English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or "chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: most focused on recording the ownership of estates and the descent of lordships of manors, thus the genealogies of county families, heraldry and other antiquarian material. In the introduction to one typical early work of this style, The Antiquities of Warwickshire published in 1656, the author William Dugdale writes:
Thus his work was designed primarily to be read by his fellow county gentry of Warwickshire, whose public lives and marriages were largely confined within their own county of residence, which they administered as Justices of the Peace and Sheriffs, and represented in Parliament. The genealogical and heraldic tradition continues with the series of Victoria County Histories commenced in the late 19th century.
Other forms recorded archaeological sites. A closely related genre, which emerged in the second half of the 17th century, was the county "Natural History", which focused on the county's flora, fauna and natural phenomena, but which also often included chapters on antiquities. The best known examples were Robert Plot's two volumes on Oxfordshire (1677) and Staffordshire (1686); and John Aubrey's unpublished work on Wiltshire.
Development
Continental models
Dugdale quotes as his foreign models César de Nostredame (1553–1629), historian of Provence in France, author of Rerum antiquarum et nobiliorum Provinciae, written c.1560, published 1615; Ottavio Rossi, historian of Brescia in Italy, author of Memorie Bresciane, Opera Historica, E Simbolica (1626); Guillaume Catel (1560–1626), historian of Languedoc in France, author of Mémoires sur l'histoire du Languedoc (1633); Samuel Guichenon (1607–1664), historian of Bresse in France, author of Histoire de la Bresse et du Bugey (1650) and Antonius Sanderus (1586–1664), historian of Flanders, author of Flandria Illustrata (1641).
English pioneers
William Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent (completed 1570; published 1576) is generally acknowledged as the first example of the genre in England. It was followed by Richard Carew's Survey of Cornwall (1602), and William Burton's Description of Leicester Shire (1622), as well as a number of other projects (such as those of Sir William Pole, Thomas Westcote, and Tristram Risdon in Devon, and Sampson Erdeswicke in Staffordshire) which, although they sometimes circulated in manuscript, did not come to completion or publication. Following the appearance of William Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), a pattern was set. In the nineteenth century John Bowyer Nichols followed the line of a history of Leicestershire compiled by his father John Nichols, and saw numerous counties histories through the press at his printing firm. The scope of county histories varied, but the titles became quite standard: "Antiquities of", "Worthies of", "Geological survey", "Description of", later "Directory of", all could indicate the intention of producing a "history", a term that only in later times acquired the narrower meaning it carries today. Chorography, topography and toponymy might all be involved. Materials and collections for their counties were made by antiquaries, but publication might await sponsorship or enough subscriptions, as well as a capable author who would make a readable book, perhaps of multiple volumes, from notes.
Listing by county
Bedfordshire
See: History of Bedfordshire; :Category: History of Bedfordshire;
Magna Britannia (1806) Victoria County History three volumes, 1904–1912
Berkshire
Elias Ashmole, Antiquities of Berkshire (1719) J. Rocque, A Topographical Survey of the County of Berkshire, 1761
Buckinghamshire
See: History of Buckinghamshire; :Category: History of Buckinghamshire; Victoria County History edited by William Page George Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham published in eight parts, 1831–47 James Joseph Sheahan, History and Topography of Buckinghamshire: comprising a general survey of the county, preceded by an epitome of the early history of Great Britain (1862)
Cambridgeshire
Edmund Carter, History of the County of Cambridge (1753)
Cheshire
Sir Peter Leycester, 1st Baronet, Historical antiquities (1673) Peter Perez Burdett, Survey of the County Palatine of Chester (1772) George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (1816–19)