[MACKENZIE] THE BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA 101 
in the new land, on which their people should settle; but also, by in- 
vesting these leaders with high rank combined with sovereign juris- 
diction within the bounds of their respective Baronies, to confer on 
them the authority necessary for the good government thereof, by giv- 
ing them almost absolute power over their vassals and followers and 
all who should make settlement therein ? 
The vast territory to be settled, the bounds of which were appoint- 
ed by King James the First, included Anticosti, Cape Breton, and all 
other adjacent islands as far as Newfoundland, and was bounded on 
the north by the River St. Lawrence, on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, 
on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the west by “the 
River St. Croix to its head ; and a line thence to run north to the first 
station for ships, river or spring falling into the great river of Can- 
ada,” ‘“ and thence northward by that river. 
Sir William Alexander of Menstrie, Knight, “ that most excellent 
spirit and earliest gem of our north,” was appointed by King James 
to carry out the great scheme, to whom accordingly His Majesty granted 
this noble Province of Acadia by Royal Charter under the Great Seal 
of Scotland, dated 10th of September, 1621,* by the new name of Nova 
Scotia. 
THE ERECTION OF THE DIGNITY oF BARONET OF Nova SCOTIA. 
The Royal Province of Nova Scotia, its settlement, colonization, and 
the conversion of its native inhabitants to the Christian religion, now 
became the chief object of interest to the King of Great Britain. Ina 
Letter to his Privy Council of Scotland dated 18th of October 1624, he 
declared that he was “so hopefull of that enterprise” that he purposed 
to make it a work of his own. For the furtherance of this project, His 
Majesty in the same Letter stated that it was his desire to erect the 
hereditary Order of Baronet within the Kingdom of Scotland “ upoun 
suche as wer worthie of that degree, and will agree for ane proportioun 
of ground within New Scotland furnisheing furthe such a nomber of per- 
sonis as salbe condiscended upoun to inhabite there. Thus sall bothe 
these of the cheife sorte (avoydeing the usuall contentions at publick 
meetings) being by this hereditarie honour preferred to others of meaner 
qualitie know ther owne places at home and likewyse sall have ther due 
abroad from the subjects of our other countreyis according to the course 
appointed for that our ancient Kingdome And the mentioning of so 
ncble a cause within ther Pattents sall both serve the more by suche a 
singular merite to honour them and by so goode a ground to justifie our 

* Reg. Mag. Sig. L. 36. 
