So and So of Such a Place?

[Joseph McMillan]

You've hit on one of the hot-button issues of Scottish--well, not heraldry exactly, but peripheral to heraldry.

What you're referring to is usually called a territorial designation, or TD for short.

The Lord Lyon Act of 1672 says (in modernized language) that "it is only allowed for Noblemen and Bishops to subscribe [i.e., to sign official documents] by their titles, and that all others shall subscribe their Christian names or the initial letter therof with their Surnames and may if they please adject the designations of their lands, prefixing the word 'of' to the said designations. And the Lyon King at Arms and his brethren [the other heralds] are required to be careful of informing themselves of the contraveners hereof."

So, according to Scottish statute law, if you own landed property, and your property has a name, you may sign legal documents adding "of [Property]" after your surname: "John Doe of Aberdoe." You don't need Lyon's permission to do this, but in principle (according to the 1672 law) you could get in trouble with him if you signed something "of" a place you didn't own.

This all gets complicated, however, by the use of names that have nothing particular to do with landed estates to distinguish chiefs and chieftains of clans, and by the association of lands that chiefs no longer own with the clan history. Thus Cameron of Lochiel hasn't actually held the territory of Lochiel for centuries, nor has MacMillan of Knap actually held the territory of Knapdale, but tradition sanctions the continued use of these designations even though they are arguably out of synch with the plain text of the statute.

It's also complicated by the perception that the "of" designation implies a sort of elevated social status, and so status-seekers have sometimes tried to game the system, and then have their gaming ratified by having Lyon "recognize" their TD in a grant or matriculation of arms. For example, you might buy up a stretch of beach that was underwater at high tide and therefore useless, give it a grand-sounding name that you then recorded in the land registers, and then approach Lyon for a grant of arms with this "of" designation attached. Then you'd be able to pass yourself off as the "chief" of, say, Campbell of Lowdown. This all sounds very silly and it was.

There was a small flurry of litigation a few years ago when Lyon Blair declined to continue playing this game. As I recall, the Court of Session ultimately ruled that Lyon could no longer take action against someone who added "of XYZ" to his name, but that neither could he be compelled to take notice of claims to such designations in his heraldic documents. This effectively deprived the people who tried to use the TD system as a vehicle for social climbing of one of their most prized weapons.

There's a lot more to be said and argued on this; the HSS forum is full of back and forth on the subject. But this is my simplified take having observed it all with morbid fascination for several years. (I once considered seeing if I could get Lyon to recognize my ancestral TD, "McMillan of the South Half of Section Six Township 21 South Range 4 East," but thought better of it.)