Could someone please check that I have correctly formatted the profile for this English Baronet?

Question

Hi there!

I wasn't sure where to ask or how to categorise this question but hopefully someone can clear up a few things. 

I have read through the Euro Aristo name guidelines as suggested on the England Project name fields page and I have created a profile for Sir William Alston. However, I still have a few questions:

1) Sir William inherited his title and baronetcy from his father in 1801 so for events before 1801 I refer to him as just "William" and post-1801 I refer to him as "Sir William". Is this the correct practice.

2) In the first line of the biography I write that "William Alston was born to Sir William Alston, the 7th Baronet of Chelsea" but I'm not sure if it should just be "William Alston was born to Sir William Alston, 7th Baronet of Chelsea"

3) Just to check that I understood the Euro Aristo name data field guidelines correctly, I want to ask if I've formatted the name correctly:

* 'Sir' is his prefix because he inherited the title from Joseph Alston who was knighted by Charles II

* "Baronet of Chelsea" goes in the nickname field with no number before it - indicating that he was the 8th and final baronet belongs in the biography

Many thanks - I want to check that I've got this one right before I go and make profiles for the Alston Baronets of Chelsea. Mighten I comment that part of my uncertainty comes from the fact that Sir William a far more recent noble/gentryman than those shown as example profiles and discussed on the Euro Aristo guideline page. Should I have been looking somewhere else?

Answer 1

You do need to put 8th in - after all, when someone searches they will get confused by 7 other profiles! ;)

And yes, it is 8th rather than the 8th.

Comments

Thanks Ros. I guess it was this that confused me: "Titles do not include numbers (i.e. ‘Earl of Arundel’, not ‘3rd Earl of Arundel’)".

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However, a Baronet is automatically a Sir on inheriting the title.

To differentiate Baronets from Knights, its Sir XX Bt

His full title in normal life would be Sir William Alston Bt.

Or Sir William Alston, 8th Baronet Alston of Chelsea.

On Wiktree it gets rather mangled as Sir William "8th Baronet Alston of Chelsea" Alston, Bt (note no full stop after Bt in the suffix box)

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A baronet is entitled to the prefix “Sir” and the word “Baronet” after his name and this precedes any other post-nominal letters to which he might be entitled. The word “Baronet” is usually shortened to “Bt” or “Bart”, the latter being slightly old fashioned and not often used nowadays.

In writing, a baronet should be addressed on an envelope as “Sir John Jones Bt” and NEVER as “Sir Jones”, “Sir J Jones” or “Sir Bart”. If the baronet is entitled to post nominal letters the correct address would be “Sir John Jones Bt CBE”.  https://www.baronetage.org/baronets/addressing-a-baronet/

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One more thing I don't know if any of you can answer: should we always use 'Bt' because it is the modern title or should we use 'Bart' as they would have styled themselves?

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I would use "Bt" unless quoting a contemporary use.