[MACKENZIE] THE BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA 118 
may be found in the subsequent creations made of baronets and the 
seisins taken by the grantees of the lands contained in their charters, 
as the dates of their seisins are recorded in the public register office.” ° 
“From the time of the treaty of St. Germains, including also the 
treaty of Breda by king Charles the second, till the period of the treaty 
of Utrecht, the country of Nova Scotia was under the usurpation of 
the French; and even after the last-named treaty, until the final quit 
claim of France and retrocession made at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
the province was a constant subject of controversy between the crowns 
of Great Britain and France; thus while the sovereignty of England 
was suspended, the occupancy of their lands by the baronets was in- 
terrupted, but when the one was resumed, the right of the other under 
it returned to the heirs of succession. This long interregnum, at- 
tended with the distressing events of the civil war, and the continual 
conflictions with the French, occasioned many of the baronets who 
had their infeoffments from Sir William Alexander prior to the year 
1641, to disregard as well their titles as their lands, and for their heirs 
neither to assume the one, nor seek after the other; hence to the pre- 
sent day their titles have remained dormant, and their Baronies un- 
claimed. But as no length of time of non-claim is a bar to the resumption 
of a title of honour, so it is considered that the same rule of law applies 
to the land, which was incorporated in it; for the land was the prin- 
ciple and the foundation. The title was the mere necessary which con- 
ferred rank and dignity upon its possessor and completed the crea- 
tion.” 5 
In 1633 at the Coronation of King Charles the First at Holyrood 
the Viscount of Stirling was created by His Majesty Viscount of 
Canada and Earl of Stirling ; and in 1637, Earl of Dovan. In 1640 
this great Earl died. He left the character of a loyal and enterprising 
nobleman; an author of high merit, and one of the finest poets of that 
age: 
“ Scottish bards of highest fame, 
Wise Hawthornden and Stirling’s lord.” * 
The name of this illustrious Earl upon the Roll of the Baronets of 
Nova Scotia adds a lustre thereto which can never be dimmed. 
The Baronets of Nova Scotia, created subsequent to 1639 received 
no specified grants of lands in the Royal Province; but nevertheless 
every Baronet of Nova Scotia created thereafter was still nominally 
entitled to the same extent of territory there; as is shown by a claim 
on the Government of Queen Victoria made by Sir Charles William 
