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The person wishing
to apply for a new Grant of Arms to himself should do so by
submitting a formal Petition to the Lord Lyon King of Arms drawn up
as in the fictitious specimen. At the
top, the Petitioner should state his Christian names in full and his
surname, followed by any rank, decorations, qualifications and
profession or occupation, and end the paragraph with "residing at"
followed by his address. Beneath "HUMBLY SHEWETH" the Petitioner
should set out his ancestry, or as much of it as he wishes to have
included in his Grant of Arms and can prove. The Petitioner should
set out the details of his ancestry in numbered paragraphs, one per
generation. The proofs required are Certificates of Birth or
Marriage for each fact stated, or Certified Extracts from
appropriate Registers, Census Records, Wills, Sasines, etc.
The Certificates
should be accompanied by a separate "Schedule of Proofs", with the
Certificates numbered as per the paragraphs in the Petition and
listed according to the facts they prove. A specimen "Schedule
of Proofs" for the specimen petition. The
Petition should then be signed and dated and sent with its
accompanying Certificates and Schedule of Proofs to Lyon Clerk of
the Court of the Lord Lyon. It should be accompanied by a covering
letter from the Petitioner, indicating his views and wishes on the
following subjects.
The Letters Patent,
which the Petitioner will eventually receive when the Arms are
granted, is a formal title deed from the Crown. It is permanent in
effect, granting the Arms for ever and protecting them in the Laws
of Scotland. The Arms granted are heritable property, and will be
inherited by the petitioner's heir, normally his eldest son, and by
his eldest son in turn, and so on for ever. Younger children inherit
only a right to matriculate the Arms with a slight difference added,
and they must petition separately for this to be done. The form and
content of the Arms should therefore be very carefully considered
before the Petitioner is permanently committed to them. The Lord
Lyon is pleased to consider the Petitioner's own suggestions, and
will write and discuss them with him once the Petition has been
received.
The Petitioner
should also carefully consider whom he wishes to inherit his Arms or
a different version of them. His wish is set out as a "destination"
for the Arms, destining them to all his descendants, or the
descendants of the father, or to any other such limitation. The Lord
Lyon will be pleased to discuss this too with the Petitioner, and
will advise him as need be.
When these matters
have been agreed, the Lord Lyon will pronounce his judgement and
instruct Lyon Clerk to prepare the Petitioner's Letters Patent. The
Petitioner will then receive from Lyon Clerk a draft text for the
Letters Patent for him to check and approve, and a note of the fees
to H.M. Treasury and the Herald Painter which must now be paid.
Once the draft text
has been approved and the fees paid by the Petitioner, the Lyon
Clerk will in due course send him the Letters Patent granting the
Arms. A copy of the Arms and the text of the Letters Patent is
placed on record in name of the Petitioner in the Public Register of
All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, and the process is complete.
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