XXX
ORDER OF THE THISTLE.
[APPENDIX.
sufficient Warrant. Given at Our Court at St. James’s, this eleventh day of July 1766, in the sixthyear of Our reign. « By His Majesty’s command,
“ To the Chief Baron and the rest of the Barons “ J. Rockingham. Tho. Townshend.
of Our Court of Exchequer in Scotland.” J. Cavendish.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
P. 8—11. Collar of the Order. —Notwithstanding the strong evidence which has been
adduced, that a Collar was not instituted until about the year1539, the subjoined copy of the impression of the Seal of KingJames the Fourth, which occurs on an original Letter from thatPrince to Ferdinand the Second King of Arragon, dated at thePalace at Edinburgh, on the Kalends of July (1st July) 1512,proves that a Collar composed of Thistles and Knots was usedthen with the Scottish King’s Armorial Bearings. The Letter ispreserved in the Egerton MSS. No. 616, f. 39, and was obliginglypointed out by Sir Frederick Madden, K.H. Keeper of the Manu-scripts in the British Museum.
Pinkerton in his History of Scotland, (vol. ii. p. 36,) says:“ About this time [1503] it appears that James, in his attach-ment to chivalry, instituted the badge, perhaps the Order, of St.Andrew, or the Thistle, fabulously ascribed by antiquaries to periods more remote, while the only doubtof a rational enquirer is, whether this monarch, or his successor James V., must be regarded as thefounder of this new Order of Knighthood. The obscurity of its origin testifies its want of renown, tillit was revived with splendour in the eighteenth century.” In a note, “the strange chaos of inaccuracy”in Nisbet’s Heraldry and the other authorities on the subject are alluded to ; and Pinkerton justly adds,“ It is believed that not one Knight of the Thistle can be mentioned till the present [last] century;the Order seems confined to the Monarchs.”
P. 23. In the copy of the Statutes of King James the Seventh, in the Register, it is stated thatthe “ Superior, or Dean, or Prior,” of the Royal Chapel of the Palace of Holyrood House, “ shall beRecorder of Our Orders there,” instead (as in all other copies of those Statutes) of “ Sub Prior” and“ Reader of Our Orders there.”
P. 42. The Memorial presented to King George the Second, is not in the Register; nor is there anynotice therein of the Earl of Dalkeith’s claim to walk at the Coronation, vide p. 43—45, antea.
P. 51. In the Warrant dispensing with the Installation of Prince William Henry in April 1770, thisclause occurs: “We dispensing with your taking the Oath of one of the Knights Brethren containedin Our Statutes.”
P. 52, line 21, for “4th” read “ 23rd of April.”
P. 53. The Earls of Galloway and Abergavenny were both Elected on the 23rd of May 1814, onwhich day the latter was also Invested; but the Earl of Galloway was not Invested until the 30th ofthat month. Lord Erskine’s Election and Investiture took place on the 23rd, and not on the 3rd ofFebruary 1815.
P. 69, line 5.—Since that paragraph was printed, there have been two other Nominations, namely,of the Duke of Roxburghe and Earl of Rosebery, both of whom were likewise privately Invested inthe Royal Closet.
P. 80, line 22 et seq. —The general summary of the Knights of the Thistle was made in March1840: but one Duke and one Earl, both Peers of Scotland, should now be added, which would causethe following corrections, viz. 1. 81, for “ eighty-nine” read “ ninety-one;” 1. 84, for “ seventeen” read“ eighteen;” and in 1. 85, for “ fifty-one” read “ fifty-two.”
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