Aspects of Kentish Local History

Home
News & Events
  Publications Archaeological
Fieldwork
Local & Family
History
Information
by Parish
 


Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 1  1858  page 59

On the Surrenden Charters

   1  The saltire was Sir Edward Bering's coat-armour, or rather the coat of Morini, adopted by him.
   2  " Sir Christopher Hatton."—This was the first Lord Hattcon, so created 1643, and great-great-grandson of John Hatton, brother of the Lord-Keeper, temp. Eliz. The garb, his mark, was from Ms coat-of-arms. He was Dugdale's first and great patron.
   3  Sir Thomas Shirley's mark is the coat of Shirley, paley a canton ermine.
   "Mr. Dugdall."—The great antiquary, Sir William Dugdale; his mark was from his coat-of-arms, a cross moline.

   In the recent sale of the library of the late Cholmeley Dering, Esq. (the legatee of the personalties of his father, Sir E. Dering, who died 1811), there were many books of arms, and a transcript of all the early charters in the Surrenden Collection, with the seals carefully tricked. These were a part of the fruits of the above Resolutions; but a far more elaborate and splendid volume probably owes its existence to the same source. Dugdale, in his Life, by himself (p. 14, ed. 1827), says that in the summer of 1641, he, "taking with him one Mr. William Sedgwick, a skylfull armes paynter, repared first to the Cathedrall of S' Paul, in the Citty of London, and next to the Abbey Church of Westminster, and there making exact draughts of all the monuments in each of them, copyed the Epitaphs, according to the very letter, as alsoe all armes in the windows or cutt in stone; and so done, rode to Peterborough in Northamptonshire, Ely, Norwich, Lincolne, Newarke-upon-Trent, Beverley, Suthwell, Kingston-upon-Hull, York, Selby, Chester, Lichfield, Tamworth, Warwick, and did the like in all those Cathedrall, Collegiate, Conventuall, and divers others parochiall Churches, wherein any tombes or  monuments are to be found, to the end that the memory of them, in case of that ruine then imminent, might be preserved for future and better times."
   A note in the Ashmole Manuscript of this Life, No. 7501, says, "which drafts are in the custody of the Lord Hatton."
   The volume in which these "drafts " are collected is one of exquisite beauty, and of inestimable value, as the only existing record of monuments long since passed away, and is happily preserved in our own. county, in the collection of the Earl of Winchelsea, the representative of the Hattons, and with it another of no less value, containing a large collection of transcripts, made in facsimile, from ancient charters, with drawings of the seals beautifully executed. These transcripts were made for Sir C. Hatton, in 1640-1, and are above five hundred in number, from 
original charters, many of which are now lost. My valued friend Sir Frederick Madden, to whose kindness I am indebted for the principal materials of this note, tells me that formerly there must have been still another volume of these precious records, for Lord Winchelsea's manuscript does not contain Westminster, Ely, Norwich, Beverley, or York.
   The length of this note will, I hope, be pardoned, considering the testimony which it bears to the valuable results of this early society of antiquaries, thus founded by Sir Edward Dering within the borders of our
own county.

Previous Page       Back to Page listings       Next Page                

Back the Contents page       Back to Archaeologia Cantiana listing

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs. Any errors noticed by other researchers will be to gratefully received so
that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible. Please send details too localhistory@tedconnell.org.uk