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A RECORD OF ALL RANKS OF THE GENTRY, their lineAGE, ALLIANCES, APPOINTMENTS,
ARMORIAL ENSIGNS, AND ResidenceS, WITH MANY

Ancient Pedigrees and Memorials of Old and Extinct Families;

ACCOMPANIED BY BRIEF NOTICES OF THE HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES, PHYSICAL FEATURES,
CHIEF ESTATES, GEOLOGY, AND INDUSTRY OF EACH COUNTY ;

ROLLS OF HIGH SHERIFFS FROM THE BEGINNING; MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ;
MAGISTRATES OF BOROUGHS,
ETC., ETC.

ALL COMPILED BY DIRECT VISITATION OF THE COUNties, and frOM RELIABLE AND

ORIGINAL SOURCES.

With numerous Ellustrations on Wood from Photographs.

BY THOMAS NICHOLAS/M.A., PH.D., F.G.S.

By

vle

VOL. I.

CLONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND CO.,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

9496.30

Br 7655.4(),

1878 March 11 Sinot fund.

Vol. I., II.

JAN 27

[ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.].

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. AND W. RIDER,

BARTHOI OMEW CLOSE.

PREFACE.

THE present work may be considered in the light of a NEW VISITATION OF WALES, conducted, not under the auspices or authority of the College of Arms, but in obedience to a frequently expressed desire that a more complete and faithful account than existed should be provided of the great families of the Principality, combining as far as possible ancient with modern times.

The plan of the work, as far as known, has no precedent. It has been sought to give,

1. The County-its chief physical features; its ancient and mediæval annals; its past life, as reflected in its Old and Extinct Families, great men, and its roll of High Sheriffs, &c.

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2. The Families of the County as now existing their lineage, dignities, alliances, and public services; their connection with the past, as shown by their pedigrees and escutcheons, &c.

The effort has been made to present each county, as far as possible, from its earliest known history-rejecting all legend and romance-as in a sense a unity. Although all counties, as counties, are comparatively recent, the districts of which they are composed have for many hundred years been in the main under the governance of a few great historic families, and have in one sense or other had a common vitality and interest. At the same time, in treating of the local, it has been necessary to bear in mind its organic relation to the general and imperial. The fragmentary annals of the counties, therefore, while giving what is of immediate local interest, when put together constitute an outline History of Wales.

In accumulating the information embodied in the following pages, a large outlay of time and personal labour has been required. The whole country has been actually visited. Descriptions and accounts have been given from personal inspection; facts, dates, names, have been obtained from the documents or direct testimony of the Families recorded.

The prosecution of the undertaking has been made pleasant by the kind readiness with which families have rendered essential aid. The editor's experience, and that of his coadjutors, in this visitation has been very different from that of Lewys Dunn, Deputy Herald of the College of Arms, who traversed Wales with a similar object in the time of Elizabeth, and who, along with genealogical treasures which are now of great value in tracing the Family History of the Principality, has left on record the following characteristic and curious complaint :

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