A Word from the Author

The Warnefords

An English Family Through Eight Centuries

When I started this history I had no conception of the magnitude of the task that I had set myself. Now it is finished only so far as such work can ever be finished, for research has no bounds.

I have endeavoured to use the records to illustrate contemporary social and political history, and in so doing have presumed knowledge in the reader, thus risking irking the well in formed.

In star chambers and chancery documents I have deleted from the text "aforesaid" , "said" and " the same" , for the sake of the flow of the narrative, including them only where deleting left the meaning in doubt. In the litigation between Sir John Brydges and John Warneford I have introduced paragraphs where there was none, to make the reading easier. I have been faithful to the original spelling.

I have been fortunate in the collaboration of my cousin Miss Elizabeth McDougall, without whose expertise, industry and integrity my work would have been a great deal harder, and the product much the poorer.

I am Grateful for the unstinted help i have received from Mr Christopher Whittick of the East Sussex Record Office, particularly in the interpreting. Moreover, by his reading of an earlier draft, A number of solecisms have been avoided. My thanks are also due to Mrs Coleman, Librarian of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, for aid, guidance and encouragement, and to Mr Gordon Warneford and his son Dr Ian Warneford for putting their results of their valuable research at my disposal.

It is right, to , that I should Acknowledge my debt to my Grandfather, My Father and My Mother, all long since dead, for the fruits of their labours which I inherited.

Francis E. Warneford