Process of visitations to
England's counties, taken from ''Burke's Landed Gentry'', 1937 edition By the fifteenth century, the use and abuse of
coats of arms was becoming widespread in
England. One of the duties conferred on
William Bruges, the first
Garter Principal King of Arms, was to survey and record the
armorial bearings and
pedigrees of those using coats of arms and correct irregularities.
Officers of arms had made occasional tours of various parts of the kingdom to enquire about armorial matters during the fifteenth century. However, it was not until the sixteenth century that the process began in earnest. The first provincial visitations were carried out under
warrant granted by
Henry VIII to
Thomas Benolt,
Clarenceux King of Arms, dated 6 April 1530. He was commissioned to travel throughout his province (i.e. south of the
Trent) with authority to enter all homes and churches. Upon entering these premises, he was authorized to "put down or otherwise deface at his discretion ... those
arms unlawfully used". He was also required to enquire into all those using the titles of
knight,
esquire, or
gentleman and decided if they were being lawfully used. By this
writ, Henry VIII also compelled the
sheriffs and
mayors of each
county or
city visited by the
officers of arms to give aid and assistance in gathering the needed information. When a
King of Arms, or Herald, visited a county, his presence was proclaimed by presenting the King's royal commission to the local gentry and nobility, which required them to provide evidence of their right to use a
coat of arms. The
Sheriff would collect from the
bailiff of each
hundred within his county a list of all people using
titles or arms. In the early days, the visiting herald would tour the homes of the gentry and nobility, but from the late 1560s these persons were summoned to attend a central "place of sitting" – usually an inn – at a particular time. They were to bring their arms, and proof of their right to use them, most often by way of detailing their ancestral right to them, which would also be recorded. Where an official
grant of arms had been made, this was also recorded. Other ancient arms, many of which predated the establishment of the
College of Arms, were confirmed. The
officer would record the information clearly and make detailed notes that could be entered into the records of the College of Arms when the party returned to
London. An example of the text of a herald's visitation writ is the following, issued by
Edward Bysshe, then
Clarenceux King of Arms, dated 1 July 1664 and addressed to the Constables of the
Hundred of Clackclose in Norfolk, giving them notice of two and a half months to muster the local gentry in the Black Swan Inn at
Downham Market at 8 am: If the officers of arms were not presented with sufficient proof of the right to use a coat of arms, they were also empowered to deface monuments which bore these arms and to force persons bearing such arms to sign a disclaimer that they would cease using them. The visitations were not always popular with members of the landed gentry, who were required to present proof of their gentility. Following the accession of
William III in 1689, no further commissions to carry out visitations were commanded. The reasons behind this cessation of the programme have been a matter of debate among historians. Philip Styles, for example, related it to a declining willingness of members of the gentry to attend visitations, which he traced to a growing proportion of "
newly risen" families, who lacked long pedigrees and were therefore apathetic about registering them. However, Janet Verasanso has challenged this interpretation, finding that (in Staffordshire, at least) gentry enthusiasm for coats of arms as an enhancement to social standing persisted to the end of the 17th century. The end of the visitations did not have much effect on those counties far removed from London, some of which had only been rarely visited over the entire period of the visitations. There was never a systematic visitation of Wales. There were four visitations in the principality, and on 9 June 1551, Fulk ap Hywel,
Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary, was given a commission to visit all of Wales. This was not carried out, however, as he was degraded and executed for counterfeiting the seal of
Clarenceux King of Arms. This is regrettable, since no visitation of all Wales was ever made by the officers of arms.
Records ,
Clarenceux King of Arms, wearing a
tabard displaying the
Royal arms of England; the manuscripts from his first tour of London are the earliest existing records of an English visitation. The principal records to emerge from the visitations were pedigrees, initially recorded on loose sheets of paper, and afterwards bound together as notebooks. In some cases, the sheets would include blank shields which had been drawn in advance (or at a later date printed), to simplify the process of recording coats of arms. The persons whose pedigrees were recorded were required (from about 1570 onwards) to certify them by signature, and where these original draft pedigrees have survived they are known as "originals with signatures". The signed copies were taken back to the College of Arms, where
fair copies were made to a higher standard and preserved as the "office copies". The
Harleian Collection of the
British Library is particularly rich in such records. Many visitation records have been published over the years, by the
Harleian Society, by county
record societies, and a few privately (see
listing below). However, because until relatively recently the College of Arms restricted access to its records, many of the older published editions were necessarily based on the unofficial second- or third-generation copies in other collections, and may therefore not always be reliable. From as early as the 1530s, officers of arms on visitation frequently also compiled what were known as "church notes". These were
fieldnotes (usually in the form of sketches) of coats of arms observed on
church monuments, in
stained glass windows, or on display in private houses. Sometimes, drawings were also made of non-heraldic antiquities, such as medieval architectural features, views of towns, Roman inscriptions and even
Stonehenge. The 17th-century visitations generated a growing number of supplementary papers, including warrants, lists of persons who disclaimed any pretence to arms, lists of persons summoned to appear before the heralds (including those who had not appeared), records of fees paid, and miscellaneous correspondence.
Lists of visitations Visitations were conducted by or in the name of the two provincial
Kings of Arms,
Clarenceux and
Norroy, within their respective provinces. In the following lists, the Deputies are the officers of arms who actually carried out the visitations. Where no Deputy is named, the visitation can be assumed to have been conducted by the King of Arms in person.
Southern Province The Southern Province, the jurisdiction of Clarenceux King of Arms, comprised that part of
England south of the
River Trent, i.e. the counties of
Bedford,
Berks,
Buckingham,
Cambridge,
Cornwall,
Devon,
Dorset,
Essex,
Gloucester,
Hereford,
Hertford,
Huntingdon,
Kent,
Leicester,
Lincoln,
Middlesex,
Monmouth,
Norfolk,
Northampton,
Oxford,
Rutland,
Salop,
Somerset,
Southampton,
Suffolk,
Surrey,
Sussex,
Warwick,
Wilton,
Worcester, and the
City of London; and
South Wales.
Northern Province The Northern Province, the jurisdiction of Norroy King of Arms, comprised that part of England north of the River Trent, i.e. the counties of
Chester,
Cumberland,
Derby,
Durham,
Lancaster,
Northumberland,
Nottingham,
Stafford,
Westmorland and
York; and
North Wales. The Trent ran through Staffordshire, and the county was therefore technically divided between the two provinces; but for the purposes of visitation it was generally treated (sometimes through a process of deputation) as falling under the jurisdiction of Norroy. ==Visitations in Ireland==