IV.—A Roll of Arms belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, temp. Henry VIII, c. 1540

Abstract

The roll of arms which is to be dealt with in this paper was presented to, the Society by our Fellow Mr. John Bilson, under date 12 January 1905. Proceedings, xx, 173, notes that ‘John Bilson, Esq., F.S.A., exhibited and presented an illuminated Roll of Arms (defective at the beginning) of a date circa 1530 with 439 shields arranged in rows of five each’. As the meeting was one for the election of fellows, no discussion upon the roll took place, nor has any notice been taken of it since. The description given in Proceedings as above is somewhat misleading, as will be seen hereafter. The roll was exhibited by the Society in 1916 at the exhibition of objects of British Heraldic Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, being no. 12 in case A, described on page 7 of the Catalogue, though not quite accurately. It excited much interest and induced us to think that a complete publication of its contents might be of value.