What family historian isn’t a bibliophile? I’m no exception to the rule, living by the principal “A house isn’t a home without at least one bookcase for every room”.
I love exploring a multitude of family and local history topics, so it was a pleasure to be introduced to a new subject – the baronial system in Scotland, as covered by David Dobson in his book Scottish Baronial Families, 1250-1750. Published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, this paperback runs to 199 pages.
It opens with a brief summary of the feudal governance system introduced and used by Scottish monarchs, at the heart of which was the administrative unit of a barony. Headed by a baron, who in effect was a crown vassal, it was a system which operated until 1747 when the British government curtailed their powers with the Heritable Jurisdiction Act, their response to Jacobite rising of 1745-46. With Baronial responsibilities extending to the tax collection, supplying of men for military purposes, as well as jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters, and the baron’s principal seat of authority being the caput, in terms of English equivalent a baron was something akin to a Lord of the Manor.
The introductory section also explains the difference between barons and the noble rank of baronet, the latter created in 1611 by King James VI1 as a way of fundraising, along with promoting the Plantation (organised colonisation) of Ulster, and settlement in Nova Scotia. These are also featured in the book.
Next there is a simple one-page bibliography, which acts as a very basic proxy for specific source citations.
Before getting into the meat of the publication, there are seven images. Whilst they are captioned, I would have found it helpful to also have an accompanying page number to link them to the specific section in the book.
We then come to the main body of the book. Drawing mainly on the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, this is an alphabetical listing of the Scottish Baronial families – covering in total around 1,000 Scottish baronies and baronetcies. And whilst the listings are dominated by men, there are also a smattering of female holders. The listings detail the families, plus when, where, and by who, they were granted their baronies/baronetcies. Some have additional information. The pieces range from a couple of sentences, to – in some cases – upwards of a page for those families with multiple grants, or where there is extra details.
The book concludes with a select listing of Scots-Irish baronetcies established in Ireland and in the New World.
It is a book to dip into for reference, rather than one to read from cover to cover, and it acts as a concise introduction to the subject. Personally, as part of this reference material, I would also have found a place name index useful, in order to link locations to baronies. But there’s no doubt this is an impressive starting point and companion book for researchers and local historians investigating these families.
The book was published in 2024, ISBN 9780806359748. For ease I’ve attached the purchase links for both Amazon and Genealogical.com
Full disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from Genealogical.com in return for a honest review. I have expressed my truthful opinion in the above review.
Footnotes:
1. King James I of England, although it was not until 1707 that new baronets were established under the United Kingdom.
Past To Present Genealogy 