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Archiver > CLAN-DUNCAN > 2002-03 > 1015604208


From: "John A Hansen" <>
Subject: [Clan DUNCAN] Burkes Peerage to recognize Scottish Clan Chiefs
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 08:16:48 -0800


This is from the Electric Scotland Newsletter.

Best Regards
John A Hansen

BURKE'S PEERAGE & GENTRY
------------------------
Burke's kindly sent in an article about "Clan chiefs take their place in
society". I thought you might like to read a bit of the article here...

SCOTTISH clan chiefs are to be admitted into the pages of Burke's Peerage
for the first time in its 176-year history.

The publishers of the definitive guide to British blue blood have decided
that chiefs have been excluded for too long and should be allowed to take
their place among the country's recognised nobles.

About 140 chiefs will be included in the 107th edition of the book when it
is published next year.

Yesterday, Hugh Peskett, consultant editor for Burke's in Scotland, said the
decision to include clan chiefs in the new edition marks a change in the
attitude towards chiefs which had persisted since the abolition of the clan
system in the middle of the 18th century.

After the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highlanders at Culloden in 1746,
the clan system was banned by law. Highlanders were not permitted to carry
weapons, and all tartans and clan symbols were forbidden. Even bagpipes were
banned, being classified as instruments of war.

Coupled with the Highland clearances and a dramatic drop in the price of
cattle, many former clan chiefs were ruined, said Mr Peskett, and despite
the lifting of the proscription in the 1820s, many clans lost track of their
chiefly line.

"It is only recently that there has been a resurgence of interest in the
clan system, driven in a large part by interest from America," he said.

You can read the rest of the article at
http://www.electricscotland.com/burkes/clanchiefs.htm



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