Add MS 74253

ROBERT GLOVER (d.1588), SOMERSET HERALD: miscellaneous genealogical and heraldic collections; circa 1556-1581. Mostly autograph. Partly Latin and Norman French. This composite manuscript consists mostly of British and foreign genealogies, many accompanied by drawings of arms in trick. It includes a pedigree (f. 3v), circa 1556-1565, of the descendants of James II of Scotland down to the two sons of Matthew Stuart, 4th Earl of Lennox, who is described as 'modo existens in Anglia', annotated at the head 'quae habui à Johanne Dee de Mortlake, ex collectionibus Doctoris Recorde [Robert Recorde M.D., d.1558] cum in Scotia fuerat' (f. 3v). Dated pedigrees include those of the families of Deyncourt, ancestors of the Barons Norris of Rycote, 1572 (f. 16v), Deane of Billington, co. Lancs., 1577 (f. 5) and Wyatt of co. Kent, 1578 (f. 10). An epitaph (f. 14) for Isabel (d.1220), suo jure Countess of Pembroke, is written in rhymed Latin verse. A series of obits, etc., 1141-1317, taken from the chronicle of Nicholas Trivet (ff. 43-45), is supplemented by 'Additiones ad Triuettum' comprising (f. 45v) 'Nomina interfectorum apud Stryvelin [i.e. Bannockburn] anno .1314.' Casual jottings include a list (f. 15) of lesees of eight parsonages in co. Kent held of the see of Canterbury and (f. 19v) a humorous pen and ink sketch of a cat as crest. The concluding item in the volume (ff. 57v, 58) is a pedigree of Glover's own family from 1487, partly taken 'Out of Mr Argalls office, and listing his five children, Elizabeth (b.1573), Anne (b.1575) Thomas (b.1576), Mildred and John, with additions circa 1581. Three discrete sections are copied in a single unidentified hand. They comprise (ff. 26-27v) memorial inscriptions and arms from Westminster Abbey, 1055-1556, partly in Latin and Norman French, copied (f. 27v) circa 29 March 1564; (ff. 32-39v) 'y^e pedegres of y^e browghtons of northehamptonshere that matched w^th peyver of bedfordeshere by whome toddyngetonne [Toddington, co. Beds.] commythe', etc., dated at the head 1564. Cf. the descent of the manor in J. H. Blundell, Toddington: it annals and people, Toddington, 1925, pp. 20-31; and (ff. 50-55v) collections taken 'out of ye wrytinges of Thonstall [Tunstall, co. Kent]', etc., with a pedigree (f. 55v) of Cromer, owners of the manor, for whom see Hasted's Kent, ii, 575-576, copied circa 1561-1577. An unscored tournament cheque (ff. 17, 20), headed 'Six Courses', includes among the sixteen contestants the name of Christopher Hatton (Kt. 1575) [See College of Arms, MS M 4 bis., descr. in Journal Soc. Archs., vol. 2/4 (1961), 153-162; and see Foulkes in Archaeologia, 63 (1912)]. Purchased from Roy Davids Ltd., 4 Oct. 1998.

Paper: ff. ii + 58. 325 mm x 227 mm. 18th cent. binding of smooth calf, blind-stamped (cf. Egerton MSS 3789-3794), with three leather and gilt labels on spine, reading 'arms eng. And scot.', 'ms'. and '24' respectively. Several items numbered at head in ink in a modern hand '1516' (f. 1), '1483' (f. 16), '1489' (f. 22), '1474' (f. 25), '1492' (f. 31). Quiring letters in ink from 'b' to 'G' survive at the foot of pages between f. 6 and f. 47. Belonged bef. 1598 to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, at the sale of whose library (T. Bentley, 21 Nov. 1687, p. 92, lot 32) it was acquired by Anthony Grey (d. 1702), 11th Earl of Kent (see Bernard, Catalogi MSS. Angliae, 1697, vol. ii, p. 392, no. 37), from whom it descended to Thomas Philip de Grey (d.1859), 2nd Earl de Grey, of Wrest Park (armorial bookplate, f. ii, pasted inside front cover). See 2nd Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1870, Appendix, p. 6. See also Sotheby's sale-cats., 21 June 1922, lot 607, and 21 July 1974.