116 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Scotia who agreed to the measure of wearing the Cognizance. At the 
same meeting “It was also recommended to get medals made conform- 
ably to the model of those presented, each medal bearing the date of 
the creation of the baronet to whom it belonged.” 1 
The papers in connection with this matter “were on the 28th of 
June, 1775, presented to the earl of Suffolk at the levée at St. J ames’s 
by Sir James Cockburn, and such baronets as he could find in London; 
and his lordship told him, he should lay them before the king ; and 
if there was any answer, though he apprehended there could be none, 
it should be immediately communicated. And further, it may be ob- 
served, that, on the 30th of November thereafter, being St. Andrew’s 
day, several Scots baronets made their appearance at Court in the en- 
signs of the order of Nova Scotia, the use of which was thus revived.” 16 
Henry, Earl of Suffolk, in right of his office, had required that 
the claim of these Baronets to wear the Cognizance and orange tawny 
riband should be referred to the Attorney-General, and the Solicitor- 
General, for England, and the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor-General 
for Scotland. To this demand the Baronets of Nova Scotia had re- 
turned answer; “ The privilege is extremely dear to us. Our lives and 
fortunes we would, without fear, trust in the hands of the four gentle- 
men pointed out by your Lordship, but we cannot submit our family 
honours to any body. We will be so frank as to own to your Lordship 
that we should not wish to have honours which depend upon any voice 
except that of our Sovereign of the Laws.” . 
The existing examples of the Cognizance, many of which are quite 
modern, vary in many minor details, especially as regards the form 
of the escutcheon, which in some cases is more or less garnished ex- 
ternally ; the legend, too, on some of the Cognizances commences at 
the top and reads round under the escutcheon from right to left; 
whilst on others it commences at the bottom and reads over the es- 
cutcheon from left to right. Every Cognizance, however, is made in 
strict accordance with the terms of the Royal Warrant of the 17th of 
November, 1629, and it is under the authority of this Warrant that 
the Baronets of Nova Scotia wear them to-day. 
It has been suggested that the Baronets of Nova Scotia wear the 
Cognizance merely on sufferance, and the question has even been mooted 
as to whether these Baronets are entitled to wear the Cognizance at all, it 
being submitted “ how far an hereditary personal decoration in the na- 
ture of a Riband and Badge would not be an anomaly in this country, 
where personal decorations have been hitherto received only from the 
hands of the Sovereign by the Knights and Members of Her Royal Or- 
ders, or by individuals who have been honoured with medals in com- 
