Edited by | John Burke (first) |
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Country | United Kingdom |
Genre | Nobility, heraldry, genealogy |
Publisher | John Burke family et al. |
Published | 1833 (first edition) |
Burke's Landed Gentry (originally titled Burke's Commoners) is a reference work listing families in Great Britain and Ireland who have owned rural estates of some size. The work has been in existence from the first half of the 19th century, and was founded by John Burke. He and successors from the Burke family, and others since, have written in it on genealogy and heraldry relating to gentry families. [1]
It has evolved alongside Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage . The two works are regarded as complementing each other. Since the early 20th century, the work includes families that historically possessed landed property.
The title of the first edition in 1833 expressed its scope clearly: A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying Territorial Possessions or High Official Rank, but uninvested with Heritable Honours. It looked at both the family history and the arms of selected families who owned land or occupied important posts in the United Kingdom, but did not hold inherited titles. This excluded group, consisting of peers and baronets, had their own book called Burke's Peerage.
At the time the series started, the group it covered had considerable political, social and economic influence in their localities and in some cases nationally. During the 20th century, the power of rural landowners and the public's interest in buying books about them largely disappeared. Few of the families in the books still own country estates, a rare example being the Fulfords of Great Fulford near Dunsford in Devon who were mentioned in the 2012 TV series "Country House Rescue" and were described in Burke's Landed Gentry as having lived there since the reign of King Richard I (1189–1199). [2]
Until 1914, possession of landed property was a strict requirement. If a family sold or lost its estates, it was no longer included in Burke's Landed Gentry. Illustrating this point, at least half of the families included in 1861 were omitted from the 1914 edition. Following the alienation of families from their land after the First World War, the editors considered that such a strict policy was no longer productive, and in recognition of historical and genealogical value many pedigrees appeared titled (family name) 'formerly of' or 'late of' (place). [3]
Owing to the characteristic prose style developed by John Burke, the publication's founder, the material included in Burke's Landed Gentry, often based on work by many earlier authorities, was made more readable than had previously been the case, a style maintained by his successors. [4] This prose style, when subsequently employed by John Burke's son, Ulster King of Arms Sir Bernard Burke, took a turn towards flowery wording in keeping with the literary tastes of the Victorian period in which he wrote. [1]
The widespread inclusion of family legends which, due to the large number of families included in each edition, the Burke family were unable to comprehensively check, resulted in some criticism of the accuracy of information contained in the volumes. Accordingly, more recent editions are more scrupulously checked and rewritten for accuracy. Advertisements for the 1894 edition stated: "Apocryphal statements, which had crept into former editions, have been expunged, erroneous particulars and incorrect descents discovered and omitted..." [5]
This dedication to accuracy reached its peak under the chief editorship, from 1949 to 1959, of L. G. Pine – who was very sceptical regarding many families' claims to antiquity: 'If everybody who claims to have come over with the Conqueror were right, William must have landed with 200,000 men-at-arms instead of about 12,000', [6] – and Hugh Massingberd (1971–83). [3]
Date range | Edition | Full title | Volumes | Online versions |
---|---|---|---|---|
1833–1835 [7] | 1st | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying Territorial Possessions or High Official Rank, but uninvested with Heritable Honours | 3 | Vol 1: (1835) Vol 2: (1835) |
1836–1837 [7] | reissue with additional volume | same (additional volume in 1837) | 4 | Vol 1: (1836) Vol 2: (1836) Vol 3: (1836) Vol 1-4: (1836-1837) small paper edition
|
1843–1849 | 1st edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, a companion to the Baronetage and Knightage | 3 | Vol 1 (1846): Vol 1 (1847): |
1850–1853 | 2nd edition, re-issue of previous edition, with additional pages in Addenda | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland comprising particulars of 100,000 individuals | 3 | Vol 3 (1850): Vol 1: (1853) Vol 2: (1853) Vol 3: (1853) |
1855–1858 | 3rd edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland with Supplement | 1, with Supplement | Vol 1: |
1862-1863 | 4th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (First edition that mentions the edition on the title page) | 2 | Part 1: Part 2: |
1868 | revised 4th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, with Supplement and Corrigenda | ||
1871 | 5th Edition, re-issued with two Supplements and Addenda, 1875 | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland | 2 | Vol 1: (1871) Vol 2: (1871) Vol 1: (1875) reissue "With Supplement and Addenda" |
1879 | 6th edition, re-issued with larger Supplement and Addenda, 1882 | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland | 2 | Vol 1: Vol 2: |
1886 | 7th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland [7] | 2 | |
1894 | 8th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland | 2 | Vol 2: |
1898 | 9th edition, including a separate section on Ireland | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry | 2 | Vol 1: Vol 2: |
1900 | 10th edition, with Addenda | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain | ||
1906 | 11th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain | ||
1914 | 12th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry, revised by A. C. Fox-Davies | ||
1921 | 13th edition | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, ed. A. Winton Thorpe | Google Books | |
1925 | 14th edition, re-issue of 1921 edition, with Supplement | A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. Alfred T. Butler | ||
1937 | 15th "Centenary" edition | Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H. | 1 | |
1939 | 16th edition | Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry including American Families with British Ancestry, ed. L. G. Pine et al. | ||
1952 | 17th edition, 1954 Supplement, also ed. L. G. Pine | Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, ed. L. G. Pine | ||
1965–1972 | 18th edition | Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, Vol. 1 & 2 1965–9, ed. Peter Townend; Vol. 3 1972 (with Index to all three Volumes) ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd | 3 | |
2001–2006 | 19th edition | Burke's Landed Gentry : (Vol 1: The Kingdom of Scotland, 2001 ed. Peter Beauclerk Dewar; Vol. 2: The Ridings of York, 2005 ed. Charles Mosley; Vol 3 & 4: The Principality of Wales and the North West, 2006 ed. Charles Mosley) | 4 |
The early editions of Burke's Landed Gentry were "of Great Britain and Ireland". After 1899, to allow the authors to cover the topics in more depth, there was a Great Britain edition and an Ireland edition. The Ireland edition is important for genealogists, because it includes not only the Old English (12th century onward arrivals) and the New English families (16th century onward arrivals), but also some of the leading elements of the Gaelic Irish families who previously ruled vast swathes of Ireland and maintained some influence, including the O'Briens, the O'Conors, the MacCarthys, the Kavanaghs, and more.
Date range | Edition | Full title | Volumes | Online versions |
---|---|---|---|---|
1899 [8] | 1st | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland | 1 | |
1904 [8] | 2nd | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland | 1 | |
1912 | 3rd | A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland | 1 | |
1958 | 4th | Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland | 1 | |
1976 | 5th | Irish Family Records | 1 |
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Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. His first publication, a Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom, was updated sporadically until 1847, when the company began publishing new editions every year as Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage.
The landed gentry, or the gentry, is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, their economic base in land was often similar, and some of the landed gentry were wealthier than some peers. Many gentry were close relatives of peers, and it was not uncommon for gentry to marry into peerage. It is the British element of the wider European class of gentry. With or without noble title, owning rural land estates often brought with it the legal rights of lord of the manor, and the less formal name or title of squire, in Scotland laird.
Sir John Bernard Burke, was a British genealogist and Ulster King of Arms, who helped publish Burke's Peerage.
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