Containing a record of all ranks of the gentry, their lineage, alliances, appointments, armorial ensigns, and residences; ancient pedigrees and memorials of old and extinct families; notices of the history, antiquities, physical features, chief estates, geology, and industry of each county; rolls of high sheriffs and members of Parliament for three hundred years, etc., etc. Second issue, revised and much enlarged
The author admirably meets his goals of giving county histories and family histories from the earliest known facts to the early 1870s. He traveled the countryside and based his narrative on personal inspection as well as from facts, dates, and names obtained from documents or direct testimony of the recorded families. Each county is given its own chapter. The arrangement and contents of each chapter is generally as follows: a history of the county name; a physical description of the county; a brief discourse on the area's geology and mineralogy; a history of the county covering the Roman, Saxon, Danish, and/or Norman periods; the antiquities of the county from the pre-historic to the historic, as well as the ecclesiastical; commentary on the old and extinct families of the county; rosters of officials such as high sheriffs, members of Parliament, justices of the peace, and/or county magistrates; and genealogical data on county families, which generally run from one-half to a full page in length. Illustrations abound, especially those of estates. This is the standard work on Welsh family history and the chief source of genealogical data for Wales's counties and families.
Thomas Nicholas
1872, 1875, (2011), paper, 2 vols., 1008 pp.
ISBN: 9780788422256
101-N2225
