Add MS 38537

ROLL OF ARMS, known as the Dering Roll from the fact that it was owned early in the l7th century by Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden, co. Kent (d. 1644). The contents have hitherto been chiefly known through a rather inaccurate copy in trick made soon after 1607, perhaps by some herald, and contained in Harley MS. 6137, ff. 89 b-97 b. Described on that basis by James Greenstreet and C. Russell, 'The Dering Roll of Arms,' in The Reliquary, vols. xvi-xviii (1876-1878), with full list of coats in blazon and a few engravings, it is no. 7 of the same authors' 'Reference List of Rolls of Arms' in The Genealogist, vol. v. (1881), and is quoted as A in Papworth's Ordinary (1874). The roll when complete contained 324 coats (fifty-four rows of six) well drawn in colours, the names written above them being in a 15th cent. hand. The first row and part of the second (nos. 1-6 and 12, with part of 11) have been torn off since the Harley copy was made. The names throughout are those of persons living at the end of Henry III's reign or in the first half of Edward I's, and are given with fair accuracy though mistakes occur, such as Bokesle (for Rokesle), Merwize (for Merwþe), Maube (for Maufe), Chewinthe (for Chawurthe), etc. A palpable fraud has been committed, either by Dering or some person who wished to sell the roll to Dering, in the case of no. 61, where the arms (per fess, or and gu.) and name of Nic. de Crioll have been erased and arms (or, a saltire sa.) and name of Ric. fiz Dering substituted. The roll is presumably copied from a 13th cent. compilation or compilations and is apparently connected with a larger series, also surviving only in a l5th cent. form, which was formerly MS. 22007 in Sir Thomas Phillipps' collection and was afterwards in George Dunn's library (sale-cat. 1913, lot 508). Of the names given in the present roll the first seventy-seven are all, or nearly all, from co. Kent, and from that point to about no. 143 most of them have some connexion with co. Sussex. Later on the local grouping is less easy to follow, but about the last thirty or thirty-five are foreigners from France or Flanders. An alphabetical list of names is on the back of the roll. Vellum roll; 9 ft. 10¹/₂ in. x 10¹/₄ in. XV cent. Belonged (see his note at end) to Ralph Starkey in 1597 ; afterwards to Dering, and in 1811 to Rev. David Thomas Powell, LL.B. (see his note at the end, cat. in Add. MS. 22505, f. 90, and sale-cat. 1848, lot 453), later to Henry Wellesley, D.D., Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford (Sotheby's sale-cat. 13 June, 1865, lot 392). Purchased, with Add. Roll 56409, at Messrs. Sotheby's (sale-cat. 31 May, 1912, lot 65).