[MACKENZIE] THE BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA 115 
many Members of the Order donned the White Cockade, and fought 
and fell, like their fathers, in the cause of the same Royal House. 
“For old hereditary right, 
For conscience sake they stoutly stood, 
And for the Crown their valiant sons 
Themselves have shed their injured blood; 
And if their fathers ne’er had fought 
For heirs of ancient royalty, 
They’re down the day that might ha’e been 
At the top of honours tree a” 1 
After the withdrawal of the Baronets of Nova Scotia from the 
Royal Province, the wearing of the Cognizance gradually fell into dis- 
use, a contributing cause being the dormancy of many of the titles 
and the non-assumption of others by the heirs, owing to the unsettled 
state of their fortunes and the disturbed conditions of the Kingdom 
in general, though it was again “ partially used at the Restoration.” * 
However, as the heirs of those Baronets of Nova Scotia, whose titles 
became dormant from various causes, never lost their inherent right 
to those titles, for, “As dignities cannot be aliened, surrendered or ex- 
tinguished by the persons possessed of them, neither can they be lost 
by the negligence of any of the persons entitled thereto, in not claim- 
ing them within any particular time,’ 4 so neither did the heirs of 
the Baronets of Nova Scotia ever lose the right to wear the Cognizance 
appertaining to their Order which right merely lay dormant for a 
period. Although dormant this right was however not forgotten by 
the Baronets of Nova Scotia; and meetings were held in the reigns of 
King George the First, King George the Second, and King George 
the Third, with the object of reviving the same. At a general meeting 
held 14th of June, 1775,t twenty Baronets being present in person 
and six by proxy, an authentic extract of the Royal Warrant of King 
Charles the First, dated the 17th of November, 1629, by which the 
Baronets of Nova Scotia were authorized to wear the Cognizance was 
considered, “and several original medals of the order were produced 
by several baronets, whose ancestors had worn them, together with sev- 
eral patents of different dates. They then unanimously resolved from 
respect to the crown, by which this badge was bestowed, and in duty 
to their families, to reassume this privilege of their order.” ** Letters 
were produced and read from twenty-three other Baronets of Nova 


+ Vide Captain Tancred, Royal Scots Greys, Historical Record of Medals 
and Honorary Distinctions conferred on the British Navy, Army and Auxi- 
liary Forces. 1891. 
