300 



BARONET. 



IWonct. the same with that of the viscount. He is styled 

 * ""V"""-' Right Honourable, and in public documents, the 

 Most Noble Lord. By the king or queen he is 

 addressed, Right Trusty and Well-beloved. He 

 may appoint three chaplains. See Selden's Titles of 

 Honour, Part II. ch. v. ; and Additions, p. 998, or 

 No. 190 and 1,96. Blackstone's Comment. Book I. 

 ch. 12. Millar's Historical View of the English Go- 

 vernment, vol. ii. Stuart's View of Society in Eu- 

 rope, p. 76. (/<) 



BARONET, a gentleman having the title of Sir, 

 in virtue of his patent, and taking place of all knights; 

 with two exceptions, knights bannerets, created by 

 the sovereign in person, in the field, and under the 

 royal banner, and the knights of St George, or of 

 the Garter. This title is the lowest honour which is 

 hereditary, and is usually descendible to the issue 

 male. 



The order of knights baronets was instituted by 

 James I. of England, in the year 1611, at the sug- 

 gestion of Cecil Earl of Salisbury, (Hume, viii. 283.) 

 who recommended its establishment to the king as 

 an expedient by which money might be raised. The 

 money was to be employed in reducing and civilizing 

 the province of Ulster, the inhabitants of which were 

 at that time in arms against the English government. 

 The form of creation is given by Selden, Titles of 

 Honour, part ii. ch. v. 46. In the preamble, the 

 king states, that he was desirous " nova merita novis 

 dignitatum insignibus, rependere ;" and therefore, he 

 adds, " ex certa scientia, et mero motu nostris, ordi- 

 navimus, ereximus, conslituimus, et creavimus, quen- 

 dam statum, gradum, dignitatem, nomen et titu/itm 

 Baronetti, intra hoc regnum nostrum Anglice, per- 

 petuis temporibus, duraturum." The patent was 

 originally granted to none but such as were of good 

 birth, at least descended of a grandfather, by the fa- 

 ther's side, that bare arms, and in possession of a 

 yearly income amounting to 1000; and the num- 

 ber of those who could receive it was limited to two 

 hundred. By the term3 of the patent, every indivi- 

 dual admitted to the honour, was either to raise 30 

 foot-soldiers, and maintain them in Ulster, at his own 

 expense, during a period of three years, or, what was 

 rather wished, to pay into the exchequer the sum of 

 1000, which was supposed to be nearly an equiva- 

 lent. Accordingly, commissioners were appointed 

 .to sit at Whitehall, with a view to receive those who 

 might apply; and one hundred gentlemen, advancing 

 each a thousand pounds, had the title of baronet 

 conferred upon them. Of these, Sir Nicholas Bacon 

 of Redgrave, in Suffolk, was the first : a circum- 

 stance, on account of which, his successor is still de- 

 signated Primus Baronettorum Angl/cv. The num- 

 ber of baronets have since been augmented greatly 

 beyond the limit at first intended. 



All the baronets of England have, superadded to 

 their family insignia, the arms of the ancient kiogs of 

 Ulster; viz. A hand, gules or a bloody hand, in a 

 field argent. These they may bear, either in a can- 

 ton or in an escutcheon of pretence. Both they, and 

 their eldest sons on coining of age, have the privilege 

 of demanding knighthood. The word Baronet is 

 yliced at the end of their surnames, and their wives 



arc styled Lady or Dame. The rank or place of baro- 

 nets, with regard particularly to the younger sons 

 of barons and viscounts, was for some time matter of 

 keen dispute, but was at length settled in a laborious 

 document published by authority of the king, (James 

 I.) which those who have a taste for such papers and 

 composition, will find in Selden, Tit. of Hon. ch. xi. 

 3d. In this document it is announced, that his ma- 

 jesty, who best knew his own royal meaning when he 

 founded the order, " hath finally sentenced, adjudged, 

 and established, that the younger sons of his counts 

 and barons, shall take place and precedence before all 

 baronets." Among themselves, the baronet's rank 

 according to the date of their patents. 



The baronets of Scotland are otherwise called ba- 

 ronets of Nova Scotia. This institution was like- 

 wise designed by James I. and was regarded by him 

 as a method at once honourable and easy of cultiva- 

 ting the province of Nova Scotia in North America ; 

 a part of the western continent, which had already 

 been discovered and occupied by the English. James, 

 however, was prevented by circumstances which we 

 cannot mention in this place, from executing his pur- 

 pose ; and the order was not established till the year 

 1625, in the reign of his son Charles I. Sir Robert 

 Gordon of Gordonstone, a cadet of the Sutherland fa- 

 mily, was the first baronet of Nova Scotia. A certain 

 portion of land in Acadia, or New Scotland, was grant- 

 ed to each of those on whom the dignity was conferred, 

 and to their heirs in perpetual succession : this land they 

 were to hold of Sir William Alexander, afterwards 

 created Earl of Stirling, and at that time his ma- 

 jesty's lieutenant in Nova Scotia. But, from the ig- 

 norance which then prevailed with respect to the 

 geography of North America, it may easily be con- 

 ceived that the land was not portioned out with great 

 accuracy ; and that these titled adventurers would 

 not only be frequently altogether unacquainted with 

 the exact bounds prescribed for them, mit that their 

 charters would sometimes interfere with each other. 

 In the letters patent it was declared, that the baro- 

 nets of Nova Scotia, and their heirs and successors, 

 should have precedency of all knights called Auratl, 

 of all the lairds or inferior barons of Scotland, and of 

 eveiy other gentleman not belonging to the higher 

 orders of nobility, excepting tlie king's lieutenant 

 above mentioned, and his heirs male, together with 

 their wives and children. They were to be addressed 

 Si? t and to have the word Baronet, in all writings 

 and documents adjoined to their names. Their wives, 

 like those of the English baronets, are styled Lady or 

 Dame. The knights of this order have likewise the 

 privilege, granted to them under the sign manual, 

 A.U. 1629, of wearing round their necks " an orange- 

 tawncy coloured silk ribbon," from which hangs a 

 medal with an imperial crown above the escutcheon 

 of the Scottish arms, inscribed with this motto, 

 Pax mentis hnnestce gloria. In addition to their 

 family arms, they bear, cither in a canton or in an es- 

 cutcheon, the insignia of Nova Scotia ; i. e. argent 

 a cross of St Andrew, azure charged with an es- 

 cutcheon of the royal arms of Scotland ; having, for 

 supporters on the right, the royal unicorn, and on 

 the left, a savage or wild man, proper. The crest is 



Ii..:t'i'". 



