The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 25

_Hold him the gla.s.s_, 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 pa.s.sages 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 Encyclopaedias 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 ill.u.s.trations are princ.i.p.ally 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 pet.i.tioned 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 n.o.ble, "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 n.o.ble families of this country, when ARTHUR 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 the slightest 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 t.i.tular 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 indefatigable _Mr. Salmon_. During the same period also appeared innumerable volumes on the genealogies of our royal and n.o.ble families.

JOSEPH EDMONDSON, F.S.A. (author of 'Baronagium Genealogic.u.m,' 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 a.s.siduity 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 on the 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 a.s.sisted the author in both these works.

Edmondson possessed what was somewhat rare in his day--_good taste_ on 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 t.i.tlow: "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 the Origin 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 ill.u.s.trations and more appropriate embellishments, appears to me to be a desideratum.

The Rev. MARK n.o.bLE, 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 science _historically_.

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 t.i.tled cla.s.ses of the United Kingdom, in nine vols. 4to, by W. 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 'Encyclopaedia 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 princ.i.p.al families (contributed in part by the resident gentry) of Kent, Suss.e.x, Hants, Surrey, Bucks, Berks, Ess.e.x, and Herts, under the general t.i.tle 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, ent.i.tled 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 ent.i.tled 'The Heraldry of Fish,' containing notices of all the charges "with fin or sh.e.l.l" which occur in the arms of English families, with excellent ill.u.s.trations 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 the last few years. It will suffice for my purpose to mention some of those who stand _prae caeteris_, either in the intrinsic merit or the magnitude of their productions.

SIR HARRIS NICOLAS has 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 late G. F.

BELTZ, Esq., Lancaster Herald, a gentleman of extensive antiquarian research, published an interesting work, ent.i.tled '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 Middles.e.x, 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 cla.s.ses 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; and _Family Histories_, of which Rowland's History of the House of Neville, and Shirley's 'Stemmata Shirleiana,' are splendid examples. Mr.

Drummond's 'Histories of n.o.ble 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 t.i.tled orders, the press is annually pouring out a quant.i.ty which sufficiently proves the estimation in which the aristocracy of this country is held. In fine, the 'Archaeologia,' 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XIII.

Genealogy.

"I must not give up my attachment to Genealogy, and everything relating to it, because it is the greatest spur to n.o.ble and gallant actions."

_Rev. Mark n.o.ble._

"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 n.o.ble Family which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time?"

_Bacon. Of n.o.bility._

A pa.s.sion for 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; Caesar'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 democratic American 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 doc.u.ments, such as parish registers, monumental inscriptions, and court-rolls, numerous families may be traced 300 years with absolute certainty. An hereditary t.i.tle 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 still reside 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 n.o.bility, from which it appears that out of the 249 peers, 35 could trace their descent beyond the Conquest:

49 beyond the year 1100 29 " " 1200 32 " " 1300 26 " " 1400 17 " " 1500 26 " " 1600 30 " " 1700

Mr. Grimaldi has ably ill.u.s.trated the sources from which, and from which only, the genealogies of English families can be derived, in his 'Origines Genealogicae,' 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 well be 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 fict.i.tious 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 "G.o.d 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 M{c}Murrough, 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 y{e} imperial line of y{e} late Christian emperors of Greece, being the sonne of Camilio, the son of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of John, y{e} sonne of Thomas, second brother of Constantine Paleologus, the 8th of that name, and last of y{t} line y{t} rayned in Constantinople until subdved by the Turks; who married w{t}. Mary, y{e} daughter of William b.a.l.l.s, of Hadlye in Souffolke, Gent., and had issue 5 children, Theodoro, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy, and departed this life at Clyfton, y{e} 21st. 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 our _Novi 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. When we 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 n.o.bility 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 princ.i.p.al sources from which genealogical materials are derived.

1. The several records which go under the general name of _Doomsday Books_ const.i.tute, 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 doc.u.ments in point of antiquity are _Monastic 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 a.s.serted 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 n.o.ble libraries for forty shillings. Peacham, in his 'Compleat Gentleman,'[311] and several other authors declare that Polydore Vergil, the historian, _burnt_ many 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.