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Synopsis

By the rev.john watson, m.a f.a.s. volume the second.

Item Description

VOLUME II ONLY. 11.75 x 9.75 inches. Vol. II, [ii] + 245 + [1] + [10] pp. index and addenda. Bound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards; spine in compartments with gilt bands and tittles Extremities have some age related wear, but otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by 8 engraved plates, many by James Basire) including portraits, coats of arms and genealogical tables, and by numerous text engravings of coats of arms. Decorated by head and tailpiece vignettes and by initials. The plates include the folding one,A View of Poynton Lodge, Cheshire., lacking in some copies according to Lowndes. The clerical antiquary, John Watson (1725-83) born in Prestbury, Cheshire was educated at Oxford and ordained priest in 1749. While serving as Perpetual Curate at Ripponden he wrote a standard history of nearby Halifax before becoming Rector of Stockport: 'At Ripponden he embarked on research at the behest of Sir George Warren of Poynton Lodge, Cheshire, in order to prove that Sir George was the legitimate heir to the earldom of Warenne and Surrey. His Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey and their Descendants was published in a limited edition of six copies in 1776, with a second edition of fifteen copies following in 1779, and a third, larger, edition in 1782. Despite Watson's claim in the preface to the work, his researches were unable to establish Warren's right to the title, but this did not deter Sir George from issuing that claim vigourously, if unsuccessfully, over the next twenty years' (DNB). A very handsomely printed and illustrated volume, whose plates depict numerous castles, coats of arms, seals and genealogies linked to the Warenne earls.(ESTC T147880. Lowndes, Vol. IV, p.2854).