Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/509

 CRAMOND 489 Cramond, Baron of Pari." [S.](*) to Sir Thomas Richardson, Knt., s. and h. [ap.] of the said Ch. Justice and his heirs male('') [i.e. those of his body], whom failing to the heirs male of the body of the said Sir Thomas Richardson, the father. He was kip. 3 July i569,('=) at Hardwick, near Shelton, Norfolk; matric. at Cambridge (Christ's Coll.) June 1584; was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, and became a Barrister, 1595. Under Steward to the Dean and Chapter of Norwich; Recorder of Bury St. Edmund's and subsequently of Norwich; purchased the estate of Honingham, Norfolk about 1600; Serjeant-at-Law and Reader of Line. Inn, 1614; Chancellor to the Queen Consort; M.P. for St. Albans, 1620-22; being chosen (=) "There is no doubt that in the great majority of cases [of Scottish creations] the word Baron is not used, but I find, in 1587, Lord Altrie is given statum unius Uberi Baronis ac domin't nostri Par/iamenti, in 1627, Napier is made Lord and Baron in Parliament and, again, in 1627, Aston is made a Lord Baron of Pari., and is spoken of, in the patent, as Lord Baron of Forfar; in 1628, Dame Elizabeth Richardson is made Baroness Cramond, with rem. to her husband's son and h. ap. of the dignity of Lord Baron of Cramond, Baron of Pari.; in 1636, Home [receives a] confirmation as Earl, Lord and Baron of Pari.; Carnegie (16 16) is peculiar, Baronem Majorem et Dominum, i^c. Here you have the distinction between greater and lesser Barons emphasized." (Letter, Mar. 1885, from R. R. Stodart, some- time Lyon Clerk Depute). "To these instances of the word Baron used in the English sense (all of which are subsequent to the final exclusion of the lesser Barons from Pari, in 1587), may be added the case of Spynie. On 6 May 1590, Alexander Lindsay had a charter erecting certain church lands into the Barony of Spynie, with the title and rank of a free Baron to himself, his heirs, and assignees, to be called Barons of Spynie, the investiture taking place on 4 Nov. following. It was contended (wrongly, I believe) by Lord Mansfield, and his contention was eventually acquiesced in by the claimant of the Spynie peerage in 1785, that this was not a grant of a hereditary peerage." {e.v inform. G. Burnett, sometime Lyon). It appears therefore that there are only, apparently, about half a dozen cases where the word " Baron " occurs in the creation of a Scottish peerage, and that it is subordinate to " Lord of Parliament." C') " Suisque heercdibus mascuHs, quibus deficientibus hasredibus masculis de corpore dicti Domini Thomas Richardson, patris." This is one of the strongest examples of '■'■heirs male" being indiscriminately used in patents as "heirs male of the body" for else the extended limitation of the dignity to the heirs male of the body of the father would be utter nonsense, when the son had the dignity to "heirs male," ;y"such last expression be tantamount to " heirs male general." (•=) There is a MS. insertion in the margin of the parish Register that " This gentleman, Thomas Richardson, was Lord Chief Justice, i^c." On 7 Apr. 1572, William, son of the same parents, is bap. There is nothing to indicate the position of the father, who is generally said to be " Dr. Thomas Richardson," a clergyman of Mulbarton, near Norwich. At Mulbarton, on 6 Apr. 1582, occurs the burial of Agnes, wife of William Richardson, and on 20 Nov. 1587, that of William, s. of Wm. and Agnes Richardson; also the baptism of 5 children (Jean, Elizabeth, William, Ann, and Robert) of William and Joan Richardson, 1585 to 1602. In no case is the rank of this "William" indicated, which, had he been in Holy Orders or a Doctor in any of the Faculties, is very unlikely, {ex inform. W. H. Richardson). 62