to his suggestions and encouragement. To our correspondence, which I have preserved complete, and to the detailed notes of searches, letters, etc., which will also be bound up in volumes, I must refer any one coming after me who desires to scrutinize the grounds of my own conclusions, or to prosecute new inquiries.
It will readily be understood that in an undertaking of this nature, where, through incompleteness of public records and lack of really old family papers, many facts, dates, alliances, and the movements, occupations, etc., of individuals, had to be patiently sought out and connected into a consistent whole, conjecture and inference must, within reasonable bounds, be admitted, and some questions must remain insoluble. I can only hope that the account which I have done my best to present may not be devoid of interest to those for whom it is intended, and may prove to be fairly reliable.
I must, in conclusion, beg the kind indulgence of my readers for whatever errors and defects they may discover, as well as for misprints, which I fear may have escaped my eye.
Christmas 1902
