Alexander Nisbet (bapt. 23 March 1657; died 7 Dec. 1725) was a Scottish lawyer and antiquarian. He is remembered for his works on heraldry which are considered to be some of the most complete and authoritative produced in the UK.
Alexander Nisbet (bapt. 23 March 1657; died 7 Dec. 1725) was a Scottish lawyer and antiquarian. He is remembered for his works on heraldry which are considered to be some of the most complete and authoritative produced in the UK.
Nisbet was born in Edinburgh, the third of ten children of Adam Nisbet WS and his wife Janet, only daughter of Alexander Aikenhead WS. Adam, and later Alexander, were chiefs of the ancient Nisbet family, of Nisbet in Berwickshire; however, the family had recently lost much of their wealth due to their zealous support of King Charles in the civil war, and had been forced to sell their ancestral estate. In his Essay on Additional Figures and Marks of Cadency, Nisbet remarks that he "had a very early inclination to the study of herauldry, and when a boy ... looked on its figures with wonder, and often wish'd to know their names and signification."
Nisbet matriculated at the University of Edinburgh in 1675, where he studied philosophy. After graduating in 1682, he was employed as a solicitor for a number of years before giving it up in order to devote his full-time to his historical and heraldic studies. He later became a teacher, instructing various members of the nobility, including the Earl of Carnwrath.
Around the turn of the 18th century he set out to create a comprehensive treatise on heraldry. He initially intended to obtain funding via subscription, but finding that this would not produce enough money, he appealed to the Scottish Parliament for help. Though they promised him £248 6s 8d, this was never delivered, and the passing of the Act of Union put paid to any chance of further parliamentary assistance. Nisbet's System of Heraldry was finally published in 1722, over twenty years after he had first set out to write the work. He died three years later, likely in poverty, and was buried close to the Nisbet Tomb in Greyfriars Kirk, though the exact location is now lost. His contemporary George Crawford wrote of him: "he was a worthy, modest gentleman, who had as many friends and as few enemies as any man I have known." In 1934 his kinsman Robert Chancellor Nesbitt arranged for John Buchan to unveil a memorial plaque in Greyfriars, which can still be seen today.
Nisbet never married, and as such, the linear line of the Nisbets of that Ilk ended upon his death. The chiefly line was reestablished in 1995, in the favour of distant cousin Robert Anthony Ellis Nesbitt.
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings, as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of the heraldic achievement. The achievement, or armorial bearings usually includes a coat of arms on a shield, helmet and crest, together with any accompanying devices, such as supporters, badges, heraldic banners and mottoes.
In heraldry, tenné is a "stain", or non-standard tincture, of orange, light brown or orange-tawny colour.
Lord Borthwick is a title in the Peerage of Scotland.
In heraldry, cadency is any systematic way to distinguish arms displayed by descendants of the holder of a coat of arms when those family members have not been granted arms in their own right. Cadency is necessary in heraldic systems in which a given design may be owned by only one person at any time, generally the head of the senior line of a particular family.
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon (shield). That may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object, building, or other device. In French blazon, the ordinaries are called pièces, and other charges are called meubles.
William Robertson FRSE FSA Scot was a Scottish historian, minister in the Church of Scotland, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh. "The thirty years during which [he] presided over the University perhaps represent the highest point in its history." He made significant contributions to the writing of Scottish history and the history of Spain and Spanish America.
The Battle of Nesbit Moor was a small but significant clash between Scottish and English forces in the borders area north of the River Tweed. Specifically this clash took place on the Kimmerghame Estate in a field now named Slaughter Field. The estate is in the possession of the Swinton Family.
Clan Nesbitt is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Borders that is recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms.
The law of heraldic arms governs the "bearing of arms", that is, the possession, use or display of arms, also called coats of arms, coat armour or armorial bearings. Although it is believed that the original function of coats of arms was to enable knights to identify each other on the battlefield, they soon acquired wider, more decorative uses. They are still widely used today by countries, public and private institutions and by individuals. The earliest writer on the law of arms was Bartolus de Saxoferrato. The officials who administer these matters are called pursuivants, heralds, or kings of arms. The law of arms is part of the law in countries which regulate heraldry, although not part of common law in England and in countries whose laws derive from English law.
Ross Herald of Arms Extraordinary is a Scottish herald of arms Extraordinary of the Court of the Lord Lyon. The office is however held in Extraordinary after the retirement of the last holder in Ordinary.
Heraldry in Scotland, while broadly similar to that practised in England and elsewhere in western Europe, has its own distinctive features. Its heraldic executive is separate from that of the rest of the United Kingdom.
The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Christian symbolism. The Lion of Judah stands in the coat of arms of Jerusalem. Similar-looking lions can be found elsewhere, such as in the coat of arms of the Swedish royal House of Bjelbo, from there in turn derived into the coat of arms of Finland, formerly belonging to Sweden.
Johannes Baptista Rietstap was a Dutch heraldist and genealogist. He is most well known for his publication of the Armorial Général. This monumental work contains the blazons of the coats of arms of more than 130,000 European families. It is still one of the most complete works of its kind.
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb to blazon means to create such a description. The visual depiction of a coat of arms or flag has traditionally had considerable latitude in design, but a verbal blazon specifies the essentially distinctive elements. A coat of arms or flag is therefore primarily defined not by a picture but rather by the wording of its blazon. Blazon is also the specialized language in which a blazon is written, and, as a verb, the act of writing such a description. Blazonry is the art, craft or practice of creating a blazon. The language employed in blazonry has its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax, which becomes essential for comprehension when blazoning a complex coat of arms.
Sir Robert Lauder of Beilmouth, Knt., was an armiger, lawyer and Clerk of Exchequer in Scotland. In 1683 he was made a Justice of the Peace for Haddingtonshire. As Robert Lauder of Belhaven he was in the old Scottish parliament for Haddington in 1685, and, as Sir Robert Lauder of Beilmouth, in 1704. He was also Commissioner of Supply for Haddington in 1689 and 1690.
Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, and a number of notable Edinburgh residents are interred at Greyfriars. The Kirkyard is operated by City of Edinburgh Council in liaison with a charitable trust, which is linked to but separate from the church. The Kirkyard and its monuments are protected as a category A listed building.
The Corrie family, also known as the Currie family, was a Scottish family which was once seated in what is today the civil parish of Hutton and Corrie, in Annandale, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. The leading branch of the family were the Corries of that Ilk. Members of the family are on record in the Middle Ages. The family held numerous lands, but lost the lands from which they derived their surname, with the marriage of an heiress, sometime during the reign of James V, King of Scots.
An ordinary of arms is a roll or register of coats of arms arranged systematically by design, with coats featuring the same principal elements grouped together. The purpose of an ordinary is to facilitate the identification of the bearer of a coat of arms from visual evidence alone.
Heraldry is the system of visual identification of rank and pedigree which developed in the European High Middle Ages, closely associated with the courtly culture of chivalry, Latin Christianity, the Crusades, feudal aristocracy, and monarchy of the time. Heraldic tradition fully developed in the 13th century, and it flourished and developed further during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Originally limited to nobility, heraldry is adopted by wealthy commoners in the Late Middle Ages. Specific traditions of Ecclesiastical heraldry also develop in the late medieval period. Coats of arms of noble families, often after their extinction, becomes attached to the territories they used to own, giving rise to municipal coats of arms by the 16th century.
David Aikinhead or Aikenhead or Aikinhid was a 17th-century Scottish lawyer who twice served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh, from 1620 to 1622 and 1625 to 1630.
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