[MACKENZIE] THE BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA 89 
incidental to the occupying, settling, and holding of a new land of vast 
extent. 
Well may the present Baronets of Nova Scotia look back with 
pride to predecessors whose loyalty and enterprise first won the cher- 
ished honours they wear to-day ; and though it chances that the writer 
of this essay is himself a Member of the Order, no false diffidence shall 
prevent him from giving these gallant adventurers the credit due to 
their works. 
The wisdom and fostering spirit of the colonial policy of King 
Charles the First, who had nought but his country’s good at heart 
when he established this honourable Order; and the patriotism and 
enterprise of the Baronets of Nova Scotia themselves, have hardly 
been estimated at their true worth by any historian from that period 
down to the present day. The King on his part did all that lay in 
his power to promote the advancement of the Royal Province of Nova 
Scotia, by the bestowal of these hereditary dignities “upon suche as 
salbe fund of qualitie fitt for the samine”;? which, accompanied by 
the grant of baronies of wide extent, combined with great privileges, 
should bind these Baronets to the interest of the Royal Province by 
the strong tie of personal possession of the soil thereof; and the Arms 
of which His Majesty ordained each Baronet should bear upon his 
own family Shield of Arms as an honourable augmentation, a coveted 
distinction in those chivalrous days, when heraldic honours of this 
nature were highly esteemed. Is it to be wondered, therefore, that the 
efforts of the King were attended with success and that the Baronets 
of Scotland—for such also is their style, the Order having been erected 
within the Kingdom of Scotland to advance the colonization of the 
Royal Province—took pride in being designated Baronets of Nova 
Scotia? 
Great injustice has been done to the memory of this patriotic 
Sovereign by historians and other writers, who, with scarce a single 
exception affirm that the sole reason why King Charles the First erect- 
ed the Order of Baronet of Nova Scotia was to raise funds from the 
fees payable in connection with the creations; this is utterly false, as is 
clearly proved by a Letter, dated 28th of July, 1626, from the King 
to the Heralds of Scotland concerning these Baronets, wherein His 
Majesty expressly stated that, “since their creation within that our 
Kingdome is for so good a cause whereby a Colonie is making readie to 
sett forth this next Spring to beginne a work that may tend so much 
to the honour and benefite of that Kingdome We wold have them 
everie way to be incouraged and not (as wee wrote before) put to need- 
lesse charges and our pleasure is that none as Barronet be bound to 
