Transcript:Great Britain. Public Record Office. Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records/47/Appendix 6

Appendix to the forty-seventh annual report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records.

[page 78]

No. 6.—Lists of Creations of Peers and Baronets, compiled from Original Documents in the Public Record Office.—Richard III. to Charles I. (1483–1646.)

Lists :—

• Creations of Peers.
• Creations of Baronets.

Descriptive Notes.

The following list of creations of Peers (including Earls Marshal), prepared from the Patent and Charter Rolls and other original sources of information preserved in the Public Record Office, has been undertaken in continuation—in a concise form—of Appendix No. 2 to the “ Reports from the Lords Committees appointed to search the Journals of the House, Rolls of Parliament, and other Records and Documents for all matters touching the Dignity of a Peer of the Realm, &c., &c., presented to the House 12 July 1819.”

That Appendix contains creations to the end of the reign of Edward IV., and—as no creations have been found during the reign of Edward V.—the present list commences from the accession of Richard III. It concludes with the end of the reign of Charles I.

The Patent Roll Calendars have been searched for entries of creations enrolled on the Patent Rolls, the Rolls themselves being consulted only for purposes of verification and detailed information.

In addition to creations by Patent, the list includes the first-recorded mention of Baronies created by Writ of Summons to Parliament : this information has been taken from the enrolment of Summons on the dorse of the Close Rolls till the 21st year of the reign of Henry VIII., after which date, as such enrolments are no longer found, the Parliamentary Pawns (Petty Bag Office) have been used. The series of Pawns is very imperfect, and, consequently, the names of certain Baronies, mentioned in “ Dugdale's Summons ” and other printed works, have been altogether omitted from this list, while others do not appear under the date given in those works for their first summons. For instance :—Henry Compton is stated by Dugdale, on the authority of the Journals of the House of Lords, to have been summoned to the Parliaments of 14 and 18 Elizabeth, but his name does not appear in this list till the Parliament of 28 Elizabeth, as no Pawns have been found for any earlier year of her reign.

Such Baronies created by Writ as, through failure of male heirs, passed through the female line, have been recorded in this list, in order to account for the introduction of new family names—as also cases of husbands summoned to Parliament in right of their wives.

The names also of such eldest sons of Peers as were summoned to Parliament by titles of honour really belonging to their fathers—who were summoned under higher titles—have been included.

The Parliament Rolls have been consulted for matter relative to restoration in blood and honours corrupted and forfeited by attainder—as Private Acts were not recorded on these Rolls after the reign of Queen Elizabeth information from that period has been taken from the Acts of Parliament contained in the Certiorari Bundles among the Rolls Chapel Records.

Several enrolments of confirmation of Patents and Charters have been found on the Confirmation Rolls and are here included.

An exhaustive examination of all the Privy Seals and Signed Bills in the Public Record Office for the period has not beеп undertaken. It has, however, been considered expedient to consult them with regard to certain dignities which are either mentioned on the Summons to Parliament (as above described) or are stated in certain printed works to have been created, but for which no Patents or Charters have hitherto been found. In a few cases in which all these sources have failed the State Papers have been consulted.

As to the dates of creations, it should be borпе in mind that the Enrolments on the Patent Rolls generally give only the day and the month—the year, therefore, is supplied from the ancient official endorsements on the Rolls, which give the regnal years only. In connexion with this point, attention is drawn to the Patents of creation of the Earls of Dorset and Northampton in the years 1603–4 and 1604–5, which were apparently enrolled twice, the earlier Patent in each case being, presumably, the true date of the creation.

The spelling of the Records has been retained as regards the Surnames of the Grantees—the usually accepted spelling has been adopted as regards Titles.

As several dignities are known to have been created in the latter years of the reign of Charles I. for which enrolments of Patents are wanting, such of them have been appended to this list as are mentioned in the work of Mr. Black, late an Assistant Keeper of the Public Records, entitled “ Docquets of Letters Patent and other instruments passed under the Great Seal of King Charles I. at Oxford in the years 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646,” edited from the original Crown Office Docquet Book which (at the time he consulted it) was preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Copies of the patents of creation of most of the dignities mentioned in this Docquet Book are to be found among the Ashmolean MSS., and the reference numbers to them, copied from Mr. Black's printed Catalogue of these MSS., are given in this list.

In addition to the foregoing, a list of Baronets—the enrolments of whose Patents of creation have been found on the Patent Rolls of the reigns of James I. and Charles I.,—has been appended. Record evidence of the creation of certain other Baronets, whose names are included in Betham's Baronetage, has been found among the Privy Seals and Signed Bills (Chancery Series) and the Signet Bills (Chapter House Series). Some names also have been supplied from “ Black's Docquets.”