Transcript:Paul, James Balfour. Scots Peerage/Editorial Note

The Scots Peerage

[volume 9, page v]

Editorial Note

This, the concluding volume of the Scots Peerage, completes a work, the first volume of which was published in 1904. It contains, in the first place, a long list of addenda et corrigenda : the latter may, it is hoped, serve to put right some at all events of the actual errors which have occurred in the work ; the former, and they are the larger class of the two, contain a good deal of information which has come to light since the publication of the several articles. The editor has to thank many kind correspondents and contributors for information supplied, and especially he may name his friends Mr. J. Maitland Thomson, LL.D., and Col. the Hon. R. E. Boyle, both of whom have been unremitting in their helpful endeavours to increase the usefulness and accuracy of the Peerage. Nobody is more aware of the many shortcomings of this work than the editor himself, but perhaps he may be allowed to claim that at all events it is an advance on what has gone before. No doubt, with increased facilities of investigation and the further publication of national records and the contents of private charter-chests, a future generation may be able to produce a fuller and still more accurate account of individual families, but it is hardly probable that a history of the Scottish Peerage on a scale similar to that of the present work will be attempted for many years to come.

The full and elaborate Index, with which the greater part of this volume is occupied, is the work of Mrs. Alexander Stuart, who has brought towards its completion an enthusiasm, energy, and ability which are beyond all praise. Not only does it contain a list of between forty and fifty thousand names, but each person is definitely described by the mention of his or her title, occupation, or relationship. In itself, indeed, the Index forms a valuable compendium [page vi] of Scottish family history, which will be found useful even without reference to the pages of the Peerage. But it goes without saying that such an Index doubles the usefulness of a work like the present. It is not often that an editor meets with a compiler who is so fully in accord with him as to the standard to be aimed at in an index, and who is so capable of carrying it to a successful conclusion. It is difficult for the editor adequately to express the obligations he is under to Mrs. Stuart for her services in this matter.

The Index has been compiled on the following principles :—

1. A Peerage title is given, in capitals, with its holders in alphabetical order, and their respective wives.
2. If the name of the title is changed, e.g. from Lyon to Glamis, it is given a separate heading.
3. The surname of the holder of a Peerage title is given in capitals with the various Peerages, in alphabetical order, pertaining to it.
4. After Peers, owners of lands are given in alphabetical order ; those of the same Christian name are put in chronological order.
5. Ordinary persons then come in alphabetical order and according to the paging in the volumes.
6. Women are given under their maiden names : if married, as ‘ wife of — ’ ; if unmarried as ‘ dau. of —.’
7. As a rule, children who died in infancy are not inserted.

In taking leave of a task which has been a congenial if a somewhat strenuous one for the last twelve years, the editor has to express his appreciation of the amicable relations which have subsisted between him and his contributors (some now, alas, beyond the reach of acknowledgments). It is a pleasure to have worked with such colleagues.

JAMES BALFOUR PAUL.

Edinburgh, June 1914.