[301] Book III, Chap. iii.

[302] The Holmes of which our author was a member were a remarkable family. They were of gentle origin, their ancestors having been seated at the manor of Tranmere in the Hundred of Wirral, in Cheshire.

William Holme, of Tranmere.
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Thomas Holme, third son.
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(1.) Randle Holme, 1st son, deputy to the Coll. of Arms for Cheshire,
Shropshire, and North Wales; paid a fine of £10 for contempt in
refusing to attend the Coronation of Chas. I. Mayor of Chester 1634;
married the widow of Thos. Chaloner, Ulster King of Arms. Died 1655.
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(2.) Randle Holme, a warm royalist, Mayor of Chester in 1643, during
the siege. Died 12 Charles II.
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(3.) Randle Holme, author of the ‘Academy,’ Sewer of the Chamber in
extraordinary to Chas. II. He followed the employment of his father and
grandfather as deputy to the Kings of Arms. Died 1700, and was
succeeded in office by his eldest son.
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(4.) Randle Holme. Died in 1707, in reduced circumstances.
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(5.) Randle Holme and his sisters died before their father.

The heraldric collections of the first four Randle Holmes, relating chiefly to their native county, are in the British Museum. Ormerod’s Cheshire; Moule’s Bibliotheca, p. 240 et seq.

[303] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 377.

[304] Moule, 435.

[305] The following works appeared between the years 1760 and 1800. Douglas’s Scotch Peerage, 1764, (reprinted in 1813). Kimber’s Peerage and his Baronetage. Jacob’s Peerage, 3 vols. fol. Almon’s Peerages; these afterwards went under the name of Debrett; Peerages by Barlow, Archdall, Catton and Kearsley. Many of these compilations bear the names of the publishers. Two popular elementary treatises also appeared, viz. ‘The Elements of Heraldry,’ by Mark Antony Porny, French Master at Eton, several editions; and Hugh Clark’s ‘Introduction to Heraldry,’ the 13th edition of which, lately published, is one of the prettiest little manuals ever published on the subject. Clark also published ‘A Concise History of Knighthood,’ 2 vols. 8vo.

[306] Orig. Gen. p. 4.

[307] 1812.

[308] A village on the western bank of the Tamar in the parish of Landulph.