About The Council of Scottish Armigerous Clans and Families

USEFUL LINKS

The Arms of Michael Grewar FSA Scot.

Michael Grewar

Founding Convenor

The Arms of John Duncan of Sketraw, KCN, FSA Scot.

J. Duncan of Sketraw

Vice Convenor

ABOUT THE COUNCIL OF SCOTTISH ARMIGEROUS CLANS & FAMILIES

The Council of Scottish Armigerous Clans and Families is an organisation to support those Armigerous Clans who are descended or accepting themselves as descendants of a common ancestor, and where the head of each individual armigerous family is in lawful possession of a coat of arms, granted or rematriculated by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms of Scotland, but for whatever reason, each Armigerous Clan does not have a Chief recognised by the Lord Lyon.

The Creation of The Council

Initial discussions on the possible creation of a Council to act as a voice for Chiefless “Armigerous Clans” commenced during the run up to the Clan Gathering 2009 at Holyrood in Edinburgh. The decision to form the Council originated from a discussion between a group of Scots Armigers, of so called “Unrecognised Clans” who run their respective Clan Societies.

There were a number of concerns held by Scots Armigers of Armigerous Clans. A flavour of these concerns are as follows.

• Clansfolk of so called Armigerous Clans, which do not have a recognised Chief lack representation and a voice to represent their interests.

• The relationship between the many established and independent armigerous families, which have been recognised by Lyon and recognised Scottish Clans is unclear.

• The lists of Clan Septs are in the words of a former Lord Lyon, Sir Thomas Innes of Learney “a work of fiction”, and in many cases the Sept lists include names on the basis of tenuous links and often inaccurately portray some established armigerous families recognised by the Lord Lyon, as dependants of certain Chiefs.

• Without the recognition of new Clans, the modern day Scottish Clan system is at risk of extinction or at the very least of becoming a historical concept.

• A number of attempts by Armigerous Clans to obtain recognition of an elected Chief, have failed due to the lack of specialist heraldic knowledge and knowledge of Lyon Court procedures by those submitting their case to Lyon.

• There is also a lack of transparency and guidance as to which Clans are likely to be successful in obtaining Clan recognition and which would not, regardless of how strictly they adhere to Lyon's ad hoc derbhfine guidelines.

• The ad hoc derbhfine process was originally intended to provide a means by which intestate Chiefly lines of recognised Clans could elect a new Chief, it was then adopted by Lyon Court to allow unrecognised Clans to elect their first Chief. There is concern as to how achievable this process is for unrecognised Clans to elect a Chief and that there is a lack of any kind of recognised interim representation to head up Armigerous Clans by Lyon decree, prior to the ad hoc derbhfine meeting to elect a Chief, which can take many years to accomplish.

• The legal rights of Scots Armigers (including Lairds) are under attack from commercial exploitation, particularly on the internet, generally due to a lack of education of the public regarding so called “Bucket Shops”, selling fake coats of arms and square foot lairdships.

The Council was started originally as a group on facebook and a draft constitution was written to detail the basis for the new Council proposal. The draft Constitution has been open for consultation since June 2009 and was issued to a number of Clan bodies for comment, including the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs. Since then we have received some valuable feedback and this has influenced subsequent drafts. We have created a Social networking site and website, to communicate with interested parties and aid with the debate with regards to the future of the Council. As the Council will ultimately consist of Armigerous representatives of Armigerous Clans, a number of armigers have pledged to support our Constitution from both recognised and unrecognised Clans.

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“A social group consisting of an aggregate of armigerous families who are actually descended, or accepting themselves as descendants of a common ancestor but where the group is not received by the Sovereign through its Supreme Officer of Honour, the Lord Lyon, as an honourable community, as for whatever reason, no living member has been confirmed by Lyon as possessing the undifferenced chiefly arms as head of the chief family of the entire group, and until such time as the undifferenced arms are confirmed on a member by Lyon, on establishing rights to, or receiving fresh grants of arms, all members will only be awarded new or cadenced arms, as collaterals to or cadets of, the heads of the individual armigerous families of the group”

 Persons who are in lawful possession of armorial bearings granted or re-matriculated by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms of Scotland, or legitimately borne by courtesy right, under the Lord Lyon Act of 1672; and

 Scottish Clans, which do not have a Chief confirmed with the undifferenced arms of their Clan, Family or name by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms.

 Clans Septs are a list of Scottish Surnames compiled during the Victorian era, which are supposed to be followers or have some sort of connection at least, to the Clans named.

 The ad hoc derbhfine process is a legal process, established by former Lord Lyon, Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, around 1950, which is based on Celtic Law, and was originally to allow Clans where the Chiefly line had died out with no hope of a successor being found to elect a new Chief to resurrect their Clan. Also during the 1950s, the process became adopted by the Lyon Court to allow Clans which had never had a Chief and never had the status of a Clan, to elect a Chief and become recognised by Lyon. The process involves a meeting under the supervision of Lyon Court, of at least nine armigers or Scottish landowners to elect their Chief from amongst them. As at February 2010, the process is under review by the Lord Lyon and a decision on its future is due imminently.

 A Bucket Shop is a physical or online shop that sells other peoples Coat of Arms and crest badges that are often inaccurate. In addition, it can also refer to fraudulent schemes to sell so called Scottish lairdship titles on the basis of purchasing a square foot of land in Scotland. A legitimate lairdship is a title in the nobility of Scotland and requires the ownership of a substantial landholding in Scotland, a grant of armorial bearings and the recognition of the territorial designation by The Lord Lyon.