Page:The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the British Empire Part 1.djvu/19

 PREFACE TO

HE genealogical requirements of the public having apparently been sufficiently supplied by the various annual Peerages and Baronetages published during the last half century, the necessity for an additional work on this never ending subject, and especially one the compilation of an amateur, will, in all probability, be questioned by many who glance for the first time at these pages.

I trust they will, however, consider it a sufficient reason for this appearance in a field which seems already occupied, that, for a long period, genealogists of status and experience have been of opinion that the editorial standard of works of this class has been most unsatisfactory. No advance worthy of the name has been made either in matter of pedigree, accuracy of coat armour, or heraldic illustrations, nor has any care been taken to exclude false titles, or those which may have been honestly assumed upon insufficient evidence. It would oven seem that some unscrupulous persons have been perfectly content to be their own authority, provided they could persuade an equally credulous Editor into making place for their "lineage" so called. This once secured, the Editors of minor works, apparently ready to accept any addition, reproduce each fiction as it appears, and, in course of time, not only the public but the very fountain itself of temporal honour is imposed upon.

It is besides unfortunately the fact that such works abound not only in inaccurate but in spurious coat armour. There are probably some families who may not be aware of their real position not only in this respect but also in the matter of pedigree, owing to the carelessness or indifference of their predecessors. There are, for example, Peers without supporters, and Peers and Baronets without armorial ensigns. There can, however, be no excuse for the liberty which has been assumed by Editors to distribute, on their own authority, these ancient marks of gentility or dignity.

I have based the pedigrees of the Peers upon the works of Dugdale, Collins, Douglas, and Lodge, and I have drawn upon those of Wotton and Betham for pedigrees of the earlier Baronets; but I have been extremely careful to discard what may be called the mythical legends of the British Nobility, some of which were so completely exposed by Mr. Freeman in his trenchant article entitled "Pedigrees and Pedigree Makers," published in the "Contemporary Review," June, 1877, and, instead of