Randle Holme

The first to bear the name, he was born in Chester, the son of Thomas Holme, a blacksmith whose family came from Tranmere, which was then in Cheshire, and Elizabeth Devenett from Kinnerton, Flintshire.

In 1600 and again in 1606 Holme was appointed deputy herald of the College of Arms in Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales.

[1] Holme's main duty was to arrange funerals of those entitled to bear arms but he also made an income from painting hatchments and memorial boards.

From the early 1620s ill health prevented him from undertaking long journeys and his son Randle Holme II deputised for him by making the annual Easter reports to the College of Arms.

Supported by Sir William Brereton he was made a commissioner for peace and oversaw the repair of the city walls.

He prepared items of heraldry and took fees for them without permission from the Norroy king of arms, Sir William Dugdale.

Dugdale took him to court, Holme lost the case and it was decided that all the offending boards should be removed, defaced or destroyed.

[4] All four Randle Holmes were collectors of legal and other documents and the collection forms one of the principal sources for Cheshire history.

[3] Memorial boards dated in the years the Randle Holmes were flourishing are present in many churches in Cheshire.

Many of the boards painted by Randle Holme III were destroyed by Sir William Dugdale in visits to Cheshire and surrounding counties in 1667, 1668 and 1670.

There are no other known individuals or schools of heraldic painting in the Chester area during the time the Randle Holme family was flourishing.