annunciationis Beatæ Mariæ Virginis ultimò præterito, hucusque provenientia sive

crcscientia.

Habenda eisdem le Garter regi Anglorum Anglicorum, Clarencieulx regi armorum partium Australium, Norry regi armorum partium Borialium, & aliis heraldis, prosecutoribus, sive purcivandis armorum prædictis, ex dono nostro, absque compoto seu aliquo alio pro inde nobis, hæredibus, vel successoribus nostris, quo modo reddendo, solvendo vel facendo;

Eo quòd expressa mentio, &c.

In cujus rei, &c.

Teste rege & reginâ, apud Hampton Court, decimo octavo die Julii.

Per breve de privato sigillo..

D.

REGULATIONS PROPOSED BY SIR WILLIAM DETHICK, KNT. GARTER KING AT ARMS.

I. The contents of their corporation, in all points, for the assembly, government, crudition, &c., in the office and officers of arms, to be kept and observed.

II. Chapters, general and particular, to be had and summoned..

III. The order and attendance for waiting at the court in high feasts to be duti fully performed.

IV. The house and college of the office of arms to be in good order, inhabited and repaired.

V. The general library in the office, and records there, to be preserved, ratified, and augmented.

VI. The kings, heralds, and pursuivants of arms, to be there at convenient times attendant, upon pain.

VII. The visitations made by Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy, to be limited or appointed to the heralds or pursuivants, and no other.

VIII. The burials or funerals to be orderly and duly served, and certificates entered.

IX. All painters, glaziers, goldsmiths, &c. for dealing in arms and pedigrees, to be inhibited.

X. Arms, pedigrees, searches, and all precedents, and acts of honor and gentility, and all other things, with the consents of the three kings of arms, in the general office, to be set out and registered.

XI. The

XI. The profits and commodities faithfully collected, and generally to such as deserve well duly parted.

And whilst York herald, in 1584*, propounded the setting up of an office in the court of wards, for the enrolling of descents and pedigrees of every one that was ward, or sued livery, for the public preservation of the remembrance of parents and progenitors, and of the conjunction of the blood and kindred with good proportion, to preserve that law in Magna Charta, cap. v. and the statutes at Marton, cap. vi. and vii. wherein the disparagements for marriages are especially forbidden. The wards did not enjoy the benefit of law in that point, so that some preservation in blood, in the course of that court, might go jointly together with the preservation of the inheritances.

The establishing such an office in the said court of wards, as he shewed to the Lord Treasurer, Burleigh, master of that court, would first tend to the adorning of it, for the honor and renown of the Queen, tending to a more perfect preservation of the genealogies and descents of her wards, and to perpetuate the same, and most convenient for the nobility and gentry of her realm. And, secondly, it would be a good and direct means to try and keep the records of the truth, against sundry occurrences and subtilities, contrived in prejudice of the minors and heirs in the said court.

And whereas it might be objected, that such an office seemed to be needless, since the heralds, in their own office, were diligent to search and register all pedigrees: To this he answered, that the heralds of arms had been long time past messengers of princes, allowed for their language, travel, and experience; but as to their dealings in pedigrees of nobility they did but privately collect and observe the marriages and issues of princes, nobles, and gentlemen, for their better knowledge and remembrance; whereof they took notice upon sight, relation, or slender surmises. But this action was intended to be committed to the custody of one private, secret, and sworn officer, a herald; and the pedigrees and consanguinities to be registered in this court should be grounded upon matter of record and warrant, provided by officers, traversers, and inquests, containing the names of the persons, times, and ages. Secondly, the form and manner of the pedigrees in this court should contain in the roundlet or circle of each descent, a certain notice of the age, time, liveries, and obiit of each person, convenient only for this court. Thirdly, this would be very grateful to the ward in his minority, for so careful a remembrance of his pedigree, and it would carry with it a proof of the deserts of the ancestors towards their posterity. For herein should some note be made of the tenure of the lands and manors, if it seemed good, with this addition, primus acquisitor; which might affect children with a grateful and respectful sense of those from whom they derived their estates and honors.

* Whilst York herald, Dethick, most improperly gave and exemplified arms under his seal of office, which was、 justly complained of, and perhaps raised the first dislike against him by the members of the College.

This, says Leake, Garter, was an ingenious project, and might, had it taken, have redounded considerably to his advantage, who had now been an attendant officer of arms twenty years, and complained of the mean profits thereof to be very small and uncertain; though with patience he at length got advancement.

E.

OWING to these constant jars, Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer of England, Cha. Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England, and Henry, Baron of Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain of her Majesty's household, Knights of the most noble order of the Garter, and deputed by commission for the office of Earl Marshal of England, set out orders to be observed and kept by the kings, heralds, and pursuivants of arms, that then or thereafter should be. Which, after recapitulating most of the most memorable circumstances that had happened from a very early period, beginning with noticing sundry ancient ordinances, statutes, and decrees, made and established as well by the most high and mighty Prince, Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, &c. as by divers other constables and Earl Marshals of England succeeding, until the time of Thomas, late Duke of Norfolk, for the good estate, rule, and government of the office and officers of arms, they make the orders, of which these are the titles:

I. The scite of the house appropriated to the College of Heralds..

II. Records to be safely kept.

III. Daily attendance in the office.

IV. Prerogative and office of Garter.

V. Burials, &c. for Garter.

VI. Office of provincial kings.

VII. Burials, &c. for the provincial kings.

VIII. Arms to be given, with consent of the Earl Marshal.

IX. None to trick or publish arms to posterity, without privity of the office.

X. Chapters to be holden for learning, knowledge, and doubts.

XI. Allowance of pursuivants.

XII. Avoiding of controversies, the gall hitherto.

XIII. How far authority is yielded to the king's chapter.

XIV. Power in visitations.

XV. Oath for performing and due keeping of these statutes.

These orders were made in consequence of the report of Sir Edward Hoby and

Sir George Carew, deputed by Lords Burleigh and Howard, who had been appointed

to act in the office of the Earl Marshal of England, and for reviving the decayed estate of this College, to do which they had been authorized to call before them all the members of it, and to make inquisition of all manner of arms, by them given to any person without good warrant, or usurped and taken by any without the like warrant, and to annul them; that the society might again be re-established and cleared from these quarrels and misunderstandings, that had extremely injured them, from the year 1593 to 1596 both inclusive. These orders were presented to the two noblemen, in the month of September in the last year, and were requested by their deputies to be signed; but it is not known whether they did or not. "The causes of dispute," says Mr. Dallaway, "were usually the infringements made by Garter upon the exclusive provincial privileges of the other kings."

F.

Particulars of the Quarrel between Garter, Dethick, and Cook, Clarenceux, Kings at Arms, in the Reign of 2. Elizabeth. The Complaint of Clarenceux has been already mentioned. Garter complained to Lord Burleigh and Lord Howard*.

"THAT as concerning Cook, Clarenceux's birth, he was sprung of a tanner; of "his ignorance of languages, that he was not able to speak French; of his dissolute "life, being guilty of haunting taverns, marrying another man's wife, prodigality, ❝and running into debt; injuring the office, in that he, and Chester, had spoiled the "library in the office of arms of more than forty or fifty books at one time. That he "made a multitude of gentlemen by himself, under the name of principal king of "arms (being but Clarenceux). That his deputy ranged over all the realm, giving, "altering, and changing shields of arms, and cognizances of honor, to all sorts of men, "and of all faculties; obtruding arms to some, and exacting fees, exceeding the "Queen's fifteens; and many pedigrees were unregistered. And as his deputy went "about in sundry shires of England, so he went about in London, into all companies "and

1

Clarenceux, Norroy, and Lancaster, were the seniors of Dethick in office, which, with his improper conduct whilst York herald, occasioned their dislike probably, and Glover, Somerset, was also his senior as herald, though junior as pursuivant, and these joined in reprobating the words, Necnon visitandi & armorum insignia claris viris donandi, as if he had surreptitiously obtained their insertion, but from this charge he exculpated himself: they feared his violent temper, and their fears were verified.

"and societies, and in every street, commanding merchants, mechanical men, and "artificers, before him at sundry taverns, and gave and allowed arms to all manner of persons, at all prices, and for good cheer, contrary to all honor, and yet wasted all. "That he had a grant of the Queen worth £1000, but consumed it. He was also "charged for giving the Earl of Desmond's arms to one Captain Cheston."

Whatever truth there might be in these relations, a much severer blame fell upon Garter, who was suspended; and of the ability and industry of Cook, Clarenceux, the following is a demonstration : "At his death the Lord Burleigh, acting as Earl Mar"shal, knowing he had many books of heraldry (some whereof he had taken out of "the office violently) sent to the Lord Mayor and sheriffs to take an inventory of his "books, which they did, and returned a catalogue of them. Then Dethick, Garter, propounded to the said Lord, that they might have them at a reasonable price to the "said office; being sorry, as he said, that the mayor and merchants of London should "have the perusal of the honorable secrets of the office of arms, and have the custody "thereof, who might not arrest their bodies, and yet keep their records. By this cata"logue, Cook seems to have been a very diligent man in his science, consisting of a vast "collection of descents and pedigrees of English noblemen, gentlemen, and strangers, "statutes of the order of the Garter, ancient patents, evidences, certificates, visitations "of the counties of Leicester, Warwick, Lincoln, the city of London, Surrey, Kent, Hamps, Sussex, Cornwall, Cambridge, Hertford, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk; justs, (1 proceedings to coronations and combats, divers books of tricks of arms, escripts, "writings, muniments with seals of the same, notes of the wars of K. Edw. HI. and 66 many old papers and offices from Henry III. to Henry VI."

ceux,

G.

DETHICK, Garter, had also his complaints against Cook's successor, Lee, Clarenfor he accused him of having invaded his office for the burial of Bishops, and "the Lord Mayor of London. He accused him also to the commissioners of the "Earl Marshal's office, for using an hearse in the funeral of a knight batchelor, viz. "Sir Richard Baker. To which he answered for himself, that knights' funerals had, according to custom, hearses as well as barons. Nor did hearses make any differ"ence or distinction between those two degrees, and that the using thereof was left to "the discretion of the officers at arms, as mere indifferent; and that the said hearse "of that knight wanted ornaments, wherewith the hearses of barons were garnished. "Garter also accused the said Lec, that he had allowed and set out the arms and "funerals