853 



PEDESTAL. 



PEERS OF THE KEALM. 



351 



PEDESTAL. [COLUMN.] 



PEDIGREE. A pedigree is a tabular view of the members of any 

 particular family, with the relations in which they stand to each other ; 

 together, usually, with some slight notice of the principal events of 

 the life of each, as the time and place of birth, marriage, death, and 

 burial, the residence, the profession, or rank of the principal person 

 named in it, and public offices held by him. Sometimes these are 

 accompanied by reference to evidence of the facts stated, as to inqui- 

 sitions, parish-registers, monumental inscriptions, marriage-settlements, 

 and deeds of all kinds. But when there is much of this kind of infor- 

 mation and evidence introduced, the writing is rather called a genealogy, 

 or genealogical history, than a pedigree ; and many pedigrees, especially 

 those of early date, are wholly deficient of reference to evidence for 

 proof of the things stated in them, and contain rarely dates or any- 

 thing more than the mere names of the parties who occur in them. 

 They appear to be the summaries, or things established by certain 

 evidences which may or may not now accompany them, in respect of 

 descents and relationships. , 



Some fanciful explanations have been given of the word. But 

 perhaps the true etymology may be that which refers it to the Latin 

 peda graduum, the word pf, or pede, being much used in the law 

 Latin of the middle ages to denote iummaria, or the ultimate result 

 in any transaction, as in pedet Jinium and pcdes compoti. So that a 

 pedigree is, as it were, a total of information or evidence respecting 

 descents and kindredships. 



The Scripture genealogies, as they are called, are so many pedigrees, 

 but with this difference from the proper idea of a pedigree, that they 

 are not tabular, but narrative. 



Tabular genealogies, or pedigrees properly BO called, are not of very 

 frequent occurrence in the writings of the middle ages. But they are 

 sometimes found in public records, and in the evidences of private 

 families, or entered in the chartularies of the monastic foundations. 

 They are generally short, containing for the most part only such 

 matter as was wanted for the exhibition of some particular claim of 

 right. But at about the beginning of the 16th century, when the 

 College of Heralds began to pay more attention to the genealogy of the 

 English families in reference to their claims to dignities and to the 

 distinction which the right to armorial insignia gives, many pedigrees 

 were compiled, and in the course of that century the heralds obtained 

 copies of all such accounts of the English families of any distinction as 

 could be supplied to them, and made such accounts matter of public 

 record by entering them in the books which contain the record of their 

 official proceedings. To obtain information of this kind, it was the 

 practice of the heralds of that century, and it continued to be their 

 practice till about the year 1680, to visit the various counties of 

 England from time to time in turn, and to collect from the mouths of 

 the principal persona of each county what they knew of the changes 

 which had taken place in the family since the time of the preceding 

 visitation, or what account could be given of themselves by families 

 who had recently stepped into the rank of gentry, or who had become 

 recently settled in the county. The pedigrees thus collected are in 

 the visitation books at the College of Arms, and form a vast body of 

 this species of information highly important to those who are study- 

 ing critically the biography of the distinguished persons of the English 

 nation. 



Besides this grand collection of pedigrees, there are many similar 

 collections made by private persons, or by the heralds themselves in 

 their private capacity. Many such collections are in the library of the 

 Heralds' College ; others are in the British Museum ; others in the 

 hands of private persons. Copies of the visitation books are also often 

 to be found. The largest collection of copies is in the British 

 Museum, though copies of some of the best visitation books are not 

 in any of the collections in that depository. There are many copies 

 in the libraries of Queen's College, Oxford, and Caius College, 

 Cambridge. 



Since the visitations were discontinued, there has been no official 

 and regular collection of pedigree*. But there has been a continual 

 addition made to the pedigrees which are on record in the visitation 

 books by the entry in the books of the Heralds' College of their pedigree 

 by particular families. In some cases, as of peers, this is compulsory. 

 When arms are granted or dignities conferred, it has been usual for 

 families to record in the college what they know of their descents and 

 alliances. But the books are open to any private family, who may, at 

 a moderate expense, enter a pedigree showing the existing state of the 

 family, and whatever is within the recollection of the older members 

 of it, or can be proved by sufficient evidence. The entries thus 

 officially made are matter of record, and contain information which 

 is often very interesting to the posterity of the persons who occur 

 in them, and may be of importance in protecting rights which belong 

 to them. 



The authors of the books of topography have done something to 

 supply the loss of information <.f this kind which has been sustained 

 by the disuse of visitations, such works usually containing notices of 

 the families who have possessed the more important interests in the 

 district to which the work relates. 



PE U I M KNT. [GRECIAH ARCHITECTURE.] 



PEDLAR. This word is said by Dr. Johnson to be a contraction 

 from petty dealer, formed into a new term by long and familiar use ; 

 ARTS AXD id. WV. VOL. VI. 



and a pedlar is defined by him to be " one who travels the country 

 with small commodities." The same writer defines a hawker to be 

 " one who sells his wares by proclaiming them in the street." In legal 

 understanding however a hawker is an itinerant trader, who goes about 

 from place to place, carrying with him and selling goods ; and a pedlar 

 is only a hawker in small wares. In the various acts of parliament 

 which impose duties upon them and regulate their dealings, they are 

 always named in conjunction as hawkers and pedlars; and no distinc- 

 tion is made between them. 



It has been for more than a century the policy of English law to 

 consider the conduct of trade by means of fixed establishments as more 

 beneficial to the public than that of itinerant dealers ; and it cannot 

 be denied that the local trader being better known and more dependent 

 upon his character than one who continually travels from place to 

 place, there is a greater security for the respectability of his dealings. 

 In conformity with this policy, statutes have been passed from time to 

 time, obliging hawkers and pedlars to take out licences and to submit 

 to specific regulations and restrictions, which are supposed to protect 

 the resident trader as well as the public from unfair dealing. These 

 reasons however have been given ex post facto to justify the laws ; for 

 the statutes which originally required licences for hawkers and im- 

 posed these duties appear to have merely contemplated a means of 

 increasing the revenue. (8 & 9 Wm. III., c. 25 ; and 9 & 10 Wm. III., 

 c. 27.) 



The provisions by which the licences to hawkers and pedlars are now 

 regulated are contained in the statute 50 Geo. III., c. 41 ; and the 

 Amendment Act 52 Geo. III., c. 108. The duty of granting licences 

 to hawkers and pedlars and enforcing the law against such persons is 

 now entrusted to the commissioners of stamps, under the 1 & 2 Wm. 

 IV., c. 22 ; the particular conditions and regulations under which such 

 licences are to be granted being contained in the above-mentioned 

 statute, 50 Geo. III., c. 41. 



Before a licence is granted to a person desirous of trading and 

 travelling as a hawker or pedlar, the applicant must produce to the 

 commissioners of stamps a certificate, signed by the officiating clergy- 

 man and two householders within the parish in which he resides, 

 attesting that he is of good character and a fit person to be licensed. 

 Upon this certificate being given, the commissioners grant the licence, 

 which is only in force for one year, and the party who receives it is 

 subject to a duty of 4/. per annum, if he travels on foot or with horses 

 alone, and an additional duty of )'. per annum if he travels with a 

 " horse, ass, mule, or other beast bearing or drawing burthen ; " and 

 these duties are to be paid at the time of receiving the licence. All 

 persons who act as hawkers or pedlars without such a licence are liable 

 to a penalty of 502. Among other regulations, the hawker or pedlar is 

 required by the act to " cause to be written in large legible Roman 

 capitals, upon the most conspicuous part of every pack, box, bag, trunk, 

 case, cart, or waggon, or other vehicle in which he carries his goods, 

 and of every room and shop in which he trades, and likewise upon 

 every handbill or advertisement given out by him, the words ' Licensed 

 Hawker,' together with the number, name, or other mark of his licence ; " 

 and in case of his omission so to do, he is 'liable to a penalty of 1 0/. ; 

 and every unlicensed person who places these words upon his goods is 

 liable to a penalty to the like amount. A hawker and pedlar travelling 

 without a licence, or travelling and trading contrary to or otherwise 

 than is allowed by the terms of his licence, or refusing to produce his 

 licence when required to do so by inspectors appointed by the com- 

 missioners, or by any magistrate or peace-officer, or by any person to 

 whom he shall offer goods for sale, is liable in each case to a penalty 

 of lOi. A person having a licence, and hiring or lending it to another 

 person for the purpose of trading with it, and also the person who so 

 trades with another's licence, are each liable to a penalty of 401. A 

 hawker or pedlar dealing in or selling any smuggled goods, or know- 

 ingly dealing in or selling any goods fraudulently or dishonestly pro- 

 cured, forfeits his licence, and is for ever afterwards incapacitated from 

 obtaining or holding a new licence. By the stat. 48 Geo. III., c. 84, 

 s. 7, if any hawker or pedlar shall offer for sale tea, brandy, rum, 

 Geneva, or other foreign spirits, tobacco, or snuff, he may be arrested 

 by any person to whom the same may be offered, and taken before a 

 magistrate, who may hold him to bail to answer for the offence under 

 the excise laws. 



By the stat. 6 Geo. IV., c. 80, any person hawking any spirits may 

 be arrested, and upon conviction before a magistrate, incurs a forfuitui e 

 of the spirits, and may be sentenced to pay a penalty of 100/., and in 

 default to undergo three months imprisonment with hard labour. 



By the provisions of the statutes 29 Geo. III., c. 26, s. 6, and also of 

 50 Geo. III., c. 41, s. 7, no person coming within the description of ;>, 

 hawker or pedlar can lawfully, either by opening a shop and exposing 

 goods to sale by retail in any place in which he is not a householder or 

 resident, other than in a legally established public market during 

 market hours, or by any other means, sell goods either by himself or 

 any other person by outcry or auction, under a penalty of 501. 



It is further provided by the 18th section of the 50 Geo. III., c. 41, 

 that, if any person shall forge or counterfeit any hawker's or pedlar'.s 

 licence, or travel with, or produce, or show any such forged or counter- 

 feited licence, he shall forfeit the sum of 300/. 



PEERS OF THE REALM are persons to whom the law and con- 

 stitution attribute certain high dignities and privileges. Without. 



