Welsh Journals

189 lUttUtttX Miscellanea Palatina. By George Ormerod, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S. A., of Tyldeslev, and Sedbury Park ; Author of the " History of Cheshire." This well-printed volume consists of two portions, namely, Memoirs of the Cheshire and Lancashire Families of Le Norreis or Norres, Aldford, Arderne, Banastre, Bredbury, Done, Fitzroger, Gernet, Lathom, Montalt, Ovreby, and Stokeport; and of the Cheshire Doomsday Roll, and of the Justiciaries who presided in the Court of Chester during the period embraced in the remains of the roll. Several carefully drawn pedigrees of the families above mentioned, and illustrations of brasses, arms, seals, &c, &c, are added to the work. To the antiquary and genealogist, and more especially to those who are connected with the Palatinate, and to whom this work is more particularly addressed, Dr. Ormerod has presented a volume of no little interest and importance. Many errors have been corrected or explained ; numerous clear and concise notes are to be found almost at the bottom of every page, while the references to the authorities quoted are given with an accuracy of detail which is not always to be found in publications of the present day. To the first part of the work are affixed some illustrative notices of the Norreys family, not devoid of interest to the general reader. The notice of the remains of the Chester Roll we especially recom¬ mend to the careful perusal of those who may possess this volume, which, unfortunately, is not published. The existing remains—few indeed, but valuable—are here briefly mentioned. Although they embrace, comparatively speaking, a short interval, viz., from the time of Henry II. to 1289, yet there is no doubt that the Roll in its original and complete state was coeval with the first establishment of the Palatinate Court. It was lost previously to the year 1657, as appears from a letter of Dugdale to Vernon. Extracts, however, had been made by the heralds Flower and Glover, in their Cheshire Visitation of 1560, as well as by John Booth, of Twemlow, as cited by Sir Peter Leycester. Sir John Booth died, at the age of seventy- five, in 1659. Flower had extracted the report of a remarkable trial concerning the ownership of the advowson of Sandbach, which was claimed by Roger de Sandbach, the Abbot of Deulacres, and the Crown. Of the three contending parties, Sir Roger claimed the advowson in right of the manor of Sandbach;—the Abbot, in virtue of a grant of Randle III., recorded in the Chester Roll, and made between 1229 and 1232, while the Crown rested its claim as being at that time invested with the Palatine Earldom. The court decided in favour of Sir Roger. Although the Earl Ranulph III. was in this case a suitor, he appears to have presided in the court, as was also the case of Earl John. See No. XXII. and XXIII. This extract made by Flower agrees very accurately with the extract