In 1983 the antiquarian Robert S Boumphrey deposited in Surrey Record Office a 2400 page manuscript armorial for Surrey. His work was partly based on notes on Surrey heraldry by Frederick James Field, who was the author of 'An armorial for Cumberland', published in 1937. Boumphrey received Field's notes in 1977 and used a range of reference works during the next 5 years to add considerably to the original notes. During the 1980s the manuscript was typed on a County Council word processing system, but the electronic text was lost. Finally in 2007 the typescript created in the 1980s was scanned and converted to text documents by the West Surrey Family History Society, for subsequent checking and correction. During 2011 Surrey Heritage volunteers Barry and Linda Oliver undertook the monumental task of comparing the original manuscript to the text documents and carrying out the editing work needed.
Robert Boumphrey's work is a systematic and scholarly survey of Surrey coats of arms, which should be of interest to local, heraldic and genealogical researchers. Publication of this work online makes it available to the widest possible audience and provides a fitting tribute to Robert Boumphrey's original work.
The documents available comprise the original preface; the full text of the Surrey Coats of Arms (arranged alphabetically by family name and covering the whole of the ancient county of Surrey); unidentified heraldry noted in various churches; editorial notes by Barry and Linda Oliver, a list compiled by them of sources they used to supply additional text and a list by surname of the sources of memorial texts (mainly in churches).
Image: Grant of arms to James Shudi Broadwood by the College of Arms in 1824 (SHC ref 2185/Misc35)
