A POLITICAL INDEX TO THE HISTORIES OF GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND: OR, A COMPLETE REGISTER OF THE HEREDITARY HONOURS, PUBLIC OFFICES, AND FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY ROBERT BEATSON, L.L.D. Che Third Edition, Coyeciéy, and much Enlarged. PREFACE. THE following Compilations are the result of many years inquiry, prosecuted at first without any view to publication, but merely for the satisfaction of the Author, who was naturally inquisitive upon subjects which he thought interesting to Society. In the course of his researches, he was enabled to detect mistakes, and to correct a variety of errors, which the many imperfect Lists that have been published of the Peerage, the Great Officers of State, the Law, Naval, and Military Officers, had been the means of transmitting into works, whose merit in other respects had justly raised the character of their Authors in the estimation of the world, and by which means these mistakes have become established, and are but too often referred to and consulted. In most of the Histories of Great Britain, and in particular the Parliamentary Histories, when a Nobleman may be the subject either of panegyric or censure, he is only mentioned by his title; and the Reader is left in doubt, where titles have so frequently fluctuated from one family to another, to know the individual meant to be the object of condemnation or of applause. In like manner, the Officers of State, of the Household, of the Law, &c. are seldom or ever mentioned in History, but by the name of the office they held; by which means, in such a rapid succession of different persons to the same office, the individual is lost among the multitudes who have held the appointment. The satisfaction which his enquiries gave him in one branch, induced him to extend them to others; and as he daily experienced their utility himself, he was enabled to rectify the information of his friends upon such subjects as he had examined; and, encouraged by them to proceed, he was led to hope, that his labours, when properly arranged and methodized, might prove a convenient and useful publication. Such have been the inducements to offer this work to the Public; the objects of which are, in the first place, To form a sort of Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and Ireland, where the individuals may be found, and their rank and political connections traced, whose measures may be the subject of historical information: Secondly, To supply a correct Register of the great and respectable body of the Peerage of each of the Kingdoms, from their original creation; ascertaining and explaining their rise to higher dignities, when their titles were transferred into other families, when forfeited, or when extinct. And, lastly, to arrange the other numerous official lists, which the Author has been at great pains to render cor rect, from the earliest to the latest periods, in such a manner as, by reference from one to another, to elucidate to the reader of modern history the æra of every successive Administration, and to present to his view the whole groupe of persons acting in conjunction with the ostensible Minister. The Author is indebted for the chief of his materials, in compiling the following Lists, to Sir William Dugdale's Summonses to Parliament, the Historical Register, and a variety of Chronicles and Peerages; and he has endeavoured to render the several Lists as accurate as the various authorities he had to consult (who frequently differ from each other) would allow of. He cannot express his thanks in terms sufficiently strong for the very large and respectable Subscription with which he has been honoured; and he hopes to be pardoned for having divided his Work into three parts, and arranging it as he has done. This proceeded from his being under the necessity of employing several Printers at the same time, in order to expedite the publication, because he was determined to keep good faith with his Subscribers as to the time he promised them the Book. |