Still seeking the illusive (and possibly illusory) Wyamarus Whalley, standard bearer at the battle of Hastings, I looked up another of the references given by the Rev. Samuel Whaley in his book 'English Record of the Whaley family'. This is 'The General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland', by John Burke, and John Bernard Burke. I found three editions: the first edition of 1842, the third edition of 1844, and an unnumbered edition of 1884. The first and third editions list 6 Coats of Arms for the name Whaley, and 8 for Whalley. The 1884 edition lists 5 and 12 respectively. For most entries, there is just a technical description of the Arms. But occasionally, some details of the family with a right to bear the Arms are given. In the 1842 and 1844 editions, one such entry is of the the Whalley family of Norton Hall, County Somerset, and Hinton House, Hampshire. It says 'descended from Wyamarus Whalley, who accompanied the Conqueror to England, and was standard bearer at the battle of Hastings'. But no evidence is adduced to substantiate the claim. This is the same family I reported in my previous note, which I found in 'A General and Heraldic History of Commoners', by - guess who! - the very same John Burke who was one of the authors of the 'General Armory'. His co-author John Bernard Burke, also wrote 'Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry', and I looked at the edition for 1853. In it is the same Whalley family, and the same unsubstantiated claim to be descended from Wyamarus. So I found a family claiming descent from Wyamarus in 4 scholarly tomes published well over 100 years ago. The story must be true then? When I find all four are by the same pair of authors, who worked together, then the argument loses a lot of its power. And significantly, in the 5th tome, the 'General Armory' published in 1884, the entry for the particular Whalley family is much the same as in the previous editions, except all reference to a claim of descent from Wyamarus has been dropped. I've not got much further forward, but I'm not discouraged. The search continues. Any ideas would be appreciated. Frank Whalley