DEDICATION

ΤΟ

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

VICTORIA-MARY-LOUISA, DUCHESS OF KENT.

MADAM,

In continuing most respectfully to dedicate this work to your Royal Highness, we entreat you to accept our humble and sincere thanks for the distinguished favour your Royal Highness has, during so long a period, vouchsafed towards it, to the effects of which we trace, with renewed gratitude and pride, the high honour of our beloved Sovereign's spontaneous patronage, and the gratifying privilege of announcing it in our Title Page, most graciously accorded.

That your Royal Highness may long live in the enjoyment of health and happiness, witnessing with delight the flourishing condition of your august descendants on and around the Throne of these Realms, and possessing in fullest measure that high estimation which the exemplary virtues of the female character never fail to ensure from the British Public, is, Madam, the ardent Prayer of

Your Royal Highness's

Most grateful and devoted Servants,

ANNE, ELIZA, AND MARIA INNES,

EDITORS.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

It may be proper to remark, that the present work, founded on the personal communications of the Nobility, is classed in two volumes, the one comprising the living subjects of the British Peerage, including their Collateral Branches, (a feature peculiar to this work,) and the other exhibiting concise historical sketches of their Ancestry and Families.

The obvious advantage of this mode of publication will be found in the option which it affords to purchasers. Each volume may be considered either as a whole or as a moiety, for each is in its peculiar character and import perfect; and he who is once possessed of that which, for the sake of distinction, in reference, it has been thought fit to denominate "The Genealogical Volume," the contents of which, as matters of History, are necessarily permanent, may always, at a reduced and comparatively small charge, efficiently retain the entire work by the addition of that which will be found referred to by the title of "The Peerage," and which the course of events will unavoidably require to be occasionally replaced by a revised copy.

COLLEGE OF ARMS,

1832.

EDMUND LODGE, NORROY.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THE fact that two large impressions of this work have been very rapidly exhausted, cannot but be considered as a flattering testimony of its general utility.

To render the present new edition yet more worthy of public attention and approbation, its pages have been again submitted to the revision of the noble families of which it treats, who have again condescended to grant their aid to ensure its correctness; and for this favour the Editor feels it to be his duty to tender his most grateful acknowledgments.

On the publication, therefore, of this improved edition, he is sensible that it is not only as a token of sincere respect, but as an act of justice to the numerous communications with which he has been honoured, that he is bound thus to express his obligation, and to claim for the work a reputation for authenticity, perhaps never equalled, certainly never exceeded, by any publication of a similar

nature.

COLLEGE OF ARMS,

Nov. 20, 1833.

EDMUND LODGE, NORROY.