By Harold Bowditch

Foreword by Brady Brim-DeForest
Preface by Ryan J. Woods
Introduction by D. Brenton Simons OBE
“The Gore Roll and the Committee on Heraldry’s Roll of Arms” by Nathaniel Lane Taylor 

7-¾ x 12-½ hardcover, 344 pages, illustrated

Published by NEHGS in association with Palfrey Press — Antiquarian Tomes, May 2024, through the Patron support of Brady Brim-DeForest. 

The Gore Roll of Arms, the earliest known roll of arms in America, was the work of John Gore (1718–1796), a coach painter of Boston. During the nearly 70 years that the Gore Roll was lost or missing, copies of it were created by Isaac Child in 1847 and Harold Bowditch in 1926.

The original roll and these two copies are reproduced together for the first time, in full color, in this volume. The pages of the Gore Roll are accompanied here by relevant artwork from The Book of Coates and Creasts: The Promptuarium Armorum, a roll of arms created between 1602 and 1616 by William Smith, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary. Dr. Bowditch’s insightful monograph, published by the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1936, is presented alongside the Gore Roll paintings, also for the first time.

Also included, as an appendix, is Bowditch’s 1944 Colonial Society essay, “Early Water-Color Paintings of New England Coats of Arms.” Published in collaboration with Palfrey Press for the 36th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, this special edition provides fresh perspectives on heraldic traditions in North America.