Baronets are hereditary titles awarded by the Crown. The current baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier but existing baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland and Great Britain.
To be recognised as a baronet, it is necessary to prove a claim of succession. When this has been done, the name is entered on the Official Roll of the Baronetage. Persons who have not proven their claims may not be officially styled as baronets.[1] This was ordained by Royal Warrant in February 1910.[2] A baronetcy is considered vacant if the previous holder has died within the previous five years and if no one has proven their succession, and is considered dormant if no one has proven their succession in more than five years after the death of the previous incumbent.[3]
All extant baronetcies, including vacant baronetcies, are listed below in order of precedence (i.e. date). All other baronetcies, including those which are extinct, dormant or forfeit, are on a separate list of baronetcies. The list is current as of January 2024, when it was last updated.[1] The baronetcy lists include any peerage titles which are held by the baronet.
| Extant | All |
|---|---|
| Dukes | Dukedoms |
| Marquesses | Marquessates |
| Earls | Earldoms |
| Viscounts | Viscountcies |
| Barons | Baronies |
| Baronets | Baronetcies |
Baronetage of England (1611–1705)
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King James I created the hereditary Order of Baronets in England on 22 May 1611, for the settlement of Ireland. He offered the dignity to 200 gentlemen of good birth, with a clear estate of £1,000 a year, on condition that each one should pay a sum equivalent to three years' pay to 30 soldiers at 8d per day per man (total – £1,095) into the King's Exchequer.
The Baronetage of England comprises all baronetcies created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. In that year, the Baronetage of England and the Baronetage of Nova Scotia were replaced by the Baronetage of Great Britain.
Baronets in the Baronetage of England
editBaronetage of Nova Scotia (1625–1706)
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The Baronetage of Nova Scotia was devised in 1624 as a means of settling the plantation of that province (now a province of Canada). King James VI announced his intention of creating 100 baronets, each of whom was to support six colonists for two years (or pay 2,000 merks in lieu thereof) and also to pay 1,000 merks to Sir William Alexander, to whom the province had been granted by charter in 1621.[4]
James died before this scheme could be implemented, but it was carried out by his son Charles I, who created the first Scottish baronet on 28 May 1625, covenanting in the creation charter that the baronets of Scotland or of Nova Scotia should never exceed 150, that their heirs apparent should be knighted on coming of age (21), and that no one should receive the honour who had not fulfilled the conditions, viz, paid 3,000 merks (£166, 13s. 4d.) towards the plantation of the colony.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Four years later (17 November 1629) the king wrote to the contractors for baronets, recognising that they had advanced large sums to Sir William Alexander for the plantation on the 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 wear about their necks, suspended by an orange tawny ribbon, a badge bearing an azure saltire with a crowned inescutcheon of the arms of Scotland and the motto Fax mentis honestae gloria (Glory is the torch that leads on the honourable mind). As the required number, however, could not be completed, Charles announced in 1633 that 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 120 in all. In 1638 the creation ceased to carry with it the grant of lands in Nova Scotia, and on the union with England (1707) the Scottish creations ceased, English and Scotsmen alike receiving thenceforth Baronetcies of Great Britain.[4]
Baronets in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia
editBaronetage of Ireland (1619–1800)
editThis is a list of extant baronetcies in the Baronetage of Ireland. They were first created in 1619, and were replaced by the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1801, after the Acts of Union 1800 came into force.. The baronetcies are listed in order of precedence (i.e. date order).
Baronetage of Great Britain (1707–1800)
editThe below is a list of all extant baronetcies in the Baronetage of Great Britain, which replaced the Baronetages of Nova Scotia and of England in 1707. In 1801 it was succeeded by the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. These baronetcies are listed in order of precedence, which is established by the date of the creation. For a complete list of baronetcies see List of baronetcies.
Baronetage of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
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The Baronetage of the United Kingdom started with the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, replacing the Baronetage of Great Britain. (For a complete list of baronetcies, see List of Baronetcies – which includes extinct baronetcies.)
The baronetcies are listed below in order of precedence (date order). (For ease in editing, the table has been divided into 25-year periods.)
The last baronet to be created was Sir Denis Thatcher in 1990.
1801
edit1825
edit1850
edit1875
edit1900
edit1925
edit1950
edit1975
edit| No | Title | Creation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1308 | Thatcher of Scotney | 7 December 1990 |
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b "Official Roll of the Baronetage". Standing Council of the Baronetage. 19 January 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ "No. 28804". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 February 1914. p. 1464.
- ^ "No Succession Proved". Standing Council of the Baronetage. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "BARONET" § 2
- ^ Scotland. Sovereign (1625-1649: Charles I); William Alexander Earl of Stirling; Charles Rogers; Scotland. Sovereign (1567-1625: James VI) (1885). Rogers, Charles (ed.). The Earl of Stirling's Register of Royal Letters, Relative to the Affairs of Scotland and Nova Scotia from 1615 to 1635, Volume 1. private circulation. p. xxi.
The lands included in the baronies of New Scotland were resigned by Sir William Alexander into the hands of the king [Charles I], who re-granted them to the knights baronets. Thus the lands and titles were obtained directly from the sovereign. Infeftment, it was ruled, should be "expede" at the Castle of Edinburgh.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Turnbull, William, ed. (1839). The Stirling Peerage. Trial of Alexander Humphrys or Alexander, Styling Himself Earl of Stirling. Edinburgh, Scotland: William Blackwood and Sons. pp. 1–2.
Before this charter was ratified by the Scots Parliament, his Majesty [James VI] died; when, in 1625, the grant was renewed by his successor [Charles I] in form of a Charter of Novodamus, proceeding upon the above narrative, and conceding, over and above, additional powers to Sir William Alexander. These charters are in the usual form of feudal conveyances employed by the law of Scotland, but erecting Nova Scotia into a Barony, and declaring sasine at the castle of Edinburgh to be equivalent to sasine on the lands themselves.
- ^ "Origin of the Baronetage of Scotland and Nova Scotia". The Scottish Journal of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions, &c. &c. I (8). Edinburgh, Scotland: Thomas George Stevenson: 115. 23 October 1847.
As such like parties were not baronets of the colonising kind, and yet were desirous, no doubt, to take seisin of their purchased grants in Nova Scotia, old Sir William, always provident, had his remedy prepared. He had had it laid down in the formula of the charter, that "the realm of Nova Scotia, and original infeftment thereof, is holden of the kingdom of Scotland, and forms part of the County of Edinburgh." Argal, to take seisin and instruments of possession "on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh," formed a cure for every difficulty, and served the desired purpose as well as if the baronets had indulged in a trip to the actual site of their new possessions.
- ^ "The Baronetage and the New Committee". The Genealogical Magazine. 1. London, U.K.: Elliot Stock: 523. January 1898.
The precept for the charter for each Baronet was granted in the name of Sir William Alexander, who surrendered to the Crown the respective portions of his Lordship of Nova Scotia to be attached to the Baronetcy with all rights of regality. The Baronets were allowed to take possession of their territory by deed of infeftment within the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
- ^ Laing, David, ed. (1867). Royal Letters, Charters, and Tracts, Relating to the Colonization of New Scotland, and the Institution of the Order of Knight Baronets of Nova Scotia. 1621-1638. Edinburgh, Scotland: G. Robb. p. 126.
Had it been exacted ... that each Baronet, with a stated number of colonists, should take personal possession, it is certain the number of applicants would have been scanty indeed. To obviate this difficulty it was held, by a fiction of the law, that the usual legal form of taking possession by an instrument of seisin, or infeftment of lands on the other side of the Atlantic, should take place within the Castle of Edinburgh.
- ^ Fraser, Alexander (1922). "Nova Scotia, The Royal Charter of 1621 to Sir William Alexander (address)". Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute. XIV (1). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press: 14–15, 45.
For the purpose of taking possession of his lands after the feudal fashion then prevailing, Nova Scotia was made a part of the county of Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh Castle the ceremony of Sasine was performed. … [excerpt of 1621 charter:] And we will, and grant, and, for ourselves and our successors, do decree and ordain, that one seisin, at this time, by the said Sir William, and his aforesaid, upon any part of the soil of the said lands and province above written, shall, in all time to come, stand, and be a sufficient seisin for the whole region, …
- ^ Cooper, John A.; Mowat, J. Gordan (September 1905). "Canada and Edinburgh Castle". The Canadian Magazine. 25 (5). Toronto, Canada: Ontario Publishing Company, Limited: 480.
The colony was named New Scotland, and by a legal fiction, it was, for administrative purposes, connected with Edinburgh. In order to raise men to help found the colony, the King instituted the Order of Baronets of Nova Scotia. This hereditary title was given to gentlemen who arranged to send a certain number of men and to pay a certain amount of money to help to found the Plantation of New Scotland, …. The Order was instituted in 1625, the ceremony being held in the courtyard of Edinburgh Castle. By Royal Decree that place was declared to be an integral part of the new colony. This decree has never been annulled.
- ^ McGrail, Thomas H. (1940). Sir William Alexander, First Earl of Stirling: A biographical study. Oliver & Boyd. p. 91.
To make this possible, since Nova Scotia was so distant, the King declared that sasine could be taken either in the new province or alternatively 'at the castle of Edinburgh as the most eminent and principal place of Scotland.'
- ^ MacKay, Janet (November 1993). "Founding of New Scotland (Nova Scotia)". Fifty Plus. 1. St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Fifty Plus Outreach Association.
Under Scots Law, Baronets "take sasine" by receiving symbolic "earth and stone" on the actual land. Part of Edinburgh Castle was deemed granted to Sir William as part of Nova Scotia. The Baronets were installed with "earth and stone" there while standing in Nova Scotia.
- ^ Fraser, Marie. "Baronets of Nova Scotia". Retrieved 13 March 2016.
Baronets could receive their patents in Edinburgh rather than London, and an area of Edinburgh Castle was declared Nova Scotian territory for this purpose.
- ^ Cockeyne, George Edward (c. 1983) [First ed. published c.1900]. The Complete Baronetage, volume V (1983 re-print Gloucester, U.K ed.). Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 219.
- ^ "Official Roll of the Baronetage as at December 31st 2012". Standing Council of the Baronetage. Archived from the original on 6 March 2015.
References
edit- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Baronet". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
