No book dealing with memorials of old Cheshire would be complete which
did not give due prominence to those noted antiquaries of former
generations, the Randle Holmes, and acknowledge gratefully and without
stint the indebtedness of subsequent writers and students to their
research and patient investigations. What follows will show, however
inadequately, how great these obligations are. At the outset it may
be said that some confusion has arisen from the fact that the name
Randle Holme was borne by four members of the family in successive
generations, and as a consequence the work of one has sometimes been
assigned to another.
The family of Holme is a distinctly Cheshire one, Robert de Holme
acquiring by marriage at the end of the fourteenth century a moiety
of the manor of Tranmere or Tranmole. The property remained in the
family till the reign of James I., when William Holme of Chester,
on whom it had devolved, sold it. His uncle Thomas was the first to
settle in Chester, and his fourth son was the first Randle Holme.
He was born about 1571, dying in 1655, in the eighty-fourth year of
his age. By his marriage in 1598 with the widow of Thomas Chaloner
of Chester, a distinguished antiquary and herald, he succeeded to
her late husband’s papers, and was thus probably led to take up the
study of genealogy and family history. Chaloner had held an official
position as deputy to the Heralds’ College, and in March 1600-1 he was
succeeded by Randle Holme, who was appointed by William Segar, Norroy
King-of-Arms, as his deputy, to keep a “regester booke of Funerals in
the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and North Wales.” In this capacity
he had to truly enter the arms and crests, &c., “of all such persons
of Coate Armor and worship as it shall please God to call out of this
transitory life”; and to demand and collect the “due fees.” In 1604
he is mentioned as an Alderman of his company, as also is his brother
William, “a stationer,” he himself being “a painter.” In 1615 he was
one of the two sheriffs of the city, and in 1622 rebuilt his house in
Bridge Street, now the “Old King’s Head.” In 1631 he was one of those
selected for “obligatory knighthood,” but he compounded by payment of
£10. In 1633 he was elected Mayor of the city, and at the same time his
son Randle became one of the sheriffs. He was in Chester throughout
the whole of the troublous time of the Civil War, and also during the
violent outbreak of the plague in 1647. In January 1646 he was charged
by the Parliamentarians as having taken the King’s part, and was fined
as a delinquent £160. This apparently he did not pay, for after his
death his son protested against the payment of this large sum, and
some interesting documents are in existence in which it was urged that
he was looked upon as the Parliament’s friend. He died in January
1654-55, and was buried at St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill, the interesting
memorial tablet on wood, bearing his arms, being unfortunately lost.
He was succeeded by his son Randle, born in 1601, who in 1625 had
married the eldest daughter of Matthew Ellis of Overleigh, whose widow
became ten years later his father’s second wife. In 1629 he was one
of the churchwardens of St. Mary’s, holding office for two years; and
in 1643 he became Mayor, and as such was the recipient of numerous
official letters from the chief commanders of the Royalist side. These
and other similar documents were bound up by his son and successor the
third Randle Holme, and are preserved in the Harleian MSS. in the
British Museum. They bear autograph signatures of King Charles I.,
Prince Rupert, Sir John Byron, Sir Francis Gamul, and many others,
and form a most interesting collection. The same description applies
to another volume, giving a full account of the siege of Chester, and
which was written at the time and derived from papers of the Randle
Holmes, the writer in one passage stating that he had “for the most
part gathered this history from the study of Randle Holme”--that
is, the second Randle Holme. This is a sufficient indication of the
historical instinct and practice of the family, and of what we owe to
it for the preservation of accurate records of events that happened.
Randle Holme the Second did not long survive his father--only a little
over four years. A handsome monument to his memory in the Church of St.
Mary-on-the-Hill in Chester gives a pedigree of the family, tracing it
back to “Peter de Lymme, son of Gilbert, Lord of Lymme, who lived in
the time of Edward I.” It also contains three coats of arms, besides
crests, and is a good specimen of heraldic knowledge and genealogical
research. This Randle Holme, though buried at St. Mary’s, lived after
his second marriage, in 1643, in the parish of Holy Trinity, where
his name appears in the list as Mayor in 1644. During the siege of
Chester the Stationers’ Company could not hold their meetings in the
“Golden Phœnix” (the Phœnix Tower), and so they met at “Alderman Holmes
junior’s house in Watergate Street.” In the entry of a meeting “at the
Alderman’s howse” on October 18, 1645, we are told that “the Golden
Phœnix was employed for service for the defence of the garrison of
Chester, the enimie in close seidge about the Cittye.” Whether Randle
Holme the Second was able to secure the remission of the fine demanded
of his father we cannot say. In the Harl. MSS. is a document in which
he has left a record of his family, with the dates of their births and
baptisms, and the names of their god-parents, designated in some of
the entries as “witnesses” and in some as “gossips.” We learn from
this that his first-born and eldest son, the third Randle Holme, was
born on December 24, 1627, and baptized on the 30th of the same month,
and that one of his godfathers was Francis Gamul, the other being his
grandfather, the first Randle Holme.
Randle Holme the Third is the most distinguished of the four who
successively bore that name. He was the author of a most extraordinary
book, entitled _The Academy of Armoury_; and he was also a prominent
Freemason. He took up the business of his father and grandfather, and
in due course was admitted a member of the same company, of which, on
the death of his father, he was duly elected an alderman. He served
the office of churchwarden of St. Mary’s for two years from Easter
1657, and was instrumental in the erection of a new tower or steeple
and the provision of a new peal of four bells, the initials of the
churchwardens (George Chamberlain and Randle Holme), as well as those
of the bell founder, John Scott of Wigan, appearing on them. The peal
has now been enlarged into one of eight. In 1664 he was appointed to
the office of “sewer of the chamber in extraordinary to his Majesty
King Charles II.” A “sewer” was an officer whose function it was to
place the dishes on the table and to remove them afterwards, and some
think that it was also his duty to taste them. It almost looks as if
the title had arisen from the mis-spelling of the word, and as if the
“se_w_er” really was the “se_rv_er.” However, the word is to be found
in Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, and others. In the Harl. MSS. we have
the certificate of Randle Holme’s appointment, which shows that under
it he was exempt from “bearing any publick office whatsoever.” This
will account for the fact that, unlike his father and grandfather, he
never held any office in the corporation of his native city. We do
not know by what Court influence he obtained this appointment, which,
though it contained certain privileges, must have been purely honorary,
and we do not read of his being called upon on any occasion to fulfil
its duties.
A dispute arose about this time between Randle Holme and the Heralds’
College, whose powers he was charged with usurping, by preparing
coats of arms and hatchments, and receiving fees for so doing. The
controversy was sharp and took a very practical shape, for we learn
from the diary of William Dugdale, Norroy King-of-Arms, that he
pulled down or defaced some “Achievements which Holmes, the Paynter,
of Chester had hung up.” This he did at Budworth, Nether Peover,
and Eastham, and other places in Cheshire. The dispute had nothing
to do with his heraldic knowledge and skill, which cannot have been
disputed, but probably arose from the fact that he had not then (as
he subsequently was) been officially appointed deputy to the Norroy
King-of-Arms. It would have been a dangerous precedent to allow any
unauthorised person, however competent, to undertake such functions,
and might have led to much confusion and to many mistakes, so that
the action of the Norroy King-of-Arms is easily accounted for. The
difficulty, which lasted some five years or thereabouts, was apparently
solved by the appointment of Randle Holme as deputy to the Norroy
King-of-Arms (as his father had been before him), though there is
no record of the date of his appointment. He had probably acted for
his father, and continued the same practice after his father’s death
without waiting for the requisite authority.
It was in 1688 that he issued his extraordinary book--_The Academy
of Armory, or a Storehouse of Armory and Blazon_. From the title it
might be supposed that the work was entirely on heraldic matters,
whereas it treats of almost every subject under the sun, and is a kind
of encyclopædia, arranged, it must be confessed, in a most awkward
form. He began collecting materials for it at a very early age, when
he was only twenty-two; and it was forty years later before the
book was printed. Whilst there can be no doubt that much of what it
contains might well have been omitted, it stands out as a monumental
evidence of the industry of the author as a collector of out-of-the-way
information which he was anxious to preserve, and of his desire to
make the work as complete as possible. The information thus gathered
together is sometimes very valuable, and often very quaint; whilst
specimens of Cheshire dialect, now obsolete, are to be found in
words and phrases which were evidently in common use when the book
was written. The title-page, which is very long, prepares us for the
variety which the book contains, as the following sentence from it will
show: “Very useful for all gentlemen, scholars, Divines, and all such
as desire any knowledge in arts and sciences.”
The chapters are dedicated to various personages or classes of persons,
and some of these lengthy dedications are interesting compositions. The
Fourth Book was never set up in type, and of the latter portion of the
Third Book the only printed example is in the Royal Library at Windsor
Castle. Other copies end with the first part of Book III., concluding
with a valedictory address, explaining how the vast expense entailed
and the inadequate return made him “resolve to go no further.” The book
was printed at Chester, and is the earliest work printed there, and as
such has, of course, a special interest for the city and county. It
is rather remarkable that on the site of his house in Bridge Street
(engraved by Cuitt as _Lamb Row_, the house having subsequently been
converted into a hostelry, “The Lamb”) now stand the printing works of
Mr. Griffiths. In his will his son Randle referred to a “Room in his
dwelling in the Bridge Street formerly made use of as a Printing House
or place.” Dr. Ormerod describes the book as “the strangest jumble on
natural history, mineralogy, and surgery, occasionally diversified by
palmistry, hunters’ terms, the cockpit laws, an essay on Time, and on
Men punished in Hell.” The description is not inaccurate, yet there can
be no doubt that in its eleven hundred folio pages are to be found many
valuable pieces of information, and that in this respect they form “a
storehouse” not only of “Armory and Blazon,” but also of many other
subjects, so that the student who has the patience to explore them is
sure to learn something. They show, too, what an inquiring mind the
author must have had, and how he noted down and kept ready for use the
knowledge he obtained.
[Illustration: Old Lamb Row.]
Randal Holme the Third was also a distinguished Freemason, and probably
one of the earliest connected with Chester. He alludes to the fact that
he was a “Member of the Society called Free-Masons” in his _Academy of
Armory_, and one of his manuscript volumes is entitled _Constitutions
of Masonry_, giving certain particulars as to the names of persons made
Freemasons, and to the initiation fees paid by them. Evidently there
was a lodge of Freemasons at Chester in the seventeenth century, of
which Randle Holme (III.) was a member. It has been supposed by some
that his father also may have been a Mason, as there are some masonic
emblems on the monument put up to his memory in St. Mary’s Church.
The Freemasons of the county showed their respect for his memory, and
commemorated his connection with the church by rebuilding the north
porch in 1892, whilst Mr. Henry Taylor, F.S.A., placed stained-glass
windows of a heraldic nature in the same, with a full account of him.
The laying of the foundation-stone of this porch by the then Provincial
Grand Master, Earl Egerton of Tatton, with full masonic rites, was an
interesting ceremony, and was attended by some two hundred Masons in
their regalia.
It has been already noted that Randle Holme III. lived in Bridge
Street. This house he apparently built about 1670, and did this without
consulting the Corporation, and he was ordered to pull it down, and
fined for persisting in building it. The house, however, was not
demolished until early in the nineteenth century, when the Grosvenor
Bridge was built over the Dee, and it was subsequently converted into a
tavern called “The Lamb.”
Randle Holme III. died on March 12, 1699-1700, in the seventy-third
year of his age. He was thrice married, and had issue eight sons
and six daughters. Of the former only three survived him--Randle,
by his first wife, born in 1659, and George and John by his second.
Randle was taken into partnership by his father when he was thirty-one
years of age--that is, in 1690. In 1691 he became a member of the
Stationers’ Company, of which he was elected an alderman in 1705,
the same year in which he was one of the two sheriffs of the city.
Like his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, he also served
the office of churchwarden of St. Mary’s, and like them, too, he
was deputy to Norroy King-of-Arms. He continued the work of his
ancestors, and the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Mary’s contain
various entries of payments to him for work done. He died August 30,
1707, aged 48, all his five children having predeceased him. In his
will, referred to above, he bequeaths all his books and collections
of heraldry to his half-brothers George and John, to be equally
divided between them. These books and collections no doubt represented
the work and labours of all four Randle Holmes, as well as what the
first of that name obtained by his marriage with the widow of Thomas
Chaloner. They represented the researches of over a hundred years,
and contained abstracts of many documents which no longer exist, and
accounts of visits paid to many churches, with accurate descriptions
of the monumental inscriptions, and the old heraldic stained glass
in the windows. Early in the eighteenth century they were purchased
by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, having been, it is said, first
offered to the Corporation of Chester, who declined to buy them. They
now form a portion of that magnificent collection of manuscripts in
the British Museum known as “the Harleian MSS.,” and run to about
270 volumes. Naturally their contents are extremely diversified, and
they vary considerably in value; but there can be no doubt that to
any one inquiring into the history of Chester, Cheshire, Lancashire,
and North Wales they contain a mine of information, and are simply
invaluable. Unfortunately there is no complete and sufficient index
of their contents, so that laborious perusal of them is necessary, for
the acquisition of the information which they can convey. Allowance,
too, will have to be made for the fact that none of the four were
good mediæval Latin scholars, for none of them had the advantage of a
university education. Consequently in their transcription of old Latin
records many mistakes will be found, and though these may be irritating
to the modern student, they can easily be corrected. The opinion
passed on the first Randle Holme by the late Mr. W. H. Black, F.S.A.,
Assistant Keeper of the Public Records, may virtually be applied to
them all: “In short, he was an industrious and faithful copyist or
collector of historical antiquities, but his philological learning
was too scanty for him to use extreme accuracy on the one hand, or to
invent any of the documents which he professed to transcribe, extract,
or abridge on the other. Therefore his copies may be always relied on
as faithfully transcribed in substance.” Though the man of learned
leisure has not yet appeared who can wade through these volumes and
make us acquainted with the treasures they contain, yet it is true to
say that no historian of Chester or of Cheshire can fulfil his purpose
who does not either first-hand or second-hand (the former course being
the better) derive a great deal of information from these industrious
antiquarians of the seventeenth century. They have set an example
which has been stimulating and fruitful, and it is only right that in
a volume of this character generous and adequate expression should be
given to the debt which we owe to them for the preservation of details
and information which otherwise would have been irrevocably lost. They
have left also in many of the churches in Chester and its neighbourhood
many examples of their heraldic knowledge and skill in the memorials of
deceased persons. Painted as these were on wood, many have disappeared;
those that are still left are full of interest. May we not class these
four Randle Holmes as amongst Chester’s most notable worthies?