Ralph Bigland

Over time, he travelled the whole county, accumulating historical information and making it his business to record the inscriptions on everything from great monuments to modest gravestones.

Following his death, his son, Richard, attempted to bring the work to print as a county history, under the editorship of James Dallaway.

However, the project remained unfinished until a definitive edition was published in four volumes by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society between 1989 and 1995.

Along with his friend and colleague Sir Isaac Heard, he helped to reestablish the College of Arms as the center of genealogical study in England.

Bigland climbed steadily in the heraldic hierarchy and was a king of arms for the last eleven years of his life.