_Antient Charters_ and Deeds transferring lands, &c. are most excellent authorities for genealogical particulars. Such doc.u.ments are immensely numerous. By series of these in the muniment-rooms of our n.o.bility and gentry, and other places, both family lines and territorial descent may be clearly established for a great length of time. 4. _Monumental Inscriptions_ are doc.u.ments of great interest. Many of them are of very high antiquity. That of King Arthur, described by Camden, is, if genuine, more than thirteen centuries old. The legend is, "HIC JACET SEPVLTVS INCLYTVS REX ARTVRIVS IN INSVLA AVALONIA." There are several remains of this description belonging to the Norman period whose genuineness is not questioned. There are two in my own locality; namely, the epitaph on Gundred, wife of William de Warren, and daughter of William the Conqueror (ob. 1085), in the church of Southover, Lewes, and that on Mangnus, a Danish prince of the eleventh or twelfth century, in the wall of St. John sub Castro.[314] Unfortunately _most_ of the monuments of those early times have no inscriptions; so that, without the evidence of concurrent tradition, they can scarcely be regarded as monuments at all. Monumental _bra.s.ses_, a most interesting cla.s.s of memorials, occur from the thirteenth century to the era of the mural tablets now in use. Regular genealogical series of them are sometimes to be found in our country churches. 5. The _Public Records_, many of which have been printed at the national expense, contain an inexhaustible mine for the genealogist and historian. Particulars relating to knights" fees and other feudal matters are found in the "Black and Red Books of the Exchequer," the "Testa de Neville," the "Nomina Villarum," and the "Hundred Rolls." These are all of very early date. The fine, charter, close, patent, nona, and numerous other rolls, and particularly the Inquisitiones post mortem[315] and Escheat rolls are rich in materials for pedigrees. Lists of English gentry for certain counties occur temp. Edw. II; and the celebrated list of temp.
Hen. VI purports to contain the names of all the gentry in thirty counties. 6. The _Wills_ proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at Doctors" Commons commence so early as 1383, and those in several of the local registries are of considerable, though not of equal, antiquity.
These are of all doc.u.ments the most confidently to be relied on, containing as they do much information respecting the family-connexions of the testators. From a single will a descent of four generations can frequently be traced. 7. The _Heraldic Records_, gathered from doc.u.ments no longer extant, are most valuable. The Visitation-books, extending from 1528 to 1687, are in the College of Arms; and there are numerous other collections of pedigrees in public and private MS. libraries. The funeral certificates of the n.o.bility and gentry preserved at the College are most authentic and useful doc.u.ments, though apparently little known even amongst antiquaries. The following is a specimen:
"1578. Sire John Gefferay, knyght, Lord Chief Baron of the quenes majesties exchequer Died at his house in London on Twesday the xiij daye of Maye, and from thense was conveyed to his Maner house at Chettingligh in the County of Suss.e.x & was buryed at the p[ar]ishe churche of Chettingligh the xxij{th} daye of the same monthe A{o}.
1578, he maryed to his fierst wiff Alis doughte{r} & heire aperante to John Apesley of London, gent. & by her had yssue Elizabethe his only doughte{r} and heire; secondly he maryed Mary doughter to George Goringe of Lewis in the county of Suss.e.x, esquier, & by her had no yssue. The offycers of armes that se{r}vid their was Ric. Turpyn alias Windsor and Edmond Knyght alias Chester, herauldes. In Witnes of the truthe of this certyfycatt these [pt=]ies hereunder writen have subscribed their names the xxiij{th} daye of Maye a{o} 1578.
(Sign"d) GEORGE GORINGE.
W{M}. APSLEY. RICHARD JEFFERAY."[316]
8. Last, though not least, among the aids in tracing pedigrees, are _Parish Registers_. The dispersion of the monks, who had previously been the great register-keepers, gave rise to the necessity of these local records. A mandate was issued in 1538, by Thomas Cromwell, the king"s vicar-general, for the keeping, in every parish, of registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials. Many of the existing registers begin with that year, but more generally they commence in 1558, the first year of Elizabeth.[317]
Parish registers, when carefully kept, are amongst the most useful of public records. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in the earlier part of the eighteenth, they are in many instances a sort of chronicles not only of the rites of baptism, marriage, and burial, but also of interesting parochial events; such as fires, unusual mortalities, storms, alterations in the churches, and short remarks on the baptisms or burials of distinguished persons. The following extracts from various registers may not be unamusing to the reader:
"_Mr._ Henry Hastings, son & heir of Mr. Francis Hastings, was born on St. Nicholas" even, April 24, between the hours of 10 & 11 of the clock at night. Sign. Sagit. secund. die plenilunii Marte in Taurum intrato die precedente, & was christened May 17." _Eaton, co.
Rutland._
"1597. M{m}. forgotten until now, that Edmond Denmark & Alice Smyth were married the 24th. of May, 1584." _Thorington, Ess.e.x._
"1618. License to Lady Barbara Hastings to eat flesh in Lent, on account of her great age." _St. Mary, Leicester._
"1643. Richard s.n.a.t.c.hall, a stout yong man, a curious blacksmith, died of y{e} small-pox." _Chiddingly, co. Suss.e.x._
"1656. A time of mortality upon the d.i.c.ker. Richard Luccas, w{th}out any buriall was buried!" _Ibid._
It would be difficult to say how this was managed.
Some of the entries are occasionally very loose.
"1658. Buried. Wickens, a lame boy. 1659. A maide of N. M. A maide of R. B." _Ibid._
"An infant crisaned!"--Burials. "A mayde from the mill." "Black John."
"A prentice of M{r}. Kirford." "A Tinker of Berye in Suffolk." Vide _Grimaldi"s Orig. Geneal._
"Richard Cole and _his wife_ were marryed the xixth. of May 1612.
Symon Fuller was marryed the 3rd. of October, 1612." _Alfriston, co.
Suss.e.x._
"The son of a mason, buried x Feb. 1593."
"Mother Fowler buried 18th. Nov. 1603."
"Goody Hilton bur. April 7. 1699." _Ibid._
During the protectorate of Cromwell marriages were solemnized by justices of the peace. The following entry of such a marriage, cited by Mr.
Grimaldi, is a curious specimen of magisterial literature:
"_Marriadges._
_Begone_ the 30. September, 1653.
John Ridgway, _Bricklar_ and Mary Chart _widdow_ according to _a_ Act of Parliament _baringe_ date the 24. August 1653, _was_ three several times _publissed_ in the market-place, and afterwards _maried_ by _mee_ upon Tuesday, the _six_ of December, 1653.
"THOMAS ATKIN."
"1707. Married William Thunder and Eliz. Horscraft as is reputed but not certainly known _Anab.: Chiddingly._
"1718. M{r}. Thomas Shirley, a young Gentleman of great hopes, who in all probability had he lived longer would have been very useful to his country and neighbours." _Ibid._
"1722. This day were married by M{r}. Holloway, _I think_, a couple _whose names I could never learn_, for he allowed them to carry away the license." _Lincoln"s Inn Chapel._
"1705. Buried M{r}. Matt. Hutchinson, vicar of Gilling, worth 50 a year. 1706. M{rs}. Ursula Allen worth 600." _Richmond, co. York._
Many of the entries respecting local events are very curious; but as they belong still less than the foregoing to my subject, I must resist the temptation to transcribe any of them.
To these several princ.i.p.al sources of genealogical materials may be added the private memoranda preserved in many families, correspondence, entries in family bibles, and others which it is unnecessary to mention.
There are some persons who cannot discriminate between the taste for pedigree and the pride of ancestry. Now these two feelings, though they often combine in one individual, have no necessary connexion with each other. Man is said to be a hunting animal. Some hunt for foxes; others for fame or fortune. Others hunt in the intellectual field; some for the arcana of nature and of mind; some for the roots of words or the origin of things. I am fond of hunting out a pedigree. _Parva decent parvum._
Family pride, abstractedly considered, is one of the coa.r.s.est feelings of which our nature is susceptible.
"Those who on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge."
A great and wise man among the antients said
"----Genus, et proavos, et quae non fecimus ipsi, Vix ea nostra voco."
"The glory of ancestors," says Caius Marius, "casts a light indeed upon their posterity, but it only serves to show what the descendants are. It alike exhibits to full view their degeneracy and their worth."
"Boast not the t.i.tles of your ancestours, Brave youths! They"re _their_ possessions, none of _yours_; When your own virtues equall"d have their names, "Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames, For they are strong supporters; but, till then, The greatest are but growing gentlemen."
_Ben Jonson._
I do not know that I can more appropriately close this last chapter of my essay than by citing a pa.s.sage from Lord Lindsay"s introduction to his "Lives of the Lindsays," a pa.s.sage which ent.i.tles its author to as high a place among "virtue"s own n.o.blemen" as he deservedly occupies among the great ones of man"s creation.
"Be grateful, then, for your descent from religious as well as n.o.ble ancestors: it is your duty to be so, and this is the only worthy tribute you can now pay to their ashes. Yet, at the same time be most jealously on your guard lest this lawful satisfaction degenerate into arrogance, or a fancied superiority over those n.o.bles of G.o.d"s creation, who, endowed in other respects with every exalted quality, cannot point to a long line of ancestry. Pride is of all sins the most hateful in the sight of G.o.d; and of the proud, who is so mean, who so despicable as he who values himself on the merits of others? And were they all so meritorious, these boasted ancestors? were they all Christians? Remember, remember, if some of them have deserved praise, others have equally merited censure; if there have been "stainless knights," never yet was there a stainless family since Adam"s fall. Where, then, is boasting? for we would not I hope glory in iniquity.
"=Only the actions of the Just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.="
"One word more. Times are changed, and in many respects we are blessed with knowledge beyond our fathers, yet we must not on that account deem our hearts purer, or our lives holier, than theirs were. Nor, on the other hand, should we for a moment a.s.sent to the proposition, so often hazarded, that the virtues of chivalry are necessarily extinct with the system they adorned. Chivalry, in her purity, was a holy and lovely maiden, and many were the hearts refined and enn.o.bled by her influence; yet she proclaims to us not one virtue that is not derived from and summed up in Christianity. The age of chivalry may be past--the knight may no more be seen issuing from the embattled portal-arch on his barbed charger, his lance glittering in the sun, his banner streaming to the breeze,--but the spirit of chivalry can never die; through every change of external circ.u.mstances, through faction and tumult, through trial and suffering, through good report and evil report, still that spirit burns like love, the brighter and purer;--still, even in the nineteenth century, lights up its holiest shrine, the heart of that champion of the widow, that father of the fatherless, that liegeman of his G.o.d, his king, and his country, the n.o.ble-hearted but lowly-minded Christian gentleman of England."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
APPENDIX.
Differences, Abatements, Grant of Arms, etc. etc.