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A contemporary copy of Queen Elizabeth's Instructions, 1586, to the Earl of Pembroke, Lord President of the Council in the Marches of Wales [?in the hand of George Owen, the historian of Pembrokeshire].

An early seventeenth century manuscript containing the first book of the 'Description of Penbrokeshire' by George Owen of Henllys. The date at the beginning of the text, following the list of contents, is 'Lune 13 Decembr' 1602' and at the end is the inscription 'finis 18 Maij 1603' followed by 'Opus iij Mensu[m] Magna per Intervalla'. There are a number of directions to the copyist and Harleian MS 6250, the text edited by Henry Owen in the Cymmrodorion Record Series, No. I (1892), is probably a fair-copy of the present manuscript. There are also marks indicating that George Owen checked the copy in late July-August 1603. Comparison with the text edited by Henry Owen shows that a few sections (underlined or crossed out, etc.) in the present manuscript have been omitted in Harleian MS 6250, viz. the passage in chapter 1 which is quoted by Henry Owen on p. 239 of his edition, n. 1, a paragraph on ff. 23 verso-24 recto (anc. 13 verso- 14 recto) of the present manuscript beginning 'Giraldus Cambrensis writinge of the nature of the people of this Countrye hath these wordes', a list of fish on ff. 65 verso-66 verso (anc. 56 verso-57 verso), and a section in chapter 21, ff. 95 verso- 96 verso (anc. 87 verso-88 verso), beginning '& gave them his said deputies his absolute power to execute all thinges in his absens . . . by the kinges maties [sic] that nowe is kinge James kinge of England Scotland Fraunce & Ireland &c' (cf. Henry Owen, op. cit., p. 167, n. 2). Loose inside is a description of the manuscript by 'H.G .' [? Henry Gough], 19 Dec. 1871.

A collection which includes George Owen's Description of Wales, Arms of Pembrokeshire Families, and Genealogical Notes, John Jones's History of Brecknock, and William Sargeant's Glamorganshire Collectanea; also a note on Owen's map of Pembrokeshire by John Browne.

A transcript, 1853, in the hand of Matilda Pasley, of a version of George Owen of Henllys's 'Description of Milford Haven', dated 17 December 1595 (ff. 2-26), together with a note by the transcriber (f. 1).
The manuscript mostly agrees with the texts of Cardiff 2.46 and BL Add. 22623, as published in George Owen, The Description of Penbrokshire, ed. by Henry Owen, Cymmrodorion Record Series, 4 vols (London, 1892-1936), pp. 529-562; where Henry Owen lists minor variations between those two manuscripts the present transcript does not consistently correspond with one or the other. The wording of the title page (f. 2) is significantly different (see Henry Owen (ed.), p. 533), while the section beginning 'For the more ease…' which concludes the other manuscripts is here interpolated on ff. 17-18. A memorandum concerning Owen's methodology for drawing his map of Milford Haven does not appear to be recorded elsewhere (f. 22). The present manuscript is itself copied from an intermediate transcript made at Worsley [New] Hall, Lancashire, on 22 October 1852, by Mary L[ouisa Egerton, Viscountess] Brackley, from the original 1595 manuscript belonging to her father-in-law [Francis Egerton, 1st] Earl of Ellesmere (probably the manuscript now Huntington Library MS EL 1145 (34/B/32)) (see f. 1). In 1853 Matilda Pasley's husband, Sir Thomas Pasley, Bart, was in command of Pembroke Dockyard and the Pasleys became acquainted with Lady Brackley during visits to Stackpole Court, the seat of her father, the 1st Earl Cawdor (see Lawrence Phillips, 'Captain Sir Thomas Sabine Pasley, Bt., R.N., and Pembroke Dockyard, 1849-1854', Mariner's Mirror, 71.2 (1985), 159-165 (pp. 160-161)).

'A catalogue of all the Earles of Penbroke that have been sythence the Conquest in order as they succeeded…', a volume of genealogy compiled, [?1624], in the hand of the herald George Owen the younger (1595-1665), based on the work of his father George Owen of Henllys (1552-1613), and presented to their kinsman William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
George Owen the elder's original intention was to catalogue the earls 'with their proper coat armour' and his son's stated aim (f. 9 recto-verso) was to complete his father's work. The main text (ff. 11-15 and 16-44 rectos only) is mostly that of George Owen of Henllys's 'Catalogue of all the Earles of Penbroke' (1601x1603) (later incorporated by him into chapter 2 of the Description of Pembrokeshire: see George Owen of Henllys, The Description of Penbrokshire, ed. by Henry Owen, 4 vols (London, 1892-1936), I (1892), 14-33; and B. G. Charles, George Owen of Henllys: A Welsh Elizabethan (Aberystwyth, 1973), pp. 160-1). The final two paragraphs (ff. 42, 43, 44), relating to the second and third earls, continue the narrative to about 1624 and were presumably written by George Owen the younger. Each section begins with a decorated initial of varying height. The pedigree, by George Owen the younger (ff. 15 verso-43 verso, versos only), runs in parallel with the main text and traces the descent of William Herbert, in relation to the Earls of Pembroke of the various previous creations only. It is arranged in two columns, with the earls represented in the left hand column and other family shown on the right, and includes fifty-eight coats of arms, fully emblazoned and painted. Also included is the full armorial achievement of William Herbert (f. 8 verso) and the scribe's dedicatory address to Herbert (ff. 9-10). There are marginal notes in pencil, [?19 cent.], on ff. 8 verso and 9 verso (erased). For George Owen the younger see H. Stanford Owen, 'George Owen, York Herald 1633-1663', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1943 and 1944 [1946], 78-107.