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The earliest
Scottish armorial now in existence is that said to have been
prepared by, or under the superintendence of, Sir David Lindsay of
the Mount about 1542. (Whilst this was thought true at the time,
now serveral other armorial manuscripts are known to be of an
earlier period. Ed.) It is impossible to say whether it
took from the first an official character, but that there must have
been some such recognised record before the close of the sixteenth
century is clear from several references which are made to the
Liber insigniorium or 'Book of Arms' in the Acts of the
Scottish Parliament at that period. In 1592 an Act,
1592, cap. 125., was passed authorising the Lyon and his Heralds
to hold visitations throughout the realm in order to distinguish the
arms of the various noblemen and gentlemen, and ' thaireftir to
matriculat thame in thair buikis and regesteris.' It is
unfortunate that this permission to make heraldic visitations was
never largely taken advantage of: had it been, and had the registers
indicated in the Act been properly kept, it is unlikely that the
Privy Council would have within the next forty years, practically
authenticated as an official record Sir David Lindsay's manuscript
above referred to, which they did in the following terms —
This Booke and register of armes done by Sir
David Lindesay of the Month, Lyone King of Armes, reg. Ja. 5
conteines 106 leaves which register was approvine be the Lordis of
His Majesties most honorable Privie Counsale at Halierudelious 9
December 1630.
'Sir James Balfour, Lyone..
'Thomas Drysdaill, Ilay Herauld,
'Register.'
Whatever may have
become of the official registers previous to the date of the
commencernent of the present one, it is certain that many
collections of arms were from time to time made both by the officers
of arms and others. Sir Robert Forman, Lyon (1555-1567), presented
to Queen Mary a roll containing 267 Scottish coats of arms. In
addition to the Workman manuscript now in the Lyon Office, at least
four other armorials belonging to the sixteenth century and relating
to Scotland are in existence, and were shown at the Heraldic
Exhibition held at Edinburgh in 1891, while the seventeenth century
collections are comparatively numerous. As time went on, however,
the absence of an authentic and official Register of arms was more
and more felt: in 1639 the Committee on Articles appointed the Lyon
to do diligence for cognoscing and matriculating all arms, and to
represent the same to the Privy Council, that they might take some
course to prevent arms being assumed irregularly. In 1662 it was
apparently found that the registration of arms was more neglected
than ever, though Cromwell had appointed one if not two Lyons during
his administration of the Government. By an Act passed in that year
it was provided inter alia that—
“ . . . considering
what disorders and confusions have arisen and are dayly occasioned
by the usurpation of cadents who, against all rules, assume to
themselffs the armes of the cheeff house of the familie out of which
they are descendit, and that other mean persones, who can nowayes
deryve thair succession from the families whose names they bear, as
they have just assumed the name, doe therafter weare the coat of
that name to which they pretend without any warrand or grund
whatsumever, . . . no younger brother or cadent of any familie
presume to carie the armes of that familie bot with such
distinctions as shall be given be the Lyon King of Armes;”
and it was likewise provided that all persons were to have their
arms examined and renewed by the Lyon and inserted in his Register.
This Act, however, did not remain long on the Statute Book:
considerable dissatisfaction appears to have been created by it,
possibly from the amount of the fees which it entitled the Lyon to
exact at the funeral solemnities of the nobility and their wives,
and it was repealed in the following year, 1663. It is not very
clear whether the above-quoted allusion to the Lyon Register can be
taken as implying that at that time there was such a record in
existence, or whether it merely means that a Register was then to be
commenced. But as the present Register was certainly commenced
within the next ten years as new, it may fairly be inferred that no
official register of arms, with the exception of Sir David Lindsay's
manuscript as having been approved by the Privy Council, was in
existence at the period of the Restoration. What had become of the
old registers, if such there had been, has been a matter of some
speculation: both water and fire have been held to be answerable for
their destruction. It is by some thought that they may have formed
part of that cargo of records, originally carried off to London by
Cromwell and ultimately jettisoned from the frigate Eagle, or
lost with the ship Elizabeth of Burntisland when, owing to
the representations of the Scottish Parliament, they were being
restored to their proper home.
On the other hand,
Arnot, in his History of Edinburgh, mentions that the Lyon
Office Records were burned in a fire which took place about 1670,
and that the Act under which the present Register was instituted was
in consequence passed shortly afterwards. As, however, there is no
mention whatever made of any such fire in that Act, which merely
alludes in general terms to the many irregularities of these late
times, it can hardly be regarded as authentic history, and it is
unnecessary to do more than allude to the causes which have been
thought likely to have induced the Scottish Legislature to take the
steps they did for the formation of an entirely new Register. In
1672 the Parliament again addressed themselves to the subject, and
this time with success: they had the advantage of a member who was
himself well acquainted with Heraldry, Sir George Mackenzie of
Rosehaugh, and he not improbably took a special interest in drawing
the Act, which took its place on the Statute Book as the Act of
1672, cap. 47. It ratified generally the Act of 1592, so far as
it related to visitations and the penalties to be inflicted on
persons assuming arms without authority, and it ordered all persons,
of whatsoever degree, who were in the habit of using arms to give in
a description of such arms and of their lineage to the Lyon Clerk,
in order that they might be distinguished with 'congruent
differences,' and that the Lyon might enter them in his books
and registers, and might grant arms to ' vertuous and
well-deserving Persones.' The Register now instituted was to be
considered as the true and unrepealable rule of all arms and
bearings in Scotland, and was ordered to remain in the Lyon Office
as a Public Register of the Kingdom for all time coming. All persons
who used arms after the expiration of a year and a day from the
passing of the Act rendered themselves liable to a fine of one
hundred pounds, and the goods on which the arms were engraved were
to be escheat to the king.
The Register
constituted by the above Act still continues to be' The Public
Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland,' and no persons
of Scottish descent whose arms are not registered in it have a right
to armorial bearings unless they can prove that they represent
families whose arms are known to have been in existence previous to
1672. The importance of such a record is so evident that the
following description of its principal features may not be out of
place. It originally consisted of one large thick folio volume of
592 pages, now bound in two for convenience in handling. It begins
with the arms of the Lyon Office, followed by the personal
achievement of Sir Charles Erskine, who was Lyon at the time. Then
follows a page occupied solely with the words 'Anno Domini 1678';
this date is probably explained by the entries having been
originally made on loose leaves, and bound together when the
authorities thought a sufficient number of arms had been given in.
On the next page is the title, not unskilfully done, in large German
text and ornamented with scroll-work in pen and ink. Then comes
another titlepage more in detail, which runs as follows:
The Principall
Authentick and Generall Register of the Armes in Scotland collected,
visited, distinguished and authorized be the Honourable Sr. Charles
Areskine of Cambo, Knight and Baronet, Brother german to the Right
Honourable the Earl of Kellie, late Lyon King of Armes, In the years
of God 1672, 1673, 1674, 1675, 1676, and 1677, conforme to the
severall warrants and extracts given under his hand and Seale of
office ; and that in pursuance of the 21 Act of the 3rd Session of
the 2nd Parl. of our dread Soveraigne Lord Charles the Second be the
grace of God King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland,
defender of the faith, &c., and of the 125 Act of the 12 Parl. of
His Majesties Royall GrandFather K. James 6 of ever blessed memorie;
and be virtue of the power contained in the Patent given to him be
his said sacred Majestie, which Register be the first forecited Act
is declared to be the unrepealable rule of all Armes and Bearings in
Scotland and publick Register of the Kingdom, to remain with the
Lyons Office and to be transmitted to his successors in all time
coming: to which are added the armes authorized be Sr. Alexander
Areskine of Cambo, eldest lawful sone to the said Sr. Charles and
present Lyon King of Armes, after his father's decease. The several
atchievements being blazoned at the special sight, command and
direction of the said Lyons Kings of Armes be Master Robert Innes.
Mr. Robert Innes
seems to have had a special fondness for title–pages, as he gives us
yet another which informs us that the first part of the volume
contains the arms of the King and the Duke of Albany and York, the
prelates, peers, and lesser barons of Scotland, 'at least of such
of them,' he adds, 'as have matriculat' in conformity
with the Act, 'the rest being only named and their coats left
blank.' We have then the blazon of the arms of the King of
Scotland, the Royal Badges and Symbols of the Kingdom, the arms of
the King of Great Britain, followed by the Badges of Great Britain;
after these the Register proper begins with the arms of the Duke of
Albany and York, followed by all the members of the peerage as above
mentioned. In too many cases it is only the name and title which
appear, a space being left to be supplied with the blazon of the
arms which were never sent in.
It is much to be
regretted that the nobility of Scotland did not set an example of
obedience to the law in transmitting their arms to the Lyon to be
duly entered. Had this been done by them, and by some of the oldest
families in Scotland who are also unrepresented in the Register, the
latter would have possessed a completeness to which it cannot now
pretend, while many interesting and important facts in the family
history of the country would have been preserved. We can only regret
that there are so many blanks in the recorded arms of the Scottish
peers. The next division of this volume of the Register consists of
the arms of the baronets, knights, and proprietors of free baronies,
arranged under the letters of the alphabet corresponding to their
names. At the end of each letter a few leaves have originally been
left blank to admit of additions, and these have been filled up from
time to time. At page 236 another alphabet begins, the opportunity
being of course taken to have another ornamental title-page. This
list contains the arms of the 'gentlemen' of Scotland, and extends
to page 454, where the Royal Burghs are given. Many of the latter,
however, merely show blanks beneath their names. Then follow the
blazons of the arms of certain incorporations, and the volume from
page 486 to the end is taken up with what are styled 'promiscuous
matriculations' –the first is dated 1765 and the last 1804; but
many matriculations between these dates are to be found in the pages
originally left blank at the end of each letter as mentioned above.
The volume contains altogether about 2702 entries, and has been
fairly well kept, though some of the later writing is not very good;
there are a great number of erasures and not a few other minor
errors. These were carefully noted by Robert Boswell on his entry to
the office of Lord Depute and Lyon Clerk in 1770, and he prefixes a
formidable list of them to the Register. He seems to have begun his
work with high ideals, and there is a long note stating the
principles upon which he was determined to keep the Register, and
exhorting his successors in office to adhere to the lines thus laid
down. With all his anxiety, however, and his undoubted success in
discovering and noting all the erasures, interlineations, and blanks
which occur, he has not unfrequently missed some obvious errors in
the blazons themselves |
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