A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire

by Research Fellow and Honorary Lecturer Department of Microbiology and Immunology Bernard Burke

The purpose of this work is to set forth, in alphabetical sequence, the lineage of each of the nearly 2,000 noble houses--Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons--that had succumbed to extinction up to the time of the book's original publication. Each article begins with the exact date of the patent's creation, proceeding therefrom to the lineage which commences with the first known representative of the line, and carrying through successive generations up to the time of the extinction of the title, each generation constituting a catalogue of births, marriages, and deaths. The lineages are fleshed out with a wealth of incidental detail, which includes references to military and official service, estates, occupations, honors, collateral families, and places of birth, residence, and death. Altogether something on the order of 40,000 persons are referred to in the text.

684 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1883

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing that can be said about this book is that it exists; it’s the only thing of its kind short of the Complete Peerage. The worst thing that can be said about it is almost everything else. The 1883 edition, with its supplement, picks up all those titles which had died out and therefore were not in the later editions of Burke’s Peerage. Arrangement is by family name, rather than by title, so one does get a sense of the power the great families accumulated. The amount of narrative detail varies from almost nonexistent to extended Victorian hyperbole, dates are very spotty, and minor factual errors are rife. So use this to outline the rise and decline of a family and its branches, and then go to the Complete Peerage for reliable details.