Harley MS 2088

Contents:

ff. 1r-14v: Coats of arms of Cheshire families (16 per page), entitled: ‘Cheshire Coates, of every hundreth’; only covers the hundreds of Macclesfield and part of Bucklow; escutcheons under subsequent hundreds are outlined in pencil or have been left empty.

ff. 48v: An Alphabet of Arms of Cheshire gentry; painted coats of arms (16 per page) were planned, but all escutcheons have been left empty, and the work ends in the letter ‘I’.

ff. 49r-49v: A list of the ‘order of the proceedinges of her majestie from Somerset house to the Cathederall church of St Pawle in London 24 November 1588’; followed by a diagram showing ‘the Queenes most excellent maiestie’.

The manuscript contains a few additions:

ff. 1*verso [bound upside down] and 50v: Fragments of an English document, referring to ‘Alane Hodgekyne’ and ‘Henry Manley’ (f. 1*verso); and 'John Manley' (f. 50v); written in the 16th century.

ff. 2*recto-2*verso: A list of Cheshire knights from about the time of King Richard II, with their arms blazoned in French heraldic terminology; entitled: ‘The names of the knightes and gentlemen of Cheshire and their Coates Armors who as it sholde see me lyned about [...] nd of later tymes copied verbatim out of an olde record [...] Mr [?] Puleson’; ‘from Mr [?] pyvelesden de Emerall’; written in the 16th century.

Decoration:

Coats of arms with colours drawn and painted inside printed rasters with escutcheons throughout the manuscript.