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 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xxxi The account of existing Peers, or even of existing Peerages, forms but a small part of this work. An acknowledgement is however due to the various Editors of the Annual Peerages for such information as may have been taken therefrom, e.g., from " Dod " it may have been culled that a certain Peer was born in Wilton Crescent, educated at Harrow i^c. ; from " Lodge " that some nobly born lady of an uncertain age was actually born on some precise (though possibly ancient) date ; from " Foster, " that a marriage or birth occurred at some hitherto unascertained and unsuspected period ; as also a full account of all the places for which the embryo Peer was M.P., with the dates thereof, and many other precise and well verified dates ; while from " Burke " — but who can say what can, or rather what can not, be found in the closely printed and well-arranged pages of that most energetic and chivalrous King of Arms ? His are the Extant and Extinct Peerage, the Extant and Extinct Baronetage, the Landed Gentry, the Vicissitudes of Families, the Anecdotes of the Aristocracy, tfc, i^c., ^c. The amount of indebtedness which all who write on a kindred subject must feel to this all comprehensive and indefatigable genealogical writer cannot be too deeply acknowledged. The account of the Family estates is taken from Bateman's " Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland," 1883. An earlier edition was pub. in 1878. A still earlier one, which related to England alone (being called " The Acre-ocracy of England ") was pub. in 1876. It should also be mentioned that, early in 1886 (about two years after this publication had commenced) a most important work, as far as the higher grades (Dukes to Viscounts) of the English Peerage is concerned, has appeared. It is entitled (somewhat strangely, inasmuch as it is not by an " official, " nor under " official " sanction, and [alas !] does not (excepting in some few special instances) contain the " Barons ") " The official Baronage of England, by James E. Doyle. " [3 vols. 4to.]. The great value of this work consists in the long list of the various appointments held by the Peers therein men- tioned, the dates whereof (of which a free use has been made in this work), having been sought out, with wonderful and most commendable industry, from the original authorities by the indefatigable Editor. Among the persons who energetically assisted the Editor during the progress of the work (1884-97) are, taking first those who have passed away before its completion in the order of their death, [i] Edmund Mon- tagu Boyle, d. 11 Aug. 1885 aged 40 ; [2] Robert Riddle Stodart, Lyon Clerk Depute (1863-86) d. 19 Apr. 1886, aged 58 ; [3] Walford Dakin Selby, of the Public Record Ofiice, Editor (1884-88) of The Genealogist," N.S., vols. I to 5 (in which work, from Jan. 1884 to Dec. 1889, the first two vols, of this Peerage were first issued), who d. 3 Aug. 1889 aged 45, and as to whom see The Genealogist, N.S., vol. vi, pp. 65-68 ; [4] George Burnett, LL.D., Lyon King of Arms (1866-90) who d. 24 Jan. 1890, as to whom see The Genealogist, N.S., vol. vi, pp. 213-215 ; [5] Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms (1853-92), above mentioned, who d. 12 Dec. 1892, aged 80, as to whom see The Genealogist, N.S., vol. ix, p. 186 ; [6] Michael J. M. Shaw-Stewart, sometime in the Bombay Civil Service,