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BARONET

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 424 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARONET . Although the origin of this See also:

title has been the subject of learned See also:speculation, it is not known for certain why it was selected as that of " a new Dignitie between Barons and Knights " created by See also:James I. The See also:object of its institution was to raise See also:money for the See also:crown, as was also done by the See also:sale of See also:peerage dignities under this See also:sovereign. But the money was professedly devoted to the support of troops in See also:Ulster, that is, each grantee was to be liable for the pay of See also:thirty men, at 8d. a See also:day for three years. This amounted to £1095, which was the sum paid for the See also:honour. When it was instituted, in May 1611, the See also:king, to keep the baronetage select, covenanted that he would not create more than two See also:hundred, and that only those who had loon a See also:year in landed See also:estate and whose paternal See also:grand-fathers had See also:borne arms should receive the honour. But these qualifications were before See also:long abandoned. As an inducement to apply for it, it was made to confer the prefix of " See also:Sir " and " See also:Lady " (or " See also:Dame "), and was assigned See also:precedence above knights, though below the younger sons of barons. Eight years later (3oth of See also:September 1619), the baronetage of See also:Ireland was instituted, the king pledging himself not to create more than a hundred baronets. Meanwhile, questions had arisen as to the exact precedence of the baronets, and James by royal See also:decree (28th of May 1612) had announced that it was his intention to See also:rank them below the younger sons of barons. As this had the effect of stopping applications for the honour, James issued a fresh See also:commission (18th of See also:November 1614) to encourage them, and finally, as " the Kinges wants might be much relieved out of the vanities and ambition of the' gentrie " (in See also:Chamberlain's words), he granted, in 1616, the further See also:privilege that the heirs ,apparent of baronets should be knighted on coming of See also:age. The baronetage of Nova See also:Scotia was devised in 1624 'as a means of promoting the " See also:plantation " of that See also:province, and James announced his intention of creating a hundred baronets, each of whom was to support six colonists for two years (or pay 2000 marks in lieu thereof) and also to pay woo marks to Sir See also:William See also:Alexander (afterwards See also:earl of See also:Stirling), to whom the province had been granted by See also:charter in 1621.

For this he was to receive a " See also:

free See also:barony " of 16,000 acres in Nova Scotia, and to become a baronet of " his Hienes See also:Kingdom of See also:Scotland." James dying at this point, See also:Charles I. carried out the See also:scheme, creating the first Scottish baronet on the 28th of May 1625, covenanting in the creation charter that the baronets " of Scotland or of Nova Scotia " should never exceed a hundred and fifty in number, thattheir heirs apparent should be knighted on coming of age, and that no one should receive the honour who had not fulfilled the conditions, viz. paid 3000 marks (£166, 13s. 4d.) towards the plantation of the See also:colony. Four years later (17th of November 1629) the king wrote to " the contractors for baronets," recognizing that they had advanced large sums to Sir William Alexander for the plantation on the See also:security of the payments to be made by future baronets, and empowering them to offer a further inducement to applicants; and on the same day he granted to all Nova Scotia baronets the right to See also:wear about their necks, suspended by an See also:orange tawny ribbon, a badge bearing an See also:azure saltire with a crowned inescutcheon of the arms of Scotland and the See also:motto " Fax mentis honestae gloria." As the required number, how-ever, could not be completed, Charles announced in 1633 that See also:English and Irish gentlemen might receive the honour, and in 1634 they began to do so. Yet even so, he was only able to create a few more than a hundred and twenty in all. In 1638 the creation ceased to carry with it the See also:grant of lands in Nova Scotia, and on the See also:union with See also:England (1707) the Scottish creations ceased, English and Scotsmen alike receiving thenceforth baronetcies of See also:Great See also:Britain. It is a See also:matter of dispute whether James I. had kept faith with the baronets of England as to limiting their number; but his son soon rejected the restriction freely. Creations became one of his devices for raising money; See also:blank See also:patents were hawked about, and in 1641 See also:Nicholas wrote that baronetcies were to be had for £400 or even for £35o; a patent was offered about this See also:time to Mr Wrottesley of Wrottesley for £300. On the other See also:hand, the honour appears to have been bestowed for nothing on some ardent royalists when the great struggle began. See also:Cromwell created a few baronets, but at the Restoration the honour was bestowed so lavishly that a See also:letter to Sir See also:Richard Leveson (3rd of See also:June 166o) describes it as " too See also:common," and offers to procure it for any one in return for £300 or £400. Sir William See also:Wiseman, however, is said to have given £50o, The See also:history of the baronetage was uneventful till 1783, when in consequence of the wrongful See also:assumption of baronetcies, an old and then increasing evil, a royal See also:warrant was issued (6th of See also:December) directing that no one should be recognized as a baronet in See also:official documents till he had proved his right to the dignity, and also that those created in future must See also:register their arms and See also:pedigree at the Heralds' See also:College. In consequence of the'opposition of the baronets themselves, the first of these two regulations was rescinded and the evil remained unabated. Since the union with Ireland (1800) baronets have been created, not as of Great Britain or of Ireland, but as of the See also:United Kingdom.

In 1834 a See also:

movement was initiated by Mr Richard Broun (whose See also:father had assumed a Nova Scotia baronetcy some years before), to obtain certain privileges for the See also:order, but on the See also:advice of the Heralds' College, the See also:request was refused. A further See also:petition, for permission to all baronets to wear a badge, as did those of Nova Scotia, met with the same See also:fate in 1836, Meanwhile See also:George IV. had revoked (19th of December 1827), as to all future creations the righf of baronets' eldest sons to claim See also:knighthood, Mr Broun claimed it as an See also:heir apparent in 1836, and on finally See also:meeting with refusal, publicly assumed the honour in 1842, a foolish and futile See also:act. In 1854 Sir J. See also:Kingston James was knighted as a baronet's son, and Sir See also:Ludlow See also:Cotter similarly in 1874, on his coming of age; but when Sir See also:Claude de Crespigny's son applied for the honour (17th of May 1895), his application was refused, on the ground that the See also:lord See also:chancellor did not consider the clause in the patent (1805) valid. The See also:reason for this decision appears to be unknown. Mr Broun's subsequent connexion with a scheme for reviving the territorial claims of the Nova Scotia baronets as See also:part of a colonizing scheme need not be discussed here. A fresh agitation was aroused in 1897 by an order giving the sons of See also:life peers precedence over baronets, some of whom formed themselves, in 1898, into " the See also:Honourable Society of the Baronetage " for the See also:maintenance of its privileges. But'a royal warrant was issued on the 15th of See also:August 1898, confirming the precedence complained of as an infringement of their rights. The above See also:body, however, 424 has continued in existence as the " See also:Standing 'See also:Council of the Baronetage," and succeeded in obtaining invitations for some representatives of the order to the See also:coronation of King See also:Edward VII. It has been sought to obtain badges or other distinctions for baronets and also to purge the order of wrongful assumptions, an evil to which the baronetage of Nova Scotia is peculiarly exposed, owing to the dignity being descendible to See also:collateral heirs male of the grantee as well as to those of his body. A departmental See also:committee at the See also:home See also:office was appointed in 1906 to consider the question of such assumptions and the best means of stopping them. All baronets are entitled to display in their coat of arms, either on a See also:canton or on an inescutcheon, the red hand of Ulster, See also:save those of Nova Scotia, who display, instead of it, the saltire of that province.

The precedency of baronets of Nova Scotia and of Ireland in relation to those of England was See also:

left undetermined by the Acts of Union, and appears to be still a See also:moot point with heralds. The premier baronet of England is Sir Hickman See also:Bacon, whose ancestor was the first to receive the honour in 1611. See Pixley's History of the Baronetage; See also:Playfair's " Baronetage (in See also:British See also:Family Antiquity, vols. vi.-ix.); See also:Foster's Baronetage; G. E. Cokayne's See also:Complete Baronetage; See also:Nichols, " The Dignity of Baronet " (in See also:Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii.) (J. H.

End of Article: BARONET

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