The Dering Roll is the oldest English

roll of arms A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centu ...

surviving in its original form. It was made between 1270 and 1280 and contains the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of 324 knights, starting with two illegitimate children of King John. Sir Edward Dering acquired the roll during the 17th century and modified it to include a fictitious ancestor of his own. It was eventually purchased by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

(as Add Roll 77720) following fund raising involving a number of other charities and individuals. Glover's Roll, made in 1586, is a copy of a now lost roll dating from even earlier, from the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272).

Description

The Dering Roll depicts the coats of arms of around a quarter of the English baronage during the era of Edward I. Emphasis was given to knights from Sussex and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, as it was produced in Dover between 1270 and 1280 and the document was designed to list the knights who owed feudal service there. It depicts 324 coats of arms, beginning with Richard Fitz Roy and

William de Say William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, two of King John's illegitimate sons. The shields are arranged in 54 rows, with six shields on each line. Above each shield reads the knight's name, except in six cases where it has been omitted or removed. Stephen de Pencester may have commissioned the roll during his time as Constable of Dover Castle.

Dering's amendment

Sir Edward Dering acquired the Roll whilst lieutenant of

Dover Castle Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England and is Grade I listed. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some sources say it is the ...

, and made his modification after 1638, removing the coat of arms of

Nicholas de Crioll Nicholas de Crioll (Cryoyll, Kerrial or Kyriel) (died c. February 1272), of a family seated in Kent, was Constable of Dover Castle and Keeper of the Coast during the early 1260s. His kinsman Bertram de Criol (died 1256) had distinguished himself ...

and inserting his own coat of arms with a fictitious ancestor named Richard Fitz Dering in order to improve the history of his own family. This appears adjacent to the shield for Thomas de Marines (''or a cross engrailed gules''). The trail of Richard fitz Dering (built upon sources dependent upon Dering's collections) leads, or was intended to lead, to the manor of Heyton in

Stanford, Kent Stanford is a village and civil parish in Kent, England. It is part of the Folkestone and Hythe district. It has been divided by the M20 into Stanford North and Stanford South. The Stanford Windmill is to the north of the M20 and west of the a ...

(where the supposed FitzDering connection with Marinis or Morinis is given credence by Edward Hasted), and is exemplified by charters like that in

Thomas Willement Thomas Willement (18 July 1786 – 10 March 1871) was an English stained glass artist, called "the father of Victorian stained glass", active from 1811 to 1865. Biography Willement was born at St Marylebone, London. Like many early 19th centu ...

's hands. A descent through a branch of the de Haute family of Wadenhall, Waltham, Kent was then indicated, but Sir Edward Dering's constructive approach to genealogy leaves many of the sources bedevilled by doubts of authenticity.

Recent ownership

During the 20th century it was acquired by Sir Anthony Wagner. On 4 December 2007, the roll was sold at auction at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

for the sum of £192,000 to a private individual who subsequently applied for an export licence. The

Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

placed a temporary block on the roll being moved overseas and the

led efforts to purchase it, after the

Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) is a committee of the United Kingdom government, advising the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the export of cultural property. Some of it ...

confirmed it to be of sufficient importance and significance. The library raised £194,184 to acquire the roll; the Head of Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts,

Claire Breay Claire Breay, MBE (born 18 October 1968) is an English manuscript curator and medieval historian. She is the Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library, where she specializes in Western medieval manuscripts in ...

said of the purchase, "the acquisition of the Dering Roll provides an extremely rare chance to add a manuscript of enormous local and national significance." They were assisted in funding the purchase from The Art Fund (£40,000), the

National Heritage Memorial Fund The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) was set up in 1980 to save the most outstanding parts of the British national heritage, in memory of those who have given their lives for the UK. It replaced the National Land Fund which had fulfilled the ...

(£100,000), Friends of the British Library (£10,000), Friends of the National Libraries (£10,000), and a number of individual benefactors. It is now on display at the Sir John Ritblat Gallery in the British Library, and available to researchers in the library's manuscripts reading room.

Modern illustrations of arms

File:The Dering Roll of Arms - Panel 1 - 1 to 54.png, PANEL 1 - 1 to 54 File:The Dering Roll of Arms - Panel 2 - 55 to 108.png, PANEL 2 - 55 to 108 File:The Dering Roll of Arms - Panel 3 - 109 to 162.png, PANEL 3 - 109 to 162 File:The Dering Roll of Arms - Panel 4 - 163 to 216.png, PANEL 4 - 163 to 216 File:The Dering Roll of Arms - Panel 5 - 217 to 270.png, PANEL 5 - 217 to 270 File:The Dering Roll of Arms - Panel 6 - 271 to 324.png, PANEL 6 - 271 to 324

External links

*http://www.bsswebsite.me.uk/History/Dering/dering-roll.html Images of original roll and modern renderings

References