10 THE MODEL MERCHANT 



given, birth to our hero ; but I have been able by my researches in the 

 British Museum to prove most satisfactorily the pedigree of the subject 

 of this work, and to show that he was not in any way connected with 

 any of the other families of the same name. The armorial bearings of 

 the Staffordshire and Somersetshire families are totally different from 

 those of the celebrated Lord Mayor of London, whose arms are identical 

 with those of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, viz., Gules, aFesse corn- 

 pone (or cheeky). Or and Azure. Crest, a Lion's head, erased Sable, lang- 

 gued Gules ; while those of the Staffordshire family are Argent, three 

 Stars, Gules. Cred, a Goat's head issuing out of a ducal coronet. 

 Whittington, of ^N'etsborough, Staffordshire, bears Argent in the field, 

 a Bugle horn between three Escalops; and the arms of the Somerset- 

 shire family are Azure, three Salmons Argent. Crest, a Salmon sautant 

 Argent; and singularly enough there does not appear to have been 

 any Richard in the pedigree of this latter family. The arms of our 

 hero which appear on the Ordinances of the college and on the hospital 

 which he founded, are identical with those of the Gloucestershire 

 family. He appears, however, from the Visitation of London, in the 

 Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, to have adopted a different 

 crest from the rest of his family, and whether the interpreters of 

 heraldic insects may determine the crest which he assumed to be a 

 bee, or an ephemera or May fly, the wings tipped with gold, (seme as I 

 believe it is called) they might either of them be considered emblemati- 

 cal of his life; the first as a mark of his industry, the latter exhibiting 

 his ephemeral existence, being the author of his own fortune, yet leaving 

 no children to inherit his wealth. "When you know all that I have to 

 tell you of llichard Whittington, I think you will agree with mc that 

 we ought not very readily to concede the privilege of having him as 

 a Gloucestershire worthy, descended from a Gloucestershire stock, if 

 not actually born in the County, the probabilities, however, being in 

 favor of the latter supposition, though inasmuch as there were no parish 

 registers ' at the time when "Whittington was born, nor until more 



/ Parish registers were first introduced by order of Lord Cromwell in 1558. 

 See iJigland's Observations on Parish Rcyisters. It appeals, however, from the 

 History of Parish Registers, by Bum, that it is a disputed point, some authors 

 giving 1501, others 1521 as their earliest date. Whittaker's Hist, of Sheffield 

 traces their origin back to 1499. The Register at Pauntley is one of the highest 



