The commonest use of Royal Licences was to give cast iron proof that a beneficiary had complied with a will clause that gave them an estate on condition that they changed their surname and arms to those of the writer of the will.

In two of these, Brown and Busfeild, that is exactly what happened. But for the other two, Powys which changed the name and Powys-Lybbe which changed the arms, the reasons were far more complex and are investigated in the "Name changes" page that is linked at the top here.

Here they are:

• Brown to Trotter, 3 Dec 1868 - 281 kBytes
• Busfeild to Ferrand, 18 Mar 1890 - 190 kBytes
• Powys to Lybbe, 18 Feb 1863 - 97 kBytes
• Powys arms to Powys-Lybbe arms, 12 Apr 1907 - 1555 kBytes - Note this is a large file as it is a photocopy of the actual royal licence, though here's a transcript in 5 Kbytes.

• Henry Wentworth Powys