brevia clausa, from being closed with yellow wax, and impressed with the great seal of England. The first of those summonses upon record, appears to have been tested on the 24th of December, in the 49th year of Henry III.; from which period, no similar writ seems to have issued, until the 22nd year of Edward I. when about sixty persons were summoned to attend the king, "wheresoever he might be, to advise on the affairs of the kingdom;" but, it has been questioned, whether that summons constituted a peer of parliament. of Kidderminster, by letters patent, dated the 10th of October, 1387. Lord Beauchamp, however, never took his seat in parliament, as he died in the same year, and was succeeded by his son, with whom the dignity expired in 1420. In old time, it was deemed necessary to invest with robes the newly created barou in open parliament; and so lately as the era of James I. that monarch, in person, solemnly inducted the barons created by patent in the 13th year of his reign, by enrobing each peer in scarlet, with a hood furred with miniver; but in the same year it was determined to discontinue those ceremonies in future, the legal advisers of the crown having declared that the delivery of the letters patent constituted a sufficient creation; and in patents of more modern times, the ceremony of public investiture is expressly dispensed with. The ceremony of his admission into the house of peers is this: he is brought into the house between two barons, who conduct him to the lord chancellor; his patent or writ of summons being carried by the king at arms, who presents it kneeling to the chancellor, who reads it, then congratulates him on his becoming a member of the house of peers, and invests him with his parliamentary robe. The patent is then delivered to the clerk of the parliament, and the oaths are administered to the new peer, who is conducted to his seat on the baron's bench. To establish a hereditary barcay by writ, it was requisite, Sir William Blackstone was of opinion, that two writs of summons should be issued, and a sitting in two parliaments have taken place; but this great law laminary seems, upon this occasion, to have been under misapprehension; for, in the case of the barcay of Clifton, there was but one writ and one sitting, and that barony was allowed. Baronies by writ are beritatie by heirs male or female; but in the event of the demise of the baron without the former, and with more than one heiress, the barony then devolving cor jointly upon the heiresses, it fails into abeyance amongst them, and so continues, until only one of the daughters, or the sole heir of one of the daughters, survives. The crown can, however, at any time, especially interfere, and terminate the abeyance in favour of any of the co-heirs; but it cannot alienate the barony from the representatives The coronation robes of a baron are the same as an earl's, of the first baron. It is imperative that it be conferred except that he has only two rows of spots on each shoulder. apon one of these. The mode of terminating an abeyance In like manner, bis parliamentary robes have but two in favour of a commoner, is by summoning the individual guards of white fur, with as many rows of gold lace; in by the title of the barony which had been in abeyance. other respects, they are the same with those of other peers. The course observed towards a peer of a higher dignity, is The coronet is a gold circle, on which_are_six_pearls; the issue of letters patent by the crown, in confirmation of it was assigned to barons by Charles II. after the Restorathe barony; and a similar course, that of patent, is adopted tion. See Pl. 30, fig. 11. Previous to this time, the barons towards heiresses. wore scarlet caps, turned up with ermine, and on the top a tassel of gold. The globes round the coronet, though called pearls, are always made of silver: his cap is the same as a viscount's. His style is Right Honourable; and when addressed, officially, by the crown, Right trusty and well beloved." 1 I The mode of creating peers by writ of summons, has been, however, a long time discontinued; and the only writs now issued, are those to the eldest sons of dukes, marquesses, and earls, in their fathers' baronies; but such writs do not create heritable peerages. If, however, a writ of summons issue to the eldest son of a peer, as a baron, under a misapprehension that the barony had been vested in his father, then the writ is deemed a new creation, and the dignity is heritable as a barony by writ. This was established in 1786, by the decision regarding the barony of Strange, in which James Stanley had been summoned, in 16:28, under the supposition that the barony had belonged to the father, William, sixth Earl of Derby; and again, in 1637, in the similar case of the barony of Clifford. The fist writ of an elder son is stated to have issued in the 22nd year of King Edward IV, when Thomas Fita-Alan was summoned to parliament, in the barony of his father, the Earl Arundel, as Baron Maltravers. As barons by tenure gave place to barons by writ, so the latter have been superseded by BARONS BY PATENT, The first instance of these occurred in the reign of Richard II, when John Beauchamp, of Holt, was elevated to the peerage as Baron Beauchamp, There is an instance, in the reign of Charles I. of the son and heft of a baron, who possessed two baronies, having been summoned by parliament in one of them. The Hon. Conyers Darcy, son of Conyers, Haron of Darcy and Conyers, (who was subsequently created Kardoi Holderness) was summoned to parliament in his father's barony Conyers, in 1680, PRIVILEGES OF THE PEERAGE. PEERS are free from all arrests for debt, and cannot be outlawed in any civil action; nor can any attachment lie against their persons. They are exempt from attending courts-leet, or sheriff's turns; or, in case of riot, the posse comitatus. When arraigned for any criminal offence, it must be before their peers, who return a verdict, not upon oath, but upon honour. Peers are tried in courts, erected especially for the purpose, in the centre of Westminster Hall, at the expense of the crown; which courts are pulled down, as soon as the investigation terminates. By the law denominated scandalum magnatum, any man convicted of spreading a scandalous report regarding a peer of the realm, no matter whether true or false, is subject to an arbitrary fine, and to remain in prison until the same be discharged. Peers have the privilege of sitting covered in courts of justice, during the proceedings. Peers of parliament have the privilege of franking letters; Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Redgrave, in Suffolk, whose sucbut it is as members of parliament, not as peers. THE BARONETAGE OF ENGLAND. THIS dignity, which is hereditary, is conferred by patent under the great seal, and generally limited to the heirs male of the person so created, though sometimes entailed upon others in default of such issue, and was instituted at the suggestion of Sir Robert Cotton, by James I. A.D. 1611, in the 9th year of his reign. It is supposed to have originated from the barones minores, minor barons; but the title is of ancient standing both in England and France, and was used in the former for banneret, when it was meant to designate a knight banneret, who was a parliamentary baron; as in the statute of Richard II. by which every archbishop, &c. baron, baronet, knight of the shire, &c. is commanded, under penalty of amercement, or other punishment, according to the ancient usage, to appear in parliament. In the reign of Henry VI. we find that a juror challenged himself, because his ancestors had been baronets, seigneurs des parliaments. As knighthood, which had existed from the earliest period, and had been long antecedent to nobility, always implied the performance of certain specific services, it was deemed advisable, upon the institution of this hereditary equestrian order, to attach it to some particular conditions; and a rebellion happening to rage in the northern part of Ireland, called Ulster, at that period, each newly created baronet was obliged to pay into the exchequer a sum of money adequate to the maintenance, in Ireland, of thirty foot soldiers for three years, at eight-pence per day; which, with the official fees, amounted to nearly twelve hundred pounds. It was also required, that the candidate for the dignity should be a gentleman by birth, and in the possession of an unencumbered estate of one thousand pounds per annum. The number of baronets was first confined to two hundred, but the order is now only limited by the discretion of the crown. They had several considerable privileges given them, with a habendam to them and their heirs male. Baronets, and the heirs male of their bodies, have place in the armies of the king, near the royal standard, for the defence of the same; and are allowed, in their funeral solemnities, two assistants of the body to support the pall, one principal mourner, and four assistants, the medium funeral between those of a baron and knight. Baronets rank among themselves according to creation, and follow next to the younger sons of barons, taking precedence of all knights, as well of the Bath as knights bachelors, except those of the Garter, and knights bannerets, created by the King or Prince of Wales, under the royal banner, in open war. The title of Sir is prefixed to their Christian names, and the addition of Baronet follows their surnames; and their wives have the dignity of Lady, Madam, or Dame, according to the manner of speaking. His majesty covenants not to create any other degree, order, or dignity, between that of a baron and a baronet; and also by a clause in the patent, though they be not dubbed knights, yet both a baronet and his eldest son, or heir male apparent, being of full age, i.e. twenty-one years, can claim cessor is therefore styled primus baronetorum Angliæ. If a baronet be named at au installation, as proxy for a knight of the Bath, it appears essential that he should be knighted for the occasion: thus, Sir George Osborne, Bart. was knighted by George III. The precedence of the wives, sous, and daughters of baronets is settled by the patent of creation; the wives ranking next to the wives of the younger sons of barons, the eldest sons after knights bachelors, and the younger sons after knights' eldest sons; the daughtres claiming the same rank among women, as their brothers claim among men. Baronets, for their greater distinction and honour, bear on their own paternal coats the arms of Ulster; viz. on an escutcheon ar, a sinister hand, erect, open, and couped at the wrist, gu. See Pl. 30, fig. 22. And here it ought to be mentioned, that this escutcheon may be borne in the middle chief, fesse point, or any other place most convenient, to avoid confusion with the charges of the family arms; but when the shield contains several quarterings, this badge should be borne in the first or paternal coat, and not placed, as it sometimes is, upon the intersection, or partition of the shield, unless the baronet has two surnames, bearing arms for each quarterly, then it ought to be placed on the centre division of the four quarters. BARONETS OF IRELAND. IN Ireland, a hereditary dignity, somewhat similar to knighthood, appears to have been occasionally conferred in the earliest times; and the knights of Kerry and of Glyn are yet permitted to bear the distinctions bestowed on their ancestors by the ancient sovereigns of the country. The order of baronets, however, was likewise introduced here by James I. in the 19th year of his reign, for the same purpose, and with the same privileges, &c. within the kingdom of Ireland, as had been conferred on the like order in England; for which the Irish baronets paid the same fees into the treasury of Ireland. It was first conferred by letters patent, dated 30th of September, 1619, upon Sir Dominic Sarsfield, lord chief justice of the court of king's bench; and on the 14th of October, in the same year, Sir Francis Blundell, knight, then secretary for affairs of Ireland, was advanced to the same honour. Several more have been added, no number being limited; but since the Union iu 1801, none have been created otherwise than as BARONETS OF THE United KinGDOM. Several authors have made efforts to give the armorial bearings of the Irish baronets, but without success, owing to this circumstance, viz. that no regular entry of the patents has been preserved in the heralds' office, in Dublin. This deficiency, it is hoped, will now be remedied, as the whole of the Irish baronets' arms, places of abode, dates of creation, &c. will be found in the body of this Work, and the Appendix, in strict alphabetical order; a task never before accomplished. 52 BARONETS OF SCOTLAND, Ramoset of Scotland, commonly called Nova Scotia A Parliament and of Oliver Cromwell; and it continued generally, though not totally, in disuse at the Restoration. Several meetings, to revive the use of the badge and ribbon, were held, particularly in the year 1725, (suggested by the revival of the order of the Bath) in 1734, and in 1775, when it was revived; and on the 30th of November, in that year, being St. Andrew's day, the baronets then in London, thirteen in number, appeared at court, wearing the badge and ribbon, for the first time since its revival. The premier baronet of Scotland, at present, is Sir Richard Strachan. Since the legislative union between England and Scotland, and Great Britain and Ireland, the separate orders of baronets have been superseded by one general institution of BARONETS of the United KINGDOM. is a curious circumstance, that this dignity was once conferred upon a female, Dame Mary Bolles, of Ashurton, who, in 1635, was eiersted to the baronetcy of Scotland, with remainder to ber heirs whatsoever. The remark we made at the end of the Baronets of Ireand, is equally applicable here. But the deficiency in all suthors upon this subject, owing to the want of regular entries in the register offices in Scotland, will be found amply supplied in the body of this work; as also with respect to the Nova Scotia Baronets. ESQUIRES. ANA, PACARENA, 434 Should AN esquire is a title of honour above a gentleman, and mes of Dat planta- below a knight; and was, originally, a person who attended -kor -Heads musæ for ever, a knight in time of war, and carried his shield; whence he ad esser barons is called, in French, escuier; and in Latin, escutifer or aques, except Sir William armiger, a military kind of vassal, having liberty to bear a Nova Scotia, his shield, and was therefore considered as a name of charge in the tre of Sir should and office only. Records, however, state, that this degree, id habes, and Baronet added to in the reign of Henry IV. was conferred by the king, by Avs England, the eldest putting about the party's neck a collar of SS, and giving LAMAR DOEes, were entitled him a pair of silver spurs. On the accession of Henry V. miam, qua ating the age of 21 a statute passed, ordaining that in all cases where process def cides sons' wives should of outlawry lay, the addition of the estate, degree, or proMaia, or Dame. His majesty fession of the defendant, should be inserted. This made anong every mark of dignity to this his it necessary to ascertain who were entitled to this degree, thas, war years after its institution, he which has therefore been defined under heads, viz. esquires , Jated 17th November, 1629, grant- of the king's body, limited to four, they keep the door of svinge of wearing a ribbon and medal; the king's bed-chamber, walk at a coronation, and have ed to each of them by the king him- precedence of all knights' younger sons, the eldest sons of the words of the warrant: “That they baronets, and also of all knights of the Bath, knights bachand their heirs male, shall wear and elors, and their heirs male of the right line; so also, the aese recks, in all time coming, au orange tan- eldest sons of the younger sons of the peers of the realm, **; thereoa shail be pendent in an escutcheon, such as the king invests with collars of SS, as the kings at Serrure, thereon an iuescutcheon of the arms arms, heralds, serjeants at arms, &c. whose eldest sons with an imperial crown above the escutcheon, may bear the title. Esquires to the knights of the Bath, et with the motto, Fax mentis honestæ gloria. are their attendants, on their installation. These must bear Sep. 23. All these privileges of the order, par-coat armour, according to the law of arms, and are esquires that of wearing the medal, were confirmed at the for life; and also their eldest sons are reputed to have the King's request, by the convention of estates of the kingdom, same privileges as the esquires of the king's body. Memon the 31st of July, 1630; and, in order to establish them bers of the lower house of parliament; sheriffs of counties, the most solid foundation, they were again confirmed who are for life, in respect to the dignity of their office; y an act of parliament of Scotland, which met at Edin- justices of the peace, but only whilst they continue in the burgh, on the 28th of June, 1633. The badge of distinction commission; and also all those who bear special office in belonging this order, fell to the ground, with all the other the king's household, whilst they continue in that office: honours of Scotland, during the usurpation of the Long captains in the wars, recorded in the king's lists; counsel lors at law; bachelors of divinity, law, and physic; and what is now generally understood by the appellation. A mayors of towns; these are all reputed esquires, or equal yeoman, properly so termed, is a freeholder, having lands to esquires, though not really so: also the pennon-bearer of his own to live upon; and a carn of land, or a ploughto the king, who is a person that carries the flag or banner land, which, in ancient times, was of the yearly value of five ending in a point or tip, whereon the arms of the king, nobles, was the living of a stokeman, or yeoman, in legal either at war, or at a funeral, are painted; which office is proceedings called legales homines, common in writs of equivalent to the degree of an esquire. The heads of an- inquests. By divers statutes it hath been enacted, that cient families are considered esquires by prescription. It none shall pass in any inquest, unless they had forty shilis owing, perhaps, to the remnant of feudal privileges con- lings freehold, in yearly revenue; (perhaps, according to tained in the game laws, that the eldest sons of esquires the increase of money now, equal to more than forty pounds are allowed to be qualified; though by a strange anomaly, per annum); but by the statute of the 27th of Elizabeth, esquires themselves, as such, are not. every juror must have forty pounds of lands. In a statute made 23rd Henry VI, concerning the election of knights for the parliament, it is ordered and expressly provided, "That no man shall be such knight, which standeth in the degree of a yeoman." There is a general opinion, that every gentleman of landed property, who has £300 a year, is an esquire, which is a vulgar error; for no money whatsoever, or landed property, will give a man properly this title, unless he come within the above rules. GENTLEMEN. THIS term originally comprehended all above the rank of yeomen; whereby even noblemen are properly called gentlemen. All who were entitled to coat armour, or whose ancestors had been freemen, were included in the word gentlemen. But it was more particularly applied to the lowest rank of these; because, not having any title of honour, for want of a specific term, it was necessary to employ the general one, to distinguish them from the ignoble, or plebeian. In times when the different ranks were more carefully distinguished, there were several shades of gentility. The first and most honourable were those who could boast of four generations of gentlemen, both in the paternal and maternal line: these were gentlemen by blood. If they could not prove this, but the contrary was not known within the memory of man, then they were gentlemen by prescription. It was, also, in the power of the king to raise any ignoble person to the rank of gentleman, by letters patent, conferring on him the right to bear coat armour; when this was done without any achievement, either in war or peace, the person thus ennobled was insultingly called, a gentleman of paper and wax. All orders of the king's household, not in a menial capacity, were considered as raised to the rank of gentlemen. All orders of ecclesiastical preferment constituted a claim to gentility; and also, any degree taken in the liberal sciences. In feudal times, geutility might be acquired by the purchase of a seigniory, which had in any way lapsed to the king, and the new purchaser became entitled to bear the arms of the last possessor. There was yet another way in which gentility was sometimes obtained, and that was by adoption; as when a person, who was not of gentility, was adopted by one that was, and, as he succeeded to his property and name, was admitted as his offspring, and allowed to bear his arms. It appears in Lambert's Perambulation of Kent, p. 367, that the Saxon word telphionemen was given to the theune, or gentleman, because his life was valued at one thousand two hundred shillings; the lives of all men, in those days, being rated at certain sums of money: the price of the head of a churle, or yeoman, being taxed at two hundred shillings; the one was called a twelve hundred man, and the other, a twyhind, or man of two hundred. By the statute of 2nd Henry IV. cap. 27, it is, amongst other things, enacted, "That no yeoman shall take or wear any livery of any lord, upon pain of imprisonment, and to pay a fine at the king's will and pleasure." These yeomen were famous, in the days of our forefathers, for archery and manhood; and their skill and courage were eminently conspicuous in the victorious battles of Poictiers and Cressy. Formerly, the yeomanry were not to be pressed to serve as soldiers in the wars, unless bound by tenure, which has long since been abolished; nor were the trained bands compelled to march out of the kingdom, nor to be transported beyond sea; a law which still holds good as to the militia of the kingdom, which may be said to be composed of the yeomen of the different counties; nor was, nor is, any man, even in the raising of these military forces, compelled to bear arms himself, if he find a substitute sufficiently qualified, according to the acts for regulating these bands. As the nobility, gentry, &c. have certain privileges, so have the common people of England, beyond those of other nations; for in England, no man can be imprisoned, ousted of his possessions, or disseized of his freehold, without just order of law, and previous cause shown; and if imprisoned, he has, in most instances, a right to an habeas corpus, the bulwark of British liberty and of the rights of the people. There are still official employments of great respectability, with the title of Yeomen annexed to them; such as the Yeomen of the King's Guard, the Yeoman of the Stirrup, the Yeoman of the Pantry, the Yeoman of the Scullery, and others; so called from ancient times. And there are likewise, Yeomen Prickers in the King's Hunt, Yeomen of the Sherriff's Court, &c. &c. YEOMEN. RULES OF PRECEDENCY AMONG MEN. THE designation of yeoman, from the Saxon word zemen, which signifies common, was perhaps more respectable than THAT persons of every degree take place according to the seniority of their creations, and not of years, unless they are descended from the blood-royal; in which case, they have place of all others of the same degree. Earl Marshal. The younger sons of the preceding rank take place from the eldest sons of the next mediate: viz. the younger sons of dukes, from the eldest sous of earls, &c. Yet there are Lord exceptions; as with officers of state, who, although they are not noblemen, take place above the nobility of higher degrees; so there are some persons, who for dignities in the church, degrees in the universities, and inns of courts, officers in the state or army, although they are neither knights nor gentlemen born, yet take place amongst them. Thus, all colonels and field-officers, who are honourable; as also the master of the ordnance, quarter-master-general, doctors of divinity, law, physic, and music; deans, chancellors, prebendaries, heads of colleges in universities, and serjeants at law, are, by courtesy, allowed place before ordinary esquires. And all bachelors of divinity, law, pbysic, and music; masters of arts, barristers in the inns of courts, lieutenant-colonels, majors, captains, and other commissioned military officers; and divers patent officers in the king's household, may equal, if not precede, any gentleman that has none of those qualifications. In towns corporate, the inhabitants of cities are preferred to those of boroughs; and those who have borue magistracy, to all others. And herein a younger alderman, though knighted, or as being the elder knight, takes not precedency from a senior alderman; as was the case with Alderman Craven, who, though no knight, had place, as senior alderman, before all the rest, who were knights, at the coronation of King James. This is to be understood as to public meetings relating to the town; for, it is doubted, whether it will hold good in any neutral place. It has also been determined, in the earl marshal's court of honour, that all who have been Lord Mayors of London, shall every where take place of all knights bachelors, because they have been the king's lieutenants. It is also quoted by Sir George Mackenzie, in his observations on precedency, that in the case of Sir John Crook, serjeant at law, it was adjudged by the judges in court, that such serjeants as were his seniors, though not knighted, should have preference, notwithstanding his knighthood. Chamberlain of His Majesty's Household. Above all of their degree,viz. if dukes, above dukes: and if earls, above earls ; &c. &c. Dukes, according to their patents. Eldest Sons of Dukes of the Blood Royal. Marquesses, according to their patents. Dukes' eldest Sons. Earls, according to their patents. Viscounts, according to their patents. Marquesses' younger Sons. Bishops of London, Durham, Winchester, and all other Bishops, according to their seniority of consecration.+ Barons, according to their patents. I Speaker of the House of Commons. Lord Commissioners of the Great Seal. Vice-Chamberlain of the Household. Secretary of State, being under the degree of baron. Viscounts' eldest Sons. Earls' younger Sons. Chancellor of the Exchequer. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Master of the Rolls. Vice-Chancellor. Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Judges of the King's Bench. Judges of the Common Pleas. Barons of the Exchequer. Bannerets made by the king himself, in person, under the royal standard, displayed in an army royal, in open war. Viscounts' younger Sons. + But if any bishop be principal secretary of state, he shall be placed above all other bishops, unless they have any of the great offices before mentioned. But if any peer be principal secretary of state, he shall be placed above all other peers of his degree, not having any of the great offices before mentioned. |