Add Roll 77242

Add. Roll 77242. Cooke’s Ordinary is reputedly the oldest European ordinary of arms in existence; England, c 1340. Latin. It comprises seven membranes (the first of which is fragmentary), containing 589 shields arranged by charge in eighty-eight rows, with accompanying names, to allow the user to identify the holders of particular arms. There are copies in London, College of Arms, MS. Vincent 164, ff. 89–109 (by Richard Skarlett, 1576); London, College of Arms, MS. 1st L 14, ff. 71–78 (by Skarlett); Oxford, The Queen’s College, MS. 158, ff. 305–348 (by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, d. 1588). See Anthony Richard Wagner, A Catalogue of English Mediaeval Rolls of Arms, Harleian Society, 100 (Oxford, 1950), pp. 58–59; N. Denholm-Young, The Country Gentry in the Fourteenth Century, with special reference to the heraldic rolls of arms (Oxford, 1969), pp. 114–118. Repaired on the back with a fragment of a 15th-century account roll referring to Dryslwyn, Carmarthenshire, and Carmarthen (now detached).

The Balliol Roll is painted on the dorse of the last membrane of Cooke’s Ordinary; England (?), c 1340. It contains the arms of Edward Balliol (d. 1364), claimant to the Scottish throne, followed by the shields of thirty-five of his chief supporters, arranged in five rows of seven, together with the name of each bearer of arms. Balliol formally acknowledged Edward III of England (1327–1377) as his lord in 1333, and finally renounced his claim to the Scottish crown in 1356. The roll seems to have been copied by an English herald from a Scottish manuscript which is no longer extant, but which was originally made in the 1330s. There are copies in London, College of Arms, MS. Vincent 164, f. 110v (by Skarlett, 1576); London, College of Arms, MS. 1st L 14, f. 78v (by Skarlett); Oxford, The Queen’s College, MS. 158, f. 348 (by Glover). See Wagner, A Catalogue of English Mediaeval Rolls of Arms, p. 54; Bruce A. McAndrew, The Balliol Roll, New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston, MA, 2002); Denholm-Young, The Country Gentry, pp. 96, 110–111.

Owned by the Franciscan friars of Carmarthen, 16th century, on the dorse of the first membrane ‘Rowch honn y gwrtt brodyr Kaer Verdinn’ (‘Give this to the court of the brothers of Carmarthen’); Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms (d. 1593); Sir Thomas Phillipps (d. 1872), his MS. 26463; and Sir Anthony Wagner (b.1908, d.1995), F.S.A, Garter Principal King of Arms 1961–1978. Purchased at Sotheby’s, 4 Dec. 2007, lot 47.

Vellum. Seven membranes. 4684 × 267 mm.