Alexander Nisbet, Gent. (1657-1725)
Arms: Argent three boars heads erased Sable, armed Argent and langued Gules
SOURCE, NOTES & CREDITS: Source for blazon: “Scots Heraldry”, Innes of Learney, 2nd Ed, 1967, page 90, plate XIX with the blazon noted above as being held anterior to 1672, Wikipedia article on Nisbet, “Alexander Nisbet’s Heraldic Plates”, Ross & Grant, 1892, Edinburgh, page xxxix for The Forgeries of 1742, this book also contains a considerable genealogical history of the Nisbets; and lastly Alexander Nisbet, Gent., his own “System of Heraldry”, 1722, plate 5 and page 313.
Alexander Nisbet, born in 1657, the only surviving son of Adam Nisbet, WS the youngest son of Sir Alexander Nisbet of that ilk, he was the famous author of one of two classic institutional works on Scots heraldry ( the other being Mackenzie ). He matriculated from Edinburgh University in 1675, became a private student of heraldry and wrote “A System of Heraldry” published in 1722 with a second volume issued posthumously in 1742 (it has been doubted that this second volume is really only Nisbet’s work), he died unmarried and in poverty age 68 in 1725. “A System of Heraldry” has been reprinted many times, lately in 1984. Posthumous family research indicates author Alexander Nisbet became the Nisbet of that Ilk in his own lifetime. Robert Chancellor Nesbitt, he who did the research, had a handsome bronze and enamel memorial plaque erected to the author in Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh in 1934 where it may be seen to this day ( see the associated Nisbet image entry).
The current Chief of the Nesbitts is Robert Mark Andrew Nesbitt of that Ilk who matriculated his arms at the Court of the Lord Lyon on 16 July 2010.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor
2011 0426
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