Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was a petition at the instance of the Rev. Henry Johnston, otherwise Henry Lindsay Johnston, for authority to alter his name.

The petitioner set forth the following circumstances:— “That the petitioner's name was entered in the register of births, &c., and in his certificate of baptism as Henry Johnston. That for some years past the petitioner has adopted and used the name of Henry Lindsay Johnston, and as such has been commonly known. That in particular the petitioner's name is entered as Henry Lindsay Johnston in the books of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of the University of Cambridge, where he took his degree in the year 1897. That on the occasion of the petitioner's ordination as a deacon of the Church of England, the Bishop of Rochester, through his diocesan secretaries, refused to enter in the petitioner's letters of orders any other name than was contained in his certificate of baptism without evidence that the said name had been assumed with authority. That the petitioner is about to enter into priest's orders in said church, and that he is informed that the Bishop of Rochester, through his said diocesan secretaries, will again refuse to insert in his letters of orders the name Henry Lindsay Johnston. That it is of importance to the petitioner, as a clergyman of the Church of England, that the name appearing in his letters of orders should be the same as that under which he took his degree at the University of Cambridge.”

The prayer of the petition was in the following terms:— “May it therefore please your Lordships to authorise the petitioner to assume and use the name of Lindsay in addition to his present name of Henry Johnston, and call and subscribe himself Henry Lindsay Johnston, and to ordain this petition and your Lordships' deliverance thereon, to be recorded in the Books of Sederunt.