verted the pedigrees in that volume, or most of them, from the narrative to the tabular form, and this would increase the liability to error.

The pedigrees in the volume 16 Harl. Soc., are placed in alphabetical order. This, although very convenient for ready reference, prevents any conclusion of origin being drawn from the order in which they are put, and if, as is probable, they are differently grouped in the Norcliffe manuscript itself, such different grouping might tend to elucidate the sources from which that manuscript was compiled.

The facts and conclusions above stated are not intended to detract in any way from the value of the Norcliffe manuscript, as printed in the volume 16 Harl. Soc. That volume was edited with care by the Reverend Charles Best Norcliffe, who was a skilled genealogist, particularly versed in Yorkshire pedigrees. His notes alone illuminate many obscure points, and the entries in the volume itself have been of infinite assistance to local historians and genealogists for upwards of thirty years. They contain, in fact, nearly all that is in the present volume, and much besides. What is attempted to be pointed out, is that that volume is inaccurately described as being Flower's visitation of 1563-4, and that its prior publication does not lessen the desirability of trying to separate the pedigrees into various years, and of printing the collections actually made in 1563-4, in the present series from the source Ashmole MS. 834, compared with the Heralds' College MS. H. 19.

Although the volume 16 Harl. Soc. anticipates much of the information herein contained, it also leaves a considerable value attached to the printing also of the prior visitations and collection of pedigrees comprised in the present volume. They contain more first-hand information, and they are more nearly contemporary with the facts they record. The use of the present tense, frequently occurring in them under their several dates of 1552, 1558, and 1560-1, indicates what was the state of the families entered in them at those respective dates. An illustration of this datal value will be found with regard to the family of Anderson of Newcastle, whose pedigree is entered in all three of the above records of 1552, 1558, and 1560-1. It is shown by them that in 1552, Bertram Anderson had only one daughter named Isabel; between 1552 and 1558, a second daughter, Barbara, had been born; between 1558 and 1560-1 a third daughter, Alenson, had been given him, and a comparison of the entry in the collection of 1560-1 with his will of 1571, printed in Durham Wills, part iii, page 58, shows that his youngest son, Henry, was born between those latter

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dates. The above illustration, although showing clearly a sequence of dates, refers only to events of very minor importance, but the times of the births, marriages, and deaths of members of more historic families are also inferentially dated in the like manner, and the reader will find, in the text of the volume, confirmation of the dates of the happening of many stirring incidents in border history, and of the holding, by eminent men, of public offices in the north of England.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Except that contractions appearing in the manuscripts. have been enlarged, an attempt has been made to print the original manuscripts verbally and literally, thus following the rule cited by Raines* that the heralds should be allowed to give, in their own style, the result of their visitations.' Some of the many obscurities which will be found in the orthography of names and places are elucidated by the index.

Since this volume follows, in the chronological sequence of northern visitations, Longstaffe's edition of Tonge's visitation of 1530, the general style of that edition has been observed, and the names of main-line successors have been printed in italics, so as to afford a guide for the eye in following down the pedigrees. But, if the editor had to do the same work over again, he would substitute small capitals for the italics and leave the latter type free to indicate additions. The notes and the printed matter in brackets have been added by the editor. A list of the contractions used in indicating authorities frequently cited is given on a separate page immediately before this introduction.

In describing the shields of arms reproduced in the text where the colours are tricked on the face of the shield, only the names attributable to the impalements and quarterings are given below the shield, but, where the colours of the shield are not so tricked, the blazon also is there given. The original tricks of arms in the manuscripts vary in size, some of them being large; they have been reduced to about one regular size and are copies of the originals, with the exception that the lines have all been straightened.

In his notes to the pedigrees, the editor has not attempted (except in a few cases and for special reasons), to give references to the other published visitations in which the same pedigrees occur, with or without variation. That information is already available in a more complete form

* Flower's Visitation of Lancashire, 1567, introduction, p. viii.

than the editor could hope to emulate, in the late Dr. Marshall's book, The Genealogists' Guide, to which the reader is referred. Neither has he attempted (except in a few cases and for special reasons), to give additions of known ancestors and successors at the beginnings and ends of pedigrees. For these, the reader is referred to the county histories specified in Dr. Marshall's book above cited, and to that still more fruitful source of such information, Mr. J. H. Clay's edition of Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire with Additions, now in course of publication in the pages of the Genealogist. What he has tried to do, is to give references to wills, deeds, and inquests relating to persons actually named in the pedigrees in this volume, in order that the entries in those pedigrees may be verified or corrected, and even this he has only been able to accomplish in a partial and tentative manner. In the same way, he has referred in his notes to such grants of arms as have come under his notice, relating to persons mentioned in the pedigrees, in order that those grants may be compared with the arms and crests reproduced in this volume. For those references to arms, he is principally indebted to Mr. Arthur J. Jewers' 'Grants and Certificates of Arms,' contributed by him to the Genealogist, and to the late Mr. Foster's Grants of Arms,' being the Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 37147-8-9-50.

The best thanks of the editor are due to Mrs. Mackey for the loan of the Anstis manuscript, to_the_Secretary, Mr. William Brown, F.S.A., to Mr. H. H. E. Craster, M.A., F.S.A., Mr. J. Crawford Hodgson, M.A., F.S.A., and Mr. Richard Welford, M.A., for much kind advice and help, to Miss Drucker and Miss Parker for copies made at London and Oxford, to Miss Measham for the index, and lastly, but above all, to Mr. W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A., who has not only enriched the volume with the drawings for all the illustrations which appear in it, but has, throughout, encouraged the editor with his valuable advice and given him the benefit of his skilled experience.