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The work is a nineteenth‑century genealogical catalogue that sets out, county by county, the lineages of England’s ancient knightly and gentle houses that were established before the sixteenth century. It begins with a quotation from a 1691 manuscript, asserting that the continuity of noble families is a divine blessing, and then explains the author’s method: only families that still exist in the male line are included, illegitimate descent is excluded, and families that have lost their ancestral estates are omitted. The preface details the sources consulted, county histories, heraldic rolls, and the private papers of gentlemen such as Joseph Morris and Joseph Hunter, and notes revisions made for the third edition, including the loss of three male lines and the addition of eight newer peers. The opening entries illustrate the format, giving a brief narrative of each house, its heraldic arms, and references to contemporary and older authorities.
Written in a formal, scholarly tone characteristic of Victorian antiquarian studies, the text reflects the era’s preoccupation with pedigree, heraldry, and the moral significance of land‑based aristocracy. Its dense prose, frequent citations, and reliance on primary manuscripts will appeal to genealogists, heraldic enthusiasts, and historians of the British nobility who enjoy meticulous primary‑source research rather than narrative storytelling.
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WESTMINSTER: JOHN BOWER NICHOLS AND SONS. Third Edition, Corrected 1866.
PREFACE.
"That noble families are continued in a long succession of wealth, honour, and reputation, is justly esteemed as one of the most valuable of worldly blessings, as being the certain tokens of God Almighty's providential favour, and the prudent conduct of such ancestors,"--Nath. Johnston's Account of the Family of Bruce Earl of Aylesbury, 1691, Harl. MS, 3879.
THE following imperfect attempt to bring together a few notes relating to the ancient aristocracy of England, is confined in the first place to the families now existing, and regularly established either as knightly or gentle houses before the commencement of the sixteenth century; secondly, no notice is taken of those families who may have assumed the name and arms of their ancestors in the female line: for the truth is, as it has been well observed,* "that, unless we take the male line as the general standard of genealogical rank, we shall find ourselves in a hopeless state of confusion;" thirdly, illegitimate descent is of course excluded; and, fourthly, where families have sold their original estates, they will be noticed in those counties where they are at present seated; if however they still possess the ancient estate of their family, though they may reside in another county, they will be mentioned for the most part under that county from whence they originally sprung.
In those cases where the whole landed estate of the family has been dissipated, although the male line still remains, all notice is omitted, such families having no longer any claim to be classed in any county. For, "ancient dignity was territorial rather than personal, the whole system was rooted in the land, and, even in the present day, though the land may have changed hands often, it has carried along with it some of that sentiment of regard attached to the lordship of it, as surely as its earth has the fresh smell which it gives when upturned by the husbandman."**
This list also, it must be remembered, does not profess to give an account of all those families whose descent may possibly be traced beyond the year 1500, but merely of those who were in the position of what we now call county families before that period. The line of demarcation indeed between the families who rose upon the ruins of the monastic system, and the more ancient aristocracy of England, is often very difficult to be traced, depending as it does on documentary evidence often inaccessible, and obscured by the fanciful and too favourable deductions of the heralds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
With regard to the sources from whence the following memoranda have been taken, I have endeavoured as much as possible to rely upon the best county histories and MS. collections of authority, and carefully to eschew those modern accounts of family history, which, by ascribing the most absurd pretensions of ancient lineage to families who bore no real claim to that distinction, have done much to bring genealogy itself into contempt among that numerous class of readers who are but slightly acquainted with the subject.
I cannot conclude without recording my obligations to several gentlemen who have in the most liberal manner placed their genealogical collections at my service, and by so doing rendered less imperfect these notices of the noble and gentle houses of England: among that number I wish particularly to mention the names of the late Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury and Mr. Joseph Hunter, one of the Assistant Keepers of the Records, the learned and accurate historian of South Yorkshire. E.P.S.
Lower Eatington, July 1, 1860.
* Quarterly Review, Jan. 1858, p. 37. ** Quarterly Review, Jan. 1858, p. 31.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
ANOTHER edition of this little work having been called for, I have carefully revised and corrected what has been already written; I have also made some additions, the result of further investigation, and the information of many friends and correspondents, whose courtesy and kindness I here beg most gratefully to acknowledge.
Since the book was published in the year 1859, the male lines of three families, whose names were originally comprehended in it, have become extinct, viz.: Cotton of Landwade, in the county of Cambridge, Hornyold of Blackmore Park, and Hanford of Wollashill, both in Worcestershire. On the other hand, notices of eight "_new peers?_" will be found in the present volume, four of which also occurred in the second edition. I allude to Lovett of Liscombe, in the county of Buckingham, and Basset of Tehidy, in the county of Cornwall--very ancient families, whose landed property being until lately in female hands, could not, in accordance with the rules which I had laid down, be comprehended in the first edition; I have also added Huyshe of Sand, in Devonshire, Patten of Bank Hall, in Lincolnshire, Bertie of Uffington, Anderson of Brocklesby, and Massingberd of Wrangle, all in Lincolnshire, and, lastly, Upton of Ashton Court, in the county of Somerset. And here I must again beg to remind the reader, that the intention of this work is not to give an account of every family whose pedigree may be continued in the male line beyond the time which I have mentioned (the beginning of the sixteenth century), but of those only who were established as county families, "inheriting arms from their ancestors," at that period. It is no doubt in many cases very difficult to distinguish accurately the pretensions of many families who may possibly have a fair claim to this distinction, though, from the reasons to which I have formerly alluded, it is not easy to establish them. I can only say that as far as my information extends I have endeavoured fairly and honestly to draw the correct line, but whether I have succeeded must be left to the judgment of others. E. P. S.
Lower Eatington, January 22, 1866.
"An ancient estate should always go to males. It is mighty foolish to let a stranger have it because he marries your daughter and takes your name. As for an Estate newly acquired by trade, you may give it, if you will, to the dog Towser, and let him keep his own name."--DR. JOHNSON.
Younger Branch. St.John of Lydiard Tregoze, Viscount Bolingbroke 1712. Baronet 1611. Descended from Oliver, second son of Sir Oliver St.John and the heiress of Beauchamp.
See Leland's Itinerary, edition 1769, vol. vi. folio 27, p. 26. Brydges's Collins, vi. 42 and 741. For an account of Bletshoe, and the monuments there, see Gent. Mag. 1799, p. 745. For Lydiard Tregoze, and other monuments of the St.Johns, whose pedigree, by Sir R. St.George, is painted on folding-doors on the north side of the chancel, see the Topographer, i. 508.
ARMS.--_Argent, on a chief gules two mullets pierced or_. William de St.John in the thirteenth century bore in his arms the addition of a bend gules, which was continued by his descendants till the reign of Elizabeth. (Gent. Mag. 1787, 681.) The present coat was borne by Sir John de St.John in the reign of Edward II.; at the same time other members of the family varied the field and charges thus: Sir Roger bore, Ermine, on a chief gules two mullets or; Sir Eymis, Argent, crusilly sable, on a chief gules two mullets or; Sir John de Layneham, Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or, a border indented sable. John, heir of John de St.John, differenced his arms with a label azure, according to the roll of Carlaverock. The roll of arms of the reign of Richard II. gives the mullets of six points pierced azure. Edward St.John at this period bore, Argent, on a chief dancetté gules two mullets of six points or, pierced vert. Rolls of the dates.
Present Representative, St.Andrew Beauchamp St.John, 14th Baron St.John.
* "Hungry Time hath made a glutton's meal on this Catalogue of Gentry (the List of Gentry of the reign of Henry VI,) and hath left but a very little morsel for manners remaining." Fuller, Worthies of Bedfordshire.
See a very minute account of all the branches of this ancient family in the Topographer and Genealogist, i. pp. 180 and 577. See also Hasted's History of Kent, vol. i, p. 365, and vol. iii. p. 4.
ARMS.--_Or, on a bend gules three cross-crosslets of the first_. It appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Richard II., that Monsr. Rauff Poley bore a coat nearly similar, viz, Argent, on a bend gules three crosses patée or.
Present Representative, Frederick Polhill, Esq.
BERKSHIRE.
See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 1822, 26 b, and Harl. 1532, 19 b. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 186, 292, and Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, 4to. 1824, p. 130.
ARMS.--(Confirmed in 1566.) Sable, three lions rampant or.
Present Representative, Charles John Eyston, Esq.
CLARKE OF ARDINGTON.
See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 5822, 22 b, and Harl. 1532. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 180, 186, and Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, p. 56.
ARMS.--(Confirmed Oct. 22, 1600.) Argent, on a fess sable three plates between three crosses patée of the second. Sometimes the fess is placed between six crosses patée.
Present Representative, William Nelson Clarke, Esq.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
John de Chetwode having during the reign of Edward III. married the heiress of Oakeley, of Oakeley in Staffordshire, the family have mostly resided there, as well as at Ansley Hall in Warwickshire, derived from the heiress of Ludford in 1821.
Willis, writing in 1755, says--"This manor of Chetwode, as appears to me, has been in the possession and inheritance of the Chetwodes longer than any estate or manor in this county of Buckingham has continued the property of any other family now there existing."
See Willis's Buckingham, p. 172; Erdeswicke's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 119; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. p. 82; and Lysons's Buckinghamshire, p. 172.
ARMS.--_Quarterly argent and gules, four crosses patée counterchanged_.
Present Representative, Sir John Newdigate-Ludford-Chetwode, 5th Baronet.
DAYRELL OF LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL.
The Dayrell of Shudy Camps, in the county of Cambridge, are a younger branch of this family, sprung from Francis, second son of Paul Dayrell of Lillingstone, sheriff of Buckinghamshire 1579.*
See Willis's Buckingham, p. 213; Lysons, p. 595.
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