A volume entitled 'Armorial Bearings of the Bailif[f]s & Mayors of Shrewsbury From Anno Dom. MCCCLXXII', comprising 786 coats of arms, almost all painted, of the bailiffs and mayors of the town of Shrewsbury, arranged chronologically from 1372 to 1861 (the shields of the mayors from 1853 to 1861 are empty), together with notes recording historical events in Shrewsbury written on the facing pages and an index of personal names on ff. 2-3 verso. The autographs of many of the mayors, especially from the second half of the eighteenth century onwards, are supplied by cut signatures pasted alongside their respective coats of arms.
The volume was in the possession of the Shropshire antiquary Thomas Farmer Dukes (d. 1850); he was mayor of Shrewsbury in 1831 and his signature occurs here alongside his coat of arms (f. 50). The shields for the years 1851 to 1861 were added after his death. Pasted on f. 50 verso is a letter, [1852x1860], from the Shrewsbury genealogist Joseph Morris to William Ormsby-Gore, listing the names of the mayors of Shrewsbury from 1848 to 1852, with descriptions of their coats of arms; another hand has added in pencil the names of the mayors from 1853 to 1862.