beadroll

English

Etymology

From bead +‎ roll.

Noun

beadroll (plural beadrolls)

1. (obsolete) A catalogue of people whose souls are to be be prayed for.
2. A catalogue of names; a pedigree, a long respected series.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Dan Chaucer, well of English vndefyled, / On Fames eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.

   • 1806, Abraham Hayward, “Vicissitudes of Family […] ”, in Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 107:

     It is quite startling, on going over the beadroll of English worthies, to find how few are directly represented in the male line.