In December 1983, we received a donation of the 1928 edition of Whitaker’s Peerage from Pauline Kingsland Dall, the third cousin of Joseph Kingsland III.

Whitaker's Peerage is “a Directory of Titled Persons and containing an extended list of the Royal Family, the Peerage with titled issue, Dowager Ladies, Baronets Knights and Companions, Privy Councillors and Home and Colonial Bishops with a comprehensive introduction and an index to Country Seats.”

The description that was written when the book was accepted by the Historic Restoration Trust reads: a 1928 Edition of Whitaker’s Peerage, Knightage, and Companionage”; 8-3/4” x 5-3/4” – bright blue with gold letters; pages are gilt edged; it belonged to Mrs. Dall’s father who was Harold Kingsland.

Harold Nutting Kingsland was born in Melbourne Australia in 1889. He married Mathilda Marie Theriot in South Orange, New Jersery, in 1919 after returning from WWI. Mathilda was born in 1891. They had two daughters, Pauline born in 1929 and Mathilda born in 1924. Harold passed away in 1978, and his wife Mathilda passed away in 1979.

An inscription inside the book reads: “Harold Kingsland’s with love and kisses from WKS. Lambert Simnel.” There are two x’s on page 41 referencing the Baron of Trimblestown and the Earl of Clanricande. There is a wealth of history in the references of Lambert Simnel, Trimblestown, and Clanricande that tie into the Kingsland family. We have no idea whose initials are WKS.

Whitaker’s Peerage is in the bookcase in the Office.