The Petitioner came to the Lord Lyon with a Petition to be recognised as Lord of the Garioch. He was in possession of an Assignation of the ‘Lordship and Regality of the Garioch’ and that assignation has been registered in the Scottish Barony Register (SBR). Lyon found that Regalities, although a higher form of barony, had been abolished by the Heritable Jurisdiction Act of 1747. Nevertheless he found that those in possession of a regality, after they were abolished, were still of the genus baron. Lyon’s whole approach to the matter was to look for the law and legal commentary from the Institutional writers.
Lyon finds that feudal lordships, feudal earldoms and feudal marquisates are of the genus barony and the owners of these ‘higher’ feudal titles come within his heraldic jurisd
On the question of recognition it appears that Lyon prefers the approach of recognizing the particular dignity as expressed in the Crown Charter that the petitioner presented to the Custodian of the SBR. It appears that he takes it a matter of fact that if a Petitioner has a valid assignation of a feudal dignity then the rank of the Petitioner must be that as expressed in the Crown Charter preceding the assignation. Lyon made it very clear that he intended to follow the previous Lyons practice of relying on and endorsing the Custodian’s decision on registration in the SBR.
Lyon has decided that in future the Petitioner’s Recognition will be in the following terms:
“By Deed of Assignation recorded in the Scottish Barony Register, the Petitioner holds the Barony/Lordship/Earldom or Marquisate of X being of the genus Barony, which ownership brings the Petitioner within the jurisdiction of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms”.
Lyon has confirmed that he does not intend to make further alteration to the arms that are granted to those with feudal dignities.
This Note ends the uncertainties of recent years and allows potential purchasers of Scottish feudal titles the comfort of knowing exactly what the Lyon Court policy is in relation to feudal titles.