TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN FREEMAN MITFORD, BARON REDESDALE OF REDESDALE, IN THE COUNTY OF NORTHUMBERLAND, A PRIVY COUNSELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, AND A LORD OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS, F.R.S. F.S.A. MY LORD, Respect for your Lordship's eminent public services, and more especially for the important assistance which your profound legal acquirements have afforded to the "Lords' Committees appointed to search for documents touching the dignity of a Peer of the Realm," has induced me to solicit the honour of being allowed to inscribe these Volumes to your Lordship; and as there is no individual so competent to judge if they are in any degree worthy of consideration, I assure you, my Lord, that there is no one whose approbation of them I should be so proud to obtain. With the highest respect, I have the honour to subscribe myself, June 13, 1825. Your Lordship's humble NICHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS. PREFACE: MUCH as has been published on the Peerage of England, most persons conversant with the subject have probably felt that a work was required which should contain a concise account, not only of the state of every Title of Dignity which has existed in this Country, from the Conquest to the present time, but which would also present to a single reference the surname of each individual who possessed a particular honour in any year within that period; for, from the mutability of political affairs in the early part of our history, the same title has often been borne by four, five, and even ten different families. It is consequently impossible to remember the family-name of the person, when, as is uniformly the case, he is mentioned by historians by his title, and to ascertain it has hitherto been attended with much research. Antiquaries, it is true, generally possess those voluminous and expensive works which contain every information on the subject; but from their comparative rarity, as well as the peculiar nature of their contents, they are but little consulted by the more numerous classes of the literary world; and it is presumed, that even Antiquaries themselves have frequently experienced the want of a small work, containing those general points of information connected with the English Peerage, which occasion them, on each reference, much trouble and loss of time. These considerations have led to the compilation of the "SYNOPSIS OF THE PEERAGE OF ENGLAND,' which exhibits, under strictly alphabetical arrangement, the descent of every Title which has been conferred in this Country since the accession of William the Conqueror, the manner and period of its creation, the dates of the deaths of those who inherited it, and of the year when each. dignity became extinct, was forfeited, or fell into abeyance: and to render the Work more complete, a list of all the Prelates who have filled the different Sees within the same period is inserted; and references will be found to the proofs which the printed Rolls of Parliament afford of the Sittings in Parliament of Barons of the Realm-an object of considerable importance to a work of this kind, because, without such proof, no title which originated in a Writ of Summons can be successfully claimed, or, in other words, can now be deemed to exist. Under the same head some observations are submitted, tending to establish that the Letter written by the Barons, who were assembled in the Parliament which met at Lincoln in February, 1300-1, anno 29 Edw. I. should also be received as an undoubted proof of Sitting in Parliament; and the very material circumstance, that the admission of that Letter would establish the existence of many Baronies which must otherwise be considered to be extinct, will, it is expected, be thought a sufficient excuse for the space which has been devoted to it. At the end of the second volume, an Alphabetical List of all the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter is introduced, because such a List is only to be found in a scarce tract, whilst its utility to those who are interested in the biography of illustrious persons, cannot be doubted. A similar |