I found book on Skipwiths Lincolnshire pedigrees

Question

The Publications of the Harleian Society.  Is this usable for providing a trail?  I think or rather I hope I am stating that right.  I am trying to make sure I state it correctly.

Answer 1

Lincolnshire Pedigrees, pts 1 to 4, ed. A. R. Maddison, Harleian Soc 50-52 (1902-4) and 54 (1906)

A-G: https://archive.org/stream/lincolnshirepedi01madd#page/n25/

H-O: https://archive.org/stream/lincolnshirepedi51madd#page/n7/

P-Z: https://archive.org/stream/lincolnshireped00larkgoog#page/n4/

Supplement: https://archive.org/details/lincolnshirepedi04madd/page/n7

The Harleian Society published pedigree books from old manuscripts.  It had no fixed editorial policy or quality standard, and every manuscript had its own difficulties.  They were rarely published verbatim.  Most editors thought they needed a lot of work.

Editors were strictly unpaid, so they were gentlemen amateur scholars.  And they sent their own manuscripts straight to the printers, so what you get is essentially self-published.  Mistakes could get through that could have been avoided by peer review, but the gentlemen would have torn each other to shreds.

So the Harleian name on a book isn't an automatic quality stamp.

In this case, the pedigrees are mostly the work of A.S Larken, a 19th-century antiquary.  His sister married Lord Monson, who had similar interests.  They made extracts from thousands of wills, and visited most parishes in Lincolnshire, making notes from the registers.

Larken eventually got a job as a herald. Then he took the Visitation pedigrees, combined them, and corrected and detailed and extended them with the data from his notebooks.

Sources are indicated lightly.  "MS C 23" is the 1634 Visitation, and "D 23" is 1666.  It's usually obvious what must have come from a parish register.  Wills are mentioned, with dates.  They'll be at Lincoln.  Where people are said to be living or dead on a certain date, this is usually inferred from a relative's will.

Larken doesn't seem to have made much use of deeds or lawsuits or manorial records.  And he seems to have mostly avoided traditional family pedigrees, and the collections of old-school pedigree-mongers who guessed whatever they didn't know.

Maddison added some pedigrees of his own, especially in the supplement, mostly minor families, and based on Lincoln wills.

Maddison also published two books of Lincoln wills.  List of Lincoln will books here

http://www.wellowgate.co.uk/wills.htm

Comments

Some of the Skipwith genealogies in Volume 3 cite Massingberd's History of Ormsby which would only be accessible in HathiTrust if you live in the United States.

This work does also seem to be available via Ancestry.com if you have a subscription.

---

thanks RJ & John - looks like all the sources agree that "John de Thorpe de Skipwith" who married Margaret Flynton/Flinton is son of John Skipwith & Isabel Arches. The History of the Parish... reference, pp 54-55 (HathiTrust) agree. The pedigree in that book, p 62, shows two children: William ("heir to his uncle Robert" - pp 54-55 say John, 3rd son, is heir to his brother Robert, 2nd son) m Margaret, dau. of Sir Ralph Fitz Simon, heir to her brother Sir Simon Fitz Ralph (the other son, has a question mark: "? John de Skipwith = Ancestor of the Skipwiths of Haburgh"... text appears to change this, saying Sir Ralph of Haburgh is son of William, the brother, and that "I have shown that Ralph of Haburgh was son of a John de Skipwith, so we must correct so far this statement").

Answer 2

I think it depends on what sources the book cites. You can certainly add it to a profile. Is this a Visitations? The Magna Carta Project Reliable Sources page talks about Visitations as a source.

Comments

I went to add it and parents to a Skipwith that did not have a profile manager and it would not let me.  I have found two books with parentage for him. It said I was not certified pre 1500.  I am for pre 1700.  I will see if it will let me put a comment on the page and the names of the two books.  I just found another one.

---

yup - posting as a comment is the way to go when you can't edit a profile.

---

Ah. Not a visitation. Looks like a family book published in the late 1800s - John de Skipwith m Margaret de Flinton shown on pedigree on page 22

I'll add it as a "see also", but genealogies published in the late 1800s/early 1900s are problematic. See [this overview] on New Netherland Settlers Reliable Sources page on Family Genealogies.

---

Text for the profile, citing Burke's Peerage (noted as Unreliable by the EuroAristo project) names his wife as Margaret Lynde. I found one of the books you found, which names his wife as Margaret Flinton. The Rootsweb tree that is listed under sources is apparently the source for the text from Burke's Peerage, but I see now that only the Burke's entry was copied, omitting "Note: I have Margaret as niece of Walter de la Lynde, as do almost all people on World Connect." (and the Rootsweb tree has his wife as Margaret Flinton too). I think the profile actually needs the "Unsourced" template - Rootsweb trees, World Connect, and unsourced books are not adequate sources, and since Burke's is not only considered unreliable but also has a different wife...

By the way, I found a Lincolnshire pedigree but couldn't find John Skipwith in it: https://archive.org/details/lincolnshirepedi01madd/page/n748

Answer 3

This link will give you some information about the Harleian Society. I suspect you are referring to the Visitations of Lincolnshire. This link will provide some information about the Society.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harleian_Society And This link will provide some information about the visitations. http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/guide/vis.shtml The basic take away point is that the visitations must be used with care, some of the pedigrees are good, some are not.