Catalogue of English Gentry

Scope and Content

Catalogue of English gentry and their arms, taken from sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century visitations. Under each letter of the alphabet, there are separate lists of gentry within each county, with brief heraldic descriptions of their arms. According to the title page over 5,400 families are listed. However, the work is unfinished, ending at Orgon. There are also c 600 emblazoned arms. Entitled: An alphabetical catalogue of English gentry in their several counties: together with the arms and crests they bear, curiously depicted. NB These arms, etc. seem to be taken from or collated with the books of visitations etc. in the Heralds Office.

Access Information

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from the bookseller J.E. Cornish in March 1927.

Note

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan, project archivist.

Other Finding Aids

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928 (English MS 418).

Custodial History

Former owner: R. Huggett, MA: possibly Roger Huggett, who matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford in 1731, aged 20; Christ Church, BA 1734, MA 1739: see Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford, part 2, 1715-1886, vol. 2 (Oxford: Parker and Co., 1891).