Randle Holme
Encyclopedia
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England from the late years of the 16th century to the early years of the 18th century. They were all herald
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
painters and genealogists
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
and were members of the Stationers' Company of Chester. All four painted memorial boards and hatchment
Hatchment
A hatchment is a funeral demonstration of the lifetime "achievement" of the arms and any other honours displayed on a black lozenge-shaped frame which used to be suspended against the wall of a deceased person's house...
s, and some of these can still be found in Cheshire churches.
Randle Holme I (1570/71–1655)
The first to bear the name, he was born in Chester, the son of Thomas Holme, a blacksmithBlacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
whose family came from Tranmere
Tranmere, Merseyside
Tranmere is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, it is also a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within the geographical county of Cheshire...
, which was then in Cheshire, and Elizabeth Devenett from Kinnerton
Higher Kinnerton
Higher Kinnerton is a residential village in Flintshire in North Wales very close to the Wales-England border and Cheshire in England. Its sister village, Lower Kinnerton is actually in Cheshire in England.- Education :...
, Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
. He was apprenticed
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
to Thomas Chaloner who was deputy to William Flower, Norroy king of arms
Norroy and Ulster King of Arms
Norroy and Ulster King of Arms is one of the senior Officers of Arms of the College of Arms, and the junior of the two provincial Kings of Arms. The current office is the combination of two former appointments...
in 1578. He was elected an alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
by 1604 and appointed as a servant to Prince Henry
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...
by May 1607. In 1600 and again in 1606 Holme was appointed deputy herald of the College of Arms
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds’ College, is an office regulating heraldry and granting new armorial bearings for England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
in Cheshire, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
and North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
.
Holme's main duty was to arrange funerals of those entitled to bear arms
Right to bear arms
The right to keep and bear arms is the assertion that people have a personal right to firearms for individual use, or a collective right to bear arms in a militia, or both....
but he also made an income from painting hatchment
Hatchment
A hatchment is a funeral demonstration of the lifetime "achievement" of the arms and any other honours displayed on a black lozenge-shaped frame which used to be suspended against the wall of a deceased person's house...
s and memorial boards. From the early 1620s ill health prevented him from undertaking long journeys and his son Randle Holme II deputised for him by making the annual Easter reports to the College of Arms. He was fined for not attending the coronation of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
in 1626 and for refusing a knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
hood in 1631. Holme was sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
of Chester in 1615–16 and mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
in 1633–34. He remained in the city of Chester during the siege of Chester in the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
from September 1645 to February 1646 and also during the plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
of 1648. Supported by Sir William Brereton he was made a commissioner for peace and oversaw the repair of the city walls
Chester city walls
.Chester city walls consist of a defensive structure built to protect the city of Chester in Cheshire, England. Their construction was started by the Romans when they established the fortress of Deva Victrix between 70 and 80 AD. It originated with a rampart of earth and turf surmounted by a...
.
In 1598 he married Elizabeth née Alcock, who was Thomas Chaloner's widow. They had three children, William, Randle and Elizabeth. On 11 September 1635 he married Catherine Browne, daughter of Ralph Allen, alderman of Chester. He died on 16 January 1655 and was buried at St Mary's on the Hill
Church of St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester
St Mary's Centre, formerly the Church of St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester, stands at the top of St Mary's Hill, Chester, Cheshire, England, near Chester Castle. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The church stands at the top of a narrow winding lane which...
.
Randle Holme II (c1601–1659)
He worked closely with his father and became deputy herald of the College of Arms for Lancashire in 1627. He was Chester city treasurer in 1633 and clerk to the Stationers' Company of Chester in 1641. In 1633–34 he was sheriff of Chester (in the same year that this father was mayor) and in 1643–44 he was mayor. During the siege of Chester he supported the RoyalistCavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
cause and after the city fell he was dismissed as alderman and justice of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. Later in his life he worked mainly as a genealogist.
In 1625 he married Catherine Ellis of Overleigh and they had six children who survived infancy. Catherine died in 1640 and in 1643 he married Elizabeth Martyn, daughter of Thomas Dodd of Chester. He was buried at St Mary's on the Hill on 1 September 1659.
Randle Holme III (1627–1700)
He was born on 24 December 1627 and was the eldest son of the above. He was steward to the Stationers' Company of Chester in 1656 and an alderman from 1659. In 1664 Charles IICharles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
granted him a sinecure
Sinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
, known as "sewer of the chamber of the extraordinary". He prepared items of heraldry and took fees for them without permission from the Norroy king of arms, Sir William Dugdale
William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.-Life:...
. Dugdale took him to court, Holme lost the case and it was decided that all the offending boards should be removed, defaced or destroyed. Dugdale travelled north on at least three occasions to carry this out himself. Later Holme made peace with Dugdale and by 1675 was making funeral certificates for him. In 1678 he was appointed deputy herald for Chester, Lancashire and North Wales. He was the only one of the four Randle Holmes not to hold civic office in Chester and was also one of the first Freemasons in Chester.
He wrote a book entitled The Academie of Armorie and in 1688 printed parts 1 and 2 and some of book 3 at his house but the venture proved too expensive to complete. The rest of book 3 and book 4 were published in 1905 by the Roxburghe Club
Roxburghe Club
The Roxburghe Club was formed on 17 June 1812 by leading bibliophiles, at the time the library of the Duke of Roxburghe was auctioned. It took 45 days to sell the entire collection. The first edition of Boccaccio's Decameron, printed by Chrisopher Valdarfer of Venice in 1471, was sold to the...
. Book 1 relates completely to heraldry and the other books form a "kind of encyclopaedia".
He married Sarah Soley in 1655 and they had five children. Sarah died in 1665 and the following year he married Elizabeth Wilson and with her had another eight children. Elizabeth died in 1685 and in 1689 he married Ann, whose surname is not known. He died on 12 March 1700 and was buried at St Mary's.
Randle Holme IV (c1659–1707)
He worked in partnership with his father, was sheriff of Chester in 1705–06 and deputy herald. He married Margaret Lloyd from Llanarmon, DenbighshireDenbighshire
Denbighshire is a county in north-east Wales. It is named after the historic county of Denbighshire, but has substantially different borders. Denbighshire has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited part of Wales. Pontnewydd Palaeolithic site has remains of Neanderthals from 225,000 years...
, and had five children who all died young. He himself died on 30 August 1707 and was buried at St Mary's.
Legacy
Monuments to family members are in the church of St Mary on the Hill, Chester.The family manuscript collection amounts to 261 volumes and is held in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
. All four Randle Holmes were collectors of legal and other documents and the collection forms one of the principal sources for Cheshire history.
Memorial boards dated in the years the Randle Holmes were flourishing are present in many churches in Cheshire. However as these never contain the name of the painter we cannot be sure which are by members of the Randle Holme family. Many of the boards painted by Randle Holme III were destroyed by Sir William Dugdale in visits to Cheshire and surrounding counties in 1667, 1668 and 1670. However Dugdale's diary contains details of the destruction of memorial boards in only eight churches. There are no other known individuals or schools of heraldic painting in the Chester area during the time the Randle Holme family was flourishing. Identification rests mainly on the style of the paintings and their dates. Suggested examples of existing memorial boards by Randle Holme III and other members of the family are four in St James' Church, Audlem
St James' Church, Audlem
St James' Church, Audlem is located in the village of Audlem in south Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, The church dates from the late 13th century with additions in the 19th century. It is an active Anglican parish church...
, three in St Boniface's Church, Bunbury
St Boniface's Church, Bunbury
St Boniface's Church, Bunbury, stands prominently in the village of Bunbury, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The church dates mainly from the 14th century. Its features include the Ridley chapel, the alabaster chest tomb of...
, one in St James' Church, Christleton
St James' Church, Christleton
St James' Church, Christleton, is in the village of Christleton, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester...
, two in St John the Baptist's Church, Knutsford
St John the Baptist's Church, Knutsford
St John the Baptist's Church, Knutsford is in the town of Knutsford, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of...
, seven in St Mary's Church, Thornton-le-Moors
St Mary's Church, Thornton-le-Moors
St Mary's Church, Thornton-le-Moors is a redundant Anglican church in the small village of Thornton-le-Moors, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and it is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.-History:A chapel was...
, 13 in St Lawrence's Church, Stoak
St Lawrence's Church, Stoak
St Lawrence's Church, Stoak is in the village of Stoak, Cheshire, England, which lies between the intersection of the M56 and M53 motorways and the Shropshire Union Canal). The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building...
, five in St Andrew's Church, Tarvin
St Andrew's Church, Tarvin
St Andrew's Church, Tarvin, is in the village of Tarvin, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester...
, two in St Margaret's Church, Wrenbury
St Margaret's Church, Wrenbury
St Margaret's Church, Wrenbury overlooks the village green of Wrenbury, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of...
, one in St Helen's Church, Tarporley
St Helen's Church, Tarporley
St Helen's Church, Tarporley is in the village of Tarporley, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated as a Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Malpas...
, six in St Oswald's Church, Backford
St Oswald's Church, Backford
St Oswald's Church, Backford, is a church in the village of Backford, northwest of Chester, Cheshire, England, close to the A41 road and adjoining Backford Hall. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. The church dates from the 14th century with later...
and 17 in the city of Chester. A further board attributed to the family is in St Mary's Church, Pulford
St Mary's Church, Pulford
St Mary's Church, Pulford is in the village of Pulford, Cheshire, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester...
.
Much of The Academie of Armorie was made available in 2000 on a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
produced by the British Library entitled Living and Working in Seventeenth Century England: an Encyclopedia of Drawings and Descriptions from Randle Holme's Original Manuscripts for The Academy of Armory (1688).