Ralph Bigland

Ralph Bigland (29 January 1712 – 27 March 1784) was an

Much of Bigland's antiquarian work was focused on Gloucestershire. Over time, he travelled the whole county, accumulating historical information and making it his business to record the inscriptions on everything from great monuments to modest gravestones. Following his death, his son, Richard, attempted to bring the work to print as a county history, under the editorship of James Dallaway. A number of instalments of the Historical, Monumental, and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of Gloucester were published between 1786 and 1794 (completing two volumes, dated 1791 and 1794), and further instalments appeared sporadically through the 19th century. However, the project remained unfinished until a definitive edition was published in four volumes by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society between 1989 and 1995.

Bigland's antiquarian concerns brought about a change of career in 1757. In that year, he was appointed

Bigland was working until his demise when he died in his rooms in the College of Arms on 27 March 1784. He was buried on 8 April in Gloucester Cathedral. Practising what he preached, he had himself drafted the inscription, which contains a quantity of genealogical information.

Arms

Coat of arms of Ralph Bigland

Adopted Exemplified 1760 Crest On a torse or & azure a lion passant looking backwards gules & holding in the dexter paw an ear of big or. Escutcheon Quarterly with a crescent for difference; (1) azure, 2 ears of big (wheat) or (Bigland); (2) argent, 2 bars with 3 scallops in chief gules (Errington); (3) argent, 10 roundels gules (Babington); (4) or, a fret sable (Ward).[1] Motto Gratitudo ("Grateful") (displayed over the crest)

See also

• Heraldry

References

Citations

Bibliography

• L. Campbell and Francis Steer. A Catalogue of Manuscripts in the College of Arms Collections. (London, 1988).
• John Anstis. The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. (London, 1724), 376–379.
• E. F. M. Prince, Ralph Bigland and his kin (1989), Coll. Arms
• I. Gray, Ralph Bigland and his family, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 75 (1956), 116–33
• J. Goodall, Garter Bigland's funeral, 1784, Coat of Arms, new ser., 9 (1991–2), 40–42
• A. R. Wagner, The records and collections of the College of Arms (1952)
• Walter H. Godfrey and Sir Anthony Wagner
  , The College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street: being the sixteenth and final monograph of the London Survey Committee. (London, 1963).
• Sir Anthony Wagner. Heralds of England: a History of the Office and College of Arms. (London, 1967).
• Sir Anthony Wagner. Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages. (London, 1956).
• Mark Noble. A History of the College of Arms. (London, 1805), 137–42.

External links

• The College of Arms
• Heraldic List of Officers of Arms