A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

iv
PREFACE.
M-m* as by the law of arms ought not to bear them, under the penalty
of confiscating to the king all the goods on which such arms should be
found with an hundred ; pounds to the Lyon and his brethren, and in
case of not payment, to be imprisoned during the Lyon's pleasure.
And,
anno 1672, cap. 21. the said act of Parliament is renewed and ratified,
and the Lyon King of Arms is impowered to distinguish arms, and matriculate
the same in his books or registers. Which Register is ordained
to be respected as the true and unrepealable rule of all arms and bearings
in Scotland.
Many other instances might be given to prove the regard our ancestors
in Scotland bore to heraldry, their zeal and concern to prevent irregularities
therein. By all which it is evident that they never looked on armorial
bearings as an idle amusement, but as a matter of great moment and
importance to the nation.
has led me ta
As the study of is heraldry what my peculiar genius
for many years,
so I have endeavoured to adapt my studies that way, to
the service of my country, not only by instructing sundry of our young
npbility and gentry in that science, but by composing a complete system
of it for the benefit of posterity.
In which I have endeavoured to prosecute
that subject, both in a scientific or speculative way, and also re-
ducing- the same to practice, by collecting the armorial bearings of most,
if not all those surnames and families that ever made any considerable
ire in Scotland, and applying those bearings for illustrating the parti-
cular history of families among us.
However ignorant or capricious people may censure this undertaking
as idle or useless, yet the Parliament of Scotland, anno 1704, were of
opinion, that something of that nature was very much wanted, and
when finished, would be serviceable to the nation : And were so well
pleased with my proposals for publishing the same,
that the better to
enable me thereto, they ordered me two hundred pounds Sterling, payable
out of the tonnage on foreign ships ; but that fund not answering
their expectations, and being encumbered with prior assignments, I never
had a farthing that way, which was the occasion of this book's not
being publi>shed long ago.
The work being chargeable, and my bookseller having undertaken it
to a certain,
wholly on his own risk, I was obliged to confine myself
number of sheets. At the time of it
publishing my proposals, was
reckoned that the whole might have been contained in about 120, foe-
sides copper-plates ; and the price to subscribers was fixed accordingly.
And though that number of sheets was then judged sufficient to contain
the whole System of
Heraldry, according to the view I then had of it,
yet, by reason of sundry new materials which occurred, the book has
already exceeded the foresaid number of sheets, and I have not been able
to overtake sundry particulars which I intended to have treated of; such
as marks of cadency, marshalling of divers coats in one shield, exterior
ornaments, &c. And, upon a more mature deliberation, I find, that in
order to treat distinctly of those particular heads remaining, and to do
justice to many considerable families, which I was obliged either alto-
gether to omit, or treat of very superficially, an Appendix, or Supplement,
will be necessary : in which I shall have opportunity both of
correcting any thing amiss, and supplying any thing here omitted.
Had I confined myself barely to a System of Heraldry, as other authors
on that subject have commonly done, I might easily have gone through