This heraldic roll was probably commissioned and initiated in 1560 ("the second year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth"), and completed (with an additional sequence tracing the genealogy of the Fittons) between 1578 and the early 1600s, at the initiative of Edward Fitton of Gawsworth (1548/9-1606). It traces the origins and alliances of the Fitton (or Fytton) family back to 1066, and contains many hand-painted coats of arms. The ambitious "fighting Fittons" were on the rise and trying to enhance their pedigree and social status by connecting themselves to the Earls of Northumberland (and, via the Percys, to the Plantagenets) as well as to the Lovains/Louvains, Dukes of Brabant. Among the people present on the roll are Henry, first Earl of Northumberland (1341-1408), grandson of the Earl of Lancaster, a major character in Shakespeare's plays Richard II and Henry IV; Thomas Percy (1504-1537), executed as a participant in the Pilgrimage of Grace; and Mary Fitton of Gawsworth (1578-1647), the alleged "dark lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets.
