Randle Holme was a name shared by members of four successive generations of a family who lived in Chester, Cheshire, England from the late years of the 16th century to the early years of the 18th century. They were all herald painters and genealogists and were members of the Stationers' Company of Chester. All four painted memorial boards and hatchments, and some of these can still be found in Cheshire churches.
The first to bear the name, he was born in Chester, the son of Thomas Holme, a blacksmith whose family came from Tranmere, which was then in Cheshire, and Elizabeth Devenett from Kinnerton, Flintshire. He was apprenticed to Thomas Chaloner who was deputy to William Flower, Norroy King of Arms in 1578. He was elected an alderman by 1604 and appointed as a servant to Prince Henry by May 1607. In 1600 and again in 1606 Holme was appointed deputy herald of the College of Arms in Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales. [1]
Holme's main duty was to arrange funerals of those entitled to bear arms but he also made an income from painting hatchments and memorial boards. From the early 1620s ill health prevented him from undertaking long journeys and his son Randle Holme II deputised for him by making the annual Easter reports to the College of Arms. He was fined for not attending the coronation of Charles I in 1626 and for refusing a knighthood in 1631. [1] Holme was sheriff of Chester in 1615–16 and mayor in 1633–34. [2] He remained in the city of Chester during the siege of Chester in the Civil War from September 1645 to February 1646 and also during the plague of 1648. Supported by Sir William Brereton he was made a commissioner for peace and oversaw the repair of the city walls. [1]
In 1598 he married Elizabeth née Alcock, who was Thomas Chaloner's widow. They had three children, William, Randle and Elizabeth. On 11 September 1635 he married Catherine Browne, daughter of Ralph Allen, alderman of Chester. He died on 16 January 1655 and was buried at St Mary's on the Hill. [1]
He worked closely with his father and became deputy herald of the College of Arms for Lancashire in 1627. He was Chester city treasurer in 1633 and clerk to the Stationers' Company of Chester in 1641. [1] In 1633–34 he was sheriff of Chester (in the same year that this father was mayor) and in 1643–44 he was mayor. [2] During the siege of Chester he supported the Royalist cause and after the city fell he was dismissed as alderman and justice of the peace. Later in his life he worked mainly as a genealogist. [1]
In 1625 he married Catherine Ellis of Overleigh and they had six children who survived infancy. Catherine died in 1640 and in 1643 he married Elizabeth Martyn, daughter of Thomas Dodd of Chester. He was buried at St Mary's on the Hill on 1 September 1659. [1]
He was born on 24 December 1627 and was the eldest son of the above. He was steward to the Stationers' Company of Chester in 1656 and an alderman from 1659. In 1664 Charles II granted him a sinecure, known as "sewer of the chamber of the extraordinary". He prepared items of heraldry and took fees for them without permission from the Norroy king of arms, Sir William Dugdale. Dugdale took him to court, Holme lost the case and it was decided that all the offending boards should be removed, defaced or destroyed. Dugdale travelled north on at least three occasions to carry this out himself. [3] Later Holme made peace with Dugdale and by 1675 was making funeral certificates for him. In 1678 he was appointed deputy herald for Chester, Lancashire and North Wales. [4] He was the only one of the four Randle Holmes not to hold civic office in Chester and was also one of the first Freemasons in Chester. [3]
He wrote a book entitled The Academie of Armorie and in 1688 printed parts 1 and 2 and some of book 3 at his house but the venture proved too expensive to complete. The rest of book 3 and book 4 were published in 1905 by the Roxburghe Club. [4] Book 1 relates completely to heraldry and the other books form a "kind of encyclopaedia". [5]
He married Sarah Soley in 1655 and they had five children. Sarah died in 1665 and the following year he married Elizabeth Wilson and with her had another eight children. Elizabeth died in 1685 and in 1689 he married Ann, whose surname is not known. He died on 12 March 1700 and was buried at St Mary's. [4]
He worked in partnership with his father, [4] was sheriff of Chester in 1705–06 [2] and deputy herald. [6] He married Margaret Lloyd from Llanarmon, Denbighshire, and had five children who all died young. He himself died on 30 August 1707 and was buried at St Mary's. [4]
Monuments to family members are in the church of St Mary on the Hill, Chester. [7] The family manuscript collection amounts to 261 volumes and is held in the British Library. [4] All four Randle Holmes were collectors of legal and other documents and the collection forms one of the principal sources for Cheshire history. [3]
Memorial boards dated in the years the Randle Holmes were flourishing are present in many churches in Cheshire. However, as these never contain the name of the painter we cannot be sure which are by members of the Randle Holme family. Many of the boards painted by Randle Holme III were destroyed by Sir William Dugdale in visits to Cheshire and surrounding counties in 1667, 1668 and 1670. However Dugdale's diary contains details of the destruction of memorial boards in only eight churches. There are no other known individuals or schools of heraldic painting in the Chester area during the time the Randle Holme family was flourishing. Identification rests mainly on the style of the paintings and their dates. Suggested examples of existing memorial boards by Randle Holme III and other members of the family are four in St James' Church, Audlem, three in St Boniface's Church, Bunbury, one in St James' Church, Christleton, two in St John the Baptist's Church, Knutsford, seven in St Mary's Church, Thornton-le-Moors, 13 in St Lawrence's Church, Stoak, five in St Andrew's Church, Tarvin, two in St Margaret's Church, Wrenbury, one in St Helen's Church, Tarporley, six in St Oswald's Church, Backford and 17 in the city of Chester. [3] A further board attributed to the family is in St Mary's Church, Pulford. [8]
Much of The Academie of Armorie was made available in 2000 on a CD produced by the British Library entitled Living and Working in Seventeenth Century England: an Encyclopedia of Drawings and Descriptions from Randle Holme's Original Manuscripts for The Academy of Armory (1688). [9]
Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
Heraldic visitations were tours of inspection undertaken by Kings of Arms throughout England, Wales and Ireland. Their purpose was to register and regulate the coats of arms of nobility, gentry and boroughs, and to record pedigrees. They took place from 1530 to 1688, and their records provide important source material for historians and genealogists.
Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. He is an ancestor of the modern day Dukes of Westminster.
John Souch was an English portrait painter. He flourished in the early seventeenth century in the North West of England, and perhaps epitomises the role of art in English local life at that time.
St Boniface's Church stands prominently in the village of Bunbury, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The church dates mainly from the 14th century. Its features include the Ridley chapel, the alabaster chest tomb of Sir Hugh Calveley and the tomb of Sir George Beeston. Raymond Richards, author of Old Cheshire Churches, considers it is architecturally one of the most important examples of its period in Cheshire. Alec Clifton-Taylor includes it in his list of 'best' English parish churches, and Simon Jenkins assigns it two stars in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Malpas. Its benefice is combined with that of St Jude, Tilstone Fearnall.
St Peter's Church is in Eastgate Street in the centre of the city of Chester, Cheshire, England, immediately to the north of Chester Cross. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Church of England parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester. The ancient walls mark the boundaries of the parish.
St Mary's Creative Space, formerly the Church of St Mary-on-the-Hill, stands at the top of St Mary's Hill, Chester, Cheshire, England, near Chester Castle. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The church stands at the top of a narrow winding lane which leads down to the River Dee, and it is adjacent to Chester Castle. In the 1970s the church was converted into an educational centre. It is currently available for use as a concert and exhibition venue and the Chester Music Society hold many concerts there throughout the year. The venue is programmed by Theatre in the Quarter, and hosts a variety of art and cultural events, from homegrown Cestrian performers, national and international acts.
St Andrew's Church is in the village of Tarvin, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester. Its benefice is united with that of St Peter, Duddon.
St James' Church is in the village of Audlem in south Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
St Oswald's Church is in the village of Backford, to the northwest of Chester, Cheshire, England, close to the A41 road and adjoining Backford Hall. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. The church dates from the 14th century with later additions and restorations. It contains one of the few surviving aumbries in Cheshire and a number of memorial boards painted by the Randle Holme family. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South. Its benefice is combined with that of Holy Trinity Church, Capenhurst. From March 2018 this benefice shares a vicar with All Saints, Saughall.
St Chad's Church is in the village of Farndon, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Malpas. Its benefice is combined with that of St Mary, Coddington. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
St John the Baptist's Church is in the town of Knutsford, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Knutsford. Its benefice is combined with that of St John the Evangelist, Toft.
Sir Peter Leycester, 1st Baronet was an English antiquarian and historian. He was involved in the English Civil War on the royalist side and was subsequently made a baronet. He later compiled one of the earliest histories of the county of Cheshire and as a result of this became involved in a controversy with the Mainwaring family. He developed a library in his home at Tabley Old Hall and made improvements to the house and estate, including building a private chapel in the grounds of the house. He was an active and conscientious justice of the peace, and used his position on the Bench to expound his staunchly conservative and Royalist political views.
St Lawrence's Church is in the village of Stoak, Cheshire, England,. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester, the deanery of Wirral South and the Ellesmere Port team ministry.
St Helen's Church is in the village of Tarporley, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Malpas. Its benefice is united with those of St John and Holy Cross, Cotebrook, St Thomas, Eaton, and St Paul, Utkinton. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
St Mary's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the small village of Thornton-le-Moors, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and it is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
St Mary's Church is in the village of Pulford, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester. Its benefice is combined with that of St Mary, Eccleston.
The Leghs of Lyme were a gentry family seated at Lyme Park in Cheshire, England, from 1398 until 1946, when the stately home and its surrounding parkland were donated by the 3rd Lord Newton to The National Trust.
Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet was an English Member of Parliament, and an ancestor of the modern day Dukes of Westminster. He was the first member of the family to build a substantial house on the present site of Eaton Hall in Cheshire.
George Mainwaring was an English Member of Parliament and a member of a distinguished family line from Cheshire.
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