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The
Value of Family History
"It were very good, honourable, pleasant and profitable that every
great noble, and gentleman of heritage, and specially men of great
houses, put in remembrance and made chronicle of their house and
surname; of their beginning and progress of their predecessors'
lives, particularly of
acts and deeds that they did in their time; what succession they
had, with
whome they were allied, and what was their end.
It were great pleasure to a man to know the origin and beginning
of his house and surname, and how long it has stood; and it were
right profitable, because when a nobleman remembers the good
beginning of his house and surname, the long standing thereof, the
honourable and
virtuous acts of his predecessors, it will give occasion to every
man to conserve and maintain the house that his forebears has
constructed, and he will be the more loth to do anything that may
be the hurt or decay of the same.
And moreover, when he hears or
reads the noble acts of his predecessors put in writ; that howbeit
they be dead bodily, their fame and honour is yet recent, it will
give them occasion to exercise themselves in virtue and honour, so
it may be written of them, as of their good predecessors; that
their fame and name may live and last long, and many years after
their body be dead.
And if any of their predecessors has been vicious, and their vice
set forth in remembrance, it may give every man occasion to eschew
all things dishonourable or detestable, in the event that it may
be spoken of many years after their decease from this world, to
their slander and shame." George Seton, 4th Earl of Winton. | 
