Add MS 58214

PEDIGREES FROM HERALDIC VISITATIONS, ETC.; 1564-circa 1616, with later additions. Partly Latin. This collection consists of a series of annotated copies of sixteenth-century heraldic visitations of Kent, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Oxfordshire. Supplementary material was added mostly in the hand of William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms. Belonged, circa 1604 (see note on f. 1), to William Camden (d.1623). Later formed part of larger collection described in sale-cat. of manuscripts of Sir Henry St. George the younger (d.1715), Garter King of Arms, Osborne, 27 Nov. 1738, lot 112, as 'Ancient Pedigrees in Kent, Huntington, Bedford, Oxford, Leicester, and Warwickshire, with Indexes. The latter Part of the Volumes in the Hand of H[enry] Ferrers [d.1633] of Badsley Clinton in Com. Warwick. The whole ending, in another Hand, with the Pedigrees of Ferrers and Sturmey'. Owned, before 1831, by Sir George Nayler, Garter King of Arms (see bookplate pasted inside front cover, f. ii), and purchased at sale of his library, Sotheby's, 25 July 1832, lot 131, as Phillipps MS. 9781 (see printed booklabel on spine and number pencilled on bookplate (f. ii)) by Sir Thomas Phillipps (d.1872), Bart., who added notes (ff. 67, 68-78) and indices (ff. 48v, 62v). He also collated the Oxfordshire pedigrees (ff. 67-77 passim) with those 'entd in my Printed Oxon' (Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1574 & 1634, [1845?]). Notes by Phillipps of furniture in 69 Great Russell Street, London, pencilled inside back cover (f. iii). Inside front cover (f. i) 'No 25', pressmark 'a.41.321' and various booksellers' prices and codes. Purchased at Sotheby's, Phillipps sale, 26 June 1974, lot 2882.

Paper; ff. iii+77. 19th-cent. pencil pagination throughout consisting of odd numbers only from 1 to 151. 373 x 248mm. (covers). Collation irregular: sixty-six original leaves measuring some 363 x 220mm. now mounted mostly on guards, watermarked with letter 'N' within crowned shield surmounting 'Jean Nivelle' in compartment, datable to circa 1578-1605 (cf. Gaudriault, Filigranes (1995), no. 753). Thirteen leaves (ff. 9, 25, 30-32, 34-36, 42-44, 46, 47) inserted on various stocks of paper. 19th-cent. binding, with endpapers countermarked 1827 and covers of half vellum and large comb paper over boards. Spine labelled in ink 'PED. VISITA TIONS of KENT 1574 BEDV 1586 HUNT OXON 1574 ', with similar legend pencilled inside front cover (f. i).

Contents:

1. ff. 1-75v. Pedigrees taken from heraldic visitations of Kent (ff. 7-47), 1574, Bedfordshire (ff. 49-76), 1566, Huntingdonshire (ff. 63-66v), 1564, and Oxfordshire (ff. 67-75), 1574. These were entered, sideways in the volume, in a single Secretary hand of the late 16th-early 17th centuries, with red ink for connecting lines and, at one point, green ink for arms and crest (ff. 17, 17v). Headings for 'Huntingdon' and 'Oxenford' (ff. 62v, 66v) are copied in gothic lettering, and there is an early foliation in ink in two series, running from 1 to 34 (ff. 7-47) and from 1 to 28 (ff. 49-76). The first (ff. 1, 2) of the two indices to Kentish pedigrees is copied on two leaves now laid down in reverse order. Coats of arms and crests of various families were added throughout in trick, sometimes accompanied by blazons, between circa 1604 (see note on f. 1) and 1616, mostly in the hand of William Camden. Camden has also recorded supplementary details, together with further genealogies (ff. 5, 33, 37 and 75v), including pedigrees of Finet (f. 39v), after 1616, and, on leaves of different stock, of Lennard (ff. 31-32) and Parker of Ratton, co. Suss. (f. 30), the latter reproduced in Sotheby's sale-cat of 1974, above. An inserted slip comprising 'A note for Mr Camden' (f. 9), relates to Sir John Roper, later (1616) 1st Baron Teynham, a pedigree of whose family is included here (ff. 40v, 41).

2. ff. 6-47 passim. Miscellaneous additions by various unidentified hands of the period, including notes (ff. 34v, 35) of Dering family monuments in Pluckley Church, co. Kent, 1517-1562, and further descents (ff. 6, 25, 36, 42-44 and 46v, 47). Also included (ff. 37v-40) are two narrative genealogies of Denne and Franklin of Kent of slightly later date. Two brief annotations (ff. 28v, 29v) are in the hand of Sir Henry St. George (d. 1715), the younger, Garter King of Arms.