SPUTA T()1?'S LIBRARY.

GENEALOGY,

Royal Descents : a Genealogical List of the several Persons entitled to Quarter the Arms of the Royal House of England. By Charles Edward Long, Esq.

Nichols and Son.

The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales. By John Burke, Esq., and

John Bernard Burke. Esq Churion. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. By John Burke, Esq., and John Bernard Burke, Esq., of the Middle Tem- ple, Barrister-at-Law. In two volumes Coiburn. Txxvmx,

Travels in the East. By Constantine Tischendord, Editor of the " Codex Ephrlimi Rescriptus," "Codex Frederico-Augustanns," Esc. Translated from the German, by W. E. Shuckard Longman and Co.

COLONIAL AGRICULTURE,

The Sugar-Planter's Manual : being a Treatise on the Art of obtaining Sugar from the Sugar-cane. By J. W. Evans, MI) Longman and Co.

WERKE AND LONG ON THE ROYAL FAMILIES AND GENTRY.

is the numerous genealogical works of these indefatigable compilers be any indication of public feeling, family pride and attachment to aristo- cratic associations never existed more strongly in this country : but their books show also an increase of public curiosity, and the same desire for full and minute information as is manifested respecting more important subjects. Singularly enough, the heraldic taste has also revived in Demo- cratic France, where many splendid books on genealogy and armory have recently appeared.

Though there are histories of the English, Scotch, and Irish Peerage, on Various plans and in various sizes, the Messrs. Burke were the first writers who considered the Gentry or Commoners of Great Britain deserving of similar commemoration; and they have printed four large volumes, which have gone through two editions, containing an account of many nundred families. As the information in that work had not been before given to the public, it is by far the most useful of all the Messrs. Burke's compila- tions ; for though the statements in it have rarely been proved by evi- dence, and though authorities are seldom cited, much of what is said is pro- bably true, while quite as much, especially with respect to the earlier parts of the pedigrees, is doubtful, and often manifestly erroneous. " The Commoners,' as the book is sometimes called, is in fact such accounts of the respective families as the existing representatives have thought pro- ' per to furnish, and which they desire the world to receive as the veritable history of their ancestors. Whether the editors exercised a sound discre- tion in admitting apocryphal and occasionally ridiculous stories, may well be questioned : and it might perhaps have been expected that they should, when it was practicable, have investigated and proved what they have printed. In many instances very little research, and in others even common attention, would have corrected many blun- ders : and, while every allowance is made for the difficulties and la- bour which such a publication required, there is one defeet that ought not to escape censure, because the motive was reprehensible. One of the Messrs. Burke's latest works is entitled "Heraldic Illustra- tions, comprising the Armorial Bearings of the principal Families of the Empire, with Pedigrees and Annotations " ; and consists of engraved plates, generally very well executed, of arms. It was an essential part of the plan of the editors of " The Commoners " to give the arms of all the families of which they treat. In the first edition the arms were engraved; in the second edition they are merely described: but it frequently happens in the second edition, that instead of even de- scribing the arms, the reader is referred for them to Mr. Burke's other work,—" Arms, see Burke's Heraldic Illustrations."* The Messrs. Burke have also published "A General Armory," or dictionary of the arms of all the families of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; and, not contented with trying to compel the purchasers of their "Common- ers" to acquire their "Heraldic Illustrations," they use the same means to oblige them to buy their "Armory ": thus we have at p. 1386, "Arms, see Burke's General Armory." This is book-making with a vengeance : for three distinct and expensive works must be obtained for information which not only ought to be there but which is professedly given in one of them. It is amusing to see how this puffing and advertising system pervades the whole of the Messrs. Burke's publications. In every page of any one of their books they refer to another,—" See Burke's Peerage," " See Burke's Baronetage," " See Burke's Commoners," "See Burke's Extinct and Dormant Peerages," "See Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies," "See Burke's Royal Families," &c. &c.; as if there were not other and far better books on these subjects to "see"; and as if Vincent, Dugdale, and Collins, had not furnished the staple and sometimes every fact in the books of these unscrupulous pillagers. To deny to the Messrs. Burke, or rather, we believe, to Mr. Bernard Burke, the merit of great industry, would be unjust; and their "Commoners" and " General Armory," (which contains the dictionaries of Edmondson, Rob- son, Berry, &c., with many additions,) are such useful compilations as to be indispensable in every library. " The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales "—Ireland being perhaps reserved until the repeal of the Union gives new interest to the history of her own Kings—is a more striking administration to personal vanity than any other of the Messrs. Burke's publications. To have " royal blood in our veins " sounds grandly to those who are uninitiated in genealogical lore ; and to see the fact promulgated in print, and made manifest "to the lowest capacity" by a long pedigree, with a king at the top and our own humble name and the names of all our little darlings at the bottom, is no doubt highly flattering to one's self-love. But, alas, how easily is the illusion dispelled ! Distinctions cease to be distinctions when largely shared ; and it will be seen that, so far from any peculiar honour being involved in tracing a descent from a king, it might nearly as well be traced to our common father, Adam. It is Marmontel, we believe, who says, " There are no kings who have not had slaves for

• Vide pp. 1375, 1486,1444, 1445, 1534, 1549, 1558, 1560, &c.

their ancestors—no slave who is not descended from kings." From William the Conqueror to our own time, there are usually twenty-five generations. " Every man," says Blackstone, " has two ancestors in the first degree; the number of whom is doubled at the first remove, be- cause each of our ancestors has also two immediate ancestors of his own " : and he proves that after twenty descents every one has 1,048,576 ancestors. Any pair of ancestors, at the same distance, have often at least an equal number of descendants: and it has been well said by Mr Long- " Misery,' we are told, makes people acquainted with strange bedfellows '; but we had yet to learn that a coheirship in the coat-armour of this potent king- dom would present such a motley group of claimants, now for the first time in- trodnced together to drink at the same fountain of honour: dukes and butchers— grand dukes and shoemakers—emperors and saddlers' apprentices: and still the line may yet stretch out hereafter to some 'high-born beggars,' tendering their tickets of admission to the honours of the royal shield. Such is this strange and startling assemblage; nay, more, we find an individual taking toll at a turnpike almost under the very walls of those feudal towers that gave the name to the ba- rony of which he is a coheir."

Of a mere descent from royalty Mr. Long truly says- " The nature of mere royal descents is well -known to dabblers in genealogy. When once you are enabled to place your client in a current of decent blood, you are certain (by a slight ilibernicism) to carry him up to some one of the three great fountains of honour—Edward the Third, Edward the First, or Henry the Third; and in families of good or even partially good descent, the deducing of a husband and wife from all the children of Edward the Third and all the children of Edward the First has been successfully established by perseverance and re- search."

Many of the Kings of England had large families ; and though no male

Plantagenet, no male Tudor, and no male Stuart descended from James the First is in existence, (a very surprising fact,) they have left innu- merable descendants in every class of society, from the first duke of the realm to perhaps the lowest beggar, all of whom can trace their pedigree to one or more of our Monarchs, with not less legal and perhaps greater ac- tual certainty than one half of mankind can trace their pedigree to a pater- nal great-grandfather. No British subject descends from a king of more modern date than Henry the Seventh; and his Majesty's descendants are of course less numerous than those of King Edward the Third; and these again are less numerous than the descendants of Edward the First; while all who descend &earl:Foul the Seventh are also descended from the previous Monarchs. This general diffusion of royal blood may be briefly explained. Let it be supposed that the mother of Mr. Snooks (whose name may hereafter adorn one of the Messrs. Burke's pedigrees) was Miss Polly Smith, the daughter of Mr. Smith by Miss Pattipan, whose sire married a Miss Jones ; whose mother's (a Miss Jenkins) mnther's mother was the daumhter of a man who married the daughter or granddaughter of a Howard, a Neville, or a Courtenay, &c.; whose ancestor married the granddaughter or great-granddaughter of one of the Edwards or Henries. Here is at once a royal descent ; and though the distance from the royal: source is very remote, and though the subsequent current is tortuous and has been polluted by many ignoble streams, it would still be sufficiently pure to convey a right to the crown were all the other descendants of that particular monarch extinct : and the most ancient peerages have been continually transmitted in a similar manner.

Royal as well as noble pedigrees have often required humble though vigorous grafts-

" The noble stock was graft with crab-tree slip."

It was only by repeated graftings that the present royal tree has borne its fruits ; and in our time it has had another imping from a foreign stock. Upon the Norman line was grafted the Plantagenet ; upon the Plantagenet the Mortimer; upon the Mortimer the Tudor; upon the Tudor the Stuart; upon the Stuart the Guelph ; and upon the Guelph the Co- burg. "Man will not abide in honour " ; and human pride never re- ceived more touching lessons than in the dilution of blood which is ne- cessary for the transmission of the proudest honours, and in the fate that awaits the descendants alike of emperors, kings, and nobles. A descendant and one of the representatives of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward the Third, who was consequently entitled to quarter the royal arms, (a distinction which their descent does not confer upon the present Royal Family,) was the sexton of St. George's Hanover Square ; and that right is now enjoyed by his sons, one an up- holsterer's apprentice, a second a saddler, and the third a shoemaker. The heir of the body of a son of Robert the Second of Scotland, and the in- heritor de jure of three ancient earldoms, died a pauper on the highway, and was buried by the charity of his neighbours. The coheirs of some old baronies have been found in a workhouse ; and one of the only two re- presentatives of Robert Fitz Walter Marshal of the Army of God and the Holy Church, the leader of the confederated Barons who extorted Magna Charta from King John, was a servant, and emigrated a few years ago at the expense of his native parish ! A summary view of the descendants of the Kings of England was pub- lished some years since ; * and the facts are extremely curious. Passing over the descendants of James the Second, all of whom are now ex- tinct, and also omitting the issue of Charles the First excluded by the last Act of Settlement, and who are now represented by the Duke of Modena, the Dutchess of Lucca, and the Empress of Austria, that work shows who then stood in the order of succession to the crown on the failure of descendants of all the respective Monarchs from George the Third back to William the Conqueror.

Failing the issue of James the First, the entire representation of Henry the Seventh would vest in the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos ; and his Grace does represent that Monarch's second daughter, on whose de- scendants Henry the Eighth settled the crown. The author then states who would succeed on failure of the then Duke of Chandos's issue.

• "The Order of Hereditary Succession to the Crown of these Kingdoms on Failure of immediate Heirs; wherein the right of inheritance vested in the several English families lawfully descended from the blood royal of Great Britain, is de- duced and successively attested. Inscribed to his Majesty." 4to. pp. 22, Vearsley 1783. The present living representatives of the various branches of the an- cient royal families are shown by a recent curious publication, entitled "Royal Descents : a genealogical list of the several persons entitled to quarter the arms of the Royal Houses of England," by Mr. Charles Ed- ward Long. This work has been compiled with great care and accu- racy, by a gentleman who was fully competent to the task ; and his labours are a valuable addition to genealogical and heraldic literature. Mr. Long informs us that the eldest coheir of Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Henry the Seventh, is the Duke of Modena • who is also the eldest coheir of Lionel Duke of Clarence and Edmund Duke of York, sons of Edward the Third, and of Edmund Earl of Kent, younger son of gdward the First : that the eldest coheir of Mary the youngest daughter of Henry the Seventh is the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos—of George Duke of Clarence second son of Edward the Fourth, the Mar- quis of Hastings—of time-honoured Lancaster John of Gaunt, and of Edmund of Lancaster, son of Henry the Third, the Queen of Spain—of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward the Third, Lord Stafford—and of Thomas of Brotherton, a son of Edward the First, Lord Stourton. It is only from these princes and princesses that a right to quarter the royal arms (except with marks of bastardy) has been de- rived. The learned author does not, however, seem to be impressed with what appears to us as a great anomaly in our heraldic system. Every- body has heard of the "seize quartiers," which Mr. Long says is "the most difficult and certainly the most satisfactory test of purity of blood "; and many hear of a Mr. Thompson or a Mr. Humfreys having several quarterings, among which are perhaps the royal arms of England. A right to the envied "sixteen quarters" depends only upon a descent from sixteen of a man's nearest ancestors who were entitled to armorial ensigns—that is, who were, in the foreign and true meaning of the word "noble." Each coat, therefore, indicates an ancestor who was obtained by the marriage of the bearer's father, paternal grandfather, pa- ternal great-grandfather, and paternal great-great-grandfather. The sixteen quarters consequently show blood only : but the English system professes to require two things, namely, legal representation and de- scent ; that is, the ancestor whose arms are quartered by his descendants must not have left any male issue. This principle is perfectly intelligible, and is consistent with the law of inheritance : but it is continually de- parted from in practice; for quarterings do not in many cases depend upon representation, inasmuch as all younger sons not only bear the same quarterings as the representative of their family, but they transmit them to their descendants. In these instances, and which explains the cause of so many persons quartering the royal arms, the English system is inconsistent with its first principle, because the arms of royal and other illustrious houses are borne by hundreds of persons who arc not the legal representatives of the ancestor to whom such arms belonged. According to the English system, if it were properly carried out, no one ought to quarter the arms of an ancestor unless he were his heir or at least his coheir at law. The Messrs. Burke describe the Duke of North- umberland as "one of, the co-representatives of Henry the Seventh," be- cause he quarters that. Monarch's arms : but his Grace is not one of Hen. ry's representatives, and this right to the royal arms is derived from

ce the anomalous practice to of allowing younger sons to bear and transmit quarterings.

. The compilers have, however, committed a much more serious mistake, in their anxiety to confer a royal descent upon the "Author of Pelham " ; and if they could grossly err with respect to so well-known a personage as the Countess of Barr, what faith is to be placed in their other pedi- grees ? King Edward the First's eldest daughter, the Princess Eleanor, who was born in 1268, was contracted by proxy to Alphonso King of Arragon; but he dying before the marriage, she became the wife, about April 1294, of Henry Count of Barr, and died in 1298, four years before her husband.* The Messrs. Burke take no notice in this pedigree of her marriage with the Count of Barr; but, calling her the widow of the King of Arragon, say she married Llewellyn ap Owen Lord of South Wales,—a gentleman whom, we will venture to say, she never saw,--and give her by him a son, Thomas ap Llewellyn ; from whom they 'deduce " Sir Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton of Knebworth, co. Herts, Bart." Now if Sir Edward paid the Messrs. Burke a fee for inserting this pedigree, we would parody Edie Ochiltree's remark to Oldbnck, and say to the Baronet, "If they have really imposed the 'pedigree ' on ye for an ancient wark, it's our real opinion the bargain will never baud gude, if you would just bring down your heart to try it at the law, and say that they beguiled ye.' Unless Sir Edward can find some other source for his royal blood than the fair Countess of Barr, he must, we fear, be contented to forego the distinction : and if he will only turn to Pedigree No. LILL, he will find a very different account given of the Countess by these erudite genealo- gists, though probably as true as the other.

* Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England, p. 139. Index VoL L 798. 944.