whole, Collins was one of the most laborious of writers; and none but those who have paid some attention to the construction of genealogies can fully appreciate his industry and research. Collins was born in 1682, and died in 1760.
The reigns of the first two Georges produced many other writers on subjects connected with heraldry and titular honours, including (I) Kent and Coats, and (II) Crawfurd on the ‘Peerage of Scotland,’ Wotton on the ‘English Baronetage,’ the learned Madox on ‘Land-honours and Baronies,’ and the indefatigableMr. Salmon. During the same period also appeared innumerable volumes on the genealogies of our royal and noble families.
Joseph Edmondson, F.S.A. (author of ‘Baronagium Genealogicum,’ 1764, and ‘A Complete Body of Heraldry,’ 1780,) was of humble parentage. Becoming a herald-painter, that pursuit led his naturally inquisitive genius to the study of heraldry and family history, and the two works referred to are sufficient monuments of his assiduity in both. His merits raised him to the office of Mowbray Herald Extraordinary, but even after his appointment to that honour, he continued his business as a coach-painter, thus uniting the seemingly discordant avocations, science and trade. He died in 1786. The ‘Baronagium’ consists of five folio volumes, and contains the pedigrees of the peers, originally drawn up by Sir W. Segar, enlarged and continued to 1764. The ‘Complete Body’ is in two volumes folio, and must be regarded as the great standard work on the subject of English heraldry. It contains numerous dissertations onthe origin and history of the science, on the great offices of state, on the heralds, on knighthood, on the arms of corporate bodies, on blazon in all its departments, an alphabet of 50,000 coats of arms, and various other interesting matters. The celebrated Sir Joseph Ayloffe assisted the author in both these works. Edmondson possessed what was somewhat rare in his day—good tasteon the subject of blazon. He animadverts with becoming asperity on the ridiculous landscape-painting which disfigures some modern arms and augmentations, and justly remarks that the “several charges they contain, puts it out of the power of a very good herald to draw new arms from their blazons.” On the subject of crests he adds, “Crests are objects intended to strike the beholder at a distance,” and then produces the instance of a crest lately granted to the family of Titlow: “a book, on the book a silver penny! and on the penny the Lord’s Prayer!! and on the top of the book a dove, holding in its beak a crow-quill pen!!!”[304]
Francis Grose, Esq., F.S.A., held the office of Richmond herald, but resigned it in 1763 to become paymaster of the Hampshire militia. His numerous antiquarian works are well known; but I am not aware that he contributed anything towards the advancement of heraldric literature.
Ralph Bigland, Esq., Somerset, and at length Garter, published in 1764 a very curious and useful book on Parochial Registers. He made large collections for a History of Gloucestershire, which were posthumously published by his son. He died in 1784.
The Rev.James Dallaway, A.M. F.S.A., &c. obtained a well-deserved celebrity as the author of ‘Inquiries into theOrigin and Progress of Heraldry in England,’ published in 1793. This learned and elegant work traces the history of our science from its source in the feudal ages to his own times; and has the merit of having made attractive to the general reader a subject from which he had hitherto turned away in disgust. Moule compares its style to that of Tacitus. A new edition, with additional literary illustrations and more appropriate embellishments, appears to me to be a desideratum.
The Rev.Mark Noble, F.S.A., rector of Barming, co. Kent, wrote, besides several other works, ‘Memoirs of the House of Cromwell,’ and ‘A History of the College of Arms,’ with lives of all the officers from Richard III to the year 1805. The value of the latter production is generally acknowledged, though Mr. Moule accuses the author of partiality in the biographical department. To this work I am under great obligations, particularly for many of the materials of Chapter XI of this volume.
Thomas Brydson, F.S.A., Edinburgh, published in 1795 ‘A Summary View of Heraldry, in reference to the usages of chivalry and the general economy of the feudal system,’—an agreeable and intelligent work, which will be read with much interest by those who study our sciencehistorically. About the same time, a lady—for the first time I think since the days of Dame Julyan Berners—makes her appearance in the field of heraldric literature: ‘Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry, by a Lady.’ This work, which was published at Worcester, is generally attributed to a Mrs. Dobson, and abounds with curious information relative to the acquisition of particular coats of arms.[305]
Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart., wrote several works on the peerage, particularly ‘A Biographical Peerage of Great Britain,’ and edited Collins’s voluminous and popular work.
The anonymous volume on the ‘Historical and Allusive Arms’ of British Families, noticed at page 162, is ascribed to Colonel De la Motte. It appeared in 1803.
The Rev.W. Betham, of Stonham-Aspall, Suffolk, published ‘Genealogical Tables’ of the sovereigns of the world, and an elaborate ‘Baronetage,’ in five volumes, 4to, (1805.)T. C. Banks, Esq., between 1807 and 1816, produced several works of great importance, particularly ‘The Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England,’ an elaborate and spiritedly-written work. In 1809 appeared that most voluminous work, ‘British Family Antiquity,’ a genealogical view of the titled classes of the United Kingdom, in nine vols. 4to, byW. Playfair, Esq.Joseph Haslewood, Esq., celebrated for his vast bibliographical knowledge, reprinted in 1810 the treatises on hawking, hunting, coat-armour, &c., known as the ‘Boke of St. Albans,’ from the edition of W. de Worde, 1496. Mr. Haslewood’s edition is printed in black letter with fac-simile cuts, and is designated by Mr. Moule “one of the choicest specimens of printing which have issued from the modern press.” Mr.W. Berry, the compiler of several minor works, published in 1825, and following years, his‘Encyclopædia Heraldica,’ 4 vols. 4to, including dictionaries of the technical terms of heraldry and of family bearings. Of the latter there are 90,000 examples. Mr. Berry has subsequently published a series of volumes containing tabular pedigrees of the principal families (contributed in part by the resident gentry) of Kent, Sussex, Hants, Surrey, Bucks, Berks, Essex, and Herts, under the general title of ‘County Genealogies.’ Some severe criticisms on one of the early volumes of this work, in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ induced the editor to commence proceedings in the Court of King’s Bench against the conductor of that periodical for a libel. In 1830 appeared another large compilation, entitled Robson’s ‘British Herald.’ It was published at Sunderland, in three vols. 4to. It contains the arms of many of the gentry of Scotland and the Northern Counties of England, which are not to be found in any previous work. In 1822,Thomas Moule, Esq., published ‘Bibliotheca Heraldica,’ a catalogue of all the works that have appeared on heraldry and kindred subjects in this country. To this highly useful publication I am greatly indebted. In 1842 Mr. Moule published a beautiful and interesting volume entitled ‘The Heraldry of Fish,’ containing notices of all the charges “with fin or shell” which occur in the arms of English families, with excellent illustrations on wood.
“Within the last twenty years,” observes Mr. Montagu, “there have been published some of the very best works that have ever appeared, connected with the subject of heraldry, and its kindred science, genealogy.” I much regret my inability to do justice to living and to recently deceased authors in this department of literary effort. In this book-teeming age it would be laborious merely to name all the persons who have written on the subject within thelast few years. It will suffice for my purpose to mention some of those who standpræ cæteris, either in the intrinsic merit or the magnitude of their productions.
Sir Harris Nicolashas rendered essential service to the heraldric student by the publication of several rolls of arms of early date and unquestionable authenticity; namely, those of temp. Henry III, Edw. I (Carlaverok), Edw. II, and Edw. III; and a splendid ‘History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire,’ in four 4to volumes. The lateG. F. Beltz, Esq., Lancaster Herald, a gentleman of extensive antiquarian research, published an interesting work, entitled ‘Memorials of the Order of the Garter.’
Thomas Willement, Esq. who combines with the research of the antiquary the skill of the artist, has produced, ‘Regal Heraldry,’ ‘Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral,’ and some additional rolls of arms, viz. temp. Rich. II and Hen. VIII. Mr.Montagu’s‘Guide to the Study of Heraldry,’ evinces a profound knowledge of the subject, and is elegantly written.
In addition to these works of general reference, several volumes of great local interest have appeared, particularly several county visitations; among which may be noticed the Visitations of Durham, 1575 and 1615; the former edited by N. J. Philipson, Esq., F.S.A., and the latter by Sir Cuthbert Sharp and J. B. Taylor, Esq.; and Middlesex, 1663, printed at the expense of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. Sir Thomas has also printed, at his own press at Middle Hill, those of Wiltshire, 1623; Somersetshire, 1623; and Cambridgeshire, 1619.
In the genealogical department two classes of works of modern date possess great value, namely,County Histories, such as Baker’s Northamptonshire, Surtees’s Durham,Clutterbuck’s Hertfordshire, and Ormerod’s Cheshire; andFamily Histories, of which Rowland’s History of the House of Neville, and Shirley’s ‘Stemmata Shirleiana,’ are splendid examples. Mr. Drummond’s ‘Histories of Noble Families’ bids fair to do honour to the author, the subject, and the age. That the Messrs. Burke are indefatigable in the heraldric field, their Existing and Extinct Peerages, Baronetages, ‘History of the Landed Gentry,’ ‘General Armory,’ &c. give ample proof. Of other books of reference relating to the titled orders, the press is annually pouring out a quantity which sufficiently proves the estimation in which the aristocracy of this country is held. In fine, the ‘Archæologia,’ the ‘Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,’ and that veteran periodical, the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ contain innumerable papers of great interest and value to the student of genealogy.
Genealogy.
“I must not give up my attachment to Genealogy, and everything relating to it, because it is the greatest spur to noble and gallant actions.”Rev. Mark Noble.“It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay; or to see a fair timber-tree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient noble Family which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time?”Bacon. Of Nobility.
“I must not give up my attachment to Genealogy, and everything relating to it, because it is the greatest spur to noble and gallant actions.”
Rev. Mark Noble.
“It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay; or to see a fair timber-tree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient noble Family which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time?”
Bacon. Of Nobility.
A passionfor deducing a descent from the most remote progenitor of a family appears to be inherent in mankind; for we trace its existence in all ages, and in almost every state of society. The Hebrews, the oldest historical people in the world, entertained this feeling in a degree perhaps unparalleled in any nation. The Egyptians, Greeks, Scythians, Phrygians, and Romans claimed a very high, though probably a very much exaggerated, antiquity. Alexander claimed descent from Jupiter Ammon; Cæsar’s pedigree was traced without an hiatus to Venus; Arthur’s to Brutus; Hengist’s to Woden! The English peer views with complacency the muster-roll of departed generations, which connects him with Charlemagne or the Plantagenets. The democraticAmerican is proud if perchance he bears the name of a stock renowned in the annals of Fatherland; and even the plebeian Berkeley or Neville of busy London walks a little more erect as he tells you that his great-grandfather came from the same county where dwells the coronetted aristocrat who bears his patronymic! The love of a distinguished ancestry is universal.
The credibility of genealogy depends, like that of every thing else, upon the nature of the evidence by which it is supported. I have met with persons who could not trace their lineage beyond their grandfather; but such instances are rare; for the oral traditions of a family, even in middle life, generally ascend to about the fifth generation, or a century and a half: beyond that all is obscurity. If we go to documents, such as parish registers, monumental inscriptions, and court-rolls, numerous families may be traced 300 years with absolute certainty. An hereditary title or an entailed patrimony carries families of higher pretensions still further; and antient wills, genealogical tables, and the public records lead an exclusive few back to the glorious days of Cressy, to the Norman Conquest, or even to the times of the Edreds and the Edwys. That this antiquity is of the utmost rarity will appear from the data given below.
“At present,” observes Mr. Grimaldi,[306]“there are few English families who pretend to a higher antiquity than the Norman Invasion; and it is probable that not many of these can authenticate their pretensions.” The claim to such an honour, as has just been intimated, is well founded in some families. The Ashburnham pedigree, for instance, is carried two generations higher than 1066; and the family stillreside on the spot from whence, at the commencement of the eleventh century, their great ancestor derived his surname. The Shirleys have dwelt upon their estate of Lower Eatington, co. Warwick, uninterruptedly for eight centuries from the time of Edward the Confessor. In Collins’s Peerage (edit. Brydges[307]) there is an abstract of the antiquity of the nobility, from which it appears that out of the 249 peers, 35 could trace their descent beyond the Conquest:
Mr. Grimaldi has ably illustrated the sources from which, and from which only, the genealogies of English families can be derived, in his ‘Origines Genealogicæ,’ and any one who will take the pains to consult that curious work may easily convince himself of the futility of attempting to trace pedigrees beyond the periods adverted to. Yet there was a time when the most ridiculous notions prevailed respecting the antiquity of some of our great houses. The royal family were traced in a direct line to the fabulous Brutus, a thousand years before the Christian era; the Cecils pretended to be of Roman origin, and the house of Vaux deduced themselves from the kings of the Visigoths. Many Welsh families went farther, and carried up their pedigree as far as it could wellbe carried, namely, to Adam! The Scottish and Irish families pretended to an equal antiquity. This taste in the nations descending from a common Celtic stock was probably derived from the bards of antient times, whose office consisted in the recital of the heroic deeds of mighty ancestors. The splendid history of the family of Grace, drawn from a great variety of antient sources, by Sheffield Grace, Esq., F.S.A., contains some of the finest possible specimens of fictitious genealogy. The family is traced, in the male line, to the time of Alfred, and through some female lines to the founder of the human race himself. The pedigree of O’More begins with “God the Father, &c., who was from all eternity [and who] did, in the beginning of time, of nothing create red earth, and of red earth framed Adam, and of a rib out of the side of Adam fashioned Eve; after which creation, plasmatation and formation succeeded generation.” The pedigree is regularly deduced through Adam, Noah, Nilus, and the kings of Scythia to Milesius, who conquered Spain and settled in Ireland. Thence through Cu Chogry O’More, king of Seix, and McMurrough, king of Leinster, in the time of our Henry II, to Anthony O’More, dynast or sovereign of Seix, whose daughter married Sir Oliver Grace about the year 1450!
Considering the vast number of individuals who in the course of a few ages proceed from a common parent, and taking into account the mutations to which families are subject, it is not surprising that the “high” are often found to be “descended from the low, and, contrariwise, the low from the high.” I know a comparatively obscure country gentleman who can (by the most undeniable evidences) prove his descent through three different lines from William the Conqueror, and consequently from the Northman Rollo,the founder of the duchy of Normandy in the tenth century. Two hundred years ago we find some descendants of the line of the Paleologi, emperors of the East, residing in privacy in the little village of Landulph, in Cornwall. In the church of that place there is a small monument to the memory of “Theodoro Paleologus, of Pesaro in Italye, descended from yeimperial line of yelate Christian emperors of Greece, being the sonne of Camilio, the son of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of John, yesonne of Thomas, second brother of Constantine Paleologus, the 8th of that name, and last of ytline ytrayned in Constantinople until subdved by the Turks; who married wt. Mary, yedaughter of William Balls, of Hadlye in Souffolke, Gent., and had issue 5 children, Theodoro, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy, and departed this life at Clyfton, ye21st. of Janu. 1636.” Some female descendants of this individual married persons of humble condition in the immediate vicinity of Landulph, and hence, as Mr. Gilbert observes, the imperial blood may still flow in the veins of the bargemen of Cargreen![308]On the other hand, many of our peers descend from tradesmen, and other persons of plebeian condition. Not to meddle with the pedigrees of some of ourNovi Domini, the earl of Dartmouth descends from a worthy London skinner of the fourteenth century; the earl of Coventry from a mercer of the fifteenth; and Lord Dudley from a goldsmith of the seventeenth.
“Genealogy,” says Sir Egerton Brydges, “is of little value, unless it discloses matter which teaches the causes of the decay or prosperity of families, and furnishes a lesson of moral wisdom for the direction of those who succeed. Whenwe reflect how soon the fortunes of a house are ruined, not only by vice or folly, but by the least deficience in that cold prudence with which highly endowed minds are so seldom gifted, the long continuance of any race of nobility or gentry seems to take place almost in defiance of probabilities.”[309]
Persons not conversant with antiquarian researches often express surprise at the possibility of tracing the annals of a family through the long period of five, six, or seven centuries. It may therefore be interesting to mention the principal sources from which genealogical materials are derived.
1. The several records which go under the general name ofDoomsday Booksconstitute, collectively, one of the most valuable monuments possessed by any nation. They contain the name of every landowner, with the value of his estate, and frequently refer to earlier proprietors antecedently to the Conquest. The ‘Great Doomsday Book’ in the Chapter House, the ‘Exon Doomsday,’ and the ‘Inquisitio Eliensis,’ were compiled between 1066 and 1086; the ‘Winton Doomsday,’ temp. Hen. I; and the ‘Boldon Book’ in 1183. 2. The next documents in point of antiquity areMonastic Records, such as Chartularies, Leiger-Books, Chronicles, Obituaries, Registers of Marriages and Burials, and Abbey Rolls. These usually contain much information for the genealogist, particularly in relation to the founders and benefactors of the respective establishments. Of Abbey Rolls the ‘Roll of Battel Abbey’ is an eminent example. Its authenticity, however, is extremely doubtful, and we have the authority of Camden for declaring that, “Whosoever considereth it well shall find it always to be forged.”[310]
It has been asserted that many records of great value were destroyed at the dissolution of the religious houses, and there is probably truth in the allegation; for John Bale, a contemporary observer, writes, that the library books of [some of] the monasteries were reserved by the purchasers of those houses to scour their candlesticks, to rub their boots, and even for still viler uses. Some again, he says, were sold to grocers and soap-sellers, or sent over sea to the book-binders. A merchant bought two noble libraries for forty shillings. Peacham, in his ‘Compleat Gentleman,’[311]and several other authors declare that Polydore Vergil, the historian,burntmany of the best and most antient records he could find in the conventual and cathedral libraries;[312]but the learned Italian has been most ably defended against this heavy charge.[313]3.Antient Chartersand Deeds transferring lands, &c. are most excellent authorities for genealogical particulars. Such documents are immensely numerous. By series of these in the muniment-rooms of our nobility and gentry, and other places, both family lines and territorial descent may be clearly established for a great length of time. 4.Monumental Inscriptionsare documents of great interest. Many of them are of very high antiquity. That of King Arthur, described by Camden, is, if genuine, more than thirteen centuries old. The legend is, “HIC JACET SEPVLTVS INCLYTVS REX ARTVRIVS IN INSVLA AVALONIA.”There are several remains of this description belonging to the Norman period whose genuineness is not questioned. There are two in my own locality; namely, the epitaph on Gundred, wife of William de Warren, and daughter of William the Conqueror (ob. 1085), in the church of Southover, Lewes, and that on Mangnus, a Danish prince of the eleventh or twelfth century, in the wall of St. John sub Castro.[314]Unfortunatelymostof the monuments of those early times have no inscriptions; so that, without the evidence of concurrent tradition, they can scarcely be regarded as monuments at all. Monumentalbrasses, a most interesting class of memorials, occur from the thirteenth century to the era of the mural tablets now in use. Regular genealogical series of them are sometimes to be found in our country churches. 5. ThePublic Records, many of which have been printed at the national expense, contain an inexhaustible mine for the genealogist and historian. Particulars relating to knights’ fees and other feudal matters are found in the ‘Black and Red Books of the Exchequer,’ the ‘Testa de Neville,’ the ‘Nomina Villarum,’ and the ‘Hundred Rolls.’ These are all of very early date. The fine, charter, close, patent, nona, and numerous other rolls, and particularly the Inquisitiones post mortem[315]and Escheat rolls are rich in materials for pedigrees. Lists of English gentry for certain counties occur temp. Edw. II; and the celebrated list of temp. Hen. VI purports to contain the names of all the gentry in thirty counties. 6. TheWillsproved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at Doctors’ Commons commence so early as1383, and those in several of the local registries are of considerable, though not of equal, antiquity. These are of all documents the most confidently to be relied on, containing as they do much information respecting the family-connexions of the testators. From a single will a descent of four generations can frequently be traced. 7. TheHeraldic Records, gathered from documents no longer extant, are most valuable. The Visitation-books, extending from 1528 to 1687, are in the College of Arms; and there are numerous other collections of pedigrees in public and private MS. libraries. The funeral certificates of the nobility and gentry preserved at the College are most authentic and useful documents, though apparently little known even amongst antiquaries. The following is a specimen: