ngdom of Scotland." James dying at this point, Charles I. carried
out the scheme, creating the first Scottish baronet on the 28th of May
1625, covenanting in the creation charter that the baronets "of Scotland or
of Nova Scotia" should never exceed a hundred and fifty in number, 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
3000 marks (L166, 13s. 4d.) towards the plantation of the colony. Four
years later (17th of November 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 inescutcheon of the arms of
Scotland and the motto "Fax mentis honestae gloria." As the required
number, however, could not be completed, Charles announced in 1633 that
English and Irish gentlemen 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 a
hundred and twenty in all. In 1638 the creation ceased to carry with it the
grant of lands in Nova Scotia, and on the union with England (1707) the
Scottish creations ceased, English and Scotsmen alike receiving thenceforth
baronetcies of Great Britain.

It is a matter of dispute whether James I. had kept faith with the baronets
of England as to limiting their number; but his son soon rejected the
restriction freely. Creations became one of his devices for raising money;
blank patents were hawked about, and in 1641 Nicholas wrote that
baronetcies were to be had for L400 or even for L350; a patent was offered
about this time to Mr Wrottesley of Wrottesley for L300. On the other hand,
the honour appears to have been bestowed for nothing on some ardent
royalists when the great struggle began.

Cromwell created a few baronets, but at the Restoration the honour was
bestowed so lavishly that a letter to Sir Richard Leveson (3rd of June
1660) describes it as "too common," and offers to procure it for any one in
return for L300 or L400. Sir William Wiseman, however, is said to have
given L500.

The history of the baronetage was uneventful till 1783,