This is a standard work on Americans claiming lineal descent from the Magna Charta Barons. The pedigrees referred to in the sub-title of the book pertain to the founders and members of the Order of Runnemede at the time the book was originally published (1898). In addition to the pedigrees, which show descent generation by generation from the Magna Charta Barons to the founders of the Order of Runnemede, full-page coats of arms are given for many of the families. The main body of the work, the pedigrees of the founders, is preceded by a history of the Magna Charta of 1215; by lists of the Magna Charta Barons; and by biographies of the Sureties (the twenty-five barons designated to enforce the Magna Charta). Founders, for whom pedigrees are given, are as follows: Ballord, Betts, Bigelow, Bispham, Bleecker, Browning, Bulkeley, Cadwalader, Darling, Earle, Fleete, Greene, Griffith, Hancock, Lawrence, Lawton, Lee, Lyman, Marsh, Parsons, Pomeroy, Richardson, Riker, Saltonstall, Schieffelin, Spotswood, Terry, Throckmorton, Waddell, Ward, Whitney, and Winston.