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Adrian John Ballard of Bristol, UK.
Copyright © 1999 by
Adrian John Ballard. All rights reserved.
Revised: 04 Feb 2001 00:44:12 GMT Standard Time.
The Value of Family History
It were very good, honourable, pleasant and
profitable that every great noble, and gentleman
of heritage, and specially men of great houses, put in remembrance and made chronicle of
their
house and surname; of their beginning and progress of their predecessors' lives,
particularly of
acts and deeds that they did in their time; what succession they had, with whome they were
allied, and what was their end.
It were great pleasure to a man to know the origin and beginning of his house and surname,
and how long it has stood; and it were right profitable, because when a nobleman remembers
the good beginning of his house and surname, the long standing thereof, the honourable and
virtuous acts of his predecessors, it will give occasion to every man to conserve and
maintain
the house that his forebears has constructed, and he will be the more loth to do anything
that
may be the hurt or decay of the same. And moreover, when he hears or reads the noble acts
of his predecessors put in writ; that howbeit they be dead bodily, their fame and honour
is yet
recent, it will give them occasion to exercise themselves in virtue and honour, so it may
be
written of them, as of their good predecessors; that their fame and name may live and last
long, and many years after their body be dead.
And if any of their predecessors has been vicious, and their vice set forth in
remembrance, it may give every man occasion to eschew all things dishonourable or
detestable, in the event that it may be spoken of many years after their decease from this
world, to their slander and shame.
George Seton, 4th Earl of Winton
