|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PEERAGE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last updated 20/03/2023 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date |
Rank |
Order |
Name |
Born |
Died |
Age |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
COWPER |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Mar 1718 |
E |
1 |
Sir William Cowper,3rd baronet |
24 Jun 1665 |
10 Oct 1723 |
58 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cowper 14 Dec 1706, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Viscount
Fordwich and Earl |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cowper 18 Mar 1718 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Hertford 1695-1700 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bere Alston 1701-1705. Keeper of the Great |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seal 1705. Lord Chancellor 1707-1710 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1714-1718. Lord Lieutenant Hertford 1710- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1712 and 1715-1722.
PC 1705 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Oct 1723 |
|
2 |
William Clavering-Cowper |
13 Aug 1709 |
18 Sep 1764 |
55 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Hertford 1744-1764 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Sep 1764 |
|
3 |
George Nassau Clavering-Cowper |
26 Aug 1738 |
22 Dec 1789 |
51 |
|
|
|
MP for Hertford 1759-1761 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Dec 1789 |
|
4 |
George Augustus Clavering-Cowper |
9 Aug 1776 |
12 Feb 1799 |
22 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Feb 1799 |
|
5 |
Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clavering-Cowper |
6 May 1778 |
21 Jul 1837 |
59 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Jul 1837 |
|
6 |
George Augustus Frederick Cowper |
26 Jun 1806 |
15 Apr 1856 |
49 |
|
|
|
MP for Canterbury 1830-1835. Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lieutenant Kent 1846-1856 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 Apr 1856 |
|
7 |
Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper |
11 Jun 1834 |
18 Jul 1905 |
71 |
to |
|
|
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1880-1882. |
|
|
|
18 Jul 1905 |
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Bedford 1861-1905. KG 1865 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1871 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
He obtained a reversal of the attainder of the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Baronies of Butler of Moore Park and Dingwall (qqv) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
in 1871. In 1880 he succeeded to the Barony of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lucas
of Crudwell. On his death the creations of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1706 and 1718 became extinct, the Barony of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Butler
of Moore Park fell into abeyance and the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Baronies
of Dingwall and Lucas of Crudwell passed |
|
|
|
|
|
|
to
his heir general Auberon Lucas - see "Lucas |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Crudwell" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
COX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 Jan 1983 |
B[L] |
1 |
Caroline Anne Cox |
6 Jul 1937 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baroness Cox for life 24 Jan 1983 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
COZENS-HARDY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Jul 1914 |
B |
1 |
Sir Herbert Hardy Cozens-Hardy |
22 Nov 1838 |
18 Jun 1920 |
81 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cozens-Hardy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Jul 1914 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Norfolk North 1885-1899. Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Justice of Appeal 1901-1907. Master of the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rolls 1907-1918.
PC 1901 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Jun 1920 |
|
2 |
William Hepburn Cozens-Hardy |
25 Mar 1868 |
25 May 1924 |
56 |
|
|
|
MP for Norfolk South 1918-1920 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For information on his death, see the note at |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 May 1924 |
|
3 |
Edward Herbert Cozens-Hardy |
28 Jun 1873 |
22 Oct 1956 |
83 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Oct 1956 |
|
4 |
Herbert Arthur Cozens-Hardy |
8 Jun 1907 |
11 Sep 1975 |
68 |
to |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
11 Sep 1975 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAIG OF RADLEY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Jul 1991 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir David Brownrigg Craig |
17 Sep 1929 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Craig of Radley for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Jul 1991 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marshal of the RAF. Chief of the Defence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Staff 1988-1991 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAIGAVON |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Jan 1927 |
V |
1 |
Sir James Craig,1st baronet |
8 Jan 1871 |
24 Nov 1940 |
69 |
|
|
|
Created Viscount Craigavon 20 Jan 1927 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Down East 1906-1918 and Down Mid |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1918-1921. Prime Minister of Northern |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ireland 1921-1940
PC [I] 1921 PC [NI] 1922 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 Nov 1940 |
|
2 |
James Craig |
2 Mar 1906 |
18 May 1974 |
68 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 May 1974 |
|
3 |
Janric Fraser Craig
[Elected hereditary peer |
9 Jun 1941 |
|
|
|
|
|
1999-] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAIGMYLE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 May 1929 |
B |
1 |
Thomas Shaw |
23 May 1850 |
28 Jun 1937 |
87 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Shaw 20 Feb 1909 for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Baron Craigmyle 7 May 1929 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Hawick 1892-1909. Solicitor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
General for Scotland 1894-1895. Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advocate 1905-1909. PC 1906 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Jun 1937 |
|
2 |
Alexander Shaw |
28 Feb 1883 |
29 Sep 1944 |
61 |
|
|
|
MP for Kilmarnock 1915-1923 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Sep 1944 |
|
3 |
Thomas Donald Mackay Shaw |
17 Nov 1923 |
30 Apr 1998 |
74 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Apr 1998 |
|
4 |
Thomas Columba Shaw |
19 Oct 1960 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAIGTON |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 Nov 1959 |
B[L] |
1 |
John [Jack] Nixon Browne |
3 Sep 1904 |
28 Jul 1993 |
88 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Craigton for life 3 Nov 1959 |
|
|
|
28 Jul 1993 |
|
|
MP for Govan 1950-1955 and Craigton |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1955-1959. Minister of State for Scotland |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1959-1964. PC 1961 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAMOND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 Feb 1628 |
B[S] |
1 |
Dame Elizabeth Richardson |
|
3 Apr 1651 |
|
|
|
|
Created Baroness of Cramond |
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 Feb 1628 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 Apr 1651 |
|
2 |
Thomas Richardson |
19 Jun 1627 |
16 May 1674 |
46 |
|
|
|
MP for Norfolk 1660-1674 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 May 1674 |
|
3 |
Henry Richardson |
Oct 1650 |
5 Jan 1701 |
50 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 Jan 1701 |
|
4 |
William Richardson |
2 Aug 1654 |
7 Mar 1719 |
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Mar 1719 |
|
5 |
William Richardson |
Feb 1715 |
29 Jul 1735 |
20 |
to |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
29 Jul 1735 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRANBORNE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Aug 1604 |
V |
1 |
Sir Robert Cecil |
1 Jun 1563 |
24 May 1612 |
48 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cecil of Essendon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Aug 1603,Viscount Cranborne |
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Aug 1604 and Earl of Salisbury |
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 May 1605 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Salisbury" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
V |
1 |
Robert Michael James Cecil |
30 Sep 1946 |
|
|
|
|
|
Summoned to Parliament as Viscount |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cranborne and Baron Cecil |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Gascoyne-Cecil |
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Nov 1999 (qv) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Salisbury" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRANBROOK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Aug 1892 |
E |
1 |
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy |
1 Oct 1814 |
30 Oct 1906 |
92 |
|
|
|
Created
Viscount Cranbrook 4 May |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1878 and Baron Medway and Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cranbrook 22 Aug 1892 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Leominster 1856-1865 and Oxford |
|
|
|
|
|
|
University 1865-1878. President of the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poor Law Board 1866-1867. Home Secretary |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1867-1868. Secretary for War 1874-1878 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Secretary
of State for India 1878-1880. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord President of the Council 1885-1886 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and 1886-1892. PC
1866 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Oct 1906 |
|
2 |
John Stewart Gathorne-Hardy |
22 Mar 1839 |
13 Jul 1911 |
72 |
|
|
|
MP for Rye 1868-1880,Kent Mid 1884-1885 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Medway 1885-1892 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Jul 1911 |
|
3 |
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy |
18 Dec 1870 |
23 Dec 1915 |
45 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 Dec 1915 |
|
4 |
John David Gathorne-Hardy |
15 Apr 1900 |
22 Nov 1978 |
78 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Nov 1978 |
|
5 |
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy |
20 Jun 1933 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRANFIELD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Jul 1621 |
B |
1 |
Lionel Cranfield |
13 Mar 1575 |
6 Aug 1645 |
70 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cranfield 9 Jul 1621 and Earl |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Middlesex 16 Sep 1622 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Middlesex" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 Apr 1675 |
B |
1 |
Charles Sackville |
24 Jan 1638 |
29 Jan 1706 |
68 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cranfield and Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Middlesex 4 Apr 1675 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Middlesex" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRANLEY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 May 1776 |
B |
1 |
George Onslow |
13 Sep 1731 |
17 May 1814 |
82 |
19 Jun 1801 |
V |
1 |
Created Baron Cranley 20 May 1776, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Viscount Cranley and Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Onslow 19 Jun 1801 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Onslow" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRANSTOUN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Nov 1609 |
B[S] |
1 |
Sir William Cranstoun |
|
23 Jul 1627 |
|
|
|
|
Created Lord Cranstoun 17 Nov 1609 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 Jul 1627 |
|
2 |
John Cranstoun |
|
by 1642 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by 1642 |
|
3 |
William Cranstoun |
|
c 1680 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1680 |
|
4 |
James Cranstoun |
|
c 1700 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1700 |
|
5 |
William Cranstoun |
|
27 Jan 1727 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jan 1727 |
|
6 |
James Cranstoun |
|
8 Jul 1773 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Jul 1773 |
|
7 |
William Cranstoun |
3 Sep 1749 |
30 Jul 1778 |
28 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Jul 1778 |
|
8 |
James Cranstoun |
26 Jun 1755 |
22 Sep 1796 |
41 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Sep 1796 |
|
9 |
James Edmund Cranstoun |
1784 |
5 Sep 1818 |
34 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 Sep 1818 |
|
10 |
James Edward Cranstoun |
12 Aug 1809 |
18 Jun 1869 |
59 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Jun 1869 |
|
11 |
Charles Frederick Cranstoun |
1811 |
28 Sep 1869 |
52 |
to |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
28 Sep 1869 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRANWORTH |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Dec 1850 |
B |
1 |
Sir Robert Monsey Rolfe |
18 Dec 1790 |
26 Jul 1868 |
77 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cranworth 20 Dec 1850 |
|
|
|
26 Jul 1868 |
|
|
MP for Penryn 1832-1839. Solicitor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
General 1834
and 1835-1839. Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chancellor 1852-1858 and 1865-1866 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1850 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Jan 1899 |
B |
1 |
Robert Thornhagh Gurdon |
18 Jun 1829 |
13 Oct 1902 |
73 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cranworth 28 Jan 1899 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Norfolk South 1880-1885 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Norfolk Mid 1885-1892 and 1895 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Oct 1902 |
|
2 |
Bertram Francis Gurdon |
13 Jun 1877 |
4 Jan 1964 |
86 |
|
|
|
KG 1948 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 Jan 1964 |
|
3 |
Philip Bertram Gurdon |
24 May 1940 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRATHORNE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 Jul 1959 |
B |
1 |
Thomas Lionel Dugdale,1st baronet |
20 Jul 1897 |
26 Mar 1977 |
79 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Crathorne 15 Jul 1959 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Richmond 1929-1959. Minister for |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Agriculture and Fisheries 1951-1954 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1951 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26 Mar 1977 |
|
2 |
Charles James Dugdale |
12 Sep 1939 |
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant N Riding Yorkshire 1999- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Elected hereditary peer 1999-] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAVEN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For information regarding the alleged "Curse of the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cravens," see the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 Mar 1664 |
E |
1 |
Sir William Craven |
Jun 1608 |
9 Apr 1697 |
88 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Craven 12 Mar 1627 and |
|
|
|
9 Apr 1697 |
|
|
Baron Craven,Viscount Craven and Earl |
|
|
|
11 Dec 1665 |
B |
1 |
of Craven 16 Mar 1664, and Baron |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Craven 11 Dec 1665 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Middlesex 1670-1689 PC 1681 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On his death all peerages except the Barony |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of 1665 became extinct |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Apr 1697 |
|
2 |
William Craven |
24 Oct 1668 |
9 Oct 1711 |
42 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Berkshire 1702-1711 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Oct 1711 |
|
3 |
William Craven |
1700 |
10 Aug 1739 |
39 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Aug 1739 |
|
4 |
Fulwar Craven |
|
10 Nov 1764 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Nov 1764 |
|
5 |
William Craven |
19 Sep 1705 |
17 Mar 1769 |
63 |
|
|
|
MP for Warwickshire 1746-1764 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Mar 1769 |
|
6 |
William Craven |
11 Sep 1738 |
27 Sep 1791 |
53 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Berkshire 1786-1791 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Sep 1791 |
|
7 |
William Craven |
28 Sep 1770 |
30 Jul 1825 |
54 |
18 Jun 1801 |
E |
1 |
Created Viscount Uffington and Earl |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Craven 18 Jun 1801 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Berkshire 1819-1825 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Jul 1825 |
|
2 |
William Craven |
18 Aug 1809 |
25 Aug 1866 |
57 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Warwickshire 1853-1856 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Aug 1866 |
|
3 |
George Grimston Craven |
16 Mar 1841 |
7 Dec 1883 |
42 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Berkshire 1881-1883 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Dec 1883 |
|
4 |
William George Robert Craven |
16 Dec 1868 |
10 Jul 1921 |
52 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Warwick 1913-1921 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Jul 1921 |
|
5 |
William George Bradley Craven |
31 Jul 1897 |
15 Sep 1932 |
35 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 Sep 1932 |
|
6 |
William Robert Bradley Craven |
8 Sep 1917 |
27 Jan 1965 |
47 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jan 1965 |
|
7 |
Thomas Robert Douglas Craven |
24 Aug 1957 |
22 Oct 1983 |
26 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Oct 1983 |
|
8 |
Simon George Craven |
16 Sep 1961 |
30 Aug 1990 |
28 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Aug 1990 |
|
9 |
Benjamin Robert Joseph Craven |
13 Jun 1989 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAVEN OF RYTON |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Mar 1643 |
B |
1 |
John Craven |
c 1610 |
1648 |
|
to |
|
|
Created Baron Craven of Ryton |
|
|
|
1648 |
|
|
21 Mar 1643 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Tewkesbury 1640-1641 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAWFORD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Apr 1398 |
E[S] |
1 |
Sir David Lindsay |
c 1360 |
Feb 1407 |
|
|
|
|
Created Earl of Crawford 21 Apr 1398 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 1407 |
|
2 |
Alexander Lindsay |
c 1387 |
1438 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1438 |
|
3 |
David Lindsay |
|
17 Jan 1446 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Jan 1446 |
|
4 |
Alexander Lindsay |
|
Sep 1453 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sep 1453 |
|
5 |
David Lindsay |
1440 |
25 Dec 1495 |
55 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Dec 1495 |
|
6 |
John Lindsay |
|
9 Sep 1513 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Sep 1513 |
|
7 |
Alexander Lindsay |
c 1443 |
May 1517 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 1517 |
|
8 |
David Lindsay |
|
27 Nov 1542 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Nov 1542 |
|
9 |
David Lindsay |
|
20 Sep 1558 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Sep 1558 |
|
10 |
David Lindsay |
1527 |
Oct 1574 |
47 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 1574 |
|
11 |
David Lindsay |
1552 |
22 Nov 1607 |
55 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Nov 1607 |
|
12 |
David Lindsay |
8 Mar 1576 |
Feb 1620 |
43 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 1620 |
|
13 |
Henry Lindsay |
|
1623 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1623 |
|
14 |
George Lindsay |
|
1633 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1633 |
|
15 |
Alexander Lindsay |
|
1639 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1639 |
|
16 |
Ludovic Lindsay |
|
Nov 1652 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nov 1652 |
|
17 |
John Lindsay |
c 1598 |
1678 |
|
|
|
|
He was created Earl of Lindsay (qv) 1633 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1678 |
|
18 |
William Lindsay |
Apr 1644 |
6 Mar 1698 |
53 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 Mar 1698 |
|
19 |
John Lindsay |
by 1672 |
Dec 1713 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 1713 |
|
20 |
John Lindsay |
4 Oct 1702 |
25 Dec 1749 |
47 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Dec 1749 |
|
21 |
George Lindsay-Crawford |
c 1729 |
11 Aug 1781 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Aug 1781 |
|
22 |
George Lindsay-Crawford |
31 Jan 1758 |
30 Jan 1808 |
49 |
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Fife 1798-1807 and 1807-08 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For further information on the claim made for the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
peerages, see the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Jan 1808 |
|
23 |
Alexander Lindsay |
18 Jan 1752 |
27 Mar 1825 |
73 |
|
|
|
He succeeded as 6th Earl of Balcarres (qv) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
in 1768. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Governor of Jamaica 1794-1801 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Mar 1825 |
|
24 |
James Lindsay
(also 7th Earl of Balcarres) |
27 Apr 1783 |
15 Dec 1869 |
86 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Wigan 5 Jul 1826 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Wigan 1820-1825 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 Dec 1869 |
|
25 |
Alexander
William Crawford Lindsay (also
8th |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Earl of Balcarres) |
16 Oct 1812 |
13 Dec 1880 |
68 |
|
|
|
For further information on this peer, see the note |
|
|
|
|
|
|
at the foot of this page. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Dec 1880 |
|
26 |
James Ludovic Lindsay
(also 9th Earl of Balcarres) |
28 Jul 1847 |
31 Jan 1913 |
65 |
|
|
|
MP for Wigan 1874-1880.
KT 1891 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
31 Jan 1913 |
|
27 |
David Alexander Edward Lindsay (also 10th |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Earl of Balcarres) |
10 Oct 1871 |
8 Mar 1940 |
68 |
|
|
|
MP for Lancashire North 1895-1913. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
President of the Board of Agriculture |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1916. Lord Privy Seal 1916-1918. Chancellor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of the
Duchy of Lancaster 1919-1921. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
First Commissioner of Works 1921. Minister |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Transport 1922.
PC 1916 KT 1921 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Mar 1940 |
|
28 |
David Alexander Robert Lindsay (also 11th Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Balcarres) |
20 Nov 1900 |
13 Dec 1975 |
75 |
|
|
|
MP for Lonsdale 1924-1940. KT 1955 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Dec 1975 |
|
29 |
Robert
Alexander Lindsay (also 12th Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Balcarres) |
5 Mar 1927 |
18 Mar 2023 |
96 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Balniel (qv) 24 Jan 1975 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Hertford 1955-1974 and Welwyn Hatfield |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feb-Oct 1974. Minister of State for Defence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1970-1972. Minister of State for Foreign and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Commonwealth Affairs 1972-1974 PC 1972 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
KT 1996 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Mar 2023 |
|
30 |
Anthony Robert Lindsay (also 13th Earl of Balcarres) |
24 Nov 1958 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAWLEY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 Jul 1998 |
B[L] |
1 |
Christine Mary Crawley |
9 Jan 1950 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baroness Crawley for life 24 Jul 1998 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAWSHAW |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Aug 1892 |
B |
1 |
Sir Thomas Brooks,1st baronet |
15 May 1825 |
5 Feb 1908 |
82 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Crawshaw 25 Aug 1892 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 Feb 1908 |
|
2 |
William Brooks |
16 Oct 1853 |
19 Jan 1929 |
75 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 Jan 1929 |
|
3 |
Gerald Beach Brooks |
1 Apr 1884 |
21 Oct 1946 |
62 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Oct 1946 |
|
4 |
William Michael Clifton Brooks |
25 Mar 1933 |
7 Nov 1997 |
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Nov 1997 |
|
5 |
David Gerald Brooks |
14 Sep 1934 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRAWSHAW OF AINTREE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 May 1985 |
B[L] |
1 |
Richard Crawshaw |
25 Sep 1917 |
16 Jul 1986 |
68 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Crawshaw of Aintree for life |
|
|
|
16 Jul 1986 |
|
|
17 May 1985 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Toxteth 1964-1983 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CREMORNE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 Jun 1785 |
V[I] |
1 |
Thomas Dawson |
25 Feb 1725 |
1 Mar 1813 |
88 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Dartrey 28 May 1770, |
|
|
|
1 Mar 1813 |
|
|
Viscount Cremorne 19 Jun 1785 and |
|
|
|
11 Nov 1797 |
B[I] |
1 |
Baron Cremorne 11 Nov 1797 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For details of the special remainder included in the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
creation of 1797, see the note at the foot of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On his death the Viscountcy became extinct |
|
|
|
|
|
|
whilst the Barony passed to - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Mar 1813 |
|
2 |
Richard Thomas Dawson |
31 Aug 1788 |
21 Mar 1827 |
38 |
|
|
|
MP for Monaghan 1812-1813 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Mar 1827 |
|
3 |
Richard Dawson |
7 Sep 1817 |
12 May 1897 |
79 |
|
|
|
He was created Earl of Dartrey (qv) in 1866 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
with which title this peerage then merged |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRETING |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jan 1332 |
B |
1 |
John de Creting |
|
after 1332 |
|
to |
|
|
Summoned to Parliament as Lord |
|
|
|
after 1332 |
|
|
Creting 27 Jan 1332 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The peerage presumably became extinct |
|
|
|
|
|
|
on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CREW OF STENE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Apr 1661 |
B |
1 |
John Crew |
1598 |
12 Dec 1679 |
81 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Crew of Stene |
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Apr 1661 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for
Amersham 1623-1625, Brackley |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1626 and 1640-1648, Banbury 1628-1629, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Northamptonshire 1640 and 1654-1655 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Dec 1679 |
|
2 |
Thomas Crew |
1624 |
30 Nov 1697 |
73 |
|
|
|
MP for Northamptonshire 1656-1658 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brackley 1659-1679 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Nov 1697 |
|
3 |
Nathaniel Crew |
31 Jan 1633 |
18 Sep 1721 |
88 |
to |
|
|
Bishop of
Oxford 1671-1674. Bishop of |
|
|
|
18 Sep 1721 |
|
|
Durham 1674-1721. Lord Lieutenant Durham |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1674-1689 and 1712-1714
PC 1686 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CREWE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Feb 1806 |
B |
1 |
John Crewe |
27 Sep 1742 |
28 Apr 1829 |
86 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Crewe 25 Feb 1806 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Stafford 1765-1768 and Cheshire |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1768-1806 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Apr 1829 |
|
2 |
John Crewe |
1772 |
4 Dec 1835 |
63 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 Dec 1835 |
|
3 |
Hungerford Crewe |
10 Aug 1812 |
3 Jan 1894 |
81 |
to |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
3 Jan 1894 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 Jul 1911 |
M |
1 |
Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 2nd |
12 Jan 1858 |
20 Jun 1945 |
87 |
to |
|
|
Baron Houghton |
|
|
|
20 Jun 1945 |
|
|
Created Earl of Crewe 17 Jul 1895, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Earl of Madeley and Marquess of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Crewe 3 Jul 1911 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1892-1895. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord President of the Council 1905-1908 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and 1915-1916. Lord Privy Seal 1908-1911 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and 1912-1915. Secretary of State for |
|
|
|
|
|
|
India 1910-1915. Secretary of State for |
|
|
|
|
|
|
War 1921. PC
1892 KG 1908. Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lieutenant London 1912-1944 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerages extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRICHTON |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1443 |
B[S] |
1 |
William Crichton |
|
c May 1454 |
|
|
|
|
Created Lord Crichton c 1443 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chancellor of Scotland 1439-1443 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1448-1454 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c May 1454 |
|
2 |
James Crichton |
|
c 1455 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1455 |
|
3 |
William Crichton |
|
by Oct 1493 |
|
to |
|
|
His peerage was forfeited in 1484 |
|
|
|
24 Feb 1484 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Aug 1642 |
B[S] |
1 |
James Crichton |
c 1620 |
1665 |
|
|
|
|
Created Lord Crichton and Viscount |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Frendraught 29 Aug 1642 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Frendraught" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRICHTON OF SANQUHAR |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Jan 1488 |
B[S] |
1 |
Sir Robert Crichton |
|
c 1495 |
|
|
|
|
Created Lord Crichton of Sanquhar |
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Jan 1488 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1495 |
|
2 |
Robert Crichton |
|
9 Sep 1513 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Sep 1513 |
|
3 |
Robert Crichton |
|
c 1520 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1520 |
|
4 |
Robert Crichton |
|
c 1535 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c 1535 |
|
5 |
William Crichton |
|
11 Jun 1550 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Jun 1550 |
|
6 |
Robert Crichton |
|
1561 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1561 |
|
7 |
Edward Crichton |
|
23 May 1569 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 May 1569 |
|
8 |
Robert Crichton |
|
29 Jun 1612 |
|
|
|
|
He was
hanged for murder - for further |
|
|
|
|
|
|
information, see the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Jun 1612 |
|
9 |
William Crichton |
|
1643 |
|
|
|
|
He was created Earl of Dumfries (qv) in |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1633 into which title this peerage then |
|
|
|
|
|
|
merged |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRICKHOWELL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 Oct 1987 |
B[L] |
1 |
Roger Nicholas Edwards |
25 Feb 1934 |
17 Mar 2018 |
84 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Crickhowell for life |
|
|
|
17 Mar 2018 |
|
|
15 Oct 1987 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Pembroke 1970-1987. Secretary of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
State for Wales 1979-1987. PC 1979 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRISP |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Apr 2006 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir Edmund Nigel Ramsay Crisp |
14 Jan 1952 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Crisp for life 28 Apr 2006 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROFT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 May 1940 |
B |
1 |
Sir Henry Page Croft,1st baronet |
22 Jun 1881 |
7 Dec 1947 |
66 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Croft 28 May 1940 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Christchurch 1910-1918 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bournemouth 1918-1940
PC 1945 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Dec 1947 |
|
2 |
Michael Henry Glendower Page Croft |
20 Aug 1916 |
11 Jan 1997 |
80 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Jan 1997 |
|
3 |
Bernard William Henry Page Croft |
28 Aug 1949 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROFTON |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Dec 1797 |
B[I] |
1 |
Anne Crofton |
11 Jan 1751 |
12 Aug 1817 |
66 |
|
|
|
Created Baroness Crofton 1 Dec 1797 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Aug 1817 |
|
2 |
Sir Edward Crofton,4th baronet |
1 Aug 1806 |
27 Dec 1869 |
63 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Dec 1869 |
|
3 |
Edward Henry Churchill Crofton |
21 Oct 1834 |
22 Sep 1912 |
77 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Sep 1912 |
|
4 |
Arthur Edward Lowther Crofton |
7 Aug 1866 |
15 Jun 1942 |
75 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 Jun 1942 |
|
5 |
Edward Blaise Crofton |
31 May 1926 |
13 Jun 1974 |
48 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Jun 1974 |
|
6 |
Charles Edward Piers Crofton |
27 Apr 1949 |
27 Jun 1989 |
40 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jun 1989 |
|
7 |
Guy Patrick Gilbert Crofton |
17 Jun 1951 |
25 Nov 2007 |
56 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Nov 2007 |
|
8 |
Edward Harry Piers Crofton |
23 Jan 1988 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROFTS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 May 1658 |
B |
1 |
William Crofts |
c 1611 |
11 Sep 1677 |
|
to |
|
|
Created Baron Crofts 18 May 1658 |
|
|
|
11 Sep 1677 |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROHAM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Feb 1978 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir Douglas Albert Vivian Allen |
15 Dec 1917 |
11 Sep 2011 |
93 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Croham for life 8 Feb 1978 |
|
|
|
11 Sep 2011 |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROMARTIE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Jan 1703 |
E[S] |
1 |
Sir George Mackenzie |
1630 |
17 Aug 1714 |
84 |
|
|
|
Created Lord Macleod and Castlehaven |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Viscount of Tarbat 15 Apr 1685, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Lord Macleod and Castlehaven, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Viscount of Tarbat and Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cromartie 1 Jan 1703 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Aug 1714 |
|
2 |
John Mackenzie |
c 1656 |
20 Feb 1731 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Feb 1731 |
|
3 |
George Mackenzie |
c 1703 |
28 Sep 1766 |
|
to |
|
|
He was convicted of treason and the |
|
|
|
1746 |
|
|
peerage forfeited in 1746 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Oct 1861 |
E |
1 |
Anne Sutherland-Leveson-Gower |
21 Apr 1829 |
25 Nov 1888 |
59 |
|
|
|
Created Baroness Macleod,Baroness |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Castlehaven,Viscountess Tarbat and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Countess of Cromartie 21 Oct 1861 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For information about the special remainders |
|
|
|
|
|
|
included
in the creations of these peerages,see |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Nov 1888 |
|
2 |
Francis Sutherland-Leveson-Gower |
3 Aug 1852 |
24 Nov 1893 |
41 |
to |
|
|
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance |
|
|
|
24 Nov 1893 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Feb 1895 |
|
3 |
Sibell Lilian Mackenzie Blunt |
14 Aug 1878 |
20 May 1962 |
83 |
|
|
|
Abeyance terminated in her favour 1895 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 May 1962 |
|
4 |
Roderick Grant Francis Mackenzie |
24 Oct 1904 |
13 Dec 1989 |
85 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Dec 1989 |
|
5 |
John Ruaridh Blunt Grant Mackenzie |
12 Jun 1948 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROMER |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 Aug 1901 |
E |
1 |
Evelyn Baring |
26 Feb 1841 |
29 Jan 1917 |
75 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cromer 20 Jun 1892, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Viscount Cromer 25 Jan 1899 and Viscount |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Errington and Earl of Cromer 6 Aug 1901 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1900 OM 1906 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Jan 1917 |
|
2 |
Rowland Thomas Baring |
29 Nov 1877 |
13 May 1953 |
75 |
|
|
|
PC 1922 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 May 1953 |
|
3 |
George Rowland Stanley Baring |
28 Jul 1918 |
16 Mar 1991 |
72 |
|
|
|
Governor of the Bank of England 1961-1966 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1966 KG 1977 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 Mar 1991 |
|
4 |
Evelyn Rowland Esmond Baring |
3 Jun 1946 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROMWELL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Mar 1308 |
B |
1 |
John de Cromwell |
|
c 1335 |
|
to |
|
|
Summoned to Parliament as Lord |
|
|
|
c 1335 |
|
|
Cromwell 10 Mar 1308 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Dec 1375 |
B |
1 |
Ralph de Cromwell |
|
27 Aug 1398 |
|
|
|
|
Summoned to Parliament as Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cromwell 28 Dec 1375 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Aug 1398 |
|
2 |
Ralph de Cromwell |
1368 |
1417 |
49 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1417 |
|
3 |
Ralph de Cromwell |
1403 |
4 Jan 1455 |
52 |
to |
|
|
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance |
|
|
|
4 Jan 1455 |
|
|
See below for continuation - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Jul 1461 |
B |
1 |
Sir Humphrey Bourchier |
|
14 Apr 1471 |
|
to |
|
|
Summoned to Parliament as Lord |
|
|
|
14 Apr 1471 |
|
|
Cromwell 25 Jul 1461 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Jul 1536 |
B |
1 |
Thomas Cromwell |
1485 |
28 Jul 1540 |
55 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cromwell 9 Jul 1536 |
|
|
|
28 Jul 1540 |
|
|
and Earl of Essex 17 Apr 1540 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Taunton 1529-1536. Chancellor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of the Exchequer 1533. Lord Chancellor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1535. Lord Privy Seal 1536 KG 1537 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
He was attainted and executed when his |
|
|
|
|
|
|
peerages were forfeited |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Dec 1540 |
B |
1 |
Gregory Cromwell |
|
4 Jul 1551 |
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Cromwell 18 Dec 1540 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 Jul 1551 |
|
2 |
Henry Cromwell |
by 1538 |
20 Nov 1592 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 Nov 1592 |
|
3 |
Edward Cromwell |
1560 |
27 Apr 1607 |
46 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Apr 1607 |
|
4 |
Thomas Cromwell |
11 Jun 1594 |
1653 |
59 |
|
|
|
He was created Earl of Ardglass (qv) in |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1645 into which title this peerage then |
|
|
|
|
|
|
merged |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1490 |
|
4 |
Maud Stanhope |
|
30 Aug 1497 |
|
to |
|
|
Held to have become Baroness Cromwell |
|
|
|
30 Aug 1497 |
|
|
(creation of 1375) in 1490. On her death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the peerage again fell into abeyance |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 Jul 1923 |
|
5 |
Robert Godfrey Wolseley Bewicke-Copley |
23 May 1893 |
21 Oct 1966 |
73 |
|
|
|
Abeyance terminated in his favour 1923 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Leicestershire 1949-1966 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Oct 1966 |
|
6 |
David Godfrey Bewicke-Copley |
29 May 1929 |
18 Aug 1982 |
53 |
|
|
|
For
information on the death of this peer,see |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Aug 1982 |
|
7 |
Godfrey John Bewicke-Copley [Elected hereditary |
4 Mar 1960 |
|
|
|
|
|
peer 2014-] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROOK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 Jul 1947 |
B |
1 |
Reginald Douglas Crook |
2 Mar 1901 |
10 Mar 1989 |
88 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Crook 3 Jul 1947 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Mar 1989 |
|
2 |
Douglas Edwin Crook |
19 Nov 1926 |
18 Jun 2001 |
74 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Jun 2001 |
|
3 |
Robert Douglas Edwin Crook |
19 May 1955 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROOKSHANK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Jan 1956 |
V |
1 |
Harry Frederick Comfort Crookshank |
27 May 1893 |
17 Oct 1961 |
68 |
to |
|
|
Created Viscount Crookshank |
|
|
|
17 Oct 1961 |
|
|
13 Jan 1956 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Gainsborough 1924-1956. Financial |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Secretary
to the Treasury 1939-1943. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Postmaster General 1943-1945. Minister |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Health 1951-1952. Lord Privy Seal 1952- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1955. PC 1939 CH
1955 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROSBIE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Jul 1776 |
V[I] |
1 |
William Crosbie,2nd Baron Brandon |
May 1716 |
11 Apr 1781 |
64 |
|
|
|
Created Viscount Crosbie 30 Nov 1771 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Earl of Glandore 22 Jul 1776 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Glandore" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROSS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 Aug 1886 |
V |
1 |
Richard Assheton Cross |
30 May 1823 |
8 Jan 1914 |
90 |
|
|
|
Created Viscount Cross 19 Aug 1886 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Preston 1857-1862, Lancashire SW |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1868-1885 and Newton 1885-1886. Home |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Secretary 1874-1880 and 1885-1886. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Secretary of State for India 1886-1892 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Privy Seal 1895-1900. PC 1874 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Jan 1914 |
|
2 |
Richard Assheton Cross |
28 Jan 1882 |
14 Mar 1932 |
50 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 Mar 1932 |
|
3 |
Assheton Henry Cross |
7 May 1920 |
5 Dec 2004 |
84 |
to |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
5 Dec 2004 |
|
|
For information on the death of his younger |
|
|
|
|
|
|
brother,see the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROSS OF CHELSEA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Mar 1971 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir (Arthur) Geoffrey Neale Cross |
1 Dec 1904 |
4 Aug 1989 |
84 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cross of Chelsea for life |
|
|
|
4 Aug 1989 |
|
|
12 Mar 1971 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Justice of Appeal 1969-1971. Lord |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Appeal in Ordinary 1971-1975. PC 1969 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROWHURST |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Jun 1850 |
V |
1 |
Charles
Christopher Pepys,1st Baron |
29 Apr 1781 |
29 Apr 1851 |
70 |
|
|
|
Cottenham |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Created Viscount Crowhurst and Earl |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Cottenham 11 Jun 1850 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Cottenham" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROWTHER |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Jun 1968 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir Geoffrey Crowther |
13 May 1907 |
5 Feb 1972 |
64 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Crowther for life 28 Jun 1968 |
|
|
|
5 Feb 1972 |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROWTHER-HUNT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Jul 1973 |
B[L] |
1 |
Norman Crowther Hunt |
13 Mar 1920 |
16 Feb 1987 |
66 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Crowther-Hunt for life |
|
|
|
16 Feb 1987 |
|
|
9 Jul 1973 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CRUDDAS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29 Jan 2021 |
B[L] |
1 |
Peter Andrew Cruddas |
30 Sep 1953 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Cruddas for life 29 Jan 2021 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUCKNEY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Jul 1995 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir John Graham Cuckney |
12 Jul 1925 |
30 Oct 2008 |
83 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cuckney for life 25 Jul 1995 |
|
|
|
30 Oct 2008 |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUDLIPP |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Jan 1975 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir Hugh Kusman Cudlipp |
28 Aug 1913 |
17 May 1998 |
84 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cudlipp for life 8 Jan 1975 |
|
|
|
17 May 1998 |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CULLEN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Aug 1642 |
V[I] |
1 |
Charles Cokayne |
4 Jul 1602 |
19 Jun 1661 |
58 |
|
|
|
Created Baron and Viscount Cullen |
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Aug 1642 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 Jun 1661 |
|
2 |
Brien Cokayne |
12 Sep 1631 |
Jul 1687 |
55 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 1687 |
|
3 |
Charles Cokayne |
15 Nov 1658 |
30 Dec 1688 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Dec 1688 |
|
4 |
Charles Cokayne |
4 Jan 1687 |
6 Apr 1716 |
29 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 Apr 1716 |
|
5 |
Charles Cokayne |
2 Sep 1710 |
7 Jun 1802 |
91 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Jun 1802 |
|
6 |
Borlase Cokayne |
30 Sep 1740 |
11 Aug 1810 |
69 |
to |
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
11 Aug 1810 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CULLEN OF ASHBOURNE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Apr 1920 |
B |
1 |
Sir Brien Ibrican Cokayne |
12 Jul 1864 |
3 Nov 1932 |
68 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cullen of Ashbourne 21 Apr 1920 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Governor of the Bank of England 1918-1920 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 Nov 1932 |
|
2 |
Charles Borlase Marsham Cokayne |
6 Oct 1912 |
17 Dec 2000 |
88 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Dec 2000 |
|
3 |
Edmund Willoughby Marsham Cokayne |
18 May 1916 |
5 Dec 2016 |
100 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 Dec 2016 |
|
4 |
Michael John Marsham Cokayne |
28 Nov 1950 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CULLEN OF WHITEKIRK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Jun 2003 |
B[L] |
1 |
William Douglas Cullen |
18 Nov 1935 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Cullen of Whitekirk for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 Jun 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1997 KT 2007 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CULLODEN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Nov 1801 |
B |
1 |
Adolphus Frederick |
24 Feb 1774 |
17 Jul 1850 |
76 |
|
|
|
Created Baron of Culloden,Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tipperary and Duke of Cambridge |
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Nov 1801 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Cambridge" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
31 Mar 1928 |
B |
1 |
Henry William Frederick Albert |
31 Mar 1900 |
10 Jun 1974 |
74 |
|
|
|
Created Baron
Culloden,Earl of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ulster and Duke of Gloucester |
|
|
|
|
|
|
31 Mar 1928 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Gloucester" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CULMORE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Jul 1725 |
B[I] |
1 |
William Bateman |
c 1695 |
Dec 1744 |
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Culmore and Viscount |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bateman 12 Jul 1725 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Bateman" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUMBERLAND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Jun 1525 |
E |
1 |
Henry Clifford,11th Baron de Clifford |
1493 |
22 Sep 1542 |
49 |
|
|
|
Created Earl of Cumberland 18 Jun 1525 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
KG 1537 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Sep 1542 |
|
2 |
Henry Clifford |
1517 |
8 Jan 1570 |
52 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Jan 1570 |
|
3 |
George Clifford |
8 Aug 1558 |
30 Oct 1605 |
47 |
|
|
|
KG 1592 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For further information on this peer, see the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
note at the foot of this page. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30 Oct 1605 |
|
4 |
Francis Clifford |
1559 |
21 Jan 1641 |
81 |
|
|
|
MP for
Westmorland 1585-1587 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yorkshire 1604-1605. Lord Lieutenant |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cumberland,
Northumberland and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Westmorland 1611-1639 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Jan 1641 |
|
5 |
Henry Clifford |
28 Feb 1591 |
11 Dec 1643 |
52 |
to |
|
|
MP for Westmorland 1614 and 1621-1622. |
|
|
|
11 Dec 1643 |
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Westmorland and York |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1642 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 Jan 1644 |
D |
1 |
Prince Rupert,Count Palatine of the Rhine |
27 Dec 1619 |
29 Nov 1682 |
62 |
to |
|
|
Created Earl of Holderness and Duke |
|
|
|
29 Nov 1682 |
|
|
of Cumberland 24 Jan 1644 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Lieutenant Berkshire 1670 and Surrey |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1675. First Lord of the Admiralty 1673 KG 1642 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Apr 1689 |
D |
1 |
George,Prince of Denmark |
2 Apr 1653 |
28 Oct 1708 |
55 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Ockingham,Earl of |
|
|
|
28 Oct 1708 |
|
|
Kendal and Duke of Cumberland |
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Apr 1689 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Husband of Queen Anne. KG 1684 PC 1685 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerages extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jul 1726 |
D |
1 |
William Augustus |
15 Apr 1721 |
31 Oct 1765 |
44 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron of Alderney,Viscount |
|
|
|
31 Oct 1765 |
|
|
Trematon,Earl of Kennington,Marquess |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Berkhampstead and Duke of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cumberland 27 Jul 1726 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Second son of George II.
KG 1730 PC 1746 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For further information on this peer,see |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the note at the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUMBERLAND AND STRATHEARN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Oct 1766 |
D |
1 |
Henry Frederick |
27 Oct 1745 |
18 Sep 1790 |
44 |
to |
|
|
Created Earl of Dublin and Duke of |
|
|
|
18 Sep 1790 |
|
|
Cumberland and
Strathearn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 Oct 1766 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PC 1766 KG 1767 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For
further information on two women who claimed |
|
|
|
|
|
|
to be Cumberland's daughter and grand-daughter, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
see the note at the foot of this page. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUMBERLAND AND TEVIOTDALE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 Apr 1799 |
D |
1 |
Ernest Augustus |
5 Jun 1771 |
18 Nov 1851 |
80 |
|
|
|
Created Earl of Armagh and Duke of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cumberland and Teviotdale 24 Apr 1799 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fifth son of George III. KG 1786 KP 1821 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
King of Hanover 1837-1851 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For further information on this peer, see the |
|
|
|
|
|
|
note at the foot of this page. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 Nov 1851 |
|
2 |
George Frederick Alexander Charles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Augustus |
27 May 1819 |
12 Jun 1878 |
59 |
|
|
|
King of Hanover 1851-1866. KG 1835 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Jun 1878 |
|
3 |
Ernest Augustus William Adolphus |
|
|
|
to |
|
|
George Frederick |
21 Sep 1845 |
14 Nov 1923 |
78 |
28 Mar 1919 |
|
|
KG 1878 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Deprived of his peerages 1919 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUMBERLEGE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 May 1990 |
B[L] |
1 |
Julia Frances Cumberlege |
27 Jan 1943 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baroness Cumberlege for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 May 1990 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUMRA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 Apr 1703 |
B[S] |
1 |
Sir James Stuart |
|
4 Jun 1710 |
|
|
|
|
Created Lord Mount Stuart,Cumra and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Inchmarnock,Viscount of Kingarth and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Earl of Bute 14 Apr 1703 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
See "Bute" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUNLIFFE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 Dec 1914 |
B |
1 |
Walter Cunliffe |
4 Dec 1855 |
6 Jan 1920 |
64 |
|
|
|
Created Baron Cunliffe 14 Dec 1914 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Governor of the Bank of England 1913-1918 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 Jan 1920 |
|
2 |
Rolf Cunliffe |
13 May 1899 |
24 Nov 1963 |
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 Nov 1963 |
|
3 |
Roger Cunliffe |
12 Jan 1932 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUNNINGHAM OF FELLING |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jun 2005 |
B[L] |
1 |
John Anderson Cunningham |
4 Aug 1939 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Cunningham of Felling for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Jun 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Whitehaven 1970-1983 and Copeland |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1983-2005. Minister for Agriculture,Fisheries and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food 1997-1998. Minister for the Cabinet Office |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1998- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1999. PC 1993 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUNNINGHAM OF HYNDHOPE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26 Jan 1946 |
V |
1 |
Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham,1st baronet |
7 Jan 1883 |
12 Jun 1963 |
80 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cunningham of |
|
|
|
12 Jun 1963 |
|
|
Hyndhope 15 Sep 1945 and Viscount |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cunningham of Hyndhope 26 Jan 1946 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Admiral of the Fleet 1943. KT 1945 OM 1946 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerages extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CURRIE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 Jan 1899 |
B |
1 |
Sir Philip Henry Wodehouse Currie |
13 Oct 1834 |
12 May 1906 |
71 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Currie 25 Jan 1899 |
|
|
|
12 May 1906 |
|
|
PC 1894 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CURRIE OF MARYLEBONE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Oct 1996 |
B[L] |
1 |
David Anthony Currie |
9 Dec 1946 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Currie of Marylebone for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Oct 1996 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CURRY OF KIRKHARLE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Oct 2011 |
B[L] |
1 |
Sir Donald Thomas Younger Curry |
4 Apr 1944 |
|
|
|
|
|
Created Baron Curry of Kirkharle for life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 Oct 2011 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CURZON OF KEDLESTON |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 Jun 1921 |
M |
1 |
George Nathaniel Curzon |
11 Jan 1859 |
20 Mar 1925 |
66 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Curzon of Kedleston |
|
|
|
20 Mar 1925 |
|
|
11 Nov 1898 (the last Irish peerage), |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Baron Ravensdale,Viscount Scarsdale |
|
|
|
|
|
|
and Earl
Curzon of Kedleston 2 Nov |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1911 and
Earl of Kedleston and Marquess |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Curzon of Kedleston 28 Jun 1921 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Southport 1886-1889. Viceroy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
of India 1898-1905. Lord Privy Seal |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1915-1916. Lord President of the Council |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1916-1919 and 1924-1925. Foreign |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Secretary 1919 -1924.
PC 1895 KG 1916 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On his death the Barony of 1898, the Earldom of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1911 and the creations of 1921 became extinct. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Barony of Ravensdale descended to his |
|
|
|
|
|
|
daughter
and the Viscountcy of Scarsdale |
|
|
|
|
|
|
descended to his nephew - see those titles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For information
on his first wife, see the note at |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the foot of this page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CURZON OF PENN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Feb 1802 |
V |
1 |
Assheton Curzon |
2 Feb 1730 |
21 Mar 1820 |
90 |
|
|
|
Created Baron
Curzon of Penn 13 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 1794 and Viscount Curzon of Penn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Feb 1802 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Clitheroe 1754-1780 and 1792-1794 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 Mar 1820 |
|
2 |
Richard William Penn Curzon-Howe |
|
|
|
|
|
|
He was created Earl Howe (qv) in 1821 with |
|
|
|
|
|
|
which title this peerage then merged |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUSHENDUN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Nov 1927 |
B |
1 |
Ronald John McNeill |
30 Apr 1861 |
12 Oct 1934 |
73 |
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cushendun 7 Nov 1927 |
|
|
|
12 Oct 1934 |
|
|
MP for St Augustines 1911-1918 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Canterbury 1918-1927. Financial Secretary |
|
|
|
|
|
|
to the Treasury 1925-1927. Chancellor of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
the Duchy of Lancaster 1927-1929. PC 1924 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUTTS OF GOWRAN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Dec 1690 |
B[I] |
1 |
John Cutts |
c 1661 |
25 Jan 1707 |
|
to |
|
|
Created Baron Cutts of Gowran |
|
|
|
25 Jan 1707 |
|
|
12 Dec 1690 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP for Cambridgeshire 1693-1702 and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Newport IOW 1702-1707. PC [I] 1705 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peerage extinct on his death |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Hepburn Cozens-Hardy, 2nd Baron
Cozens-Hardy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On 27 May 1924, the "Daily Mail"
reported the death of Lord Cozens-Hardy, as shown hereunder:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord
Cozens-Hardy, of Gunthorpe Hall, Norfolk, was killed yesterday afternoon in a
motor-car |
|
|
|
accident
near Starnberg (Upper Bavaria), 17 miles from Munich. At a sharp bend on the
road, |
|
|
|
Lord Cozens-Hardy, who was driving, put on the
brakes suddenly and the car turned turtle. The |
|
|
|
other two occupants of the car, a German
businessman and the chauffeur, escaped with minor |
|
|
|
injuries. Lord Cozens-Hardy was crushed beneath
the car and terribly injured. He died a few |
|
|
|
minutes after, without recovering
consciousness. The body is being brought here [Munich] |
|
|
|
|
tonight. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord
Cozens-Hardy, who was 56, succeeded his father, the first lord, and a former
Master of |
|
|
|
the Rolls, in 1920. A Chancery K.C. in active
practice at that time, Lord Cozens-Hardy, after his |
|
|
|
accession to the title, was seen only rarely in
the courts. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'There
was a tiny comedy of errors when the peerage devolved on him. He had not
taken his |
|
|
|
seat in the Upper House, and, as the writ had
not been moved for a new election in South |
|
|
|
|
Norfolk, Mr. William Cozens-Hardy, M.P., as he
still remained, found that, though, in a sense a |
|
|
|
member of either House, he was for the moment
excluded from both.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The alleged "Curse of the Cravens" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When the 7th Earl of Craven died in 1983, the
newspapers were quick to seize upon the alleged |
|
|
|
"Curse of the Cravens." The story
goes that hundreds of years ago (one paper says 700) one of |
|
|
|
the ancestors of the Craven family made a
servant girl pregnant. Her mother cursed the family, |
|
|
|
the
curse stating that all boys of the Craven family would die young. Another
version of the |
|
|
|
curse is more specific, with all boys of the
family condemned to die before their mothers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whether the curse actually exists is a moot
point, but the reports of the 7th Earl's death in 1983 |
|
|
|
make special mention that the Earl "lived
in fear of a curse that reputedly causes all the males of |
|
|
|
his family to die young." One wonders
whether the curse is to some extent a self-fulfilling |
|
|
|
|
prophecy in that the person is so convinced
that he cannot escape his fate that he becomes |
|
|
|
resigned to it with inevitable fatal
consequences, in the same manner that Australian aborigines |
|
|
|
believe that if a "kurdaitcha" man
undertakes the ceremony of "pointing the bone" the person at |
|
|
|
whom the bone was pointed will surely die
shortly thereafter. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An examination of the ages at which the Barons
Craven, and later the Earls of Craven, died, does |
|
|
|
however reveal that the average age at death is
quite low, and is even lower for those deaths |
|
|
|
which
have occurred in the last 145 years. Commencing with the sons of the 2nd
Earl, the |
|
|
|
following
dates are interesting, when viewed in the light of the prediction that the
Craven sons |
|
|
|
would die before their mothers:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The eldest son of the 2nd Earl, known by the
courtesy title of Viscount Uffington, died at the |
|
|
|
age of 26 in April 1865 during the lifetime of
his father. His mother died in May 1901. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The second son of the 2nd Earl, who became
the 3rd Earl in 1866, died in December 1883 aged |
|
|
|
42, again while his mother was still alive (see
above). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 4th Earl died in July 1921 [for further
details of his death see below] at the age of 52. His |
|
|
|
mother died in November 1924. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 5th Earl died in September 1932, aged 35.
His mother died in May 1961. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 6th Earl died in January 1965 aged 47.
His mother died in September 1974. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 7th Earl died in October 1983, aged 26.
His mother died 26 June 2011, aged 95. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 8th Earl, brother of the 7th Earl, died
in August 1990 (see above). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If we ignore the question of dying before their
mother, and expanding the listing to include all |
|
|
|
sons of the various Earls in the last 200
years, we find that:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 1st Earl had three sons - the 2nd Earl
who died at age 57, and two other sons who died |
|
|
|
at the ages of 25 and 52 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 2nd Earl had four sons - Viscount
Uffington and the 3rd Earl are already noticed above |
|
|
|
while the remaining two sons died at 75 and 16 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 3rd Earl also had four sons - the 4th
Earl mentioned above, and three other sons who |
|
|
|
died at the ages of 89, 2 months and 30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 4th and 5th Earls each had an only son
who became the 5th and 6th Earls respectively |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* The 6th Earl had two sons, who became the 7th
and 8th Earls (see above), the 7th Earl |
|
|
|
|
being succeeded by his brother as his son,
Tommy Nicholson, is illegitimate. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Only
two sons of the various Earls, therefore, during the last 200 years, have
reached what might |
|
|
|
be called a reasonable age. It is also interesting to note that the
4th, 7th and 8th Earls all died |
|
|
|
what might be termed 'violent' deaths. All in
all, one might be forgiven for believing in both the |
|
|
|
existence and efficacy of the alleged curse,
but I leave the reader to form his or her own |
|
|
|
|
opinion. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some notes on the various Earls:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Craven A cigarettes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smokers of a certain age will probably recall
that Craven A cigarettes were very popular at one |
|
|
|
time. Their filters were 'cork tips' and I am
bound to say that, although I once smoked almost any |
|
|
|
legal substance, I always drew the line at
Craven A - they were horrible. The brand was |
|
|
|
|
apparently named after the Earls of Craven. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William George Robert Craven, 4th Earl of
Craven |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following report of the death of the 4th
Earl appeared in 'The Times' of 11 July 1921:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'A
gloom was cast over Cowes to-day by the news that Lord Craven, a well-known
member of |
|
|
|
the
Royal Yacht Squadron, had been drowned. He arrived off Cowes only yesterday
on a cruise |
|
|
|
in his 63-ton yawl Sylvia. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord
Craven, with Lord Ebury, joined the yacht at Southampton yesterday afternoon,
and on |
|
|
|
arrival
at Cowes Lord Craven went ashore and visited the Royal Yacht Squadron, where
he spent |
|
|
|
the evening with other members and was in the
best of health and spirits. Later in the evening |
|
|
|
he returned to his yacht in the motor launch,
which he helped the crew to haul up. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The
weather being still warm, Lord Craven remained on the deck of the yacht,
which was lying |
|
|
|
about
half a mile from the squadron in the roadstead. For some time he was talking
with the |
|
|
|
captain,
who left him there smoking just after midnight, when he and his crew turned
in for the |
|
|
|
night. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'At
8.30 this morning when the valet went to Lord Craven's cabin he found that he
was missing |
|
|
|
and
that his bed had not been slept in. His yachting cap was found in the saloon.
It is believed |
|
|
|
that he had walked to the stern of the yacht
and either accidentally stumbled or was seized with |
|
|
|
illness
and fell overboard. No trace of his body could be seen, but after a search
lasting all the |
|
|
|
morning it was found this afternoon in the sea
at Gurnard Bay, about two miles to the westward. |
|
|
|
It was brought to Cowes mortuary to await an
inquest. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'People living on the green heard cries during
the night, which apparently came from the direction |
|
|
|
of
Egypt Point, about a mile from where the yacht was lying, but no-one thought
they came from |
|
|
|
anyone
in distress. It is conjectured that Lord Craven, having fallen overboard,
attempted to |
|
|
|
swim to shore, but finding he could not do so,
cried for help. He was understood to be a very |
|
|
|
good swimmer.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William George Bradley Craven, 5th Earl of
Craven |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
5th Earl became somewhat of a celebrity in 1926 when he, together with Vera,
Countess |
|
|
|
Cathcart, attempted to enter the United States.
The following report of his subsequent death |
|
|
|
appeared in the 'Chicago Daily Tribune' on 17
September 1932:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The fifth earl of Craven, whose escapades with
Vera, countess of Cathcart, stirred up a storm |
|
|
|
which nearly resulted in an international
incident between the United States and Great Britain |
|
|
|
in 1926, died here [Pau, France] today at the
age of 35 [the cause of death was peritonitis]. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The incident of 1926 began when the countess
of Cathcart was barred from the United States |
|
|
|
by immigration authorities because she had been
divorced on statutory grounds. She was |
|
|
|
|
accused of "moral turpitude." Her
husband when he won the divorce in 1922 had named the earl |
|
|
|
of Craven as co-respondent. Eighteen months
later the countess and the earl lived together in |
|
|
|
South Africa. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The countess fought the expulsion order,
declaring that if she were barred, the earl should also |
|
|
|
be refused admittance on the same grounds. The
earl already had been admitted. The case was |
|
|
|
taken to the federal courts and also aired on
the floor of the United States senate and in the |
|
|
|
British house of
commons. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Immigration authorities, wishing to question
the earl, issued an order for his arrest. He fled to |
|
|
|
Montreal. When she learned of his flight, the
countess branded him a "coward." Later the |
|
|
|
|
countess
won her fight and was admitted to the United States. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'She sold her play, "Ashes of Love,"
and performed in it under Earl Carroll's management for a |
|
|
|
few nights before it closed a failure. Countess
Vera gained further notoriety during this period |
|
|
|
when
she was present at Earl Carroll's famous "bathtub party," at which
a show girl bathed in |
|
|
|
a tub of wine while the men present passed by
in line and drank of the wine. Carroll was |
|
|
|
|
sentenced to prison for this episode. [Carroll
(1893-1948) was a well-known theatrical producer |
|
|
|
and director until he was killed in a plane crash]. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Born July 13, 1897, the earl of Craven
succeeded to the title of his father in 1921. He had one |
|
|
|
of the most remarkable careers of the British
nobility. He was disabled through the loss of his |
|
|
|
right leg and permanent disability in his left
arm in the war and later became bankrupt and was |
|
|
|
disinherited.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Robert Bradley Craven, 6th Earl of
Craven |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
6th Earl of Craven married Gwendoline Irene Meyrick on 3 May 1939. Gwendoline
was the |
|
|
|
daughter of the notorious "queen of the
nightclubs" Kate Meyrick, whose other two daughters |
|
|
|
married the 26th Baron de Clifford and the 14th
Earl of Kinnoull. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the following August the Earl petitioned the
Courts for the annulment of his marriage to |
|
|
|
|
Gwendoline, who in turn cross-petitioned for
the restitution of her conjugal rights. The petitions |
|
|
|
were heard in June 1940. The following (edited)
report appeared in 'The Times' of 14 June 1940:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'By his petition dated August 4, 1939, Lord
Craven sought the annulment of the marriage on the |
|
|
|
ground that it was celebrated without his
consent. He alleged that at the time when the marriage |
|
|
|
was celebrated he was in such a condition of
mind and body through alcohol poisoning that he |
|
|
|
was
unaware of the nature or quality of the ceremony of marriage with Lady
Craven, or of the |
|
|
|
fact that he was present at a marriage ceremony
or taking part in the same. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lady
Craven, who before the marriage was Gwendoline Irene Meyrick, denied the
allegations, |
|
|
|
and pleaded that she was lawfully married to
Lord Craven. By her cross-petition....Lady Craven |
|
|
|
pleaded that Lord Craven had left her without
cause in May, 1939, and had not returned to her |
|
|
|
and had refused to render her conjugal rights.
She prayed for a decree of restitution of |
|
|
|
|
conjugal rights. Lord Craven denied the
allegations, and denied he was lawfully married to Lady |
|
|
|
Craven. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Mr. Justice Hodson, giving judgment, said that
the parting took place on May 4, the day after |
|
|
|
the ceremony. Lord Craven, through his
advisors, repudiated the marriage, and on July 14 for |
|
|
|
the first time it was claimed that there had
been no marriage. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord Craven had been described by medical men
who examined him as being unstable and |
|
|
|
|
impulsive and of a vain disposition. He
suffered from asthma, the significance of which was that |
|
|
|
he was sensitive to alcoholic poisoning. He had
also had an accident followed by concussion, |
|
|
|
which was of importance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'On the night before the marriage Lord Craven
arrived in the small hours of the morning at the |
|
|
|
night
club with which Lady Craven was concerned, having already drunk a good deal
at other |
|
|
|
places. He drank a good deal more at the club,
partly in the company of his wife-to-be, and |
|
|
|
marriage was discussed. The subject had been
mentioned before between them. The end of the |
|
|
|
story was that they were married that morning
after a licence had been obtained by the wife- |
|
|
|
to-be. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord Craven had seen no member of his family,
nor any friend, from the time he left the night |
|
|
|
club until he was married. During that time he
was in the company of his wife-to-be and her |
|
|
|
sisters. He (his Lordship) was asked to say
that what happened was an outrage, that those |
|
|
|
women
had got hold of the young man and that everything which he did thereafter was
done |
|
|
|
under their guidance and not of his own accord
at all, he being soaked in drink, unstable to start |
|
|
|
with, and not fit to give his assent to
marriage or anything else. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'During the night before the marriage, or in
the early hours of the morning, Lord Craven was seen |
|
|
|
by a number of people at the club and was
behaving perfectly normally. Nobody would say that |
|
|
|
he was drunk. There was no doubt that when
marriage was discussed Lord Craven himself was |
|
|
|
active in making arrangements for the ceremony.
Lord Craven said now he did not remember very |
|
|
|
much about it, but he did not profess entirely
to have forgotten what took place. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The marriage ceremony took place that morning.
Lord Craven signed a form. His signature on |
|
|
|
that form was not first-class, but it did not
compare unfavourably with other signatures of his. |
|
|
|
The service was in the Church of England form,
with which Lord Craven was not familiar, he |
|
|
|
being a Roman Catholic. The question of the
ring arose and Lord Craven produced a signet ring. |
|
|
|
The vicar rejected that and then a sister of
the bride produced her wedding ring. Lord Craven |
|
|
|
gave
the responses, some of which would not be easy to give if a person were
acting |
|
|
|
|
automatically, and the bride and bridegroom
signed their names in the register. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The vicar did not notice anything except that
when the parties were going away the groom |
|
|
|
moved as though he were in a dream. "He
looked as if he were half asleep." His Lordship [the |
|
|
|
Judge] said that Lord Craven had been up all
night and had had a great deal to drink. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'His Lordship stated the evidence as to the
subsequent movements of the parties. Medical |
|
|
|
|
witnesses, he continued, had described the
effects of alcoholic poisoning as being of two stages. |
|
|
|
One was the impairment of judgment, and the
other was staggering and thickness of speech |
|
|
|
indicating
lack of coordination. The case for Lord Craven was that he was in the first
stage, |
|
|
|
because
he had taken a large quantity of alcohol over a long period. In that stage,
it was |
|
|
|
|
suggested, his memory had gone and he did not
know what he was doing. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'It was further suggested that Lord Craven was
acting under the wicked influence of the wife. |
|
|
|
He (the judge) was not prepared to find any
such thing. All the evidence went to show that |
|
|
|
he was acting very much of his own volition
without being spurred on by anyone. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'That Lord Craven's judgment was impaired there
could be no doubt, but the question of degree |
|
|
|
had to be considered when one had to determine
whether his judgment was so impaired that he |
|
|
|
did not know what he was doing. He (the judge)
was quite unable to find that the husband had |
|
|
|
discharged the burden of proving either that he
did not know what he was doing or that he did |
|
|
|
not consent to the
marriage. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'His Lordship dismissed Lord Craven's petition
and granted Lady Craven a decree of restitution of |
|
|
|
conjugal rights.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Robert Douglas Craven, 7th Earl of
Craven |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From 'The Times' of 3 November 1983:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The seventh Earl of Craven, whose life was
spent under the threat of an ancient curse, shot |
|
|
|
himself
after years of depression, an inquest was told yesterday. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'A curse that all male Cravens would die young
was put on the family seven centuries ago after |
|
|
|
an ancestor made a servant pregnant. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord Craven, aged 26, was found lying in a
pool of blood at his Sussex manor house on October |
|
|
|
22, with a 12-bore shotgun at his side. The
last three earls have all died prematurely. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'He had been treated for schizophrenia and had
tried to commit suicide four times, the Eastbourne |
|
|
|
inquest heard. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'His mother, Lady Craven, found his body at
Peelings Manor, Hankham, East Sussex......the |
|
|
|
|
Coroner recorded the verdict that Lord Craven
killed himself while the balance of his mind was |
|
|
|
disturbed.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At his death, the 7th Earl left an illegitimate
son, and he was therefore succeeded by his brother |
|
|
|
Simon George Craven, 8th Earl of Craven whose death in a car crash in 1990 did nothing to |
|
|
|
dispel the alleged curse. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alexander Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford ('Old
Beardie') |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 4th Earl of Crawford was the most
formidable power in Scotland during the middle years |
|
|
|
of
the 15th century. He was a regular guest at Glamis Castle, where one night on
one of his |
|
|
|
visits and after an evening of heavy drinking,
he demanded a game of cards. By this time it |
|
|
|
was late, and the Sabbath was dawning; as a
result, no one was prepared to play with him. |
|
|
|
Getting progressively more aggressive, Crawford
determined that the Sabbath would not |
|
|
|
|
interrupt his pleasures and swore that he would
even play the Devil himself. No sooner
had |
|
|
|
he
said this than a tall man dressed entirely in black entered the room and the
Earl, pleased |
|
|
|
to have a playing partner, took him into
another room where they proceeded to play. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There was much swearing and stamping of feet
within the room, and there are some accounts |
|
|
|
of
the servants' curiosity. One tried to peep into the room through the keyhole,
but was |
|
|
|
|
blinded
by a bolt of lightning. The Earl stormed out of the room, raging at the
servant for |
|
|
|
|
this breach of his privacy. When he turned back
to re-enter the room, the man in black had |
|
|
|
gone, taking the Earl's soul with him. Five
years later, the man in black reappeared and |
|
|
|
|
the Earl died, reclaimed by the Devil according
to the story. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It is said that visitors to Glamis Castle can
hear, behind one of the walls of the Castle crypt, |
|
|
|
the sounds of rolling dice, swearing and the
stamping of feet, the sounds of the Earl playing |
|
|
|
until the Day of Judgment. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Crawford Peerage Claim 1809-1839 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following account of the claim is taken
from an anonymously written book titled "Celebrated |
|
|
|
Claimants Ancient and Modern" published by
Chatto and Windus, London, 1873. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'In 1808, George Lindsay Crawfurd,
twenty-second Earl of Crawfurd and sixth Earl of Lindsay, |
|
|
|
died without issue, and his vast estates
descended to his sister, Lady Mary Crawford. After |
|
|
|
the
death of the earl various claims were advanced to the peerage, one of them
being |
|
|
|
|
preferred by a person of the name of John
Crawfurd, who came from Dungannon, in the north |
|
|
|
of
Ireland. When this claimant arrived at Ayr, in January 1809, he gave himself
out as a |
|
|
|
|
descendant of the Hon. James Lindsay Crawfurd,
a younger son of the family, who had taken |
|
|
|
refuge in Ireland from the persecutions of
1666-1680. At first he took up his abode at the inn |
|
|
|
of James Anderson, and from his host and a
weaver named Wood he received a considerable |
|
|
|
amount of information respecting the family
history. From Ayr he proceeded to visit Kilbirnie |
|
|
|
Castle, once the residence of the great
knightly family of Crawfurd. The house had been |
|
|
|
|
destroyed by fire during the lifetime of Lady
Mary's grandfather, and had not been rebuilt--the |
|
|
|
family taking up their residence on their
Fifeshire estates. At the time of the fire, however, |
|
|
|
|
many family papers and letters had been saved,
and had been stored away in an old cabinet, |
|
|
|
which was placed in an out-house. To these Mr.
Crawfurd obtained access, and found among |
|
|
|
them many letters written by James Lindsay
Crawfurd, whose descendant he pretended to be. |
|
|
|
He
appropriated them and produced them when the fitting time came. At Kilbirnie
he also |
|
|
|
|
introduced himself to John Montgomerie of
Ladeside, a man well acquainted with the family |
|
|
|
|
story and all the vicissitudes of the
Crawfords; and one who was disposed to believe any |
|
|
|
|
plausible tale. The farmer, crediting the
pretender's story, spread it abroad among the villagers, |
|
|
|
and they in turn fell into ecstasies over the
idea of a poor man like themselves arriving at an |
|
|
|
earldom,
rebuilding the ancient house of Kilbirnie, and restoring the old glories of
the place. |
|
|
|
Their
enthusiasm was turned to good account. The claimant was very poor, and stood
in need |
|
|
|
of money to prosecute his claim, and he made no
secret of his poverty or his necessities, and |
|
|
|
promised large returns to those who would help
him in his time of need. "Farms," we are told, |
|
|
|
"were to be given on long leases at
moderate rents; one was to be a factor, another |
|
|
|
|
chamberlain, and many were to be converted from
being hewers of wood and drawers of |
|
|
|
|
water to what they esteemed the less laborious,
and therefore more honourable, posts of |
|
|
|
|
butlers and bakers, and body servants of all
descriptions." These cheering prospects, of course, |
|
|
|
depended upon the immediate faith which was
displayed, and the amount of assistance which |
|
|
|
was at once forthcoming. Therefore, each
hopeful believer exerted himself to the utmost, and |
|
|
|
"poor peasants and farmers, cottagers and
their masters, threw their stakes into the claimant's |
|
|
|
lucky-bag, from which they were afterwards to
draw 'all prizes and no blanks.'" Men of loftier |
|
|
|
position, also, were not averse to speculate
upon the chances of this newly-discovered heir. |
|
|
|
Poor John Montgomerie gave him every penny he
had saved, and every penny he could borrow, |
|
|
|
and after mortgaging his little property, was
obliged to flee to America from his duns, where, it |
|
|
|
is said, he died. His son Peter, who succeeded
to Ladeside, also listened to the seductive voice |
|
|
|
of the claimant, until ruin came upon him, and
he was compelled to compound with his creditors. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'In
due time the pretender to the Crawford peerage instituted judicial
proceedings. His |
|
|
|
|
advocates
brought forward some very feasible parole evidence; but they mainly rested
their |
|
|
|
case
upon the documents which had been discovered in the old cabinet at Kilbirnie.
These |
|
|
|
letters, when they were originally discovered,
had been written on the first and third pages; |
|
|
|
but
in the interim the second pages had been filled up in an exact imitation of
the old hand with |
|
|
|
matter
skilfully contrived to support the pretensions of the new-comer. In these
interpolations |
|
|
|
the dead Crawfurd was made to describe his
position and circumstances in Ireland, his marriage, |
|
|
|
the births of his children, and his
necessities, in a manner which could leave no doubt as to the |
|
|
|
rightful claims of the pretender. Unfortunately
for his cause, he refused to pay his accomplices |
|
|
|
the exorbitant price which they demanded, and
they, without hesitation, made offers to Lady |
|
|
|
Mary, into the hands of whose agents they
confided the forged and vitiated letters. The result |
|
|
|
was that a charge of forgery was brought
against the claimant, and he and his chief abettor, |
|
|
|
James Bradley, were both brought to trial
before the High Court of Justiciary, in February 1812, |
|
|
|
and were sentenced to fourteen years'
transportation. This result was obtained by the |
|
|
|
|
acceptance of the evidence of Fanning, one of
the forgers, as king's evidence. While under |
|
|
|
sentence the claimant wrote a sketch of his
life ["Sketch of the Life of John Lindsay Crawfurd, |
|
|
|
Esq., containing a full and impartial account
of his claim to the title and estates of George, |
|
|
|
|
Earl
of Crawfurd and Lindsay. With an account of his trial for forgery….Written by
himself" |
|
|
|
|
Dairy, 1812] which was printed at Dairy, in
Ayrshire, and was published before the sentence |
|
|
|
was carried into execution. After some delay
the sham earl was shipped off to Botany Bay, and |
|
|
|
arrived in New South Wales in 1813. Many
persons in Scotland continued under the belief that |
|
|
|
he had been harshly treated, and had fallen a
victim to the perjured statements of witnesses |
|
|
|
who were suborned by Lady Mary Crawford. It was
not disputed that the documents which had |
|
|
|
been
put in evidence really were forged; but it was suggested that the forgery had
been |
|
|
|
|
accomplished without his knowledge, in order to
accomplish his ruin. Public feeling was aroused |
|
|
|
in his favour, and he was regarded not only as
an innocent and injured man, but as the rightful |
|
|
|
heir of the great family whose honours and
estates he sought. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'During
his servitude in Australia, John Lindsay Crawfurd contrived to ingratiate
himself with |
|
|
|
MacQuarrie [sic - Macquarie], the governor of
New South Wales, and got part of his punishment |
|
|
|
remitted,
returning to England in 1820. He immediately recommenced proceedings for
the |
|
|
|
|
recovery of the Crawfurd honours; and, as his
unexpected return seemed to imply that he had |
|
|
|
been unjustly transported, his friends took
encouragement from this circumstance, and again |
|
|
|
came forward with subscriptions and advances.
Many noblemen and gentlemen, believing him |
|
|
|
to
be injured, contributed liberally to his support and to the cost of the
proceedings which he |
|
|
|
had begun. At last the case came,--and came
under the best guidance--before the Lords |
|
|
|
|
Committee of Privileges, to which it had been
referred by the king. Lord Brougham was counsel |
|
|
|
in the cause, and he publicly expressed his
opinion that it was extremely well-founded. Many of |
|
|
|
the claimant's adherents, however, were
deterred from proceeding further in the matter by the |
|
|
|
unfavourable report of two trustworthy
commissioners who had been appointed to investigate |
|
|
|
the
affair in Scotland. On the other hand, Mr. Nugent Bell, Mr. William Kaye, and
Sir Frederick |
|
|
|
Pollock, with a host of eminent legal
authorities, predicted certain success. Thus supported, |
|
|
|
the pretender assumed the rôle of Earl of
Crawfurd, and actually voted as earl at an election |
|
|
|
of Scotch peers at Holyrood. Unfortunately for
all parties, the claimant died before a decision |
|
|
|
could be given either for or against him. His
son, however, inheriting the father's pretensions, |
|
|
|
and
also apparently his faculty for raising money, contrived to find supporters,
and carried on |
|
|
|
the case. Maintaining his father's
truthfulness, he declared that his ancestor, the Hon. James |
|
|
|
Lindsay Crawfurd, had settled in Ireland, and
that he had died there between 1765 and 1770. |
|
|
|
leaving a family, of which he was the chief
representative. On the other hand, Lord Glasgow, |
|
|
|
who had succeeded by this time to the estates,
insisted that the scion of the family who was |
|
|
|
supposed
to have gone to Ireland, and from whom the pretender traced his descent, had
in |
|
|
|
reality died in London in 1745, and had been
buried in the churchyard of St. Martin's-in-the- |
|
|
|
Fields. It was finally proved that a record
remained of the death of James Lindsay Crawfurd |
|
|
|
in
London, as stated, and 120 genuine letters were produced in his handwriting
bearing a |
|
|
|
|
later date than that year. The decision of the
House of Lords was--"That from the facts now |
|
|
|
before us we are satisfied that any further
inquiry is hopeless and unnecessary." This opinion |
|
|
|
was given in 1839, and since that time no
further steps have been taken to advance the claim. |
|
|
|
Strange to say, Lord Glasgow allowed the body
of the original claimant to be interred in the |
|
|
|
family mausoleum; and it has been more than
suggested that if John Lindsay Crawfurd was not |
|
|
|
the man that he represented himself to be, he
was at least an illegitimate offshoot of the same |
|
|
|
noble house, and that had he been less
pertinacious in advancing his claims to the earldom, he |
|
|
|
might have ended his days more happily.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl
of Crawford |
|
|
|
|
|
and 8th Earl of Balcarres |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A man who was infinitely more famous in death
than he ever was in life….. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 25th Earl died in Florence, Italy in
December 1880. His body was embalmed by an Italian |
|
|
|
chemist, laid in an Italian-wood shell and
sheathed in lead. To make doubly sure, two further |
|
|
|
wooden coffins were added. With these elaborate
precautions completed, the Earl's body |
|
|
|
|
began its long journey home. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Traditionally, the Earls of Crawford and
Balcarres were buried at Haigh Hall in Lancashire, but |
|
|
|
the vault was full. A new mortuary chapel had
just been finished at Dunecht (12 miles west of |
|
|
|
Aberdeen) and was as yet unoccupied. The new
chapel was solidly constructed of granite, and |
|
|
|
the only entrance to the burial crypt was down
a flight of eight steps leading from outside the |
|
|
|
chapel. With the burial ceremony over, workmen
sealed the entrance to the crypt with four |
|
|
|
massive granite slabs and filled the crevices
between the slabs with cement. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One
Sunday morning in May 1881, the new Earl's housekeeper was walking near the
chapel |
|
|
|
when
she smelled a strange aromatic perfume arising from the crypt. In the next
few days, |
|
|
|
others
remarked on the odd smell so persistently that the new Earl ordered an
inspection. |
|
|
|
|
Workmen
found a gap between the granite slabs which they attributed to a natural
subsidence |
|
|
|
of
the soil and they further attributed the strange smell to decaying flowers
within the vault. |
|
|
|
They straightened the slabs, filled the cracks
with cement, covered the whole entrance with |
|
|
|
soil and planted it with shrubs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In September 1881, Mr Yeats, the Earl's family
solicitor, received a mysterious note at his |
|
|
|
|
Aberdeen office. "Dear Sir," the
letter ran, "the remains of the late Earl of Crawford are not |
|
|
|
beneath the chapel at Dunecht, as you believe.
The scent of flowers ascending from the crypt |
|
|
|
will, on investigation, prove to be something
else." The letter was signed "Nabob." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yeats contacted the builder who had carried out
the inspection of the vault. The builder |
|
|
|
|
reassured Yeats, who as a result dismissed the
letter as a grisly practical joke without |
|
|
|
|
bothering to inform the Earl. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Early in December 1881, some tradesmen working
at Dunecht House noticed that the soil |
|
|
|
|
covering the entrance of the crypt had been
tampered with and told the Earl. He summoned |
|
|
|
Yeats, who, recalling the earlier note, called
in the police. Inspection left no doubt that the |
|
|
|
tomb had been violated. Picks and shovels,
stolen from a nearby toolshed, littered the lawn. |
|
|
|
Three sets of footprints, made by hobnailed
boots and all different, showed in the mud. One |
|
|
|
of the granite slabs had been moved and was
propped up by a piece of wood, leaving a gap |
|
|
|
of 18 inches. The raiders had chosen an ideal
time, as the break-in had occurred the night |
|
|
|
|
before, when a sudden storm had effectively
covered any noise. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
With grim foreboding, the police entered the
crypt where they found the wooden coffins, the |
|
|
|
lead
coffin and the Italian-wood shell strewn about the floor, but there was no
sign of the |
|
|
|
body of the Earl. The mystery of the strange
smell which saturated the air of the vault was, |
|
|
|
however, solved; it came from the aromatic wood
of the shell made in Italy. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The police poured every available man into
Dunecht and combed the countryside for clues. |
|
|
|
|
In the meantime Yeats believed that the
mysterious "Nabob" held the answer. He inserted |
|
|
|
|
notices in the agony columns of the British
press asking Nabob to come forward, without |
|
|
|
|
result.
He then, on his own initiative, offered a £50 reward to the writer of the
note if he came |
|
|
|
forward. This time, Nabob's greed got the
better of his discretion. He wrote to Yeats |
|
|
|
|
assuring him that the Earl's body was still in
the Dunecht area. He refused, however, to |
|
|
|
|
disclose its hiding place until the
'desperadoes' who had carried it off were brought to justice. |
|
|
|
He
had no wish, he said, to be murdered by them or to be suspected by the police
as an |
|
|
|
|
accomplice. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A few days later, the Government offered a
reward of £500 and a free pardon to anyone, not |
|
|
|
being the guilty party, who gave information
leading to the arrest of the grave-robber(s). From |
|
|
|
all
over Britain letters poured in, giving thousands of hiding places for the
Earl's body. Some |
|
|
|
writers claimed they had seen visions; others
swore that they had helped carry the body under |
|
|
|
threats. One letter made out such a good case
against two Aberdeen men, Thomas Kirkwood |
|
|
|
and
John Philip, that the police arrested and charged them with the crime. Only
watertight |
|
|
|
alibis
saved them. When all the letters had been sifted, the police concluded that
Nabob was |
|
|
|
the only person who had real knowledge of the
crime, but he remained discreetly silent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public interest in the case was waning when,
five months later, an Aberdeen man named George |
|
|
|
Machray, a gamekeeper, came forward with some
fresh information. As a result, the police |
|
|
|
|
arrested a man named Charles Soutar, a
rat-catcher who supplemented his income by poaching, |
|
|
|
mainly on the Dunecht estate. No sooner had he
been taken into custody than he confessed he |
|
|
|
was "Nabob." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
His story was that one night in April 1881 he
was poaching deer near Dunecht when he heard a |
|
|
|
rustling
of bushes. Thinking the gamekeepers were looking for him, he fled but he
tripped and |
|
|
|
fell. Before he could rise, two men with
blackened faces pinned him to the ground. As he lay |
|
|
|
helpless, two more men who spoke 'like English
gentlemen' loomed out of the dark. One of the |
|
|
|
newcomers put a pistol to his head and seemed
bent on killing him until one of his original |
|
|
|
|
assailants told the armed man 'It's all right,
it's only the rat-catcher on a poaching venture.' |
|
|
|
When dawn broke, Soutar crept back into the
woods, where he saw a carefully camouflaged |
|
|
|
mound. He dug into it with his fingers and was
horrified to find the embalmed body of a man, |
|
|
|
wrapped in a blanket. The makeshift grave
reeked of an aromatic perfume. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Based on Soutar's story, a party of police went
to Dumbrock Wood where they found the body |
|
|
|
exactly
where Soutar had said it was. Although Soutar stuck doggedly to his story of
the men |
|
|
|
in
the woods, the police found it too hard to believe and charged him with
breaking into the |
|
|
|
crypt. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Soutar
was tried in October 1882 before Lord Craighill in the High Court in
Edinburgh. He |
|
|
|
|
pleaded
''not guilty.' At his trial, evidence began to pile up inexorably against
Soutar. Witness |
|
|
|
after witness testified that he had discussed
the disappearance of the Earl's body long before |
|
|
|
anyone but the body-snatcher could have known
about it. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Soutar's counsel put the case for the defence
simply. His story of the black-faced men was true. |
|
|
|
Why, he asked, would a guilty man draw
attention to the crime by writing the 'Nabob' letter and |
|
|
|
persistently discussing the subject with
half-a-dozen witnesses? Plainly, Soutar was an innocent |
|
|
|
man - a man who feared for his life, but was
determined to keep interest in the crime alive until |
|
|
|
the real criminals were brought to justice. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Solicitor General for Scotland, Alexander Asher, in his speech for the Crown,
left the |
|
|
|
|
defence's argument threadbare. The crime could
only have been committed by someone who |
|
|
|
knew Dunecht intimately and none knew it better
than the self-confessed poacher, Soutar. |
|
|
|
Why had Soutar persistently called attention to
the crime? Simple, said Asher; there could be |
|
|
|
only two reasons for the ghoulish theft -
either to hold the Earl's family to ransom, or in the |
|
|
|
hope that a reward would be offered. In either
case, so long as the theft of the body went |
|
|
|
undiscovered, the crime itself was useless.
When the crypt had been re-sealed without |
|
|
|
|
suspicion, Soutar was forced to write the Nabob
note, which Yeats had ignored. In desperation, |
|
|
|
said Asher, Soutar had then been forced to make
a second raid on the tomb and prop up the |
|
|
|
granite slab so that there could be no doubt
that the vault had been violated. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After retiring for a mere 25 minutes, the jury
found Soutar guilty and he was sentenced to five |
|
|
|
years' penal servitude. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It seems to me that there are a number of
unanswered questions in this case - is it likely that |
|
|
|
Soutar,
who does not seem to have been over-endowed with intelligence, hatched the
whole |
|
|
|
plot
on his own? If he did, how did he single-handedly manage to pry up the
massive granite |
|
|
|
slabs?
- he was reported to have been a small, weedy man. In any event, the fact
that three |
|
|
|
different sets of footprints had been found
after the second raid was never explained. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The special remainder to the Barony of Cremorne
created in 1797 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From the "London Gazette" of 11
November 1797 (issue 14064, page 1081):- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'His Majesty's Royal Letters being received,
granting the following Dignities, Letters Patent are |
|
|
|
preparing to be passed under the Great Seal of
this Kingdom accordingly [including] to Thomas, |
|
|
|
Viscount
Cremorne, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, the Dignity of
Baron |
|
|
|
|
Cremorne,
of Dawson-Grove, in the County of Monaghan; and in Default of such Issue,
to |
|
|
|
|
Richard
Dawson, Esq; Nephew of the said Thomas Viscount Cremorne, and the Heirs Male
of |
|
|
|
his Body lawfully begotten.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Robert Crichton, 8th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 8th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar was hanged
for the murder of John Turner, a fencing- |
|
|
|
|
master who had put out Crichton's eye in a
fencing match five years earlier. The following |
|
|
|
|
lengthy account is taken from a series entitled
"Historic Tragedies of London Life" by |
|
|
|
|
W.W. Hutchings, and which was serialized in the
Adelaide 'Advertiser.' This particular |
|
|
|
|
instalment appeared on 3 August 1901:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Among the noblemen who followed James VI [of
Scotland] to England to share the good things |
|
|
|
of which Queen Elizabeth's successor had the
disposal, was Lord Sanquhar, the head of an |
|
|
|
|
ancient and honourable family which had held
the rank of baron for some 300 years. According |
|
|
|
to Sir Edward Coke, who drew up a report of the
strange events now to be related, the baron |
|
|
|
was "a man of great courage and wit,
endeared with many excellent gifts, as well natural as |
|
|
|
acquired." This great lawyer was the Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas at the time these things |
|
|
|
fell out, and no doubt had excellent
opportunities of forming a correct estimate of Sanquhar's |
|
|
|
character; yet it is not easy to believe that a
man of true courage could ever have been guilty |
|
|
|
of the conduct to which he allowed himself to
descend. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'In 1607, four years after James Stuart came
south, Lord Sanquhar was visiting at Lord Norreys' |
|
|
|
house
in Oxfordshire, and there met a fencing-master from Whitefriars, John Turner
by name, |
|
|
|
who had been engaged to entertain the company
with his feats of skill and to cross foils with |
|
|
|
any who chose to enter the lists against him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Among those who challenged him was young
Sanquhar, and, most unfortunately, in the course |
|
|
|
of the fencing Turner struck his antagonist in
the eye and thrust the ball out of its socket. The |
|
|
|
eye must have been put back, for Sanquhar
himself afterwards spoke of suffering less pain in it |
|
|
|
after a while, and said that for at least two
years he hoped for complete recovery. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The injury, however, was a serious one. For
many days the sufferer's life was in danger, and in |
|
|
|
the end he completely lost the use of the
damaged organ. According to Wilson, a contemporary |
|
|
|
historian, Sanquhar brought the punishment upon
himself by affronting the fencing-master and |
|
|
|
maliciously
setting himself to degrade him in the eyes of his patrons, so provoking
Turner that |
|
|
|
he determined to make him smart for his
arrogance and ill-will, without intending, however, to |
|
|
|
punish him so severely as he actually did. This
version of the affair is unsupported, and is, on |
|
|
|
the face of it, improbable to the point of
incredibility. Even if Sanquhar was guilty of |
|
|
|
|
provocative behaviour, of which there is no
proof, it is not to be believed that the hurt inflicted |
|
|
|
upon
him was aught but pure accident. If the young nobleman was really seeking to
humiliate |
|
|
|
Turner in the eyes of his pupils and patrons,
it was only playing into his hands to inflict upon him |
|
|
|
an
injury for which the only excuse that could be urged was lack of skill in the
fencing-master. |
|
|
|
Sanquhar himself afterwards protested that on
taking up his foil he explained he was doing so |
|
|
|
only as a learner, and not as one that would
contend with a master in his own profession, and |
|
|
|
requested therefore that he should be treated
"as a scholar," which meant that the face should |
|
|
|
be exempted from attack; and I know of no
reason for doubting this statement. To accept it, |
|
|
|
however, is only to involve Lord Sanquhar in
the greater condemnation for his subsequent |
|
|
|
|
behaviour.
Had he really treated the fencing-master with scorn and contumely, he might
have |
|
|
|
been excused for believing that the wound in
the eye was inflicted wilfully and in resentment. |
|
|
|
But after the explanation he gave at the taking
up of the foils, the idea that the injury was |
|
|
|
intentional ought never to have entered his
mind. This seems to have been the view generally |
|
|
|
taken
of the affair; and Turner's expression of regret was accepted as sincere by
everyone |
|
|
|
except the sufferer himself. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unhappily Lord Sanquhar appears from the first
to have suspected malicious intent, and he |
|
|
|
|
brooded over the thought until it ripened into
a certainty, and the desire for revenge became a |
|
|
|
fierce obsession. If Wilson, the contemporary
writer already spoken of, could be believed, the |
|
|
|
craving
for vengeance was awakened in his soul by a casual remark of Henry the Fourth
of |
|
|
|
France. While the Scottish noble was at the
French Court the King is said to have asked him |
|
|
|
how he lost his eye. "It was done with a
sword," was his vague reply, for he was willing to have |
|
|
|
it thought that the wound was received in more
dignified circumstances than in a bout at the |
|
|
|
foils with a common fencing-master. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Thereupon the King enquired, "Does the
man live?" which question, says Wilson, in his uncouth |
|
|
|
style, "gave an end to the discourse, but
was the beginner of a strange confusion in his working |
|
|
|
fancy." 'Tis a pretty story, but has, I
fear, no basis in fact. Lord Sanquhar himself, though |
|
|
|
|
afterwards he went minutely into his motives
and feelings, breathed not a syllable about this |
|
|
|
conversation,
and, had it actually taken place, it is incredible that he should have missed
such |
|
|
|
an opportunity of representing his vengeance as
having been instigated by a monarch, and a |
|
|
|
monarch so renowned for chivalry as Henri Quatre. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'When,
two years after the accident, Lord Sanquhar came back from France, he found
that |
|
|
|
Turner
was at Greenwich Palace, "playing," to use the expression of those
days, before King |
|
|
|
James and his father-in-law, the King of
Denmark; and so blind, according to his own account, |
|
|
|
had his rage against the man become, that he at
once made up his mind to seek him out and |
|
|
|
run
him through, though well aware that to commit such an outrage at the Court
would be |
|
|
|
treated
as a serious aggravation of his crime. He failed, however, to find his
quarry, and, |
|
|
|
|
learning that he had gone to London, he
followed him thither, but again missed him; and the |
|
|
|
first news he could get of him in town was
that, by a strange coincidence, he had gone to |
|
|
|
|
Lord
Norreys' place, where the original mischief was done. For the time,
therefore, Lord |
|
|
|
|
Sanquhar laid aside his purpose, and took a
journey to Scotland. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The change of scene, however, did not rid him
of his murderous purpose, and on finding himself |
|
|
|
again in London, he once more set about
tracking down his prey. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'He now resolved upon a change of tactics.
Until this time, if he is to be believed, he had never |
|
|
|
had
any intention but to avenge his wrong with his own hand. But now, according
to his own |
|
|
|
story, he began to despair of a favourable
opportunity, for while he himself was well-known at |
|
|
|
Whitefriars, where Turner lived, the
fencing-master was not familiar to him, and he had to take |
|
|
|
with him those who knew Turner better than
himself in order to "make siccar" of his man. He, |
|
|
|
therefore, "agreed with" two of his
countrymen, who, to use his rather fine phrase, "undertook |
|
|
|
the acting of this tragedy" - in simple
words he hired a brace of ruffians to commit an act of |
|
|
|
murder. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'My
readers, I think, will not be satisfied that this is the real explanation of
his decision to |
|
|
|
|
perpetrate the crime by deputy. It is most
unlikely that he could have had any difficulty in |
|
|
|
|
recognising
the man, whom he had stood up to at the foils, and who had been almost |
|
|
|
|
constantly in his mind's eye for years; or if
he had any such difficulty, what could have been |
|
|
|
easier than to get a public character like
Turner pointed out to him? Is it not a good deal more |
|
|
|
likely that he feared that if he attacked
Turner, unless he took him so completely by surprise |
|
|
|
as to incur the contempt due to cowardice and
treachery, he would be worsted, and might |
|
|
|
even suffer more than the loss of any eye? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'However this may be, of the fact that he did
"agree with" the men to assassinate Turner there |
|
|
|
can be no doubt; but, to quote another of his
euphemisms, "nothing ensued upon it." How it was |
|
|
|
that the scheme missed fire we know not; but
the probability is that the fellows decamped with |
|
|
|
their earned money, not choosing to go any
further with the sorry and perilous business. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Sanquhar
now had occasion to travel on the Continent, and was away for some time, but
on |
|
|
|
his return, he once more set himself to compass
Turner's destruction, and finally prevailed upon |
|
|
|
two of his servants, Robert Carlisle and
Gilbert Gray, to do the deed. Gray, however, could not |
|
|
|
bring himself to such a piece of wickedness.
"Repenting," says Sir Edward Coke, "of a purpose |
|
|
|
and act so barbarous, vile, and bloody, being
touched with the motion of the Holy Ghost," he |
|
|
|
resolved to back out of the affair, and,
fearing his patron's wrath, he started for Harwich to take |
|
|
|
ship for Denmark. Carlisle was a more
determined villain. Telling his master of Gray's defection, he |
|
|
|
volunteered to carry through the business
himself, and he said he would do it as soon as Turner |
|
|
|
was back in London, even though he perished in
the attempt. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'It
was early in May, 1612 that Gray "fell quite off." On the 11th of that month - five long
years |
|
|
|
after the mischance at the foils - about 7
o'clock in the evening, Carlisle, and with him a page of |
|
|
|
Lord
Sanquhar's named Irving, came upon Turner at a tavern in Whitefriars near the
fencing |
|
|
|
school, sitting just outside the door with a
friend. Either Carlisle or Irving, or both of them, must |
|
|
|
have had some acquaintance with Turner, for
they saluted him, and he civilly invited them to |
|
|
|
drink with him. For answer Carlisle turned
round, saw to the priming of a pistol which he had |
|
|
|
concealed upon him, cocked it, and then
suddenly, wheeling around, discharged it point blank at |
|
|
|
the
man who had just offered him hospitality.
The ball entered the heart, and with the |
|
|
|
|
exclamation
"Lord have mercy upon me! I am killed!" the poor fellow fell to the
ground, and |
|
|
|
almost instantly expired. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The murderers at once bolted, in different
directions. As soon as the bystanders had recovered |
|
|
|
from their consternation they gave chase.
Carlisle made good his escape, bur Irving, the page, |
|
|
|
being less familiar with the locality, ran into
a blind alley, and before he could get out again his |
|
|
|
pursuers were upon him, and he was secured. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'This,
however, was but a partial satisfaction to outraged public feeling. It was
not Irving who |
|
|
|
had fired the fatal shot, but Carlisle.
Moreover, there was a strong suspicion that even Carlisle |
|
|
|
was only in a legal and not also in a moral
sense the principal in the crime. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord
Sanquhar's malice against Turner appears to have become notorious, and the
suspicion |
|
|
|
that
he was the contriver of the base and cruel deed must have been greatly
strengthened by |
|
|
|
the fact that both Carlisle and Irving were
known to be in his service. That a dastardly murder |
|
|
|
should have been committed in open day in the
City of London, and almost in the shadow of the |
|
|
|
court,
was in itself enough to move the public to anger in an exceptional degree;
that the |
|
|
|
|
actual
murderers should have been Scotsmen, and the probable contriver of the crime
one of |
|
|
|
those
Scottish nobles whose selection for honour and emolument by the King was
keenly |
|
|
|
|
resented by his English subjects, were
circumstances that greatly exacerbated an indignation |
|
|
|
already sufficiently bitter and violent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Exigent and clamant, therefore, was the demand
that justice be done upon the criminals and |
|
|
|
especially upon the man in whose rancorous
breast the murder had the birth. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'But there were difficulties in the way. By
ordinary process of law Lord Sanquhar could not be |
|
|
|
charged as an accessory until Carlisle, the
principal, had been attainted, and this would take |
|
|
|
a long time unless the latter could be
arrested. But he fled to Scotland, and once there he |
|
|
|
|
was not amenable to English law! Yet unless the
King was to incur grave odium, it was |
|
|
|
|
necessary that the murderers should speedily be
brought to justice. James therefore set his |
|
|
|
lawyers to work, and as the result of his
counsels with them, by an unusual exercise of |
|
|
|
|
sovereign authority, he issued a royal
proclamation, giving all his subjects, Scottish as well as |
|
|
|
English, authority to apprehend Carlisle and
Gray, as well as Lord Sanquhar, who had made |
|
|
|
|
himself scarce, having either hidden himself
away in London or fled to the country. For the |
|
|
|
|
production of his body, if living, the reward
of £500, and if dead of £300, was offered; smaller |
|
|
|
rewards, respectively of £100 and £50, were
offered in the case of Carlisle. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Messengers
were at once dispatched hotfoot to all parts, and also to Scotland, to carry
this |
|
|
|
proclamation
and raise the hue and cry, and such was the dispatch used that Carlisle was
laid |
|
|
|
by the heels "ere he was to warm his
house" across the Tweed, and Gray at Harwich, where he |
|
|
|
was about to embark for Denmark or Sweden. As
to Lord Sanquhar, as soon as he heard that |
|
|
|
the proclamation was to be or had just been
issued, thought it prudent to give himself up, and |
|
|
|
on the Thursday after the murder he appeared at
Lambeth Palace and surrendered himself to |
|
|
|
Archbishop Abbot. He, however, solemnly
protested his innocence, and knowing that Carlisle and |
|
|
|
Gray had both got clean away, he no doubt
reckoned that it would be impossible to bring home |
|
|
|
to
him the crime, since there had been no communication on the subject between
him and |
|
|
|
Irving,
the man in custody. But when Gray was brought in the case began to wear a
more |
|
|
|
|
serious look. Under examination the man made a
clean breast of his share in the business, and |
|
|
|
when Lord Sanquhar was confronted with him, in
the presence of the King himself, and was |
|
|
|
closely pressed, it was not long before he,
too, broke down and confessed that the murder was |
|
|
|
of his procurement. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'It was on the 27th of June, six weeks after
the crime, that he was brought to trial in the Court |
|
|
|
of the King's Bench, in Westminster Hall. He
had claimed to be tried by his peers, but the plea |
|
|
|
was not allowed, since though he was a lord in
Scotland, he was not a peer of the English |
|
|
|
|
Parliament, and so he had been lodged, not in
the Tower, but in the prison of the King's Bench, |
|
|
|
and was now indicted as Robert Creighton. Asked
if he was guilty or not guilty, he embarked |
|
|
|
upon a long speech, which is a curious
psychological study. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'In form it is categorical and pedantic, such
as might have been composed by a lawyer or a |
|
|
|
theologian. As to its spirit I confess that it
is not easy to take a favourable view of it. There are |
|
|
|
profuse expressions of contrition, there is a
great parade of candour, yet he admits no more than |
|
|
|
could be proved against him, and in spite of
his express acceptance of his doom as both |
|
|
|
|
righteous and inevitable, it is patent that he
is all along appealing to the clemency of the King. |
|
|
|
From this point of view the address, whatever
may be thought of its sincerity, was framed not |
|
|
|
without skill. It was just such a prelection as
would interest and titillate a monarch like James, |
|
|
|
a
dull, conceited, pragmatic pedant, with a voracious appetite for the coarsest
flattery. |
|
|
|
|
Sanquhar enumerates categorically the points of
his crime. "I have offended (1) God, (2) my |
|
|
|
Prince, (3) my native country, (4) this
country, (5) the party murdered" - his unfortunate |
|
|
|
|
victim, it will be seen, comes far down in the
list - "(6) his wife, (7) posterity, (8) Carlisle, and |
|
|
|
lastly (9) my own soul." Then he takes up
each point in turn, but it is his offence "unto the |
|
|
|
King's Majesty" that he is most emphatic
about. "If I had more than my life to make satisfaction |
|
|
|
unto him I would think myself happy. And this
favour I request of your lordships, that the King |
|
|
|
may be truly informed of the sincerity of my
confession, and of my hearty repentance, and if |
|
|
|
it please him not of his favour and clemency to
pardon me this offence, yet I humbly desire |
|
|
|
that
I may die in his grace and favour." He then deals with the imputation,
regarding it as a |
|
|
|
blemish upon his reputation, which was
"more dear to him than life," that although nursing |
|
|
|
|
hatred against Turner in his heart he had
professed to be reconciled to him. By way of reply |
|
|
|
to this accusation he protests at great length
that from the time he received his hurt he had |
|
|
|
been consistent in his hatred, and since his
first return from France had sought every occasion |
|
|
|
of wreaking his vengeance. Feeling that he was
thus making himself out as a very sorry fellow, |
|
|
|
he declared that though he had had occasion to
draw his sword both in the field and upon |
|
|
|
|
sudden violences, and had both given and
received hurts, yet was he never guilty of blood |
|
|
|
|
unto death till now: only - and here he glances
again at the King - "only I must confess that |
|
|
|
upon commission from the King to suppress
wrongs done me in my own country, I put divers |
|
|
|
of
the Johnsons to death; but for that, I hope, I shall need neither to ask God
nor man for |
|
|
|
forgiveness. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'As the prisoner at the bar pleaded guilty, the
solicitor-general, who was none other than the |
|
|
|
great
Sir Francis Bacon, tendered no evidence, but delivered himself of a long
speech, |
|
|
|
|
addressed not to the court, but to the culprit
himself. It was for the most part a fulsome, yet |
|
|
|
magnificent eulogy of the King; and it was on
this occasion and in this connection that Bacon |
|
|
|
employed one of the most famous of his
metaphors. "Then did his Majesty," he exclaimed, |
|
|
|
|
"stretch forth his long arms (for kings,
you know, have long arms), one of them to the sea, |
|
|
|
where he took Gray shipped for Sweden; the
other to Scotland and took hold of Carlisle, ere |
|
|
|
he was warm in his house." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The judge, Justice Yelverton, followed in the
same strain of gross adulation, but not at all in |
|
|
|
the same grand manner, and then, in the formula
which is used to this day, passed the death |
|
|
|
sentence. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Great efforts were made by Sanquhar's friends
to obtain a commutation of the capital penalty, |
|
|
|
and Archbishop Abbot also used his influence
with the King to the same end. But James was |
|
|
|
obdurate. It has been said that he had a
personal grudge against the misguided nobleman. |
|
|
|
|
While Lord Sanquhar was in France, so the tale
goes, someone remarked in his hearing that he |
|
|
|
was the son of David (Rizzio); and he had
failed to resent the profane witticism. The story is |
|
|
|
probably apocryphal. At any rate, it is easy
without it to understand why James refused to |
|
|
|
exercise his prerogative of mercy. The man who
could be base enough to fling a Raleigh to the |
|
|
|
Spanish wolves who were howling for his blood,
was not likely to incur the slightest risk of |
|
|
|
|
giving offence to his Southern subjects by
plucking Sanquhar from the gallows. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'So two days later the miserable man was
brought to what is now known as New Palace Yard, |
|
|
|
and
there, before the great gate of Westminster Hall, paid the penalty of his
crime, after |
|
|
|
|
delivering an address in which he declared
himself to be of the Roman Catholic faith, and which |
|
|
|
breathes
a genuine contrition not to be felt in his speech at the trial. Carlisle and
Irving [Gray?] |
|
|
|
had
already suffered for their offence, on gibbets set up in Fleet-street over
against the |
|
|
|
|
entrance
to Whitefriars, the precinct to which their victim belonged and in which they
had |
|
|
|
treacherously done him to death.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The remainder to the Earldom of Cromartie and
subsidiary titles created in 1861 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From the "London Gazette" of 18
October 1861 (issue 22557, page 4143):- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The
Queen has been pleased to direct letters patent to be passed under the Great
Seal, |
|
|
|
|
granting the Dignities of Baroness,
Viscountess, and Countess of the United Kingdom of Great |
|
|
|
Britain and Ireland unto Anne, Duchess of
Sutherland, wife of George Granville William, Duke |
|
|
|
of Sutherland, by the names, styles, and titles
of Baroness Macleod, of Castle Leod, in the |
|
|
|
|
county of Cromartie, Baroness Castlehaven, of
Castlehaven, in the same county, Viscountess |
|
|
|
Tarbat, of Tarbat, in the same county, and
Countess of Cromartie; and further granting, after |
|
|
|
her decease, the titles of Baron Macleod, Baron
Castlehaven, Viscount Tarbat, and Earl of |
|
|
|
|
Cromartie unto Francis Sutherland Leveson Gower
(commonly called Lord Francis Sutherland |
|
|
|
Leveson Gower), the second surviving son of the
said Anne, Duchess of Sutherland, and the |
|
|
|
heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, with remainders over." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
"remainders over" referred to are fully set out in the Journals of
the House of Lords |
|
|
|
|
(121
LJ p 74) and read - "and, in default of such issue [i.e. of Francis
Sutherland Leveson |
|
|
|
|
Gower], to each of the other younger sons of
the said Anne Duchess of Sutherland, by her |
|
|
|
present or any future husband hereafter to be
begotten, and to the heirs male of the body and |
|
|
|
respective bodies of such sons severally and
successively, one after another, as they shall be |
|
|
|
according to seniority of age and priority of
birth, the elder of such sons and the heirs male of his |
|
|
|
body always to be preferred and take before the
younger of such sons and the heirs male of his |
|
|
|
and
their respective body and bodies, and in default of such issue, unto the said
Francis |
|
|
|
|
Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (commonly called Lord
Francis Sutherland-Leveson-Gower) and the |
|
|
|
heirs of his body lawfully begotten and to be
begotten, and, in default of such issue, to each of |
|
|
|
the other younger sons of the said Anne Duchess
of Sutherland, by her present or any future |
|
|
|
husband hereafter to be begotten, and to the
heirs of the body and respective bodies of such |
|
|
|
sons severally and successively, one after
another, as they shall be according to seniority of |
|
|
|
age and priority of birth, the elder of such
sons and the heirs of his body always to be preferred |
|
|
|
and to take before the younger of such sons and
the heirs of his and their respective body and |
|
|
|
bodies, and, in default of such issue, to our
trusty and well-beloved Florence Sutherland- |
|
|
|
|
Leveson-Gower
(commonly called Lady Florence Sutherland-Leveson-Gower), daughter of
the |
|
|
|
said Anne Duchess of Sutherland, and the heirs
of her body lawfully begotten and to be |
|
|
|
|
begotten, and in default of such issue to each
of the other daughters of the said Anne Duchess |
|
|
|
of Sutherland, by her present or any future
husband hereafter to be begotten, and to the heirs |
|
|
|
of
the body and respective bodies of such daughters severally and successively
one after |
|
|
|
|
another as they shall be according to seniority
of age and priority of birth, the elder of such |
|
|
|
daughters and the heirs of her body always to
be preferred and take before the younger of |
|
|
|
such daughters and the heirs of her or their
respective body and bodies." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There is, however, a further proviso to be
taken into account - "Provided that if the said Francis |
|
|
|
Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
or any other person taking under the said letters patent shall |
|
|
|
|
succeed to the Earldom of Sutherland, and there
shall upon or at any time after the occurrence |
|
|
|
of such an event be any other younger son or
any other daughter of the said Anne, Duchess of |
|
|
|
Sutherland,
or any heir of the body of such other son or daughter, then, and so often as
the |
|
|
|
same may happen, the succession to the honours
and dignities thereby created shall devolve |
|
|
|
upon the son or daughter of the said Anne, or
their heirs, who would be next entitled to succeed |
|
|
|
to the said honours if the person so succeeding
to the Earldom of Sutherland were dead without |
|
|
|
issue." The effect of this proviso is that
the peerages became subject to a "shifting remainder" |
|
|
|
so that, on certain contingencies happening,
the peerages would pass from one person to |
|
|
|
|
another, even though no death had intervened to
cause such a change. For a fuller explanation |
|
|
|
of a "jumping remainder" see the note
under the Barony of Buckhurst. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you can understand all that, you're doing
well. The important point to note is that, while at |
|
|
|
first
glance the remainder seems to repeat itself in the eighth line of the second
paragraph above |
|
|
|
(by
going back to Francis Sutherland-Leveson-Gower), close examination will show
that, for the |
|
|
|
balance of that paragraph the references are to
"heirs of the body" rather than "heirs male
of |
|
|
|
the body." As a result, the succession was
opened up so that the peerages could descend to |
|
|
|
female heirs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In order to make understanding of the remainder
easier, it can be summarised as follows:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1) to her second surviving son Lord Francis
Leveson-Gower, and the heirs male of his body; |
|
|
|
(2) to each other of her younger sons and the
heirs male of their
bodies; |
|
|
|
|
(3) to Lord Francis Leveson-Gower and the heirs
of his body (i.e. not heirs male) [with the |
|
|
|
result that the peerages could descend through female lines]; |
|
|
|
|
|
(4) to each other of her younger sons in
priority of birth and the heirs of their bodies (again, |
|
|
|
not heirs
male); |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(5) to her daughter Lady Florence and the heirs
of her body; and |
|
|
|
|
|
(6) to each other of her daughters in priority
of birth and the heirs of their bodies. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the event, section (2) above became
redundant, since the Countess had only the one son. On |
|
|
|
the death of the Countess, she was succeeded by
her son Francis, who died in 1893, leaving |
|
|
|
two
surviving daughters. As a result, the Earldom fell into abeyance until 1895
when the |
|
|
|
|
abeyance was terminated in favour of the elder
daughter. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Godfrey Bewicke-Copley, 6th Baron
Cromwell |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord Cromwell died after being thrown from his
horse in August 1982. The following report of the |
|
|
|
inquest into his death appeared in "The
Guardian" on 11 September 1982:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord Cromwell suffered severe brain damage
when he was thrown twice by a partly-trained |
|
|
|
horse, an inquest in Coventry was told yesterday. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Grey Lad, the four-year-old gelding that threw
him, and his two other horses were destroyed |
|
|
|
on his widow's orders two days after his death. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lord Cromwell was exercising Grey Lad in a
field when the horse lunged forward and he fell off, |
|
|
|
hitting the back of his head on the hard
ground. Although dazed, he insisted on remounting |
|
|
|
and riding away but moments later stable staff
again saw him fall and land on his head. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'He died four days later in a Coventry
hospital. The Coroner, Mr. Francis Kenderdine, recorded |
|
|
|
a verdict of accidental death on Lord Cromwell,
the Government's senior stockbroker, of the |
|
|
|
Manor House, Great Milton, Oxfordshire. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'There was no doubt his fatal injuries were
caused by one of the falls Mr. Kenderdine said. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Lady Cromwell told the coroner that her
husband wore a top hat when out hunting, but at |
|
|
|
|
other times he seldom wore anything on his head.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Michael Inigo Cross, son of 2nd Viscount
Cross (23 March 1923-2 February 1951) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cross died in February 1951 after disappearing
in the Scottish Highlands. The following articles |
|
|
|
from 'The Times' describe the events:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 February 1951 - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'An R.A.F. mountain rescue team will join in
the search today for Mr. John Michael Inigo Cross, 27, |
|
|
|
younger surviving son of the late Lord Cross,
who has been missing since Friday on the snow- |
|
|
|
covered mountains between Loch Arkaig and Ben
Nevis. They will operate from Fort William, |
|
|
|
Inverness. A rescue party of 84 experienced
hillmen and police searched 40 square miles in the |
|
|
|
area yesterday and on Saturday. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Mr. Cross, who is factor for the West Highland
Estates, lives at Glenan House, Fort William. He |
|
|
|
visited the Glendessary forest on Friday with
the Inverness county agricultural committee and a |
|
|
|
fencer to inspect the deer fences, and arranged
to meet them later. He failed to turn up.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 February 1951 - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'There is still no news of Mr. John Michael
Cross, son of the late Lord Cross, who was lost in |
|
|
|
snowstorms on Friday night in Glendissary
forest, Inverness-shire.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 June 1951 - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The
body of Mr. John Michael Cross, 27, factor for the West Highland Estates, was
found |
|
|
|
|
yesterday by a shepherd in a burn at Caonich,
Glendessary Forest, Inverness-shire. He was the |
|
|
|
brother of Lord Cross, and had been missing
since February 2.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following biography of the 3rd Earl of
Cumberland appeared in the October 1968 issue of |
|
|
|
the Australian monthly magazine "Parade":- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'One December day in 1589 watchers on the
Cornish coast saw a little fleet of six ships creeping |
|
|
|
slowly
with tattered sails and storm-beaten hulls towards the harbour of Falmouth.
As the |
|
|
|
|
vessels straggled into the anchorage they
looked more like the survivors of a desperate naval |
|
|
|
battle than the victors in one of the most
sensational plundering expeditions in British maritime |
|
|
|
history. Hundreds of wounded lay crowded on
heaps of blood-soaked straw below decks. Most |
|
|
|
of their comrades were emaciated by starvation
and shaking with fever. Their commander, the |
|
|
|
dashing piratical Earl of Cumberland, was so
weak that he had himself lashed to the foremast of |
|
|
|
his flagship as he piloted his squadron into harbour. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Yet Cumberland's fouled and leaking ships
were, in fact, floating treasure houses, laden with |
|
|
|
golden loot worth the equivalent of $600,000
from the galleons of Spain and Portugal. For six |
|
|
|
months
he had roamed the central Atlantic, capturing, sinking or burning at least 15
ships in a |
|
|
|
foray that struck terror into the proud navy of
the King of Spain. Queen Elizabeth greeted him |
|
|
|
as one of her greatest heroes, worthy to rank
with Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher and the other |
|
|
|
adventurers
who scourged the seas wherever the warships and treasure galleons of Spain
were |
|
|
|
to be found. To the Spanish, of course,
Cumberland and his compatriots were simply red-handed, |
|
|
|
pirate
cut-throats, outlaws beyond the pale of civilization or mercy if they were
caught. Five |
|
|
|
times he led his marauders out into the
Atlantic treasure routes, bringing home a mass of plunder |
|
|
|
rivalled only by the exploits of the
"dragon of the sea," Sir Francis Drake. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'He should have been one of the richest men in
England. But money flowed like water through |
|
|
|
the hands of the swaggering, dissipated and
wildly extravagant Earl of Cumberland. He wore |
|
|
|
Queen Elizabeth's diamondstudded glove as a
favour in his hat. But the monarch who had |
|
|
|
|
personally reaped a huge share of his plunder
refused even to help pay the debts that over- |
|
|
|
whelmed
his last years. At 47, the glittering Lord Cumberland was dead - bankrupt,
broken in |
|
|
|
spirit, but leaving a name that was to haunt
the Spanish Main for a generation afterwards. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'He was born George Clifford at Brougham Castle
in Westmoreland in August 1558 and succeeded |
|
|
|
to his father's title as third Earl of
Cumberland at the age of 11. The Cliffords were among the |
|
|
|
greatest magnates of the north of England.
Young Cumberland inherited a princely estate and |
|
|
|
quickly set about squandering it in a princely
fashion. He was still in his teens when he wed |
|
|
|
the daughter of his guardian, the Earl of
Bedford, but soon deserted his bride to plunge into a |
|
|
|
courtier's life of gambling, hunting and
fantastic expenditure on clothing and jewels. By 1585 he |
|
|
|
had run through most of his fortune. He decided
that the speediest way to recoup it was to turn |
|
|
|
to the sea. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Queen Elizabeth's court was ringing with the
exploits of the great captains who sailed out in their |
|
|
|
small, well-armed ships to harass England's
inveterate foe, King Philip of Spain. They pounced on |
|
|
|
the ponderous galleons bound for Cadiz with the
gold of Mexico and Peru. They spread fire, terror |
|
|
|
and destruction among the Spanish colonies in
the Americas. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Cumberland was not a born seaman like Drake or
Hawkins. But the peacock courtier-turned- |
|
|
|
pirate was to prove as tough and brilliant a
navigator as any other Elizabethan captain. In 1587, |
|
|
|
with three cockle-shell vessels he cruised down
the South American coast from the Caribbean to |
|
|
|
the River Plate. The prizes scarcely paid the
cost of the expedition, but only a year later the |
|
|
|
aftermath
of the Spanish Armada provided a turning point in Cumberland's fortunes. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'During the historic battle off Dunkirk as the
huge Armada sailed up the Channel, Cumberland |
|
|
|
commanded the 600-ton Bonaventura, one of the
biggest ships in the English Navy. Steering |
|
|
|
headlong into the heart of the action he
attacked the giant San Felipe, killed 200 of her crew, |
|
|
|
set her on fire and drove her out of the
battle. Wounded three times he then sailed up the |
|
|
|
|
Thames to Tilbury, the first man to inform
Queen Elizabeth of the epic tidings that the Armada |
|
|
|
was beaten, scattered and in full retreat. The
jubilant Queen promised the messenger any favour |
|
|
|
he cared to name. It was a warship that
Cumberland wanted, a powerful, heavily armed vessel |
|
|
|
to lead his next foray against King Philip's galleons. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'By June 1589 he was at sea again, and the
Queen's ship Victory and five smaller craft, which he |
|
|
|
equipped himself by pledging the last of his
ancestral estates. Officially it was a naval expedition, |
|
|
|
but
Cumberland knew that nobody, least of all the Queen, would inquire too
closely where his |
|
|
|
plunder came from. And few of Britain's sea
marauders ever came home with the staggering haul |
|
|
|
of gold and silver plate, gems, coin and spices
that the Earl of Cumberland collected in the next |
|
|
|
six months. Before he left the Channel he had
sunk three big French merchantmen bound from |
|
|
|
the
Mediterranean, an act of blatant and ruthless piracy, though he put the crews
ashore |
|
|
|
|
unharmed. Off the Portuguese coast he looted
and burned several galleons laden with spices, |
|
|
|
silks and jewels from the East Indies, meeting
little resistance from the unwieldy enemies. But |
|
|
|
his most sensational coups came a few weeks
later as he cruised round the islands of the Azores |
|
|
|
in the central Atlantic. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The Azores were a customary staging point for
the Spanish treasure fleets returning with ingots |
|
|
|
of gold and silver from the fabulous American
mines. They were also a favourite lurking place for |
|
|
|
the English sea wolves. On the day when he
sighted the islands Cumberland fell on a Spanish |
|
|
|
galleon, boarded her after desperate fighting
and seized gold worth $200,000 before sinking her. |
|
|
|
A
week later, learning that seven ships were sheltering at Fayal, he steered
boldly into the |
|
|
|
harbour
in the teeth of a fierce cannonade from the fortress and plundered them all,
one after |
|
|
|
the other. Next he appeared off the towns of
Graciosa and Santa Maria, seizing, plundering and |
|
|
|
burning more rich prizes under the very eyes of
the terrified inhabitants. Only his attempt to |
|
|
|
capture Santa Maria itself ended in bloody
disaster when two-thirds of his landing party were |
|
|
|
killed or wounded by point-blank fire from the forts. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'His ships now crammed with loot, prisoners and
wounded, Cumberland decided to sail for home, |
|
|
|
the start of a voyage that degenerated into a
nightmare of suffering. Atlantic storms beat the |
|
|
|
fleet hundreds of miles off its course. Fever
raged virulently among the crews. Thirst and |
|
|
|
|
starvation increased the toll of horrors. By
the time Cumberland reached the Channel half his |
|
|
|
men were dead and the remainder existing on a
spoonful of vinegar and a fistful of maggoty |
|
|
|
flour a day. Yet, on the quays of Falmouth, the
gaunt, yellow-faced survivors unloaded a mass |
|
|
|
of treasure that made the pirate Earl the
national hero of the day. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Queen Elizabeth profited hugely from her share
in financing the enterprise and she willingly |
|
|
|
|
supplied another warship when Cumberland set
out again in 1592. This time he joined with Sir |
|
|
|
John
Burgh [1562-1594] off the Azores in capturing and burning the Madre de Dios,
known to |
|
|
|
seamen round the world as the "great
galleon" and the biggest and richest ship afloat on the |
|
|
|
seven seas. The exploit was tarnished by a
furious quarrel between Cumberland and Burgh |
|
|
|
|
over
the division of the spoils, for the Earl's dissolute life between voyages had
again embroiled |
|
|
|
him
in enormous debts. [The result of the quarrel between Cumberland and Burgh
was the |
|
|
|
|
latter's death - he was killed in a sword duel
with a man named John Gilbert]. Eventually |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland lost most of his claim, but the
Queen advanced him the equal of $70,000, cannily |
|
|
|
insisting on being repaid with extortionate
interest after his next expedition. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Though
he made two more cruises as far afield as Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico he
never |
|
|
|
|
repeated the sensational hauls from the Azores
fleet and the "great galleon." In 1594 he swooped |
|
|
|
on the famous Portuguese merchantman, the Cinco
Llagas and left her a burning hulk after taking |
|
|
|
off 200 chests of cinnamon, rubies and pearls.
For the next three years he ornamented Queen |
|
|
|
Elizabeth's court, the close friend of Sir
Walter Raleigh, writing sonnets, gambling, fascinating |
|
|
|
the Queen by his gallantry and piling up
another mountain of debts. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Desperate need for money drove him back to the
sea again and, early in 1598, he began fitting |
|
|
|
out the biggest and costliest of all his
expeditions. With more loans from the Queen and admiring |
|
|
|
courtiers he built for himself the 'Scourge of
Malice,' one of the most powerfully armed ships that |
|
|
|
had ever been launched from the royal dockyard
in Deptford on the Thames. Twenty smaller |
|
|
|
vessels were collected and the celebrated
soldier, Sir John Berkeley, was enlisted as second in |
|
|
|
command of the
1,200 sailors, gunners and pikemen. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'On March 6, 1598, the most imposing piratical
fleet that left the shores of Elizabethan England |
|
|
|
sailed from Plymouth and steered out into the
Atlantic. First Cumberland cruised south to the |
|
|
|
Canary Islands hoping to catch Portuguese East
Indiamen lumbering up the west coast of Africa |
|
|
|
from the Cape of Good Hope. But prizes were few
and small so the Earl crossed to Brazil and then |
|
|
|
to the West Indies for a massive descent on the
settlements of the Spanish Main. His main target |
|
|
|
was San Juan, capital of the island of Puerto
Rico, which Cumberland planned to capture and use |
|
|
|
as a base for
further operations. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'On June 6 San Juan was stormed in a lightning
assault that took the Spanish completely by |
|
|
|
surprise. Then Cumberland's ambitious plans
steadily began to go wrong. A fearful outbreak of |
|
|
|
yellow fever decimated the English invaders,
already weakened by heavy losses in the battle for |
|
|
|
the town. Leaving Sir John Berkeley in command
at San Juan, Cumberland sailed off to hunt down |
|
|
|
treasure ships, but news of the English
onslaught had already sent the galleons scurrying to the |
|
|
|
nearest harbours for refuge. When the Earl
returned to Puerto Rico he found that Berkeley had |
|
|
|
abandoned the fever-riddled ruins of San Juan,
leaving only the graves of 400 of his seamen. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Failure of the grandiose West Indian
expedition was a crushing blow to the debt-haunted Earl |
|
|
|
of Cumberland. Back in London he tried vainly
to raise money to equip another foray. The Queen |
|
|
|
turned a deaf ear. Formerly flattering
courtiers coldly rebuffed him and creditors pursued him |
|
|
|
relentlessly. When he died on October 30, 1605,
he possessed not a penny of the vast treasure |
|
|
|
hoard he had brought home from his far-flung
pirate adventures.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (creation
of 1726) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following biography of Cumberland appeared
in the December 1957 issue of the monthly |
|
|
|
Australian magazine "Parade":- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The ne plus ultra in bloody infamy is the distinction accorded by Englishmen
to George, 1st |
|
|
|
Baron Jeffreys, "The Hanging Judge."
Among Scotsmen this dubious honour is reserved for |
|
|
|
|
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, "The
Butcher of Culloden," who routed the forces of |
|
|
|
Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, in
his gallant but abortive bid for his lost |
|
|
|
|
inheritance of the English throne in April,
1746, on Culloden Moor. In the ensuing blood-bath, |
|
|
|
Cumberland secured the Highlands to the English
Crown by "making a desert and calling it peace." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'A massive, moon-faced 20-stoner, the son of
George II, second Hanoverian king of England, |
|
|
|
Cumberland was as thick in the head as he was
in hocks and hips; and it was to his unimagin- |
|
|
|
ativeness that many of his cruelties were due.
Cumberland had the virtues of cautious courage |
|
|
|
and dependability but the vices of brutishness
and indifference to human suffering. Boorish, dull, |
|
|
|
stolid, he stands forever as the Villain in a
romance of history in which Charles Edward Stuart |
|
|
|
was
the Prince Charming. Fortunately for posterity Cumberland never married.
Throughout his life |
|
|
|
there
are only slight references to the noblewoman to whom he paid his ponderous
court - and |
|
|
|
no
record of his success in "affairs of the heart" - except for a
shadowy "Miss Elliot" who lived |
|
|
|
under his protection for the last years of his
retirement. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Late in 1720 the birth of Charles Edward
Stuart in Rome to the exiled Stuart Pretender to the |
|
|
|
throne raised the hopes of the Jacobite world.
Eight months later William Augustus, who was to |
|
|
|
douse those hopes in blood, saw the light of
day in England. He was the second surviving son of |
|
|
|
of
the Prince of Wales [later George II] and Princess Caroline of Anspach, and a
very beautiful |
|
|
|
child. In a family with a dreary tradition of
mutual hatreds between fathers and sons, it was |
|
|
|
unusual that both his grandfather, George I,
and his parents doted on him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'His father had hated his father [George I] and
when he became King of England in 1727 as |
|
|
|
|
George II, transferred that hatred to his own
elder son Frederick, William Augustus' brother, the |
|
|
|
Prince
of Wales. His father once said of him: "My dear first born is the
greatest ass and the |
|
|
|
greatest
liar and the greatest canaille [riff-raff] and the greatest beast in the
whole world, and |
|
|
|
I heartily wish he was out of it." Both
mother and son tried to deprive Frederick of his right of |
|
|
|
accession
to the English throne and accord it to their beloved fat boy William
Augustus, now |
|
|
|
grown into a beefy youth. They were unable to
do this, but loaded riches and honours on |
|
|
|
|
William in inverse ratio to the hatred they
bestowed on his brother, Frederick. William's income |
|
|
|
was lavishly increased to support his dignity
as the Duke of Cumberland. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Queen Caroline died late in 1737 after a year
of bitter family strife. In the following year, at the |
|
|
|
age
of 17, Cumberland was given £12,000 a year to support him in a naval career.
He was a |
|
|
|
failure as a sailor, and was appointed on his
20th birthday to command the Coldstream Guards. |
|
|
|
Cumberland took to the Army like a duck to
water. Two years later his father took him to the |
|
|
|
Continent for active service. In the summer of
1743 George II, then in his 60th year, led about |
|
|
|
40,000 British and hired Hanoverian troops to
drive the French out of the Rhineland. At the battle |
|
|
|
of Dettingen on June 27 - the last occasion in
which an English king was to lead his troops in |
|
|
|
battle - Cumberland led a brigade, and in the
midst of the British victory was wounded in the leg. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'After Dettingen, Cumberland was promoted
Lieutenant-General. To the mob in England he had |
|
|
|
become "Billy the Bold" and was being
described as outrageously and shockingly military. With the |
|
|
|
he was popular enough as a hard-working,
personally courageous officer, and was respected for |
|
|
|
these qualities. But he was feared for his
severity of discipline, which was counted harsh even |
|
|
|
in an age when 1000 lashes was the customary
punishment for mutiny or stealing. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'On March 6 [1745], within a few weeks of his
24th birthday, Cumberland was gazetted Captain- |
|
|
|
General
of His Majesty's land forces. He had not yet acquired the monstrous obesity
of later |
|
|
|
years although he was tall and massive and much
of the earlier handsomeness had vanished |
|
|
|
from his lard-like face. At Fontenoy in the
summer of 1745 Cumberland showed himself small fry |
|
|
|
against Marshal de Saxe, who, admittedly, was
by way of being a military genius. Billy the Bold |
|
|
|
is said to have burst into a violent fit of
crying when he lost the day and accounts were brought |
|
|
|
in to him of the killed and wounded. But he
marshalled his forces to make an orderly retreat. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'At home Cumberland's defeat was attributed to
the cowardice or treachery of his Dutch allies. |
|
|
|
In the autumn, when news came that the
Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, had landed in |
|
|
|
|
Scotland and routed the British Army at
Prestonpans [21 September 1745], Cumberland was |
|
|
|
appealed
to as the only man capable of averting the destruction of Britain at the
hands of |
|
|
|
Charles and his wild Highlanders. Cumberland
reached London in October, and the attitude of |
|
|
|
the average Londoner was expressed by Horace
Walpole: "The great dependence is on the |
|
|
|
|
Duke," Walpole wrote. "The soldiers
adore him, and with reason, for I am told he is a great |
|
|
|
|
military genius." The French, however, are
reported to have said that "they knew better than |
|
|
|
to take him prisoner for he did them more
service at the head of the British Army." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Instead of following up his victory at
Prestonpans, Charles Stuart delayed for a month; but by |
|
|
|
December he was as far south into England as
Derby. London panicked, and December 6 was |
|
|
|
known as "Black Friday." There was a
run on the Bank of England so great that cheques were |
|
|
|
cashed
in sixpences. Shops were boarded up, and all who could made plans to flee to
the |
|
|
|
|
country. However, instead of marching towards
London, Charles, on the advice of his Council, |
|
|
|
retreated,
for one English army under Marshal Wade and another, 10,000 strong under |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland, were converging upon him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'On January 30, 1746, Cumberland arrived at
Holyrood, and slept in the very bed used by Prince |
|
|
|
Charles during his stay in Edinburgh. His
presence stiffened the morale of the English Redcoats, |
|
|
|
for although biased and brutal, he was a
vigorous and capable officer, and showed himself |
|
|
|
|
determined
to stamp out the rebellion even if he had to exterminate the entire race of
Scots to |
|
|
|
do it. The Duke's unpopularity grew, especially
after Linlithgow Palace, birthplace of Mary Queen |
|
|
|
of
Scots and home of many Stuart kings, went up in flames the morning after his
troops had |
|
|
|
been quartered there. Whether the fire was due
to vandalism, as the Scots alleged, or to |
|
|
|
|
accident, as Cumberland claimed. has never been
decided. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'On February 6 [1746], Cumberland reached
Perth, in Scotland, after having "thought fit to let |
|
|
|
the soldiers a little loose, with proper
precautions, that they might have some sweets with all |
|
|
|
their fatigues." After passing through
Perth, he had to reckon with mounting hostility. At Glamis |
|
|
|
Castle, he was entertained by the Strathmores
with all honour due to his rank; but when he |
|
|
|
proposed to set out next day, the saddle girths
of his and his escort's horses were spirited away |
|
|
|
by the hairy laird who haunted the castle.
After his delayed departure, his hosts burned the bed |
|
|
|
"desecrated by the sleep of the German
swine." As he went on his way through the little Scottish |
|
|
|
town of Brechin, the weighty gallant blew a
kiss to a pretty girl among the crowd watching him. |
|
|
|
She showed him her back in an offensive
gesture, and the Scottish villagers displayed their |
|
|
|
contempt of him in a roar of laughter. Not all
the rigours of martial law cruelly applied could |
|
|
|
quench the courageous contempt of Scotsmen for
Cumberland. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'At the beginning of March, Cumberland issued a
proclamation offering mercy to all laying down |
|
|
|
their
arms; but the poor response led him to the conclusion that nothing would cure
the |
|
|
|
|
"petulant, insolent spirit of the
people" other than "some stroke of military authority and
severity." |
|
|
|
His army was not only better than the Young
Pretender's in point of numbers, but immeasurably |
|
|
|
superior in discipline, organisation, training,
efficiency and supplies. The Highlanders harried the |
|
|
|
English with guerrilla warfare, but it would
have had to have been on a much larger scale to have |
|
|
|
been effective. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Accordingly,
on April 16, when the two armies met at Culloden, a few miles east of
Inverness, |
|
|
|
the
Highlanders were a ragged, starving and weary band, their chief weapons
courage and the |
|
|
|
grim determination of despair. They were
prevented from coming to grips with the British by a |
|
|
|
storm of grape-shot, and within 25 minutes the
battle was over, Charles was in flight, and the |
|
|
|
day
was irretrievably and hopelessly lost for the Young Pretender's cause.
"The moor was |
|
|
|
|
covered with blood, and our men, what with
killing the enemy, dabbling their feet in the blood |
|
|
|
and splashing it about one another, looked like
so many butchers," wrote a Hanoverian officer |
|
|
|
under Cumberland. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'There were only 1000 of the original 5000
Scots who entered the battle left on the field, and |
|
|
|
of these many were murdered in cold blood
during the terrible three days that followed. |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland gave no quarter to his fallen foe.
It is said of him that while he was riding over the |
|
|
|
battlefield a wounded rebel grimaced defiance.
Cumberland turned to Major (later General) Wolfe, |
|
|
|
the hero of Quebec: "Shoot me that
scoundrel who dares to look on us with such contempt," he |
|
|
|
ordered. Wolfe is said to have replied:
"My commission is at Your Royal Highness' disposal, but I |
|
|
|
can never consent to become an executioner." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Immediately
after the battle there was a search made through the adjacent houses,
and |
|
|
|
|
wounded Highlanders were dragged out and shot
or clubbed to death. A number of prisoners were |
|
|
|
rounded up in a barn which was locked and set
on fire. The dead were stripped naked and left |
|
|
|
lying
on the battlefield for days, while those who wished to pass that way were
obliged to ride |
|
|
|
over the rotting corpses. One Highlander, left
for dead and unable to rise because of his wounds, |
|
|
|
saw a coach approaching and painfully dragged
himself out of its path. "The coach came so near |
|
|
|
that the coachman made a lick at me with his
whip as if I had been a dog," he later testified. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The
pogrom which Cumberland instituted after the blood-bath of Culloden was a
terrible |
|
|
|
|
systematic massacre of wounded and fugitives.
Every cottage was searched and many innocent |
|
|
|
people were murdered. Cumberland began a
methodical occupation of the country moving from |
|
|
|
Inverness to Fort Augustus, and establishing
camp there, whence he sent out a series of punitive |
|
|
|
expeditions.
Tradition has it that Fort Augustus was the scene of monstrous orgies, with
the |
|
|
|
wives of rebels stripped naked and made to ride
horseback races for the entertainment of the |
|
|
|
British soldiers and their camp followers. All
Scots, even the poorest tenants, were dubbed |
|
|
|
|
suspect of having taken part in the rising and
were systematically deprived of their flocks and |
|
|
|
grain. Along the main roads, soldiers hunted
down the Jacobites, and virtually wiped out many |
|
|
|
clans, in pursuit of Cumberland's policy of
devastation and plunder. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The news of the victory at Culloden reached
London on April 25. The House of Hanover and |
|
|
|
the Whigs had had a bad scare and, delirious
with joy, backed up Cumberland, the Great Man |
|
|
|
of the Hour, in his policy of revenge. His
father made him a gift of £10,000, and to evidence |
|
|
|
the nation's gratitude an income of £40,000 a
year was granted him by Parliament in addition |
|
|
|
to his income as a Prince of the Royal House.
Portraits of the triumphant Duke were sold in the |
|
|
|
streets,
his name was a popular toast in alehouses, and his image was hung outside
dozens of |
|
|
|
inns. (In Scotland, however, the eyes were
always picked out of the signs.) As one British |
|
|
|
|
rhymer put it fulsomely, "Sweet William
ruled the day." Handel composed "Judas Maccabeus" in |
|
|
|
celebration of his triumphant return to London
in July from the now silent, sullen and deserted |
|
|
|
Highlands. His only regret in this dreadful
affair was that he could find no one to betray the |
|
|
|
fugitive
Young Pretender for even the £30,000 of "blood-money" he had
offered. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Another sound trouncing at the hands of the
French under Marshal de Saxe, upon his return |
|
|
|
to the Continent, however, took some of the
"starch" out of Cumberland. He was appointed to |
|
|
|
the sinecure of Ranger of Windsor Forest, and
settled down to the life he liked best - hunting, |
|
|
|
horse-breeding, dicing, and gambling on a
mammoth scale. Public opinion was reacting against |
|
|
|
the acclamations given him after Culloden. When
it was proposed to give him the freedom of |
|
|
|
one of the city's ancient Companies, one of the
aldermen cried out: "Then let it be of the |
|
|
|
|
Butchers" - and afterwards, Cumberland's
nickname of "Butcher" stuck. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'By 1749, to the bewilderment of his ageing
father, Cumberland's name had become a byword |
|
|
|
for barbarous and arbitrary discipline. Horace
Walpole wrote: "His savage temper increases every |
|
|
|
day....He loves blood like a leech."
Walpole was commenting on the Duke's avowed determination |
|
|
|
to keep a certain court-martial sitting for six
months if need be, to force it to increase its order |
|
|
|
of 200 lashes for a soldier who had overstayed
his leave by a single day! He had already attained |
|
|
|
the gross obesity which oppressed him like a
deformity. At a ball given by his crony, the dull rake |
|
|
|
Lord
Sandwich, he tumbled down in the middle of a country dance and "lay like
a turtle on the |
|
|
|
top shell, for his face could not reach the
ground by some feet." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'By
1750 Cumberland was one of the wildest plungers in England, losing as much as
£10,000 on |
|
|
|
a
boxing wager and gambling away as much as £30,000 in a single night. The
following year - |
|
|
|
when "poor Fred" his brother died,
and old George II not only absented himself from the funeral |
|
|
|
but allowed no fitting funeral ceremony -
English opinion expressed itself: "If it had only been |
|
|
|
William; if it had only been 'the
Butcher'," Englishmen said. In 1757 Cumberland was again abroad |
|
|
|
as Commander-in-Chief. He was defeated at
Hastenbeck and agreed to the shameful conditions |
|
|
|
imposed
by the French [in the Treaty of Kloster-Zeven, 8 September 1757] to disband
his army |
|
|
|
and
evacuate Hanover. Discredited, he returned to England, where his disgrace was
completed |
|
|
|
by his father's furious refusal to ratify the
conditions of the surrender. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Cumberland retired to private life and meddled
with politics, doing what he could, after the death |
|
|
|
of
his father in 1760 and the accession of his nephew, to displace the ministry
of Lord Bute, |
|
|
|
George III's former tutor and a Scot, and
backing Pitt, the people's idol. He was already a victim |
|
|
|
of gout and in 1764 the wound he had received
at Dettingen broke out afresh. He died in October |
|
|
|
of the following year.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland and
Strathearn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prince Henry Frederick was a younger brother of
King George III. In keeping with family tradition, |
|
|
|
Henry Frederick was alleged to have married, in
a secret ceremony on 4 March 1767, one Olive |
|
|
|
Wilmot,
who reputedly gave birth to a daughter, Olivia, in 1772. It is with Olivia
and her |
|
|
|
|
daughter Lavinia that we are concerned with in
this note. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Olivia
was an imposter who attempted to claim that she was the daughter of the Duke
of |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland. Her story can be found in old
editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the following |
|
|
|
being from the 11th edition. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Olivia was born Olive Wilmot, the daughter of
Robert Wilmot, a house painter and embezzler, in |
|
|
|
Warwick.
At the age of 10 she was sent to board with her uncle, James Wilmot, rector
of |
|
|
|
|
Barton-on-the-Heath.
In 1789 she rejoined her father in London. She had a talent for painting |
|
|
|
and studied art with John Thomas Serres
(1759-1825), marine painter to George III, and she |
|
|
|
married
Serres in 1791. They had two daughters. Olive exhibited her paintings at the
Royal |
|
|
|
Academy of Arts and the British Institution,
but was financially reckless; both she and her |
|
|
|
|
husband were imprisoned for debt. The Serres
came to a parting of the ways, with acrimony |
|
|
|
on both sides; from Serres because Olive had
had several affairs when he was away, and from |
|
|
|
Olive
because she was given an allowance of only £200 per annum. George Fields, an
artist |
|
|
|
friend, moved in with Olive and she gave birth
to his son prior to her divorce in 1804. She then |
|
|
|
devoted herself to painting and literature,
producing a novel, some poems and a memoir of her |
|
|
|
uncle the Rev. Dr Wilmot, in which she
endeavoured to prove that he was the author of the |
|
|
|
Letters of Junius. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1817, Olive wrote a letter to the Prince of
Wales, claiming that she was the natural daughter |
|
|
|
of Prince Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland
by Mrs Olive Payne (who was James Wilmot's |
|
|
|
sister and her actual aunt). She asked the
Prince for financial support. In a petition to George |
|
|
|
III, she put forward a claim to be the natural
daughter of the Duke of Cumberland, the King's |
|
|
|
brother. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1820, (after her father, her uncle and King
George III had died) she revised her claim. James |
|
|
|
Wilmot, she claimed, had secretly married the
Princess Poniatowski, sister of King Stanislaus I |
|
|
|
of Poland, and their daughter had married the
Duke of Cumberland in 1767 at the London house |
|
|
|
of a nobleman. Olive claimed to be the only
child of this marriage, and that her mother had died |
|
|
|
'of a broken heart' on the Duke of Cumberland's
'second' and 'bigamous' marriage to Anne Horton |
|
|
|
(the Duke had actually only married once, the
'first' marriage being a fabrication by Olive). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She herself, ten days after her birth, was, she
alleged, taken from her mother, and substituted |
|
|
|
for the still-born child of Robert Wilmot.
According to Olive's fantasies, King George III had |
|
|
|
|
learned the 'truth' and had given her £5,000 in
cash and a yearly pension of £500 for life. She |
|
|
|
also
claimed to have received support from the King of Poland and to have been
created |
|
|
|
|
Duchess of Lancaster by George III in May 1773,
which, she said, entitled her to the income |
|
|
|
of the Duchy of Lancaster. In a memorial to
George IV she assumed the title of Princess Olive |
|
|
|
of Cumberland, placed the royal arms on her
carriage and dressed her servants in the royal |
|
|
|
|
liveries. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mrs Serres' claim was supported by documents,
and she bore sufficient resemblance to her |
|
|
|
|
alleged father to be able to impose on numerous
gullible people. In 1821, she had herself |
|
|
|
|
rebaptized
as the daughter of the Duke of Cumberland at Islington Church, and
'announced' |
|
|
|
her parentage in several letters to the
newspapers and in pamphlets. She actually succeeded |
|
|
|
in obtaining some courtesies in response to her
claims of royal status, such as being permitted |
|
|
|
to pass through the Constitution Gate. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
same year, however, she was arrested again for debt and placed in the King's
Bench |
|
|
|
|
Prison.
She appealed to the public for contributions, placing posters reading 'The
Princess of |
|
|
|
Cumberland in Captivity!' all over London, and
publishing, in 1822, further details of her claims. |
|
|
|
On her release, she had an affair with Sheriff
J W Parkins, a London eccentric, who turned |
|
|
|
|
against her when she failed to honour her debts
to him. She next had an affair with a young |
|
|
|
man who called himself William Henry
FitzClarence, who claimed to be the illegitimate son of |
|
|
|
the Duke of Clarence. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Olive managed to persuade Sir Gerard Noel, an
aged member of Parliament, to make inquiry into |
|
|
|
her claims, but by this time the royal family
were fighting back, having located her birth |
|
|
|
|
certificate, a statement by Robert Wilmot
stating that she was her natural and lawful father, |
|
|
|
and a statement from Princess Poniatowski that
none of King Stanislaus' sisters had ever been |
|
|
|
to England. In 1823 Sir Robert Peel, then Home
Secretary, speaking in Parliament, responded to |
|
|
|
Noel's speech in Olive's favour with a
denunciation of her documents as forgeries and her story |
|
|
|
as a fabrication. It was concluded that her
claims were false, but Olive escaped prosecution |
|
|
|
for forgery. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Her husband, who had never given her
pretensions any support, expressly denied his belief in |
|
|
|
them in his will. Olive continued a shadowy
existence in and out of debtors' prisons. In 1830 |
|
|
|
she again published a pamphlet staking her
claim on royalty……Mrs Serres' pretensions were |
|
|
|
probably
the result of an absurd vanity. Between 1807 and 1815 she had managed to
make |
|
|
|
the
acquaintance of some members of the Royal family, and from this time onwards
seems to |
|
|
|
have been obsessed with the idea of raising
herself, at all costs, to their social level. The |
|
|
|
|
tale once invented, she brooded so continuously
over it that she probably ended by |
|
|
|
|
believing it herself. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
***************** |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Olive
died in November 1834. It will be recalled that Olive had two daughters by
John Thomas |
|
|
|
Serres. The older of these two was Lavinia
Serres (1797-1871) who married a painter, Anthony |
|
|
|
Ryves in 1822, divorcing him in 1841 because he
refused to acknowledge her as 'Princess |
|
|
|
|
Lavinia'. She kept up her mother's fight and
added a new touch to the campaign which, if |
|
|
|
|
accepted, would have made her a claimant to
Queen Victoria's throne. Lavinia revealed that she |
|
|
|
was in possession of documents which proved
that, before he had married Queen Charlotte, |
|
|
|
George III had married a Quaker named Hannah
Lightfoot in April 1759. If this secret marriage |
|
|
|
could be proved, it meant that all of George
III's children by Charlotte were illegitimate and |
|
|
|
that the throne should have descended to the
descendants of the Duke of Cumberland - i.e. |
|
|
|
Lavinia. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1866, she took her claim to court where, one
by one, a mass of documents were produced |
|
|
|
with most being dismissed as forgeries. The
jury didn't leave the box to reject Lavinia's claim. |
|
|
|
The authorities impounded all of Lavinia's
documents and suppressed all evidence relating to |
|
|
|
Hannah Lightfoot, for which they were
criticized in the newspapers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lavinia's claim regarding Hannah Lightfoot must
be treated as being without foundation. Even |
|
|
|
if Hannah did marry the future George III in
1759, it would have been a bigamous marriage, |
|
|
|
|
since Hannah was already married to an Isaac
Axford at the time. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
***************** |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following lengthy article appeared in the
'Manchester Times' on 4 November 1898, part of a |
|
|
|
series by Dalrymple Belgrave called
"Romances of High Life." Reference is made in the article to |
|
|
|
a
book attributed to Lady Anne Hamilton [d 1846], daughter of the 9th Duke of
Hamilton. Some |
|
|
|
of
the contents of this book - for example the story that the real author of the
Letters of Junius |
|
|
|
was Dr. James Wilmot, and references to Hannah
Lightfoot - indicate that perhaps Olivia Serres |
|
|
|
may have had some role in its compilation. The
book was published in 1832, and was speedily |
|
|
|
suppressed. My copy is a reprint dated 1883. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'In the year 1866, a Mrs. Ryves took advantage
of the Legitimacy Declaration Act [1858] to bring |
|
|
|
a matter before the Divorce Court that had
amused the curious of a past generation. It was then |
|
|
|
forty-four years since the public had first
heard of the claims and wrongs of a certain person who |
|
|
|
called herself Princess Olive of Cumberland. At
no time were those pretensions believed in by any |
|
|
|
persons of sense who had taken the trouble to
examine into them, while their absurdity had more |
|
|
|
than once been publicly exposed. Mrs. Ryves,
who brought the suit in the Divorce Court, was the |
|
|
|
daughter
of the lady who claimed to be the Princess Olive of Cumberland. The latter
lady was |
|
|
|
born as far back as 1772, and for a large
portion of her life nobody even doubted the fact that |
|
|
|
she was the daughter of Robert Wilmot, house
painter, of Warwick. As the daughter of Robert |
|
|
|
Wilmot
she was baptised at St. Nicholas's Church, Warwick, on April 15th, 1772, and
as her |
|
|
|
father
and mother were people in a humble position of life, but good character,
there could be |
|
|
|
few people about whose birth there was less
doubt or romance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Much of Olivia Serres's early life was spent
at the house of a bachelor uncle, the Rev. James |
|
|
|
Wilmot, D.D., who was rector of
Barton-on-the-Heath, Warwickshire, and a Fellow of Trinity |
|
|
|
College, Oxford. Dr. Wilmot was an
old-fashioned Oxford don, devoted to port wine and to books. |
|
|
|
His devotion to the former however, is said to
have grown, and while he attended to his cellar |
|
|
|
his niece Olivia had the free run of his
library. It is said that in his library there were a good many |
|
|
|
specimens of that type of work which is
described as "top shelf books" - that is to say, works of |
|
|
|
a former age in which the higher morality or
otherwise of a latter age finds very much to take |
|
|
|
exception
to. To these books the young lady seems to have devoted a good deal of
her |
|
|
|
|
attention. Her old uncle, who had an exalted
opinion of his own talents, and the brilliancy of his |
|
|
|
University career, considered that a hard fate
had condemned him to rust away in a country |
|
|
|
rectory. This made him rather an ill-tempered
old gentleman, but his talk about Oxford and the |
|
|
|
great people he had known there always found a
willing listener in his niece. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'When she was 17 years old her father, who had
gone to London and established himself there in |
|
|
|
trade, had her back to live with him. Mr.
Robert Wilmot, though only a house painter, had shown |
|
|
|
some
taste for art, and had painted some pictures of Warwick Castle. This had led
to his |
|
|
|
|
becoming acquainted with a well-known artist,
John Thomas Serres [1759-1825], who was the |
|
|
|
son of Dominic Serres [1722-1793], the Marine
Painter to King George III, to which post he after- |
|
|
|
wards succeeded, and who had come down to
Warwick to paint the castle and grounds. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Serres had helped the house painter in his
trade, and had some acquaintance with him in London, |
|
|
|
and calling at the house after the arrival of
the young lady he was at once much struck with her. |
|
|
|
She
was a very pretty girl, and very lively and clever; and although people who
knew much |
|
|
|
about her, even when she was young, seem to
have mistrusted her, it is not perhaps surprising |
|
|
|
that the artist - who was then a man of thirty
- should have fallen in love with her. She seems |
|
|
|
to have had some talent for painting, and it
was arranged that he should give her lessons. The |
|
|
|
lessons ended by his becoming engaged to marry
her. At that time Serres had arranged to pay |
|
|
|
a three years' visit to the Continent for the
purpose of studying art, and his plans were not |
|
|
|
changed by his engagement, which, it was
arranged between them, should be kept secret. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'As soon, however, as he had left the young
lady announced her engagement. Serres's father |
|
|
|
seems to have greatly disapproved of it, and to
have tried to break it off. The young man, |
|
|
|
|
however, was very much in love, and after he
had been on the Continent for about a year was |
|
|
|
brought back to England by a letter from
Olivia, who had been sent back to her uncle's, and |
|
|
|
found the old gentleman's temper more trying
than ever. Serres returned, and though some of |
|
|
|
his friends had a good deal to tell him against
the young lady, he refused to listen to anything |
|
|
|
against her, but hurried down to the
Warwickshire Rectory. There they agreed that the marriage |
|
|
|
should be hastened on, and on September 17th,
1791, they were married by Dr. Wilmot, at |
|
|
|
Barton-on-the-Heath Church. After they left the
church, the old gentleman gave him some rather |
|
|
|
remarkable advice. "Serres," he said,
"she is now your wife; but mind, keep her employed, or she |
|
|
|
will be plotting some mischief." Before
very long Serres had reason to see how much wisdom |
|
|
|
there was in the warning. Of course, she made
him quarrel with his family, whom she did not |
|
|
|
forgive for opposing the marriage, though they
tried to make the best of it when it could not be |
|
|
|
helped. She began to be jealous of him, and
then she very soon gave him cause to be jealous of |
|
|
|
her. Serres, as the son of a painter to the
King, had some acquaintance with some members of |
|
|
|
the Royal Family. Mrs. Serres informed him that
the Duke of Cambridge had paid her a visit, and |
|
|
|
had made love to her. The next day, when they
were out for a walk together, Serres made a |
|
|
|
low bow to a gentleman, who said, "How
d'ye do, Serres?" "Who is that?" asked Mrs. Serres. Her |
|
|
|
husband
informed her that it was her imaginary lover, the Duke of Cambridge. Many of
her |
|
|
|
|
injuries to her husband were less shadowy. She
spent a great deal of money, and got him into |
|
|
|
debt,
and after some years there was a separation between them. It only lasted for
a few |
|
|
|
months, when Serres, who was as much in love
with her as ever, made it up again. Shortly |
|
|
|
afterwards his father died, and he was
appointed Marine Painter to the King in his stead. Part |
|
|
|
of his duty was, during the war with France, to
go into harbours on the enemy's coast and make |
|
|
|
sketches. For this he was allowed a ship and
paid £100 a month. When he came back from this |
|
|
|
service he found that his wife had not only
been spending a great deal of money, but she had |
|
|
|
signed his name to bills and to a bond for
£150. Under these circumstances he became bankrupt |
|
|
|
rather than convict her of forgery. After that
they lived some wretched years together. Serres |
|
|
|
was still in love with his wife, though he
often seems to have had very good reason to be |
|
|
|
|
suspicious of her conduct. At last they separated. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'After their separation Mrs. Serres, who had
shown a great talent for her husband's art, gave |
|
|
|
lessons in painting. Amongst her pupils were
some members of the Royal Family, and she in 1806 |
|
|
|
was
appointed landscape painter to the Prince of Wales. She also began to write
books, |
|
|
|
|
publishing "Olivia's Letters to her
Daughters," and a work on the Athanasian Creed. Serres, it is |
|
|
|
said, told a friend that the title of the
former work ought to be "Olivia's Letters to her Daughters, |
|
|
|
or Satan Reproving Sin." About this time
there began to be signs that the life she was leading, |
|
|
|
and the dangerous excitement of having some
slight acquaintance with persons of exalted rank, |
|
|
|
was having an injurious effect upon her reason.
In 1808 she began an incoherent correspondence |
|
|
|
with the Prince Regent. She offered to lend him
£20,000, and at the same time she begged him |
|
|
|
for pecuniary assistance. She compared him to
Julius Caesar, and she talked in a mad way about |
|
|
|
the politics of the illustrious persons of the
day. In one letter she asked: "Why, sir, was I so |
|
|
|
humbly
born?" The matter of birth is one which most persons believe cannot be
mended. Mrs. |
|
|
|
Serres, however, appeared to have thought
otherwise. Her uncle, Dr. Wilmot, had died in 1808, |
|
|
|
and in 1813 she wrote an absurd memoir of the
old clergyman, in which she represented him as |
|
|
|
a person of great social and political
influence, and on obviously absurd grounds asserted he had |
|
|
|
written the Letters of Junius. In a second
pamphlet on the same subject there was a good deal |
|
|
|
about the question of handwriting, which was a
subject in which she was evidently beginning to |
|
|
|
take a great deal of interest. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'In
the meantime the notion that her birth was of a more romantic character than
the parish |
|
|
|
register made out seemed to be taking
possession of her. In 1817 she petitioned the King on the |
|
|
|
subject,
alleging that her father was the late Duke of Cumberland, the younger brother
of his |
|
|
|
Majesty, and that her mother was a married
sister of her father's. By 1820, however, when the |
|
|
|
King and the Duke of Kent had died, her story
had evolved into a very ingenious romance, which |
|
|
|
made
out that she was a Royal Princess. To do this she invented, first of all, a
Polish Princess, |
|
|
|
the daughter of Stanislaus, King of Poland. To
this Royal lady Dr. Wilmot, her bachelor uncle, was |
|
|
|
secretly married. The issue of the marriage was
one daughter, Olive, who was placed under the |
|
|
|
care of Dr. Wilmot's married sister. Of course,
this daughter grew up marvellously beautiful, and |
|
|
|
two great men were in love with her. One of
them was the Earl of Warwick, the other was the |
|
|
|
King's brother, the Duke of Cumberland. The
Earl gave way to the Duke, and the young lady |
|
|
|
consenting to that arrangement, the Duke
married her at Lord Archer's house in London on |
|
|
|
|
March 4th, 1767, in the presence of the Earl of
Warwick and James Adder, D.D. Of this marriage |
|
|
|
there was also one daughter, Olive, who was
substituted for a still-born child of Mrs. Robert |
|
|
|
Wilmot, her grandfather's sister-in-law, and
brought up as their child. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Such was the story by which this lady who
would be a Princess got rid of the very obvious and |
|
|
|
substantial evidence of her humble birth. And
this story was, so she declared, in a statement |
|
|
|
which she addressed to the English people,
proved by an immense quantity of documents which |
|
|
|
she
had in her possession; and professed to have obtained from the late Duke of
Kent. At this |
|
|
|
time she obtained a carriage from a confiding
tradesman, and had the royal arms painted on it, |
|
|
|
and drove out in it with her servants dressed
in the royal livery. A paper called the "British |
|
|
|
|
Luminary"
took up her case, and every week published a good deal about her. She
failed, |
|
|
|
|
however, to attract much attention. Still,
however, she was full of resources in hitting upon |
|
|
|
expedients to come before the public. One day
an evening paper wrote that "the public would be |
|
|
|
a little amused and surprised to hear of the
baptism of a full-grown Princess, which took place |
|
|
|
at Islington Church a few days ago. About
eleven o'clock of the forenoon of Thursday last a |
|
|
|
carriage
apparently of a person of rank, was observed standing at the door of the
curate's |
|
|
|
house, and was soon after driven to the gate of
the churchyard. The curiosity of the neighbours |
|
|
|
was much excited on seeing a portly,
well-dressed dame, apparently about 50, handed from the |
|
|
|
coach by a dashing young fellow about half her
age. They stayed for some time in the church, |
|
|
|
and those who looked into the parish register
afterwards found baptised Olive, daughter of |
|
|
|
|
Frederick Henry, Duke of Cumberland, and Olive,
his first wife, born 1772." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The same paper afterwards published a letter
from "Princess Olive," written in the third person, |
|
|
|
and
stating that the person who accompanied the Princess was a relative, William
Henry |
|
|
|
|
FitzClarence, Esq. Her Royal Highness, wishing
"to approach her God and to satisfy the English |
|
|
|
nation as to her legitimacy, adopted the
called-for measure - bound by every principle of |
|
|
|
|
conscientious honour to respect the religion
which so eminently distinguished Great Britain, and |
|
|
|
preserved its eternal repose amidst the turmoil
of surrounding States." What was perhaps not a |
|
|
|
very
unusual occurrence in her life, an arrest for debt, gave her an opportunity,
for she |
|
|
|
|
petitioned the Court of Queen's Bench that as a
legitimate daughter of the Duke of Cumberland, |
|
|
|
and, therefore, one of the Royal Family, she
was privileged from arrest. The court, however, |
|
|
|
decided against her on a technical point, that
she had not raised the question of privilege in time. |
|
|
|
Her next step was a somewhat more dangerous
one, for she produced what purported to be the |
|
|
|
will of George III, witnessed by Chatham and
Dunning. This document left £15,000 to "Olive, the |
|
|
|
daughter of our brother of Cumberland." In
1822 she took proceedings in the Prerogative Court |
|
|
|
on the alleged will, but again she was foiled
by legal technicalities, for the court held that in the |
|
|
|
case of the King's will it had no jurisdiction. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'There are always amiable persons who are
looking about for oppressed individuals whose cause |
|
|
|
they can champion, and one of them, Sir Gerard
Noel, a county member [for Rutland], and a |
|
|
|
baronet of old family, was attracted by the
wrongs of the Princess Olive. In 1823 he brought her |
|
|
|
case forward before the House of Commons, and,
presenting a petition from her, moved that a |
|
|
|
Committee of the House should be appointed to
consider it. A more celebrated politician seconded |
|
|
|
this
motion - namely, Mr. Joseph Hume; but he was careful to state that he only
wished to say |
|
|
|
that he considered that her case should be
inquired into, and that he expressed no opinion as to |
|
|
|
its merits. This brought a reply from Sir
Robert Peel, that appeared at the time to be perfectly |
|
|
|
crushing, in which he alluded to the
inconsistent pretensions that she had made at other times, |
|
|
|
and giving other reasons for treating her
claims as based on fraud or delusion. In 1825, Serres, |
|
|
|
who, on account of his wife's extravagance, was
always in difficulties, died in the Rules of the |
|
|
|
King's Bench Prison, and about this time Mrs.
Serres herself was arrested for debt, and lived |
|
|
|
within the Rules of the King's Bench Prison
until her death in 1834. She left a daughter, Lavinia, |
|
|
|
who had been brought up by her and had been educated in an atmosphere of
make-believe and |
|
|
|
delusion. This daughter married, and for some
years seems to have not troubled about her claims |
|
|
|
to illustrious birth, or at all events they did
not come before the public. Her marriage, however, |
|
|
|
was not a happy one, and she obtained a
judicial separation from her husband. After that event |
|
|
|
she seems to have taken a renewed interest in
her claims. She at first tried to take proceedings |
|
|
|
on the alleged will of George III in the Court
of Chancery, but there were legal obstacles in her |
|
|
|
way. Then she published an appeal to Royalty, a
pamphlet setting out her claim to be called |
|
|
|
Princess Lavinia of Cumberland and Duchess of
Lancaster. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'This
publication was remarkable because it published what purported to be the
marriage |
|
|
|
|
certificate of George III with Hannah
Lightfoot, the Quakeress. There had been some mention of |
|
|
|
this story before in a book of "Memoirs of
the Court," which were supposed to be by Lady Anne |
|
|
|
Hamilton. That lady, however, had nothing to do
with the book, which was full of scandalous |
|
|
|
falsehoods,
many of which still occasionally find their way into print, and there is much
in the book |
|
|
|
to suggest that it was the work of Mrs. Serres,
for all her absurd stories about her uncle, Dr. |
|
|
|
Wilmot, are in it. At length the Legitimacy
Declaration Act was passed, which enabled a person to |
|
|
|
go to the Court of Probate and Divorce and
obtain a judgment as to the genuineness of any |
|
|
|
marriage from which he was descended. Mrs.
Ryves [i.e. Lavinia] determined to take advantage |
|
|
|
of this Act, but at first she was confronted
with a difficulty. Her wish to prove that she was the |
|
|
|
legitimate descendant of the Duke of
Cumberland. The date when this alleged marriage with Olive |
|
|
|
Wilmot was said to have been celebrated was
before the Royal Marriage Act, which invalidated |
|
|
|
the marriage of any descendant of George II
unless with the consent of the reigning sovereign, |
|
|
|
came into force. Therefore there was nothing to
prevent it being a perfectly good marriage. The |
|
|
|
effect of that, however, would have been that
Mrs. Ryve's mother would have been a legitimate |
|
|
|
descendant of George II. If that was the case
the consent of George III would have undoubtedly |
|
|
|
been required to her marriage to Mr. Serres.
This difficulty had not been provided for, for, bulky |
|
|
|
as
the documentary evidence was, there was no consent of George III to the
unfortunate |
|
|
|
marriage of Mr. Serres with Olivia. Possibly
the difficulty never occurred to the person who could |
|
|
|
provide the certificate until it was too late. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Mrs. Ryves, or her advisers, seem to have hit
upon a singularly childish expedient. In 1859 she |
|
|
|
petitioned
the court to declare her mother's marriage with Mr. Serres to be a valid one.
Now, as |
|
|
|
to that marriage, which purported to be between
Olive Wilmot and Mr. John Thomas Serres, there |
|
|
|
did not appear to be any doubt or question, nor
did it appear to the Attorney-general - whose |
|
|
|
business it was to see that the Act was not
used for declaring the issue of invalid marriages to |
|
|
|
be legitimate - that there was any ground for
his interference. The court therefore declared the |
|
|
|
marriage between Mr. and Mrs. Serres to be a
perfectly valid one. Mrs. Ryves, or her advisers, |
|
|
|
appeared to think that after this had been
obtained there could never be any question about the |
|
|
|
matter;
and she then, together with her son, William Henry Ryves, petitioned the
court to |
|
|
|
|
declare that Henry Frederick, Duke of
Cumberland, and Olive, his wife, were lawfully married; and |
|
|
|
that
Olive, afterwards Olive Serres, was their legitimate child; and that the
petitioner, Lavinia |
|
|
|
Ryves, was lawfully married to Anthony Ryves;
and that the second-named petitioner, William |
|
|
|
Henry Ryves, was their lawful child. This
petition, of course, produced an answer from the |
|
|
|
|
Attorney-general, who denied that Olive, the
petitioner's mother, was the daughter of Henry |
|
|
|
Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, and Olive
Wilmot, and that the petitioner's mother was born as |
|
|
|
set forth in the petition, or that Henry
Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, was married as set forth |
|
|
|
in the petition. So at last the issue was
raised in a court of law. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Before the case began, however, the question
of the position of the petitioner and her "locus |
|
|
|
standi" was raised. It was pointed out
that if she proved her mother's legitimacy she would |
|
|
|
illegitimatise herself. It was agreed, however,
that this question should stand over, and that the |
|
|
|
petitioner should be allowed to proceed with
her attempt to prove the marriage of Olive Wilmot |
|
|
|
and the Duke of Cumberland. The case was opened
by her counsel, who, with a good deal of |
|
|
|
embroidery, told the romantic story of Olive
Serres, and incidentally of Dr. Wilmot and the Polish |
|
|
|
Princess. Olive and the Duke of Cumberland had
been married at the house in London of Lord |
|
|
|
Archer by Dr. Wilmot, and the marriage was
witnessed by "Brooke" [the Earl of Warwick was also |
|
|
|
Earl
Brooke] and J. Adder. The counsel read the certificate, which he said was
attested by |
|
|
|
"Chatham
and J. Dunning." He also read another certificate which was exactly to
the same |
|
|
|
effect. He stated that King George III knew of
this marriage, and for this reason he was very |
|
|
|
angry
when he afterwards heard that the Duke had married Lady Anne Horton. It was
in |
|
|
|
|
consequence of this that he gave orders that
Olive, who was born shortly after the second |
|
|
|
marriage, and who had been baptised by Dr.
Wilmot, should be re-baptised as the daughter of |
|
|
|
Robert Wilmot. The order was given in writing,
and the learned counsel read it. "G.R. - Whereas |
|
|
|
it is our Royal will that Olive our niece be
baptised Olive Wilmot, to operate during our Royal |
|
|
|
pleasure. To Lord Chatham." There was a
declaration from Lord Warwick to the same effect. |
|
|
|
Dr. Wilmot, so said the learned counsel, was,
however, able to insist that all proceedings should |
|
|
|
be
solemnly certified by the King and other important persons, because it
happened that he |
|
|
|
possessed a secret of the King's. It was that
in 1759, three years before he was publicly married |
|
|
|
to Queen Charlotte, the King had been privately
married by that very Dr. Wilmot to a lady named |
|
|
|
Hannah Lightfoot. It would, he gravely went on
to say, be necessary to prove that fact in order |
|
|
|
to make the declarations of Hannah Lightfoot
evidence, as the declarations of the wife of the |
|
|
|
head of the family. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Here the Lord Chief Baron interrupted that if
that was so George IV would have had no right to |
|
|
|
the throne. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Nor," said the Attorney-General,
"would her present Majesty. I do not disguise from myself that |
|
|
|
this is nothing less than a claim to the throne." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The counsel went on with his statement, and
read two statements in writing by J. Wilmot, one |
|
|
|
of which was attested by Chatham and J.
Dunning, that he had married George III to Hannah |
|
|
|
Lightfoot. Then he read various other
documents, two certificates of the marriage of George III |
|
|
|
with Hannah Lightfoot, signed by the parties
and by James Wilmot as clergyman, and witnessed |
|
|
|
by William Pitt and Ann Taylor, a written
declaration by George III that he created Olive of |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland Duchess of Lancaster. To this the
court pointed out that such grants were always |
|
|
|
conferred by a patent under the Great Seal, but
this objection did not appear to disconcert the |
|
|
|
learned counsel, who went on reading his
astounding documents. These documents he after- |
|
|
|
wards attempted to prove by the evidence of an
expert in handwriting. There were a number of |
|
|
|
scraps of paper on which these certificates
were written. Everybody appeared to have been |
|
|
|
willing and anxious to write declarations about
everything connected with the story on scraps |
|
|
|
of
paper, and most of these documents were witnessed by William Pitt, afterwards
Lord Chatham, |
|
|
|
and J. Dunning. Mr. Netherclift, the expert in
handwriting, expressed his opinion that all the |
|
|
|
signatures were genuine. In cross-examination,
however, he changed his mind, and expressed |
|
|
|
his opinion that J. Dunning, which appeared on
many of them, was a forgery, when it was |
|
|
|
|
compared with the real signatures of Dunning,
the Attorney-General of those days. There was |
|
|
|
very little attempt made to prove the
handwriting of Lord Chatham by comparison, and it was |
|
|
|
suggested that he had the gout when he signed
the documents; and at last, when a bundle of |
|
|
|
Chatham's undoubted letters were put into Mr.
Netherclift's hand, he said that if those letters |
|
|
|
were genuine the disputed signatures were not
genuine. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Then Mrs. Ryves went into the box and told her
story. She was at first to be examined as to her |
|
|
|
knowledge of Hannah Lightfoot, and as to that
lady's declaration of the marriage of the Duke of |
|
|
|
Cumberland to Olive Wilmot. This, however, the
court would not allow. Each one of the judges |
|
|
|
expressed his opinion that the alleged
certificate - in one of which George III's signature was |
|
|
|
"George Guelph," a style of signature
that had never been used by any member of his family, was |
|
|
|
a forgery. Then she told stories of the
friendly terms which she and her mother had been on with |
|
|
|
the Duke of Kent and other members of the Royal
family, and of how her mother had learnt the |
|
|
|
secret of her birth from Lord Warwick, and how
the Duke of Kent was informed of the story, and |
|
|
|
was so moved by the news that it shortly caused
his death. She was cross-examined by the |
|
|
|
Attorney-General with the intention, so it
seemed, of suggesting that her mother was insane. |
|
|
|
She was also cross-examined about statements
her mother had made in petitions which were |
|
|
|
inconsistent with the story afterwards set up.
She explained this by saying that mistakes had |
|
|
|
been made by the lawyer who drew up the
petition. The Attorney-General pointed out that in the |
|
|
|
memorial
in question offspring had been written as "orfspring." "That
also was the lawyer's |
|
|
|
|
mistake," she said. Then the
Attorney-General read a congratulatory ode she sent to the Prince |
|
|
|
Regent on his birthday by Mrs. Serres:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hail,
valued hour orfspring of
Heaven's smile, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The great
and mighty succour of this isle. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The Attorney-General's answer was a model of
quiet humour, and he suggested that the whole |
|
|
|
case was a mixture of fraud and insanity. Mrs.
Serres's fraud, he suggested, might be palliated, |
|
|
|
because she was half insane, and Mrs. Ryves
might have almost got to believe the absurd |
|
|
|
|
impostures in which she had been bred up. He
ridiculed the story about Dr. Wilmot and the |
|
|
|
|
Princess, and the marriage of his imaginary
daughter. Before he had finished speaking the jury |
|
|
|
stopped him, and said they were all quite
agreed, and, though the counsel for the petitioner |
|
|
|
insisted on making another speech, it was
obvious that the absurdity of the case was palpable |
|
|
|
to all in court. After the jury had, without
any hesitation, found against the petition, except that |
|
|
|
Mrs.
Ryves was the legitimate daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Serres, and that W.H. Ryves
was the |
|
|
|
legitimate son of Mr. and Mrs. Ryves, the
Attorney-General stated that he was prepared to prove |
|
|
|
that Dr. Wilmot was at Oxford on the day he was
said to have married the Duke of Cumberland |
|
|
|
and Olive Wilmot in London, and that Lord
Warwick had never used the name "Brooke," in which |
|
|
|
he was supposed to sign many of the documents,
as he always took the title of Greville before |
|
|
|
he succeeded to the peerage. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Mrs. Ryves died some years afterwards [7
December 1871], and no more has ever been heard of |
|
|
|
her absurd claims.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For further reading on this subject, a good
summary can be found in "The Great Pretenders: The |
|
|
|
True Stories behind Famous Historical
Mysteries" by Jan Bondeson [W W Norton & Co, New York |
|
|
|
2004] on pages 158-188. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ernest Augustus, 1st Duke of Cumberland and
Teviotdale |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ernest Augustus was the fifth of George III's
pack of sons, described by the Duke of Wellington |
|
|
|
as 'the damnedest lot of millstones that was
ever hung around the neck of any government.' |
|
|
|
Whereas his other brothers were unpopular from
time to time, Ernest Augustus was most heartily |
|
|
|
hated by the English people almost all of the time. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After
being tutored at home when young, Ernest was sent to the University of
Gottingen and |
|
|
|
was then sent to Hanover to receive military
training. He fought in Flanders and the Netherlands |
|
|
|
during the wars against the French, where he
appears to have been quite a competent soldier |
|
|
|
and commander. During this period, he lost his
left eye and thereafter wore a patch over it, |
|
|
|
giving
him a sinister look. Ernest blamed the loss of the eye on a war wound, but it
may have |
|
|
|
been due to a tumour. Significantly, his son
also lost an eye to a childhood illness, before losing |
|
|
|
the other eye shortly afterwards in an accident. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He returned to England in 1799 to be given a
grant of £12,000 a year and the Dukedom of |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland and Teviotdale. He was described at
that time as being exceedingly tall with an |
|
|
|
air of distinction. His one eye was 'a regular piercer.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For the next ten years, Cumberland occupied
himself in military affairs and as a leader of the |
|
|
|
right wing extremist section of the Tory party,
opposing any proposed reforms. He was the |
|
|
|
|
bitter
enemy of the Whigs in politics, who did all they could to discredit him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The first major scandal of his life occurred on
31 May 1810. Cumberland had attended a concert |
|
|
|
and had returned home a little after midnight
and gone to bed. He was awakened by blows to his |
|
|
|
head and, starting up, had made for the door of
his second valet, Neale, shouting for help while |
|
|
|
parrying
the blows of an unseen attacker. Neale rushed in brandishing a poker and was
ordered |
|
|
|
to
arouse the other servants and to stop anyone leaving the Palace. At the door
of the Duke's |
|
|
|
principal
valet, Sellis, Neale and the other servants heard a gurgling noise. They went
in and |
|
|
|
found 'a bloody razor lying by Sellis' hand and
a wash-basin standing on the table with a little |
|
|
|
water in it, appearing as if someone had been
washing their bloody hands in it.' The Duke's |
|
|
|
|
apartments were spattered with blood from one
end to the other and the Duke himself had |
|
|
|
|
received
a number of wounds, the most serious of which were a deep wound to the back
of |
|
|
|
his head and his right thumb, which had been
nearly severed by the attacker's blade. Sellis |
|
|
|
was lying on his bed, his head hanging by a
shred and 'his hands straight down, and the |
|
|
|
|
blood, all in a froth, running from his neck.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Notwithstanding the coroner's finding that
Sellis had attempted to murder Cumberland and had |
|
|
|
then committed suicide, rumour strongly
suggested that Cumberland had murdered his valet. |
|
|
|
The Duke's next brush with scandal occurred in
February 1813, when the Duke was accused of |
|
|
|
attempting to corrupt a recent election for the
House of Commons constituency of Weymouth |
|
|
|
and Melcombe Regis. While this storm blew over,
Cumberland commanded the Hanoverian troops |
|
|
|
at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, one
of Napoleon's worst defeats. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Even when he was abroad, however, Cumberland
found a way to deepen his unpopularity. He did |
|
|
|
this by marrying, in 1815, his first cousin
Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She had |
|
|
|
already been married twice before, firstly to
Prince Frederick Louis of Prussia, by whom she had |
|
|
|
three
children, and secondly to Frederick William, Prince of Solms-Braunfels, by
whom she had a |
|
|
|
further
seven children. Cumberland's mother, Queen Charlotte, refused to receive her
new |
|
|
|
|
daughter-in-law, and the House of Commons
refused to grant an extra allowance to the Duke or |
|
|
|
to congratulate him on the marriage. True to
form, his Whig opponents suggested that Frederica |
|
|
|
had murdered her first two husbands
(notwithstanding that her first marriage was ended by |
|
|
|
divorce and not death). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For the next 14 years, Cumberland and his
family lived abroad, with only occasional visits to |
|
|
|
England, but in 1829, he decided to resume
residence in London. 'The Times', no lover of the |
|
|
|
Duke,
reported that, 'It is generally understood that the Duke of Cumberland will
become a |
|
|
|
permanent inmate of the Castle. [i.e. Windsor
Castle] It is said that his Royal Highness and his |
|
|
|
august family will occupy that portion of the
building called The Devil's Tower.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In March 1829, a further and more serious
scandal arose. A Captain Garth, who was rumoured to |
|
|
|
be the illegitimate son of Cumberland's sister,
the Princess Sophia, 5th daughter of George III, |
|
|
|
and General Garth, brought an action to enforce
an agreement ensuring him £3,000 a year in |
|
|
|
return for some papers referring to his 'rank
and situation in life.' These papers were never made |
|
|
|
public, but Garth showed copies to London
editors. There were references which encouraged the |
|
|
|
rumour that Captain Garth was really the son of
an incestuous relationship between Ernest |
|
|
|
|
Augustus
and his sister, Sophie. Again, these rumours may be true, or they may have
been |
|
|
|
started by his Whig enemies. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This scandal had scarcely subsided before
another arose - this time allegations were made that |
|
|
|
Cumberland had made an attempt upon the virtue
of Lady Lyndhurst, wife of the Lord Chancellor, |
|
|
|
in her own drawing
room. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In
February 1830, Cumberland's run of scandals continued. He was rumoured to be
in a liaison |
|
|
|
with
Lady Graves, wife of Lord Graves, who was Cumberland's Lord of the Bedchamber
and |
|
|
|
Comptroller of his household. Lord Graves wrote
to his wife saying that he did not believe a word |
|
|
|
of
the gossip, following which he rather spoiled the effect of his letter by
cutting his throat. |
|
|
|
For further information on Lord Graves'
suicide, see the note at the foot of the page containing |
|
|
|
details
of that peerage. Cumberland was hissed whenever he was recognised in the
streets, |
|
|
|
and a mob once pulled him off his horse outside
the House of Lords. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When his older brother King William IV died in
1837, Cumberland became King of Hanover, since |
|
|
|
Victoria, as a woman, was ineligible under
Salic Law which was practised in Hanover. Between |
|
|
|
the accession of Victoria on 20 June 1837 and
the birth of her first child, Princess Victoria on |
|
|
|
21
November 1840, the Duke of Cumberland was the heir to the British
throne. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When he died in 1851, 'The Times' wrote: 'The
good to be said of the Royal Dead is little or |
|
|
|
none.' But the Hanoverians erected a statue to
his memory and inscribed it: 'To the father of |
|
|
|
his country from his faithful people.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary
Victoria Curzon, 1st wife of George Nathaniel Curzon, later Marquess |
|
|
|
|
Curzon of Kedleston (27 May 1870-18 July 1906) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Victoria Leiter and George Curzon were
married in April 1895. She accompanied her husband |
|
|
|
to India when he was appointed Viceroy, such
appointment meaning that she became Vicereine, |
|
|
|
the highest official title that could be held
by a woman in the Indian Empire. Her stay in India's |
|
|
|
tropical climate, her demanding social
responsibilities and an infection following a miscarriage led |
|
|
|
to a decline in her health which culminated in
her death in 1906, aged only 36. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An article in the "Los Angeles Times"
of 6 Nov 1904, which discusses the superstitious nature of |
|
|
|
Anglo-Americans, included the following
comments on Lady Curzon:- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'……..those
who are still wondering why the medical men in attendance on Lady Curzon
allowed |
|
|
|
her to be removed on a stretcher from Walmer
Castle to the house of a friend are evidently not |
|
|
|
aware that there is a decidedly strong element
of superstition in her character. She is stubbornly |
|
|
|
opposed to going into residence in any house
that has been the scene of the last days of |
|
|
|
|
eminent persons, and it is pretty well-known
among her immediate friends that high political |
|
|
|
|
considerations alone caused her to fall in with
her husband's wish and go to Walmer Castle. She |
|
|
|
did not forget that the late W.H. Smith died
there so suddenly during his Lord Wardenship [of the |
|
|
|
Cinque Ports] that the political party with
which he was identified was denied an opportunity to |
|
|
|
confer the usual peerage upon him. Lady Curzon
shares such superstition with Lady Wolseley |
|
|
|
whose absolute refusal to live at Walmer
resulted in the resignation of her gallant husband [sic- |
|
|
|
Lord Wolseley was never Lord Warden]. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'There
is also a local feeling that did not help to modify Lady Curzon's scruples.
The room in |
|
|
|
|
which Lord Wellington died is said to be
haunted, and that it is for this and no other reason that |
|
|
|
it is now just as it was left when the great
soldier breathed his last there. Lady Curzon remembers |
|
|
|
too that Lord Salisbury's end came while he was
still Lord Warden although he passed away at |
|
|
|
Hatfield. All these thoughts combined, working
on a delicate constitution, are said to be chiefly |
|
|
|
responsible
for the sudden collapse of her ladyship. So strong have been her feelings on
the |
|
|
|
matter that she insisted upon her mother and
sister staying at the local hotel, "The Royal," - |
|
|
|
instead of at the Castle, when they rushed to
her bedside on their arrival here a week or so ago. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Mrs.
Leiter [Lady Curzon's mother] wondered why no arrangements had been made for
them to |
|
|
|
stay at the Castle, especially as she had
selected her rooms in anticipation of many pleasant |
|
|
|
visits during her son-in-law's occupation. When
the reason was explained to her she willingly |
|
|
|
submitted to her sick child's wishes and put up
at the best thing that could be done for her at |
|
|
|
the local hotel. Local gossip was busy with the
suggestion that Mrs. Leiter was superstitious, |
|
|
|
too,
and that in spite of her affection for her dying daughter she would not risk
staying in a |
|
|
|
place that had developed so suddenly such a
strange reputation. It is an undoubted fact that |
|
|
|
Lady Curzon, even at the risk of her life,
demanded to be removed from the Castle.' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2020 Maltagenealogy.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|