Visitation of Lancashire, 1567 - John Houghton's Family History Pages

More documents

Recommendations

Info

PR I NTED BV C H AR I.E S S. S I i\]MS, l\I .\NCliESTEH, INTRODUCTION. T HE heraldic Visitation of the county palatine of Lancaster in the year I 567 - thirty-four years after the last similar VIsItation - was undertaken by William Flower, esq., the N orroy king of arms,' and, contrary to the usual method, was written in the narrative form. The original MS. is preserved in the Heralds' college, but a carefully written transcript of it is in the British museum! The latter is in the handwriting of Robert Glover, esq., who at the age of twenty-four was appointed Portcullis, and immediately accompanied N orroy as his marshal or deputy into Lancashire; and it has sometimes been described as "Glover's Visitati01z," 1 The following note in the MS. Visitation of Lancashire, 1567, in the College of arms, is in sir William Dugdale's handwriting "Visitation of Lancashire, by -- Dalton, Norroy anno 1567, 9 Elizabeth." Robert Dale, Richmond herald, has written under it "Laurence Dalton, esq., Norroy, died 13 December, 15 61, anno 4 Elizabeth. So that this annotator (sir William Dugdale) is mistaken, and this visitation was made by William Flower, esq., Norroy, Mr. Dalton's successor. Signed, Rob. Dale, B.L." 2 Harl. MS., 2086.
IV btttrod14ctt'on. although according to the usage of the College of arms, N orroy alone had the power of visitation within this province, to which, however, was annexed the right of appointing a deputy. Glover's MS. in the British museum forms a folio volume containing 104 pages, embracing the pedigrees of 112 families. The armorial bearings are tricked with • great artistic skill and accompany each pedigree. There are also indices of the pedigrees and ' matches, and the whole has been executed with great care from Flower's manuscript. 3 Transcripts of this visitation, being coeval duplicates, exist in the libraries of Humphrey Chetham of Manchester, and of Queen's college, Oxford, and other copies, more or less inaccurate, are in several public and private collections. The Chetham library MS. was long supposed to be in the handwriting of William Smith, rouge dragon pursuivant, but this is an error. It is also erroneously described in the Catalogue of the library as "William Smith's Vz'sz'tatio1Z 0./ La1zcashz're, anno 1599 ;"4 Smith having had no authority to visit the county, nor was any visitation of it held in that year. He was a native of Cheshire , the joint author of The Vale Royal, and died in the year 1618. Smith's original copy, with additional and enlarged 3 Dr. Ormerod, Chetham lIfiscellan., vol. i. p. 10. 4 By the Rev. John Radcliffe, vol. ii. p. 622. btttroduc NOl1-. pedigrees, is in the British museum,s and the Chetham volume seems to be an Elizabethan transcript of Smith's. I t is not a very accurate copy, as some of the pedigrees are deficient in the number of descents, some are entirely wanting, and others have been interpolated. A collation has been made of these various MSS., and in the following pages Glover's MS. is the text which has been followed, and Smith's additions and supposed emendations, whenever they occur, are included in brackets. The pedigrees not found in Glover, but which are given by Smith, include those printed on pp. 12 5- 1 34. The pedigree of Whittacre (p. 13 2 ) does not relate to any Lancashire family, but may probably represent some branch claiming a remote, but not ascertained, descent from the parent stock of High Whitaker in this county.6 It may also be observed that as Smith's transcript in the British museum was made in the year 1598/ and as augmentations were made to the Chetham MS. subsequent to that period, and even long after Smith's d.eath,8 it is evident that the MS. of the latter has been subjected to the interpolations of some anonymous, and, it may be, not contemporaneous' genealogist. There is an old and apparently contemporaneous copy of what is called "Glover's V·z'sitati01z 0./ Yorkshz're," made in the years 5 Harl. MS., 61 59. G H ist. oj WI/alley, p. 528, Add. 3 Ed. 7 Maule's Bibliotlt. Heraldica, p. 582. 8 P. 13 2 . V
Page 1: THE VISITATION OF THE COUNTY PALATI
Page 5: Vlll hdrodudi07tl. would rigidly av

Visitation of Lancashire, 1567 - John Houghton's Family History Pages

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?