Baronets Of Nova Scotia.
The Times, 1824-06-09T00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TH1IES. .Mr. Editor._A simple questi6n of precedencv has brought into the arena two champions for the baronetcy lateiy " taken up" by the Bishop of Winchester-the one introduced by an evening paper, the other by a Sunday publication a few hours afterwards; both if I may judge by the angry tone of their defiance, having a more than ordinary interest In the issue. The Court Kalendar, however, brandished by the one, and the mal-apropos charge of radi- calism by the other of these lheroes, are weapons not sery appalling to,tIeir opponents, who happen to present a most formidable front, as f -, consJ1t of all the Nova Scotia Baronets created subsequently to 164s, the wvhole body of Baronets of Great Britain created since the Union with Scotbnd, the Baronets of Ireland, and the }5aronets of the UnitedKingdom. These must all yield place and precedence to the Bishop of Winchester, if the claim of the learned prelate should be acted upon. The case tests upon a point of fact, not of Inference. All baro. nets are created by the following process --The King issues a warrant under his signet, directing a bill to pass the Privy Seal; and a writ of Privy Seal thereupon authorizes the grant under the Great SeaL Of these three instruments, a record is preserved in the public archives of the kingdom; and the records of this de- scription, as well in England as in Scotland, are perfect for the period to rehich this presumed creation refers. Now the Bishop of WVin- chester asserts, that an individual of the name of Pretyman was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1641; but he cannot produce the original patent of such creation, and there is no trace amongst the public records, either of the grant itself, or of the preparatory instruments; the necessary conclusion therefore is, that no such grant ever passed. I am informed, upon Inquiry at the Herald's College, that Sir John Pretyrnan, of Lolddington in Leicestershire, Knight, soon after the Restoration described bimself "Knight and Baronet," and was, therefore, so caUetl by others. iHe died in 1676 ; and Sir George Pretyman his son (who had been knighted in his life- time) continued the style of " Knight and Baronet ;" and, having fallen into great poverty, went begging from house to house in the reign of Queen Anne; as is mentioned by Dean Swift, in his Jour- nal to Stelkl. This Sir George had two sons, George and Shirley: but what beacme of them is not kniown. It appears that William jretyrnan, a younger brother of Sir George, afterwards assumed the title of barunet, and was buried by that descripltion at Greenwich, in 1719; and it was lastly used by Thomas Pretyman (*on of Thomas, the youngest brother of Sir George), who died an inhabitant of Mor- den-college, BlaC;heath. in the year 1749. From that perlod the doubtful title was no longer used. ,About five ycars since, the Bishop of Winchester exhibited a pe- digree at the Hlerald's College, purporting to show that he was a li- nealdescendant of the bodyaf the said Sir John Pretyman, and as such endtled to the honour in question. This pedigree, upoi an ex- arnizntien of the evidence upon which it was constructed, was re- jected by the College for want of proof; and it moreover was disco- vered, in the cuurse of the laborious investigation then had, that Sir John Pretyman was not only not created a baronet in 1641, but that he had been descr'bed, in a series of deeds enrolled in Chancery be. fore and during the Commonwealth, and down to a few menths be- forc the Restoration, by the appellation of Esquire; and that, In the month of August. subsequent to the Restoration,he was described, in letters patent under the Great Seal, granting to him an oflice un- der the Crown, by the style of Sir John Pretyman, Knight. The learned Prelate, thus disappointed in establishing in the He. rald's College his pretensions as heir male of the body of Sir John Pretyman, had recourse to an assumption that the baronetcy, of the grant of which no trace existed, had been limited to the heir male gcrcral, or whatsodver; and, abandoning his former claim of descent from the alieged baronet, souglht to make himself the collateral heir male of the same individual. Having, in this character, de- duced his descent from VWilliam Pretyman, a worthy Suffolk yeo- man, who was living in the reign of Henry VII.. and is presumed, by a very probable hypothesis, to have been also the ancestor of SirJ. Pretymanof Loddington, his lordship proceeded to Scotland, where, upon an e-Pparte statement of his evidence in support of such collaterai descent, and although not an acre of land, either in Had- sdin&tonshire, or elsewhere in Scotland, was in question, or a drop of Scottish bloodwas flowing in his veins, he procured himself to be served heir to " Sir Thomas Pretyman," who died in 1749, bya process which isjustlyestima;ed by every person acquainted with the natureof such a preceeding, and has been pretty accurately described by the great Scotch novelist in Guy Xfaencring, and more recently by the author of Mauhe-.v Vald. With these facts before the public, do the partisns of the Bishop of Vinchester act with fairness, when they deny the authority of the Herald's College, in England, to take coynizance of his care- an autbority to which his Lordship himself had recourse in the first instance, underan impression, it cannot be doubtel, that the sanc- tion of that body would be the best support of his pretensions ? One word as to the general question of the official cognizance of the Earl Marshal of England in matters of this kind. It is well known, that in all pubhc ceremonials, where the different degrees of rank belonging to the three kingdoms are marshalled, the whole is under the exclusive directioa of that high officer of the Crown. This question is not one of party; and it ill becomes the pretended sup- porters of the aristocracy of the country to denounce as radicals those who are de5ious otn preserving the purity of that aristocracy, by sifting the pretensions to atitle of honnor a -,, .m;r cumbrances simlar to hat i question. I am, Si, yonrs, &C. T. BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA.