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The History Of the most Noble Order of the Garter : Wherein is set forth An Account of the Town Castle, Chapel, and College of Windsor; with their several Officers ; The Foundation of the Order by King Edward III. ; With the Statutes, and Annals at large, as they have been altered and amended ; An Account of the Habits, Ensigns and Officers of the Order ... To which is prefix'd, A Discourse of Knighthood in General, and the several Orders extant in Europe
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he a Gentleman horn. The Examplar in the BUc{ Bookfaith, Vnlefs he he worthy upon the Account of Birth and ^1Arms : And in another Paifage, That he he one eminent •>for hit Demeanour and good Report ; which intimates theConjunction of Blood and Virtue, which make up thenobieft Compofiricm. The Statutes of King Henry Vlil, ; '? sare more extenfive than thofe, and fay, He tnujl be aGen. : ‘ 1 f.tleman by Name, Arms, and Blood ; and leaft this Chara&er fftmight feem intricate and perplex’d, A Gentleman of Bloodis defin'd to be, One defcended of three Defcents of Nobles, * jviz. of Name and Arms, both by his Father and Mo- ;® rItthef s fide. ®

It’s certain Gentility does not receive its Perfedtiion in ,the Perfon it was firft devolv’d on, but is rather compieat-ed by SuccelTwn : For, among the Romans, tho’ the Fa-ther was Free-born, and of the Equejlrian Cenfe ; yet it f s!i ■'!was farther requifite, that the Grand-father (hould be thefame, or elfe they could not obtain the Ring, one of thei^Symbols of the Efueftrian Order, as Pliny informs us. Gen-‘F^tility hath its beginning in the Grand-father, its increafeAflin the Father, and full ripenefs in the Son; and confe.:&lquently in the Conftitution of Gentility, the Father and lktt'Grand-father conveying a Luftre to the Son, make ieVtttueentire and compieat ; for its incongruous to fuppofe a Me 1ripenefs in the Son, unlefs there had been a former eiwtiovecreafe in the Father, and a longer Series from the Grand-iptr sfather.

The memorable Inftance of the Lord H-iEiam Paget,who was divefted of the Garter five Years after his Ele- ■p,^Ction, upon Prerence of his not being a Gentleman oti^Blood by either Father or Mother, proceeded not wholly -tij.,from the defeCt in Point of Extraction, as Harvard re--^lates, but rather from the Prevalence and PraCtice of John ■>;Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, by whofe means he was ^moft unjuitly deprived of the Garter ; repenting, pefhaps, !(ij ‘at the great Honours he had done this Lord, by his fair jj’Character of him to King Edward VI. when he procuredhim anew Grant of thofe Arms, under the Great Seal of.

England, when he wa ^F.arl Maifhal, which he had feme

time before received from the Garter Principal King otArms.

But, admit the defeCt of Blood and Arms, for threecents, were the true Caufe of the recalling his Garter,

that ’