"Only those who have attempted to compile the genealogy of a Virginia family of early settlement, rapid increase, and wide dispersion, such, for instance, as the Montagues, Taliaferros, or Armisteads, can form any conception of the great amount of careful and painstaking labor which Mr. Montague has performed in the preparation of this book. In such cases it is probable that there is nothing in print, or if there is, it is merely a reproduction of uncertain and sometimes contradictory tradition; the members of the family, with such special information as each may possess, are scattered all over the South and West, and such manuscript evidences as may have been preserved, as family Bibles, deeds, wills, &c., may be in the possession of a next-door neighbor, or may be in California. Even where an old Bible has been preserved, it refers only to one line, and leaves the others in darkness. The compiler's first resort is the slow and costly work of examining the records in the various counties where members of the family have lived. If he should be so fortunate as to find that the records of the counties he is interested in have escaped the ravages of time and war, he has then to make a patient, page-by-page search of many huge volumes, and note every name and every date, for any one of these may be of the highest importance in identification or in supplying the gaps left by the (to the compiler) most provoking carelessness of people in not making wills. All this work, and more, Mr. Montague has done, and done well. He was fortunate in working in counties like Middlesex, Lancaster, Essex, Spotsylvania, Louisa and Cumberland, where the records are almost entire. Had the family treated of been resident in Stafford, Gloucester, or Nansemond, it would have been impossible to collect any complete or accurate pedigree. But even with this advantage, his undertaking was a difficult one. He says in the preface: "Families had not to any extent moved [prior to 1720] from original homesteads, the generations had lived and died in the same neighborhood, and each generation seemed to have borne the same names of William, Thomas, and Peter; of Elizabeth, Caroline, and Frances. It seemed impossible to separate one from the other. Even when the records of all the counties were in hand, it was found impossible to form from them a connected pedigree. It was only when copies of the few vestry books [the parish register] of Christ Church, Middlesex, were used in connection with the various county records, that light began to appear."

"Mr. Montague found, as other genealogists have, that the parish register was essential to his work, and uses it largely. We are glad to be able to state that the Virginia Society of Colonial Dames has recently had the register of Christ Church parish, Middlesex, copied, and propose to print it at an early date. It is to be hoped that the Colonial Dames will receive ample support, and that they may be encouraged to carry out their wish to publish all of the remaining vestry books and registers. Such a publication would be a contribution of great value to Virginia genealogy and local history.

"The book now under examination is a handsomely-printed volume of nearly 500 pages, and treats at length of the descendants of Peter Montague, son of Peter and Eleanor Montague, of Boveny, parish of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, who came to Virginia in 1621, when sixteen years of age. The pedigree of the Montagues of Boveny, beginning with Wm. Montague, of Boveny, whose will was proved in 1550, was entered in the Visitation of 1634, when Peter Montague is stated to be "now in Virginia." While Mr. Montague shows good reason to believe that this family was descended from some cadet of the great house of Montacute, Earls of Salisbury (they bore the same arms, with an addition of three pellets), yet the members appear to have lived quietly the life of the minor gentry of the time, the only person of public note among them being the learned and disputatious Richard Montague, successively Bishop of Chichester and Norwich, who died in 1641, and was the first cousin to the grandfather of the immigrant.

"Peter Montague settled first on the plantation of Samuel Matthews, and afterwards removed to Upper Norfolk (Nansemond), which he represented in the House of Burgesses in 1652 and 1653. About 1654, probably, he removed to Lancaster (then including Middlesex), and represented that county also from 1651 to 1658. He was a large landowner and a leading citizen, and was styled "Col. Peter Montague," from his rank in the militia. His will, proved May 27, 1659, is on record in Lancaster. Of his descendants in each generation, to the present, Mr. Montague gives everything that most careful inquiry and research could gather. Among the individuals of most prominence were Col. Philip Montague, who served actively in various commands in the Middlesex militia during the Revolution; Lewis Montague, sheriff of Middlesex, 1762; Col. James Montague, of Middlesex, member of the Convention of 1776, and County Lieutenant during the Revolution; Rev. Philip Montague, a distinguished Baptist minister; Richard Montague, Lieutenant State Navy in the Revolution; General Chas. P. Montague of Maryland; Lieutenant Walter P. Montague, C.S.N.; Prof. Andrew P. Montague, Columbian University; Judge Robert Latane Montague, of honored memory, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, member of Confederate Congress (of whom there is a portrait); Edgar Burwell Montague, colonel 32d Va. Infantry, C.S.A.; Lieutenant Wm. L. Montague, C.S.A., mortally wounded at the Crater, and Capt. Thos. B. Montague, C.S.A., also injured at the Crater.

On page 407 is given a very quaint epitaph from the tomb of Captain Richard Ball (whose daughter married William Montague), lying in a secluded spot near Lancaster Courthouse. It is as follows:

"The body of Capt. Richard Ball
Lies entombed within this wall
Thrice seventeen years, two months his age,
He dwelt on earth. But from this Stage
He was removed by God's great grace
We hope into a nobler place;
October was the month wherein
He was acquitted from his sin
Even the twelfth day at ten at night
Death did deprive him of our light
One from the date of twenty-seaven
The Lord (we trust) took him to Heaven
1726"

This was indeed poetic frenzy.

Mr. Montague's book not only includes the descendants of Colonel Peter Montague in the male line, but all the descendants through females, so far as he could ascertain them, to the tenth and eleventh generations. The volume contains four engravings of coats of arms, a pedigree chart (from the Visitation of 1634), and thirty-nine portraits.

The work in all its details deserves high commendation.
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