Cheshire Pedigrees

The volume contains emblazoned coats of arms and notes on the nobility and gentry of Cheshire. Information has been extracted from various sources, including the Domesday Book and Glover's Visitation of Cheshire. There is an index of names at the front of the manuscript. Contents include:

• Names of all the knights and esquires of Cheshire, 1580 (ff. 35-41);
• Knights dubbed in Ireland by Sir H. Sydney [Sir Henry Sidney (1529-1586), lord deputy of Ireland] (f. 46v);
• The definition of the word esquire (f. 48v);
• Line drawings of 'ancient seals' (ff. 65-67);
• Extracts from Domesday (f. 140);
• Arms of the ancient nobility from... (word illeg.) Edward down to William De Percy (ff. 146-156).

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from F. Holland of Llandudno in March 1906.

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan, project archivist, and John Hodgson, Keeper of Manuscripts and Archives.

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928 (English MS 99).

Former owner: John Holland (early 19th-century slip annotated 'John Holland, No. 43' pasted inside the front cover).