Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/3

 PllEFACE. Tim work is intended as an ;d»Unh^tk-;l " Si/nop*/* " of the entire Hkrrhjtauy Peerage, extant, cxtinefc, or dormant, of England, Great BlSteiB and the United Kingdom, as also of Scotland and Ireland (including such Peerages as have been created for life only by charter or patent), containing a short account of each Peer, and stating also (where it can be ascertained) the date and place of birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial, not only of all the Peers themselves, but of their respective wives, together with other particulars, including the name and description of the father and mother of each Peer and Peeress The succession to the title is shown, and Hie plan generally adopted is almost the same as in the " Svxopsis ok the Peerage ok England " (a work .if infinite labour ami merit), edited by that well-known antiquarian genealogist, Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Q.C.M.G., in 182T). Of this work (after his death), a new edition, under the the name of the "Historr: Peerage ok Kngla.ni>,'' was issued in 1857, with many very valuable additions, by one Who was most thoroughly competent for snch a work, '"'.v., William Conrthone, late (1854--6G) Somerset Herald. Both these works, however (besides that upwards of a quarter of a century has elapsed since the publication of the latter), take nfl imtfati of the Peerage of Seothiwl <>r Imhtwl, and (though most useful, and indeed in- dispensable, to ail genealogists) contain, *nw m hike Eiiylisili JPi-ers,a, somewhat meagre (though accurate) account ; while mi Hutiw whatever is taken o/theil' a//iattrr.<. This work includes such eldest sons or grandsons of Dukes, Mar- quesses, or Earls, who, having been styled by a emtrtegy title as heirs apparent to such Peerages, have died in the lifetime of their respective fathers or grandfathers. Of these the account is placed immediately after the notice of such their ancestors. With respect to Baronies by tenure (of which a fuller and more accurate account than any hitherto published is greatly to be wished), no mure t'j-timihul iicrotnit of Shorn, as far as regards the Peerage of England (excepting in a fine important ami exceptional cases), is here given than that which is afforded in Courthope's "Historic Peerage;" such additions or corrections, however (which unfortunately are but few), as have been inserted by Mr. Courthope in his own interleaved B