BARONET. Although the origin of this title has been the subject of speculation, it is not known why it was selected as that of "a new Dignitie between Barons and Knights" created by James I. The object of its institution was to raise money for the crown, as was also done by the sale of peerage dignities under this sovereign. But the money was professedly devoted to the support of troops in Ulster, that is, each grantee was to be liable for the pay of 3o men, at 8d. a day for three years. This amounted to £1,095, the sum paid for the honour. When it was instituted, in May 1611, the king covenanted that he would not create more than 200, and that only those who had £i,000 a year in landed estate and whose paternal grandfathers had borne arms should receive the honour. But these qualifications were soon abandoned. As an inducement to apply for it, it was made to confer the prefix of "Sir" and "Lady" (or "Dame"), and was assigned precedence above knights, though below the younger sons of barons. Eight years later (Sept. 30, 1619) the baronetage of Ireland was insti tuted, the king pledging himself not to create more than i oo baronets. Meanwhile, questions had arisen as to the precedence of the baronets, and James, by decree (May 28, 1612), had announced that it was his intention to rank them below the younger sons of barons. As this had the effect of stopping applica tions for the honour, James issued a fresh commission (Nov. 18, 1614) to encourage them, and finally, as "the King's wants might be much relieved out of the vanities and ambition of the gentrie" (in Chamberlain's words), he granted, in 1616, the further priv ilege that the heirs apparent of baronets should be knighted on coming of age.
The baronetage of Nova Scotia was devised in 1624 for promot ing the "plantation" of that province, and James announced his intention of creating 10o baronets, each to support six colonists for two years (or pay 2,000 marks in lieu thereof), and also to pay 1,00o marks to Sir William Alexander (afterwards earl of Stir ling), to whom the province had been granted in 1621. For this he was to receive a "free barony" of 16,000 acres in Nova Scotia, and to become a baronet of "his Hienes Kingdom of Scotland." Charles I. carried out the scheme, creating the first Scottish baronet on May 28, 1625, covenanting that the baronets "of Scot land or of Nova Scotia" should never exceed 15o, that their 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 3,00o marks 4166 13s. 4d.) towards the plantation of the colony. Four years later (Nov. 17, 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 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 inescutch eon of the arms of Scotland and the motto "Fax mentis honestae gloria." As the required number, however, could not be com pleted, Charles announced in 1633 that English and Irish gentle men 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 (17o 7) the Scottish creations ceased, English and Scotsmen alike receiving thence forth baronetcies of Great Britain.
The history of the baronetage was uneventful till 1783, when in consequence of the wrongful assumption of baronetcies, an old and then increasing evil, a royal warrant (Dec. 6) directed that no one should be recognized as a baronet in official documents till he had proved his right, and also that those created in future must register their arms and pedigree at the Heralds' 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 baronets have been created, not as of Great Britain or of Ireland, but as of the United Kingdom.
In 1834 a movement was initiated by Mr. Richard Broun (whose father had assumed a Nova Scotia baronetcy some years before), to obtain certain privileges for the order, but on the advice of the Heralds' college, the request was refused. A further petition, for permission to all baronets to wear a badge, as did those of Nova Scotia, met with the same fate in 1836. Mean while George IV. had revoked (Dec. 19, 1827), as to all future creations the right of baronets' eldest sons to claim knighthood. Mr. Broun claimed it as an heir apparent in 1836, and on finally meeting with refusal, publicly assumed the honour in 1842, a foolish and futile act. In 1854 Sir J. Kingston James was knighted as a baronet's son, and Sir Ludlow Cotter similarly in 1874, on his coming of age; but when Sir Claude de Crespigny's son applied for the honour (May 17, 1895) , his application was refused, on the ground that the lord chancellor did not consider the clause in the patent (I 8o5) valid. The reason for this decision appears to be unknown.
A fresh agitation was aroused in 1897 by an order giving the sons of life peers precedence over baronets, some of whom formed themselves, in 1898, into "the Honourable Society of the Baron etage" for the maintenance of its privileges. But a royal warrant was issued on Aug. 15, 1898, confirming the precedence com plained of. The above body, however, continued in existence as the "Standing Council of the Baronetage," and succeeded in ob taining invitations for some representatives of the order to the coronation of King Edward k it It has been sought to purge the order of wrongful assumptions. A departmental committee at the Home Office was appointed in 1906 to consider the question of such assumptions and the best means of stopping them. Follow ing this, an official roll of the baronetage was established by royal warrant of Feb. 11, 191o, a roll which was first gazetted on Feb. 23, 1914. Every person succeeding to a baronetcy must now exhibit to the Home Secretary his proofs of succession. In 1929 baronets, not of the Nova Scotia creation, were given leave to wear, hanging from the neck by an orange ribbon with a blue border, a badge of gold or silver gilt enamelled with the red hand of Ulster.
All baronets are entitled to display in their coat of arms, either on a canton or on an inescutcheon, the red hand of Ulster, 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 left undetermined by the Acts of Union, and appears to be still a moot point with heralds. The premier baronet of England is Sir Hickman Bacon, whose ancestor was the first to receive the honour in 161I.
See Pixley's History of the Baronetage; Playfair's "Baronetage" (in British Family Antiquity, vols. vi.—ix.) ; Foster's Baronetage; G. E. Cokayne's Complete Baronetage; Nichols, "The Dignity of Baronet" (in Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii.). (J. H. R.)