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PREFACE.

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THIS work, began in the year 1791, would have been des tined, like many others, to have remained in my study unpublished, if my highly respected friend, the liberal, elegant JohnCharles Brooke, Esq., Somerset, F. A. S., had not encouraged me with assurances of his assistance. Since his ever to be lamented premature, and melancholy death, our common friends, Edmund Lodge, Esq. Lancaster, F. A. S., and George Nayler, Esq,. York, Blanc-coursier, genealogist to the most honorable Order of the Bath, and F. A. S. having, with pious fidelity, fulfilled his nuncupative testament, by permitting me to use his MS. relative to the members of the College, I have dared to offer this volume to the Public. These gentlemen, not content to fulfil the will of the deceased, have gratified me in every way in their power. The warmest gratitude is felt for their liberality.

I give these sheets with diffidence. It is a new subject. The dissertation on the state of society, and the rise of families since the Norman conquest, I judged a proper preliminary, to understand the subsequent

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part. The work has given me much trouble. I shall be highly gratified if it is favorably received, particularly by the nobility and gentry. The historian, the antiquary, and the biographer, may here probably receive information. The officers at arms were formerly as remarkable for their skill in negotiations and embassies, as they have more recently been, for having contributed the most valuable literary labours in their own science and in many others. To the venerable names of Camden, Dugdale, and Anstis, here are added many others, who also stand high in the republic of letters.

Nothing has been omitted in collecting materials. Impartiality has never been sacrificed. The principal authorities are given in a page by themselves; others of less note are mentioned in the body of the volume. The work progressively opens itself: the custom and manners of each age are kept distinct. The method of repeating the officers' names may appear tedious to some; but after various trials it was thought the best to place them as they are here given. It certainly will contribute to identify the persons to whom facts may apply. Generally speaking, we find at all periods the name of the office, not the baptismal or surname of the members of the College, used. The method here adopted will tend to identify the officer at arms, when only his official name is mentioned, so that the particulars of his life will be better known: this may be acceptable to future writers of history and biography. The candid, knowing the difficulties of works of this kind, comprizing so long a space, and noticing so many individuals, will make every allowance. Some

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will think the lives too long; others not sufficiently detailed. I have endeavoured to unite information, without tediousness.

There never has, never will be, a succession of officers in any department of irreproachable characters. Integrity, ability, and discretion, seldom unite in any individual; how then are we to expect a series of such excellencies? Let no one be hurt at truth.

Gratitude and inclination unite in dictating my humblest acknowledgments and thanks to the Most Noble the Marquis of Bute, for his polite attentions to my letters, to instruct me how to apply to His Majesty for permission to lay this volume at the foot of the Throne, and to his Grace the Duke of Portland, for presenting my duty and wishes to my august and benign Sovereign, and for conveying to me the Royal leave. I must also express my sincerest thanks to George Harrison, Esq. Norroy, for permitting me to take extracts from his MS. History of the Garters, Kings at Arms. Parrott Fenton, jun, Esq., of Doctors' Commons, for introducing me to Mr. Thornton, then churchwarden of the parish of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, in which the College at Arms stands; whose kind and marked attention to me, during the whole time I was engaged in examining the registers of that parish, deserve my warmest thanks, more, if possible, than permission to examine them. I am greatly indebted also to my friend, the Rev. Thomas Blyth, Rector of Elmdon in Warwickshire, for copying out the extracts from the parish register of, and the funeral inscriptions in the church of Shustock in that county, relative

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relative to the Dugdale family. The Rev. Samuel Crowther, Rector of Christ's Church, Newgate Street, in London, for the epitaph upon the monument of Peter Dore, Esq., Norroy. John-Martin Leake, Esq. late Chester. Thomas Townshend, Esq. of Chester, maternally descended from the Dugdale family, for communications respecting Garter, Sir William Dugdale; John Townley, Esq. of DevonshirePlace, London, for information relative to Garter Townley's family; and Captain William Gostling, for his letter respecting the family of Mr. Grose, Richmond,

AUTHORITIES FOR THIS WORK.

MSS. The elder Anstis, Garter's, "Materials for an History of Heralds," several folio volumes in the possession of George Nayler, Esq. York.-In this collection may be included every thing relative to our heralds in the public offices, Doctors' Commons, the British Museum, as well as many private papers communicated to him. They form a vast body of indigested materials, placed without order.-Lant, Portcullis', Book, and his Roll in the Library of the College of Arms.-Brooke, Somerset's, Memoirs of the Kings at Arms, Heraids and Pursuivants, lodged in the same Library.-Lives of the Garters, Kings at Arms, in possession of George Harrison, Esq., Norroy.-List of Portcullis, Pursuivants, in possession of George Nayler, Esq., York.-Parish Registers of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf.-Parish Registers of Shustock in Warwickshire, reative to the Dugdale Family.-Personal Information taken from Doctors' Commons, respecting the Writhes or Wriothesleys, and some other Families, to gain Information of Members of the College at Arms, by searching the Wills of Relations of particular Heralds.

HERALDRY, PEERAGES, BARONETAGES, &c.-Milles' Catalogue of Honor.Brooke's, Vincent's, York's, Dugdale's, Collin's, Edmondson's, and other Peerages of England.-Douglas' and Crawford's Scotch Peerage.-English, Scotch and Irish Compendiums.-Collins' Proceeding respecting Baronies, and other titles of honor.-West upon Baronies.-Julian Barnes upon Heraldry.-The Boke of St. Albans.-Leigh's Accidents of Armoric.-Boswell's Book of Armorie.— Ferne's Blazon of Gentry.-Spelman's Aspilogia.-Morgan's Sphere of Gentry. -Favine's Theatre of Honor.-Gwillim's Heraldry.-Dugdale's ancient Usage in bearing of Arms.-Blome's Art of Heraldry.-Kent's Heraldic Grammar. Warburton, Somerset's, Works.-Weaver's Funeral Monuments, in which is given his Catalogue of Heralds.-Ashmole and Anstis' Order of the Garter.Anstis' Order of the Bath.-Mr. Dallaway's Inquiry into the Origin and Progress of the Science of Heraldry in England.

PUBLIC RECORDS, and STATE PAPERS.-Rymer's Fœdera, Acta Regia, Rotuli Parliamentorum.-Jones' Index of Records.-Journals of the House of Lords.-Journals of the House of Commons.-D'Ewe's Journals of Elizabeth's Parliaments.-Townsend's Ditto.-Cabala.-Paston's Letters.-Mr. Lodge, Lancaster's, Illustrations of British History.-Murdin's Collection of State Papers.Windwood's Memorial.-Sidney's State Papers.-Hardwick's State Papers.-Rushworth's Collections.-Nalson's Collections.-Thurloe's State Papers.-Husband's Collections.-Scobel's State Papers; with other lesser works of this kind.

CHRONICLES, HISTORIES, LIVES OF OUR SOVEREIGNS, &c.-The Chronicles of Hall, Grafton, Cooper, Stow, Speed, Holingshed, Daniel, with Trussel's Continuation.-Rapin's History of England.-Sandford's genealogical History of the Kings of England.-Henry's History of Great Britain-Burnet's History of the Reformation, and of his own Time.-Hayward's Lives of William I. William II. and Henry I.-Lord Lyttelton's History of Henry II.-Barrington's Life of the В 2

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