The Deeds of the Dukes of Normandy
The Gesta Normannorum Ducum [The Deeds of the Dukes of Normandy] is a landmark medieval chronicle tracing the rise and fall of the Norman dynasty from its early roots through the pivotal events surrounding the Norman Conquest of England. Originally penned in Latin by the monk William of Jumièges shortly before 1060 and later expanded at the behest of William the Conqueror, the work chronicles the deeds, politics, battles, and leadership of the Norman dukes, especially William’s own claim to the English throne. The narrative combines earlier historical sources with firsthand information and oral testimony to present an authoritative account of Normandy’s transformation from a Viking settlement into one of medieval Europe’s most powerful realms. William’s history emphasizes the legitimacy, military prowess, and governance of the Norman line, framing their expansion, including the conquest of England, as both divinely sanctioned and noble in purpose. Later chroniclers such as Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni continued the history, extending the coverage into the 12th century, providing broader context on ducal rule and its impact. Today this classic work remains a foundational source for understanding Norman identity, medieval statesmanship, and the historical forces that reshaped England and Western Europe between 800AD and 1100AD.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Paternal Family Tree: Dalrymple
Before 1699 [his father] Colonel William Dalrymple Earl Dumfries [aged 25] and [his mother] Penelope Crichton 4th Countess of Dumfries were married. He the son of [his grandfather] John Dalrymple 1st Earl of Stair [aged 50]. They were first cousins.
In 1699 William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair was born to [his father] Colonel William Dalrymple Earl Dumfries [aged 25] and [his mother] Penelope Crichton 4th Countess of Dumfries. Coefficient of inbreeding 3.12%.
On 2nd April 1731 [his wife] Anne Gordon Countess Dumfries [aged 22] by marriage Countess Dumfries.
On 2nd April 1731 William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair [aged 32] and Anne Gordon Countess Dumfries [aged 22] were married. She by marriage Countess Dumfries. She the daughter of William Gordon 2nd Earl Aberdeen [aged 52] and Mary Melville. He the son of Colonel William Dalrymple Earl Dumfries [aged 57] and Penelope Crichton 4th Countess of Dumfries.
On 12th December 1734 [his son] William Dalrymple Crichton was born to William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair [aged 35] and [his wife] Anne Gordon Countess Dumfries [aged 25]. He died aged nine in 1744.
On 3rd September 1741 Cosmo George Gordon 3rd Duke Gordon [aged 21] and [his sister-in-law] Catherine Gordon Duchess Gordon [aged 23] were married. She by marriage Duchess Gordon. She the daughter of [his father-in-law] William Gordon 2nd Earl Aberdeen [aged 62] and Susan Murray. He the son of Alexander Gordon 2nd Duke Gordon and Henrietta Mordaunt Duchess Gordon. They were fourth cousins.
In 1742 [his mother] Penelope Crichton 4th Countess of Dumfries died. Her son William [aged 43] succeeded 5th Earl Dumfries.
On 9th September 1744 [his son] William Dalrymple Crichton [aged 9] died.
On 30th March 1746 [his father-in-law] William Gordon 2nd Earl Aberdeen [aged 67] died. His son [his brother-in-law] George [aged 23] succeeded 3rd Earl Aberdeen. Catherine Elizabeth Hanson Couness Aberdeen [aged 16] by marriage Countess Aberdeen.
On 9th May 1747 [his uncle] John Dalrymple 2nd Earl of Stair [aged 73] died. His nephew [his brother] James [aged 48] succeeded 3rd Earl of Stair.
In 1752 King George II of Great Britain and Ireland [aged 68] created a number of new Garter Knights:
567th Prince Edward Hanover 1st Duke of York [aged 12].
568th Prince William of Orange [aged 3].
569th Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton 2nd Duke Newcastle-under-Lyne [aged 31].
570th Daniel Finch 8th Earl Winchilsea 3rd Earl Nottingham [aged 62].
571st George Brudenell aka Montagu 1st Duke Montagu [aged 39].
William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair [aged 53] was appointed 42nd Knight of the Thistle.
Richard Onslow 3rd Baron Onslow [aged 39] was appointed Order of the Bath.
Letters of Horace Walpole. 23rd March 1752. Arlington Street. To Horace Mann 1st Baronet [aged 45].
Mr. Conway [aged 31] has been arrived this fortnight, or a week sooner than we expected him: but my Lady Ailesbury [aged 31] forgives it! He is full of your praises, so you have not sowed your goodness in unthankful ground. By a letter I have just received from you he finds you have missed some from him with Commissions; but he will tell you about them himself I find him much leaner, and great cracks in his beauty. Your picture is arrived, which he says is extremely like you. Mr. Chute [aged 50] cannot bear it; says it wants your countenance and goodness; that it looks bonny and Irish. I am between both, and should know it; to be sure, there is none of your wet-brown-paperness in it, but it has a look with which I have known you come out of your little room, when Richcourt has raised your ministerial French, and you have writ to England about it till you were half fuddled. Au reste, it is gloriously coloured-will Astley promise to continue to do as well? or has he, like all other English painters, only laboured this to get reputation, and then intends to daub away to get money?
The year has not kept the promise of tranquillity that it made you at Christmas; there has been another parliamentary bustle. The Duke of Argyll [aged 69]299 has drawn the ministry into accommodating him with a notable job, under the notion of buying for the King from the mortgagees the forfeited estates in Scotland, which are to be colonized and civilized. It passed with some inconsiderable hitches through the Commons; but in the Lords last week the Duke of Bedford [aged 41] took it up warmly, and spoke like another Pitt.300 He attacked the Duke of Argyll on favouring Jacobites, and produced some flagrant instances, which the Scotch Duke neither answered nor endeavoured to excuse, but made a strange, hurt, mysterious, contemptuous, incoherent speech, neither in defence of the bill nor in reply to the Duke of Bedford, but to my Lord Bath [aged 68], who had fallen upon the ministry for assuming a dispensing power, in suffering Scotland to pay no taxes for the last five years. This speech, which formerly would have made the House of Commons take up arms, was strangely flat and unanimated, for want of his old chorus. Twelve lords divided against eighty that were for the bill. The Duke, who was present, would not vote; none of his people had attended the bill in the other House, and General Mordaunt [aged 55] (by his orders, as it is imagined) spoke against it. This concludes the session: the King goes to Hanover on Tuesday, he has been scattering ribands of all colours, blue ones [Note. Reference to being created a Knight of the Garter] on Prince Edward [aged 12], the young Stadtholder, and the Earls of Lincoln [aged 31], Winchilsea [aged 62], and Cardigan [aged 39];301 a green one [Note. Reference to being created a Knight of the Order of the Thistle] on Lord Dumfries;302 a red [Note. Order of the Bath] on Lord Onslow [aged 39].303
The world is still mad about the Gunnings; the Duchess of Hamilton [aged 18] was presented on Friday; the crowd was so great, that even the noble mob in the drawing-room clambered upon chairs and tables to look at her. There are mobs at their doors to see them get into their chairs; and people go early to get places at the theatres when it is known they will be there. Dr. Sacheverel never made more noise than these two beauties [Note. Elizabeth Gunning Duchess Hamilton and Argyll and Maria Gunning Countess Coventry [aged 19]].
There are two wretched women that just now are as much talked of, a Miss Jefferies1 and a Miss Blandy [aged 32]2; the one condemned for murdering her uncle, the other her father. Both their stories have horrid circumstances; the first, having been debauched by her uncle; the other had so tender a parent, that his whole concern while he was expiring, and knew her for his murderess, was to save her life. It is shocking to think what a shambles this country is grown! Seventeen were executed this morning, after having murdered the turnkey on Friday night, and almost forced open Newgate. One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if one was going to battle.
Mr. Chute is as much yours as ever, except in the article of pen and ink. Your brother transacts all he can for the Lucchi, as he has much more weight there304 than Mr. Chute. Adieu!
Note 299. Archibald Campbell, Duke of argyll, formerly Earl of Isla.
Note 300. For Lord Hardwicke's notes of this speech, see Parl. Hist. vol. xiv. P. 1235.-E.
Note 301. George Brudenell, fourth Earl of cardigan, created Duke of Montagu in 1776; died in 1790.-D.
Note 302. William Crichton Dalrymple [aged 53], fourth Earl [Note. Mistake. He was 5th Earl] of Dumfries in Scotland, in right of his mother. He also became, in 1760, fourth Earl of stair, and died in 1768.-D.
Note 303. George, third Lord Onslow; died in 1776.-D.
Note 304. With the late Mr. Whithed's brothers, who scrupled paying a small legacy and annuity to his mistress and child.
Note 1. Elizabeth Jeffries was to have received her uncle's estate but as a consequence of her bad behaviour he stated he would change his will. She, with accomplices, murdered her uncle. She was executed at a temporary gibbet at the Sixth Milestone Epping Forest on 28th March 1572.
Note 2. Mary Blandy who was found guilty of poisoning her father and executed on 6th April 1752.
Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
In 1755 [his wife] Anne Gordon Countess Dumfries [aged 46] died.
On 13th November 1760 James Dalrymple 3rd Earl of Stair [aged 61] died. His brother William [aged 61] succeeded 4th Earl of Stair.
On 19th June 1762 William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair [aged 63] and Anne Duff Countess Dumfries [aged 24] were married. She by marriage Countess Dumfries. The difference in their ages was 39 years. He the son of Colonel William Dalrymple Earl Dumfries [aged 88] and Penelope Crichton 4th Countess of Dumfries.
Before 27th July 1768 Thomas Hudson [aged 67]. Portrait of William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair [aged 69].
On 27th July 1768 William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair [aged 69] died. Patrick Mcdouall Crichton 6th Earl Dumfries [aged 41] succeeded 6th Earl Dumfries. His first cousin John [aged 48] succeeded 4th Earl of Stair.
In July 1769 [his former brother-in-law] Alexander Gordon [aged 30] and [his former wife] Anne Duff Countess Dumfries [aged 31] were married. He the son of [his former father-in-law] William Gordon 2nd Earl Aberdeen and Anne Gordon Duchess Mantua.
On 24th December 1811 [his former wife] Anne Duff Countess Dumfries [aged 73] died.
Great x 1 Grandfather: James Dalrymple 1st Viscount of Stair
GrandFather: John Dalrymple 1st Earl of Stair
William Dalrymple Crichton 5th Earl Dumfries 4th Earl of Stair
Great x 2 Grandfather: William Crichton 1st Earl Dumfries
Great x 1 Grandfather: William Crichton 2nd Earl of Dumfries
GrandFather: Charles Crichton
Mother: Penelope Crichton 4th Countess of Dumfries
Great x 1 Grandfather: James Dalrymple 1st Viscount of Stair
GrandMother: Sarah Dalrymple