Add MS 53782

PHILIPOT COMMONPLACE BOOK: heraldic commonplace book of John Philipot, Somerset Herald (d.1645), containing notes made in various churches in Kent, with later additions; 1613-1704. Autograph. Partly Latin. The bulk of the volume (ff. 22-152v) is blank. For an account of Philipot and his manuscripts, see H. Stanford London, 'John Philipot, M.P., Somerset Herald, 1624-1645', Archaeologia Cantiana, lx (1946), pp. 24-53. For other volumes of similar but textually unrelated collections of arms and monuments in Kentish churches by Philipot, see Egerton 3310A and Harley 3917. After the death of Philipot the manuscript was possibly owned by: John Gibbon, Blue-mantle Pursuivant (d.1718), circa 1674, see f. 156v;- Sir Henry St George, the younger, Garter King of Arms (d.1715), see ff. 155-156. Purchased by Sir Thomas Phillipps through Boone in 1852 with other heraldic manuscripts, see Phillipps Studies, iv, p. 65. Phillipps MS. 13121. Purchased from Quaritch, Cat. 870, item 235, 23 July 1966.

Paper; ff. ii+157. Early 17th-cent. pagination 15-45 through ff. 1-16, indicating missing leaves at the beginning of the volume. Early 18th-cent. foliation 50-52, ff. 19-21. 192 x 160mm. 19th cent. binding, half brown leather, boards covered in marbled paper. A note about the manuscript by Hugh Stanford London, F.S.A., circa 1924, is inserted, f. ii.

Contents:

1. ff. 1-16v. Drawings of arms and monuments in Kent churches by John Philipot; 1613. Pen, partly in trick. The dates of some visits are recorded: 18 Sept. 1613. f. 11;- 20 Nov. 1613. ff. 14v, 15v.

2. ff. 18-21v. Memoranda on monuments in Kent churches, with drawings of arms in trick; circa 1704 (f. 21). Written in a hand which occurs elsewhere in the volume (ff. 11, 155) and in Add. 4712, ff. 24-24v.

3. f. 154v rev. Account by Philipot of 'such Things as haue Happened and bin don since my first Admittance Into the Socyety of Heralds'; 1614. Philipot records his own admission as Blanch Lyon Pursuivant, 10 Dec. 1613, and ceremonies he attended over the subsequent Christmas and New Year.

4. f. 153v rev. Notes by Philipot on a tournament at Whitehall; 24 March 1615.

5. ff. 155-156. Index in the hand of Sir Henry St George the younger, Garter King of Arms 1703; late 17th cent.-1715.

6. f. 156v. Account by John Gibbon, Blue-mantle Pursuivant, of the discovery of the bodies of Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, at the Tower;

18 July 1674. Autograph. Latin. Gibbon's hand also occurs, ff. 16-16v, 157v.