John Edwin Cussans (1837–1899) was an English antiquary. Cussans

Life

Cussans was born in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

30 October 1837, the fifth child of Thomas Cussans, who had been a lieutenant in the Madras Horse Artillery, by his wife Matilda Ann (née Goodman). After education at North Hill School, Plymouth, he entered a commercial house, and he visited America (1858) and Russia (1861) on business. After his marriage in 1863 he took up writing, working on heraldic and genealogical studies, living in north London. The preface of his ''History of Hertfordshire'' was dated from 4 Wyndham Crescent, Junction Road, London, on Christmas Day 1880. Cussans subsequently moved to 46 St. John's Park, Upper Holloway, where he died on 11 September 1899. From 1881 to 1897 Cussans had been secretary of the Anglo-Californian Bank in

Austin Friars Austin Friars is a coeducational independent day school located in Carlisle, England. The Senior School provides secondary education for 350 boys and girls aged 11–18. There are 150 children aged 4–11 in the Junior School and the Nursery ha ...

. He married, on 10 March 1863, Emma Prior, second surviving daughter of John Ward of Hackney, by whom he left eight children.

Works

His first work, ''The Grammar of Heraldry, with the Armorial Bearings of all the Landed Gentry in England prior to the Sixteenth Century'' (London, 1866), was followed in 1867 by ''Handbook of Heraldry ... with Instructions for tracing Pedigrees and deciphering Manuscripts'' (London, several editions). He worked for fifteen years on his

county history English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or "Chorography, chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was ...

, ''A History of Hertfordshire, containing an account of the Descents of the various Manors, Pedigrees of Families, Antiquities, Local Customs, &c.'' (Hertford, 16 parts forming three folio volumes, 1870–81). It supplemented the existing histories of

Henry Chauncy Sir Henry Chauncy (12 April 1632 – April 1719) was an English lawyer, topographer and antiquarian. He is best known for his county history of Hertfordshire, published in 1700. Life He was born in Ardeley (then known as Yardley), Hertfordshi ...

and

Robert Clutterbuck Robert Clutterbuck (28 June 1772 – 25 May 1831) was an English historian. He spent 18 years writing ''The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford''. Life He was the eldest surviving son of Thomas Clutterbuck, of Watford Hertfordshir ...

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Cussans, John Edwin 1837 births 1899 deaths English antiquarians 18th-century antiquarians 19th-century antiquarians Historians of Hertfordshire