Joseph Edmondson, F.S.A. (author of ‘Baronagium Genealogicum,’ 1764, and ‘A Complete Body of Heraldry,’ 1780,) was of humble parentage. Becoming a herald-painter, that pursuit led his naturally inquisitive genius to the study of heraldry and family history, and the two works referred to are sufficient monuments of his assiduity in both. His merits raised him to the office of Mowbray Herald Extraordinary, but even after his appointment to that honour, he continued his business as a coach-painter, thus uniting the seemingly discordant avocations, science and trade. He died in 1786. The ‘Baronagium’ consists of five folio volumes, and contains the pedigrees of the peers, originally drawn up by Sir W. Segar, enlarged and continued to 1764. The ‘Complete Body’ is in two volumes folio, and must be regarded as the great standard work on the subject of English heraldry. It contains numerous dissertations on the origin and history of the science, on the great offices of state, on the heralds, on knighthood, on the arms of corporate bodies, on blazon in all its departments, an alphabet of 50,000 coats of arms, and various other interesting matters. The celebrated Sir Joseph Ayloffe assisted the author in both these works. Edmondson possessed what was somewhat rare in his day—good taste on the subject of blazon. He animadverts with becoming asperity on the ridiculous landscape-painting which disfigures some modern arms and augmentations, and justly remarks that the “several charges they contain, puts it out of the power of a very good herald to draw new arms from their blazons.” On the subject of crests he adds, “Crests are objects intended to strike the beholder at a distance,” and then produces the instance of a crest lately granted to the family of Titlow: “a book, on the book a silver penny! and on the penny the Lord’s Prayer!! and on the top of the book a dove, holding in its beak a crow-quill pen!!!”[304]
Francis Grose, Esq., F.S.A., held the office of Richmond herald, but resigned it in 1763 to become paymaster of the Hampshire militia. His numerous antiquarian works are well known; but I am not aware that he contributed anything towards the advancement of heraldric literature.
Ralph Bigland, Esq., Somerset, and at length Garter, published in 1764 a very curious and useful book on Parochial Registers. He made large collections for a History of Gloucestershire, which were posthumously published by his son. He died in 1784.
The Rev. James Dallaway, A.M. F.S.A., &c. obtained a well-deserved celebrity as the author of ‘Inquiries into the Origin and Progress of Heraldry in England,’ published in 1793. This learned and elegant work traces the history of our science from its source in the feudal ages to his own times; and has the merit of having made attractive to the general reader a subject from which he had hitherto turned away in disgust. Moule compares its style to that of Tacitus. A new edition, with additional literary illustrations and more appropriate embellishments, appears to me to be a desideratum.
The Rev. Mark Noble, F.S.A., rector of Barming, co. Kent, wrote, besides several other works, ‘Memoirs of the House of Cromwell,’ and ‘A History of the College of Arms,’ with lives of all the officers from Richard III to the year 1805. The value of the latter production is generally acknowledged, though Mr. Moule accuses the author of partiality in the biographical department. To this work I am under great obligations, particularly for many of the materials of Chapter XI of this volume.
Thomas Brydson, F.S.A., Edinburgh, published in 1795 ‘A Summary View of Heraldry, in reference to the usages of chivalry and the general economy of the feudal system,’—an agreeable and intelligent work, which will be read with much interest by those who study our science historically. About the same time, a lady—for the first time I think since the days of Dame Julyan Berners—makes her appearance in the field of heraldric literature: ‘Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry, by a Lady.’ This work, which was published at Worcester, is generally attributed to a Mrs. Dobson, and abounds with curious information relative to the acquisition of particular coats of arms.[305]
Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart., wrote several works on the peerage, particularly ‘A Biographical Peerage of Great Britain,’ and edited Collins’s voluminous and popular work.
The anonymous volume on the ‘Historical and Allusive Arms’ of British Families, noticed at page 162, is ascribed to Colonel De la Motte. It appeared in 1803.
The Rev. W. Betham, of Stonham-Aspall, Suffolk, published ‘Genealogical Tables’ of the sovereigns of the world, and an elaborate ‘Baronetage,’ in five volumes, 4to, (1805.) T. C. Banks, Esq., between 1807 and 1816, produced several works of great importance, particularly ‘The Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England,’ an elaborate and spiritedly-written work. In 1809 appeared that most voluminous work, ‘British Family Antiquity,’ a genealogical view of the titled classes of the United Kingdom, in nine vols. 4to, by W. Playfair, Esq. Joseph Haslewood, Esq., celebrated for his vast bibliographical knowledge, reprinted in 1810 the treatises on hawking, hunting, coat-armour, &c., known as the ‘Boke of St. Albans,’ from the edition of W. de Worde, 1496. Mr. Haslewood’s edition is printed in black letter with fac-simile cuts, and is designated by Mr. Moule “one of the choicest specimens of printing which have issued from the modern press.” Mr. W. Berry, the compiler of several minor works, published in 1825, and following years, his ‘Encyclopædia Heraldica,’ 4 vols. 4to, including dictionaries of the technical terms of heraldry and of family bearings. Of the latter there are 90,000 examples. Mr. Berry has subsequently published a series of volumes containing tabular pedigrees of the principal families (contributed in part by the resident gentry) of Kent, Sussex, Hants, Surrey, Bucks, Berks, Essex, and Herts, under the general title of ‘County Genealogies.’ Some severe criticisms on one of the early volumes of this work, in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ induced the editor to commence proceedings in the Court of King’s Bench against the conductor of that periodical for a libel. In 1830 appeared another large compilation, entitled Robson’s ‘British Herald.’ It was published at Sunderland, in three vols. 4to. It contains the arms of many of the gentry of Scotland and the Northern Counties of England, which are not to be found in any previous work. In 1822, Thomas Moule, Esq., published ‘Bibliotheca Heraldica,’ a catalogue of all the works that have appeared on heraldry and kindred subjects in this country. To this highly useful publication I am greatly indebted. In 1842 Mr. Moule published a beautiful and interesting volume entitled ‘The Heraldry of Fish,’ containing notices of all the charges “with fin or shell” which occur in the arms of English families, with excellent illustrations on wood.
“Within the last twenty years,” observes Mr. Montagu, “there have been published some of the very best works that have ever appeared, connected with the subject of heraldry, and its kindred science, genealogy.” I much regret my inability to do justice to living and to recently deceased authors in this department of literary effort. In this book-teeming age it would be laborious merely to name all the persons who have written on the subject within the last few years. It will suffice for my purpose to mention some of those who stand præ cæteris, either in the intrinsic merit or the magnitude of their productions.