Name Index and Genealogical Charts

of

The Froudes or Frowdes of Devon.

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. XXIV, (1892) pp. 441-457.

by

Rev. R.E. Hooppell, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The paper was presented at the Association’s July 1892 Plymouth meeting. Its author. Robert Eli Hooppell (30 January 1833 – 23 August 1895) was a cleric and antiquarian, connected through marriage to the celebrated Froude family. A short biography with portrait is available n Wikipedia. His exhaustive research into  Froude family genealogy is an indicator of the highly structured class-based Victorian society’s obsession with its roots in the past. As the Bible, with its collections of genealogies informs us; the ability to trace and draw up large family trees was once mainly the preserve of the upper classes. It was important, therefore, to the social status of many upwardly mobile people in the Upper-Middle and Middle Classes to show their descent from antiquity. Tobias Smollett wrote in the 18th-century newspaper The Critical Review: "From a barren list of names we learn who were the fathers or mothers, or more distant progenitors, of the select few, who are able to trace what is called their descent from antiquity." The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.