The incumbent
His Excellency Ambassador Dario Item
Earl of Rothes in the Baronage of Scotland and Hereditary Sheriff of Fife, by deed of assignation from the late Sir Christopher Ondaatje dated 5 November 2024.
Part VI of the history
The Assignation of 2024 and the Present Holder
Sir Christopher Ondaatje's deed of assignation of 5 November 2024 transferred "all my whole right and entitlement" in the Earldom of Rothes and the Sheriffdom of Fife to His Excellency Dario Item, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Antigua and Barbuda. The deed records the assignation as a token of personal esteem.54 On 25 November 2024 the Scottish Barony Register accepted and registered the Ambassador's Claim of Entitlement "to The Dignity of the Feudal Earldom of Rothes and the Hereditary Office of Sheriff of Fife" in Volume 6, folios 27 to 29. The Custodian, Alastair Kennedy Shepherd WS, issued the Certificate of Registration on 19 December 2024; publication of the registration followed in the Edinburgh Gazette of 19 December 2025.55 In his annual report, evidently referring to this entry, the Custodian described it as "the first time the Register has been asked to record an hereditary sheriffdom". Such an office, he explained, "prior to 1745 … was passed down from father to son in just a few aristocratic families". He added, with some amusement, that "the family concerned had passed this ancient office down to future generations, perhaps in case the government decided to amend the 1746 decision".56 Debrett's includes "Rothes (Earldom) and Sheriffdom of Fife" in its current listing of Scotland's feudal dignities, recording the Ambassador's tenure from 2024.57
The Ambassador petitioned the Lord Lyon King of Arms on 5 February 2025. By a Warrant issued at Edinburgh on 4 April 2025, the Lord Lyon authorised the Lyon Clerk to prepare Letters Patent granting the following Ensigns Armorial to the Ambassador and his descendants, and granted warrant for their matriculation in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland.58
- Helm
- Above the Shield is placed an Helm befitting his degree, with a Mantling Vert doubled Or.
- Crest
- On a Wreath of the Liveries, a demi-dragon rampant Vert.
- Motto
- In an Escrol over the same, GRADATIM FEROCITER — step by step, and boldly.
- Pennon
- Of 120 centimetres in length or thereby, two tracts of the Liveries Vert and Or, with the Arms of the Petitioner in the hoist bearing his Motto counterchanged; limited to the Petitioner and his heirs and successors in the said Armorial Bearings.
The Ambassador
Dr Dario Item serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Antigua and Barbuda to the Kingdom of Spain, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Principality of Monaco. He presented his credentials to their sovereigns between December 2018 and February 2019.59 Since Antigua and Barbuda joined the World Tourism Organization in December 2021, he has also served as its Permanent Representative to that organisation.60 A Swiss attorney and author of specialist legal publications, he is a graduate in law and political science, with a master's degree in law and a doctorate in criminal law. He joined Antigua and Barbuda's diplomatic service in 2016 and opened the country's first resident embassy in Spain in 2018.61