[6][7] It depicts 324 coats of arms,[8] beginning with Richard Fitz Roy and William de Say, two of King John's illegitimate sons.

[7] Sir Edward Dering acquired the Roll whilst lieutenant of Dover Castle,[8] and made his modification after 1638, removing the coat of arms of Nicholas de Crioll and inserting his own coat of arms with a fictitious ancestor named Richard Fitz Dering[9] in order to improve the history of his own family.

[13] A descent through a branch of the de Haute family of Wadenhall, Waltham, Kent was then indicated,[14][15] but Sir Edward Dering's constructive approach to genealogy leaves many of the sources bedevilled by doubts of authenticity.

[18] On 4 December 2007, the roll was sold at auction at Sotheby's for the sum of £192,000 to a private individual who subsequently applied for an export licence.

[7] The Department for Culture, Media and Sport placed a temporary block on the roll being moved overseas and the British Library led efforts to purchase it,[19] after the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art confirmed it to be of sufficient importance and significance.