PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, OTRIDGE AND SON,
J. NICHOLS AND CO. T. PAYNE, WILKIE AND ROBINSON, J.
WALKER, CLARKE AND SONS, W. LOWNDES, R. LEA, J. CUTHELL,
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND CO. WHITE, COCHRANE,
AND CO. C. LAW, CADELL AND DAVIES, J. BOOTH, CROSBY
AND CO. J. MURRAY, J. MAWMAN, J. BOOKER, R. SCHOLEY,
J. HATCHARD, R. BALDWIN, CRADOCK AND JOY, J. FAULDER,
GALE, CURTIS AND CO, JOHNSON AND CO. AND G. ROBINSON.

1812.

T. Bensley, Printer,

Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London,

PREFACE.

It is generally admitted, that for some time a new edition of COLLINS's Peerage has been much wanted. Thirtyfive years have elapsed since the last was finished at the press; and the Supplementary Volume published by Mr. Barak Longmate, as long ago as 1785, by no means supplies the numerous deficiencies created by the changes of so long and eventful a period. The profusion of Mr. Pitt's ministry of seventeen years in the creation of honours is sufficiently notorious; and the active part which Britain has taken in almost every quarter of the world since the commencement of that illustrious statesman's power, has drawn forward the talents and exertions of so many extraordinary men, that any work of personal history not embracing so brilliant an æra must be comparatively meagre and dull, and without the most interesting features of the glory of later ages.

COLLINS was a most industrious, faithful, and excellent genealogist; to the families which then came within the compass of his work, he left little of pedigree to be done, except a continuation to the present day. But he was more; he was to a certain extent a biographer and historian. Unfortunately, the dryness of his early pursuits, and perhaps a want of early education on a liberal scale, and, not improbably, a narrow sphere of life which restrained him from any familiar acquaintance with elevated society, made him contemplate rank and titles with