This week’s theme promptly took my
thoughts off to the reference works available for those who have connections
with or are researching the landed gentry. These are those families that are not Peers,
but slightly lower down in the social scale, but still significant in their
locality. The local squire living in the
manor house, or the vicar, who was often of a good family, but not the eldest
son. There is the old saying that eldest
son inherits, one son goes in the Army or Navy and another the Church. Allied with the narrative genealogies
contained in such tomes as Burke’s Landed Gentry, Walford’s County
Families and Fox-Davies’ Armorial Families, there are also the older
county histories which often give a narrative of the descent of a manor through
inheritance, sale, or gift. Allied with
this is the monumental 19 century Owners of the Land volumes. For the 16th and 17th
centuries there are also the Heralds’ Visitations which record those people in
a county who used coats of arms and in many cases also include a pedigree,
sometimes on 3 generations, sometimes considerably more.
Although these tools are
marvellous and so informative, it must be remembered that the information was
often supplied by the person paying for the entry, so, sometimes people are
left out, deliberately or otherwise. Later
editions of the same serial do not always contain such detail as earlier
editions, especially with descents of younger children and daughters. Some family members do not appear at all in
later editions. This is like the Peerage, Baronetage and
Knightage volumes published by Burke’s, Debrett’s and others since the 1700s. In the case of Burke’s, they circulated a
‘questionnaire’ to family members to fill in, so the data is only as good as
manuscripts the family may have in their possession and family memory. Sometimes generations are muddled, left out
entirely, or successive editions contradict.
Many of these works have now been
digitised and are available online to browse, but there is nothing quite like
browsing a real book. Whilst to research
an initial family, you will usually find notes and connections to other
families listed in the volume, or in other books such as the Peerage. I find that a hard copy is much easier to
browse that a digital version.
If you live near to a Library
with good genealogical or heraldic collections, it may be worth visiting and
looking at a series of differently dated serial volumes to compare the
information included. If, like us, you
love collecting books that will be useful for genealogical and heraldic
research, keep your eyes peeled in antique fairs, bookshops, or online auction
sites. The books are heavy and can be huge,
but think of all the information they contain.
The intertwining of the landed
families with peers and even royalty is fascinating. As has been shown on the popular TV
programme, Who Do You Think You Are? if a family can prove its descent from
a landed family, by going back a few more generations you may find a link to a
younger child of a peer. Once you get
into peerage territory there is a possibility that an advantageous marriage
will link the family you are tracing with a so called ‘gateway ancestor’,
usually a female, who is your key person for pushing your family back to a
possible royal descent.
An example:
On our bookshelves we have a
short ‘run’ of Burke’s Landed Gentry volumes, dated 1879 (2 vols), 1906,
1937, 1952 and 1965 (3 vols). The oldest
one is the tattiest. We’ve also got a few Peerages too.
For example, the Corbet of
Adderley Hall family appear in 3 of the books, in 1879, 1906 and 1937. By looking at each entry, earliest first, a
pedigree of the family can be constructed as well as further clues found as to
their earlier lineage and marital connections.
1879
This entry shows that the family is connected to a Baronetage family and refers the reader to Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage for the earlier pedigree and armorial bearings. Henry Corbet’s wife was the daughter of a Baronet and he himself the nephew of another Baronet.
1906
In this entry there is the
addition of an illustration of the family coat of arms, taken form a seal. There is also more information about their
armorial bearings. The eldest son of
Henry Corbet, Reginald, is now heading the pedigree, with his younger brother
Bertram’s issue also listed.
1937
The family is still headed by
Reginald Corbet and his issue, a daughter.
The younger brother Bertram’s issue is included, a son who died in 1918
and a daughter with the details of her marriage.
A family left with no male heirs. Many other gentry families were in the same situation after the first world war, a time of change in the social order, a time that saw the abandonment of large family houses and estates for want of a male heir. There are of course still the well to do families, but there is a blurring of the defining lines of the class structure. There has always been the nouveau riche, the tradespeople who have risen up the social ladder with advantageous marriages, as well as the younger sons of well to do families who have had to work for a living as an apprentice in a trade, in the Army or Navy, in business, the Church or the Law. You never know, with enough digging you may find that your family can link with a gentry family.
You may find it
interesting to research the families that they might have worked for, as a
servant. My own great grandmother was a cook
for the Delme-Radcliffe family of Hitchin Priory in Hertfordshire UK. Their family archive is held at the
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) in Hertford, Hertfordshire UK.
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