William Radclyffe (1770-1828), genealogist and antiquarian in Yorkshire and London

William Radclyffe was born in Yorkshire in 1770 and died in London in 1828. He was a member of the College of Arms from 1802 to 1823. During his lifetime he enjoyed considerable repute as a genealogist, but his career as a herald was terminated in scandalous circumstances, and his name was subsequently obscured. This thesis attempts to re-evaluate his social status and professional activity, in the light of evidence derived from a newly discovered group of his manuscript diaries covering the period 1803 to 1820. These diaries place Radclyffe in the setting of his immediate family and ancestry, and also offer insights into aspects of English society during a period of rapid social change. Radclyffe emerges as a figure of several identities, including those of gentleman-professional in London, minor landowner in Yorkshire, supplicant for patronage, and enterprising capitalist. The thesis also proposes, with particular reference to the work of Rosemary Sweet, that he may be seen as an aspiring antiquarian, who was closely involved in the production of some of the most important works of local history to have been published in the period, and who may have been a minor participant in the early phases of the scholarly Gothic Revival. Finally, a discussion of Radclyffe’s activities at the College of Arms concludes that his role in College affairs has been seriously under-rated until now, and that he should be seen not as the fraud depicted by Sir Anthony Wagner, but as a failed reformer, a protagonist in an unsuccessful attack on the forces of ‘Old Corruption’ which were dominant in the College during the opening decades of the nineteenth century.