John Horace Round
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John Horace Round (born 22 February 1854 in Hove, England, died 24 June 1928 in Hove) was a historian and genealogist of the English medieval period. He translated the Domesday Book for Essex into contemporary English. As an expert in the history of the British peerage he was appointed Honorary Historical Adviser to the Crown.
His parents were John Round, (died 1887) and Laura, the daughter of the poet Horatio Smith (died 1864). His birth place, 15 Brunswick Terrace, has a blue plaque.[1]
He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class degree in Modern History.
Though a native of Sussex, he had many interests in Essex, and was both a deputy lieutenant and the lord of a manor in that county. A relative owned Colchester Castle[2], and his grandfather John had been a Member of Parliament in Essex.[1]
He contributed to many publications (most notably The Complete Peerage, The Dictionary of National Biography (first edition) and The Victoria County History (VCH)) and was the author of several significant works. His translation and discussion of the Essex Domesday (VCH, Essex vol.1) is widely regarded as a masterpiece, and is of national significance; this contrasts with his books, where he often indulged in castigating his contemporaries.
He advised the Court of Claims and Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords on matters concerning the coronation of King Edward VII. His book on this topic, The King’s Serjeants and Officers of State, with their Coronation Services was published in 1911, the year of King George V’s coronation). An expert in British peerage history and law, he was appointed Honorary Historical Adviser to the Crown in peerage cases in 1914 (a post from which he resigned in 1922).
Round contracted a chronic illness some time after coming down from Oxford, and his handwriting progressively deteriorated over the years. [2] A memoir by his friend and colleague William Page was included in a posthumously published volume of writings.[3] and a biography by W Raymond Powell was published in 2001. Both contain full bibliographies of Round's work. His most recent posthumous paper appeared in about 2003 in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeology and History Society.
His family history appears in Burke’s Landed Gentry, a publication he regularly criticised for its inaccuracies, although there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the entry for his family. He never married.
[edit] Publications
- Geoffrey de Mandeville (1892)
- Feudal England (1895)
- The Commune of London (1899)
- Calendar of documents preserved in France (1899)
- Studies in Peerage and Family History (1901)
- Peerage and Pedigree: Studies in Peerage Law and Family History (1910)
- The King’s Serjeants and Officers of State, with their Coronation Services (1911)
- Contributions to Domesday Studies, the Dictionary of National Biography, The Complete Peerage, Victoria County History, the English Historical Review and Archæological Transactions
