Musgrave's Obituary - 6 volumes. Originally written by Sir William Musgrave and compiled from his extensive library, this enormous work is an alphabetical list of peoples names, their date of death and reference to the source of the information.For the most part the people mentioned belong to the middle to upper classes of society, although there are quite frequent mentions such as:'ACTON, Vincent, a swineherd near Worcester. 9 Aug. 1764. (LM 485; GM 398). LM 485 refers to The London Magazine and GM refers to The Gentlemans Magazine.BATEMAN, Mathew, wheelright, Whitechapel. 17 Sept 1761 (LM 506; GM 430).BROWN, William, farmer, at Skeffington in Leicestershire. April 1791 (GM 385).They are all pre 1800..... and at a quick glance I see that most are in the 1700s and 1600s, but that there are also a great number much earlier. The earliest I spotted (in the first few pages of the "A"s) was in the year 1421.The whole set of twenty three original volumes was transcribed by the Harleian Society and published between 1899 and 1901 in the six volumes seen in the photograph (left).These wonderful books were kindly loaned to The Archive CD Books Project by The Harleian Society. Ref 8039 Price £31.20

The Life of William Bruges. - The First Garter King of Arms. William Bruges was a man of some prominence in his day, the first Garter King of Arms, an excellent herald, diplomat and devoted churchman.Little is known of his early life or even his date and place of birth, although it is certain that he died in 1450. This is a superb and very scholarly account which will be of great interest to those studying medieval heraldry. Ref 8091 Price £19.00