The building is freehold, and private property, belonging to the corporation of the kings, heralds, and pursuivants of arms. It was erected, after the fire of London, at the expense of the members, assisted by some benefactions from the nobility and gentry, upon the scite of their ancient habitation, called Derby Place, which had been given to them by Queen Mary. It has been long in a very ruinous state; and the necessary repairs within the last twenty years amounted to £2,089: for the defraying of which the officers of arms have been under the necessity of sequestrating, not only the greatest part of their fees, but even a portion of their salaries. order. III. They are generally in very good preservation, and arranged in tolerable IV. There is in the library of the College of Arins a general catalogue of the books, and also general, and particular indices to the visitation books, funeral certificates, grants of arms, and of the books of pedigrees of the nobility and gentry, since the visitations ceased, &c. But those indices are defective, inasmuch as they contain, for the most part, only the name of the family whose pedigree, certificate, or grant, is referred to. They might be rendered much more useful, if they were made to refer to all the other names, and to any important matter contained in such pedigree, certificate or grant. This would be a work of great labor. It might however be performed by the members of the College, provided there were any fund, out of which an adequate reward could be appropriated to such as should devote their time to the task, but the present salaries and fees are so very inadequate to the support of the officers, that some are under the necessity of applying themselves to other avocations for subsistence. The net annual salary of all the thirteen officers is not more than £242.5.8. The officers of arms know not of any catalogue, indices, &c. existing elsewhere that relate to the books of the College; but there are in the British Museum, and in the libraries of various colleges in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, several heraldic manuscripts which might be of great utility, if they could be deposited in the College of Arms, without injury to the present possessors. V. As a body corporate, the kings, heralds, and pursuivants of arms, are entitled to make rules and orders amongst themselves, for the arrangement and custody of their books and records. By the rules and orders at present in force, one of the six heralds, and one of the four pursuivants, attend in the public office in monthly rotation; and the office is accessible from nine o'clock in the morning till the evening. They make all searches, and give out copies or extracts of the said records, and the fees arising therefrom are equally divided between them. The ordinary fee for a search of a coat of arms is, and has been for two hundred years, half-a-crown; and for a copy, or extract of a pedigree, five shillings for every generation. F2 An An exact estimate cannot be formed of the annual amount of the fees so received, because the receipts of each month being immediately divided at the end of the month, between the two officers who attended, are not brought into any public account; but we do not believe that the annual average can be calculated at more than £20 to a herald who waits twice, and £30 to a pursuivant who waits three times in a year. They have no salary whatever, in respect of such custody, &c. but the net annual salary of a herald is £17. 5. 2. and of a pursuivant £13. 2. 10. The fee for the attendance of an officer of arms, with any book belonging to the College, in any court of law or otherwise, is one guinea. VI. This is generally answered in the preceding article. The rule is, that on the attendance of an officer of arms in any court of law, or otherwise, with any record belonging to the College, an entry is made in the waiting books of the book or record so taken out of the library by such officer, who has the temporary custody thereof, and the return of such book or record to the library is certified by the officer in attendance, at the time of such return. VII. The kings, heralds, and pursuivants of the College of Arms, conceive that the recurrence to the records of the College might be rendered more convenient to the public, if the situation of the College were near to the Court, and to the Houses of Parliament, as it was fixed at the time of its incorporation by Queen Mary, who gave them, as before stated, a house, called Derby Place, close to her own rosidence, upon the scite of which the present College stands. In its present situation it is difficult of access, falling rapidly to decay, and in imminent danger of destruction from fire, as before stated. All which is humbly submitted, &c, &c, Signed, by order of Chapter, GEORGE HARRISON, Norroy and Register. College of Arms, May 2, 1800. = : Ν. Laws and Customs regarding the Appointment of Fees, and the Profits 1 arising from official Business. Having spoken at large of the public duties of the officers at arms, it may not be improper to state concisely some particulars of the sources, and respective proportions of their official emoluments. These may be divided into two classes: the first, arising from salaries and fees of honour; the second, from what is called private business. 1 The salaries, which are of very ancient establishment, have become, as money has decreased in value, very inconsiderable. That of a king of arms is £100. per annum, of an herald 40 marcs, and of a pursuivant £20. Each is liable to land-tax, and other deductions. The fees of honour are paid on creations of peers, advancements to all orders of knighthood, and on institutions and translations to bishopricks; on certain attendances on the royal person; installations of the order of St. George, these are very considerable; also on proclamations of war and peace, and royal funerals. In the divisions of these fees the heralds receive twice as much as the pursuivants, and the kings at arms twice as much as the heralds: in addition to which, Garter has, on almost every occasion here specified, a very considerable separate fee, which, together with his immense profits on Installations of the Garter, and his peculiar fees on the investiture of foreign princes with that order, &c. produce that noble income which he enjoys: an income most properly assigned to so dignified an office. The second elass of heraldic emoluments, accruing from what is denominated private business, is, in its nature and mode of distribution, totally foreign from the other. It arises from the applications of private individuals on all occasions of heraldic business, such as for the proving the pedigrees of peers under the standing orders of the House of Lords; for grants or exemplifications of arms; changes of surname by the king's licence; patents of supporters to peers, knights of the Garter, and Bath, &c.; copies of pedi grees, or other documents from the records of the College; collecting or recording family pedigrees which have not been already entered there; tracing genealogies to establish proofs of the inheritance or acceding to peerages, or other hereditary titles or high offices, or of the descent of property; and a variety of other objects. Upon all these occasions every individual officer of the College, from Garter down to the junior pursuivants, has an equal right to accept commissions, and to transact business, for his own separate and peculiar profit. It may, however, be remarked, that the exercise of this right has generally been waved by the gentlemen who have held the office of Garter, as 1 as somewhat unworthy of his high and lucrative situation, not to mention that he receives a large fee by virtue of his office on almost every occasion here mentioned; but the provincial kings at arms, whose places are less lucrative, have always, and very properly availed themselves of it. The application on such private business is made in one or the other of two modes. A perfect stranger to the College presents himself in course to its public office, where he finds the herald and pursuivant who happen to have, in rotation, the turn of waiting for that month; and the fact of his applications to them gives them the sole right to the transaction of the business, and to the property of the profit attending it. A person, on the other hand, who has a knowledge of an individual officer of the College, either on the score of personal acquaintance, or through the recommendation of a common friend, making his application to that officer, gives him in like manner the sole right of transacting the business on which he applies, and the sole property in the profits attending it; and thus every individual officer of arms has, like the professors of the law, his own peculiar clients, with whom any interference by a brother officer would be deemed highly improper, as it is directly contrary to the law of the College in such cases. It will appear, from what has been stated, that the official emoluments of the officers of arms vary very widely in their amount according to their respective knowledge of their official duties; to the degrees of their professional assiduity, and to the extent and respectability of their private connexions: yet all of them, at least from Garter, have too little for their elegant, respectable, ancient posts, their salaries being inadequate to their merit, their acquirements, their sacrifices, to their personal services upon one of the greatest monarchs in the world. The richest nation in Europe by its representatives will, there can be little doubt, soon make their emoluments equal, at least to what they were when their salaries were settled at a great distance of time, when a very small sum of money was able to procure what now requires a great one. INDEX. N.B. The Life of the Person is given where this Mark * is placed. ALFORD, Laurence, Rose-blanch, Rich. III. 72.-Blue-mantle, Hen. VII. * 93.- - - Marriage of the Princess, Geo. II. 370. Anstis, John, Garter, Geo. I. 354.-Geo. II.* 376. Jun. Blanc-coursier, Geo. I. 367,* 379.-Genealogist and Blanc-cour- sier, 399. Antelope, Pursuivant extraordinary, Rich. III. 60. Arundel, Herald extraordinary, Geo. II. 398.-Geo. III. 445. Ashmole, Elias, Windsor, Charles II.* 283. Ashwell, John, Clarenceux, Hen. VI. 61. - , Thomas, Ireland, King at Arms, Rich. III. 63. -, Richard, &c. Ashwell, Thomas, 63. Athlone, Pursuivant extraordinary, Edw. VI. 147. - Mary I. 156.-Elizabeth, 188. Edw. VI. 144.-Blue-mantle, 146. - Somerset, Mary I. 154.-Eliza- -, John, Somerset, Geo. III. 434.-Rouge-croix, 440. Bainton, Articles exhibited in the Court of Honour against Mr. George, Geo. II. 374. Ball, Henry, Rouge-croix, James II. 293, 313, * 312. Ballard, William, March, Rich. III. 64. - Hen. VII.* 87. Balmerino, Trial of Lord, Geo. II. 372. Bannercts, the Order of Knights, revived, ib... Barkham, George, Lancaster, Usurp.* 264. Barker, Christopher, Rouge-dragon, Hen. VII. 94. -Garter, Hen. VIII. 110.-Nor roy, 120.-Richmond, 126.-Garter, * 139. -, Justinian, Rouge-croix, * 128.-Risebanc, 134. Barnes, Pursuivant extraordinary, Hen. VII. 99. -Hen. VIII. 136. Bath, the Order of, revived, Geo. I. 366.. Bath |