Prescriptive Barony

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Scots have a quite distinct legal system within the United Kingdom. Historically, in the Kingdom of Scotland, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, as the Sovereign's Minister in matters armorial is at once Herald and Judge. Scottish Prescriptive Barony by Tenure was, from 1660 until 2004, the feudal description of the only genuine degree of title of UK nobility capable of being bought and sold (along with the Caput, or property), rather than passing solely by personal descent. Statutes of 1592 and the Baronetcy Warrants of King Charles I show the non-peerage Table of Precedence as: Baronets, Knights, Barons and Lairds, Esquires and Gentlemen. A General Register of Sasines was set up by Statute in 1617, with entry in the Register giving the prescriptive right (right by normal or correct usage), after so many years, to the "caput", or the essence of the Barony. The individual who owned the said piece of land containing the caput was hence the Baron or Baroness.