PEERAGE | ||||||||||
Last updated 19/03/2024 | ||||||||||
Date | Rank | Order | Name | Born | Died | Age | ||||
SEVERN | ||||||||||
19 Jun 1999 | V | 1 | HRH Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis | 10 Mar 1964 | ||||||
Created Viscount Severn and Earl of | ||||||||||
Wessex 19 Jun 1999 | ||||||||||
See "Wessex" | ||||||||||
SEWEL | ||||||||||
10 Jan 1996 | B[L] | 1 | John Buttifant Sewel | 15 Jan 1946 | ||||||
Created Baron Sewel for life 10 Jan 1996 | ||||||||||
SEWELL OF SANDERSTEAD | ||||||||||
16 Dec 2022 | B[L] | 1 | Cleveland Anthony Sewell, CBE | 1959 | ||||||
Created Baron Sewel for life 16 Dec 2022 | ||||||||||
SEYMOUR OF SUDELEY | ||||||||||
16 Feb 1547 | B | 1 | Thomas Seymour | c 1508 | 28 Mar 1549 | |||||
to | Created Baron Seymour of Sudeley | |||||||||
28 Mar 1549 | 16 Feb 1547 | |||||||||
KG 1547 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SEYMOUR OF TROWBRIDGE | ||||||||||
19 Feb 1641 | B | 1 | Francis Seymour | c 1590 | 12 Jul 1664 | |||||
Created Baron Seymour of Trowbridge | ||||||||||
19 Feb 1641 | ||||||||||
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | ||||||||||
1660-1664 | ||||||||||
12 Jul 1664 | 2 | Charles Seymour | 5 Feb 1621 | 25 Aug 1665 | 44 | |||||
MP for Great Bedwyn 1640 and Wiltshire | ||||||||||
1661-1664 | ||||||||||
25 Aug 1665 | 3 | Francis Seymour | 17 Jan 1658 | 20 Apr 1678 | 20 | |||||
He succeeded to the Dukedom of Somerset | ||||||||||
(qv) in 1675 with which title this peerage | ||||||||||
then merged until its extinction in 1750 | ||||||||||
****************** | ||||||||||
9 Jul 1863 | Edward Adolphus Ferdinand Seymour | 17 Jul 1835 | 30 Sep 1869 | 34 | ||||||
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of | ||||||||||
Acceleration as Baron Seymour 9 Jul 1863 | ||||||||||
He was the eldest son and heir apparent of the | ||||||||||
12th Duke of Somerset, but died before he | ||||||||||
could succeed to that title | ||||||||||
SHACKLETON | ||||||||||
11 Aug 1958 | B[L] | 1 | Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton | 15 Jul 1911 | 22 Sep 1994 | 83 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shackleton for life 11 Aug 1958 | |||||||||
22 Sep 1994 | MP for Preston 1946-1950 and Preston | |||||||||
South 1950-1955. Minister of Defence for | ||||||||||
the RAF 1964-1967. Minister without | ||||||||||
Portfolio 1967-1968. Lord Privy Seal 1968 | ||||||||||
and 1968-1970. Paymaster General 1968 | ||||||||||
PC 1966 KG 1974 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHACKLETON OF BELGAVIA | ||||||||||
21 Dec 2010 | B[L] | 1 | Fiona Sara Shackleton | 26 May 1956 | ||||||
Created Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia | ||||||||||
life 21 Dec 2010 | ||||||||||
SHAFIK | ||||||||||
2 Oct 2020 | B[L] | 1 | Dame Nemat Talaat Shafik, DBE. | 13 Aug 1962 | ||||||
Created Baroness Shafik | ||||||||||
life 2 Oct 2020 | ||||||||||
SHAFTESBURY | ||||||||||
23 Apr 1672 | E | 1 | Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,2nd baronet | 22 Jul 1621 | 21 Jan 1683 | 61 | ||||
Created Baron Ashley 20 Apr 1661 and | ||||||||||
Baron Cooper of Pawlett and Earl of | ||||||||||
Shaftesbury 23 Apr 1672 | ||||||||||
MP for Tewkesbury 1640, Downton 1640 | ||||||||||
and Wiltshire 1653-1660. Chancellor of | ||||||||||
the Exchequer 1661-1667. President of the | ||||||||||
Board of Trade 1672-1676. Lord Chancellor | ||||||||||
1672-1673. Lord Lieutenant Dorset 1672-1674 | ||||||||||
21 Jan 1683 | 2 | Anthony Ashley Cooper | 16 Jan 1652 | 2 Nov 1699 | 47 | |||||
MP for Weymouth & Melcombe Regis 1673-1679 | ||||||||||
2 Nov 1699 | 3 | Anthony Ashley Cooper | 26 Feb 1671 | 4 Feb 1713 | 41 | |||||
MP for Poole 1695-1698 | ||||||||||
4 Feb 1713 | 4 | Anthony Ashley Cooper | 9 Feb 1711 | 27 May 1771 | 60 | |||||
Lord Lieutenant Dorset 1734-1771 PC 1761 | ||||||||||
29 May 1771 | 5 | Anthony Ashley Cooper | 17 Sep 1761 | 14 May 1811 | 49 | |||||
14 May 1811 | 6 | Cropley Ashley Cooper | 21 Dec 1768 | 2 Jun 1851 | 82 | |||||
MP for Dorchester 1790-1811. PC 1814 | ||||||||||
2 Jun 1851 | 7 | Anthony Ashley-Cooper | 28 Apr 1801 | 1 Oct 1885 | 84 | |||||
MP for Woodstock 1826-1830, Dorchester | ||||||||||
1830-1831, Dorset 1831-1846 and Bath | ||||||||||
1847-1851. Lord Lieutenant Dorset 1856- | ||||||||||
1885. KG 1862 | ||||||||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
1 Oct 1885 | 8 | Anthony Ashley-Cooper | 27 Jun 1831 | 13 Apr 1886 | 54 | |||||
MP for Hull 1857-1859 and Cricklade | ||||||||||
1859-1865 | ||||||||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
13 Apr 1886 | 9 | Anthony Ashley-Cooper | 31 Aug 1869 | 25 Mar 1961 | 91 | |||||
Lord Lieutenant Belfast 1904-1911,Antrim | ||||||||||
1911-1916 and Dorset 1916-1952. KP 1911 | ||||||||||
PC 1922 | ||||||||||
25 Mar 1961 | 10 | Anthony Ashley-Cooper | 22 May 1938 | Nov 2004 | 66 | |||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
Nov 2004 | 11 | Anthony Nils Christian Ashley-Cooper | 24 Jun 1977 | 15 May 2005 | 27 | |||||
15 May 2005 | 12 | Nicholas Edmund Anthony Ashley-Cooper | 3 Jun 1979 | |||||||
SHAMASH | ||||||||||
6 Mar 2024 | B[L] | 1 | Gerald David Shamash | 23 May 1947 | ||||||
Created Baron Shamash for life 6 Mar 2024 | ||||||||||
SHAND | ||||||||||
20 Aug 1892 | B | 1 | Alexander Burns Shand | 13 Dec 1828 | 6 Mar 1904 | 75 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shand 20 Aug 1892 | |||||||||
6 Mar 1904 | PC 1890 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHANDON | ||||||||||
1 Jul 1918 | B | 1 | Sir Ignatius John O'Brien,1st baronet | 30 Jul 1857 | 10 Sep 1930 | 73 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shandon 1 Jul 1918 | |||||||||
10 Sep 1930 | Solicitor General [I] 1911. Attorney | |||||||||
General [I] 1912. Lord Chancellor [I] | ||||||||||
1913-1918. PC [I] 1912 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHANNON | ||||||||||
6 Sep 1660 | V[I] | 1 | Francis Boyle | 25 Jun 1623 | Apr 1699 | 75 | ||||
Created Baron Boyle and Viscount | ||||||||||
Shannon 6 Sep 1660 | ||||||||||
Apr 1699 | 2 | Richard Boyle | c 1675 | 20 Dec 1740 | ||||||
to | MP for Arundel 1708-1710, Hythe 1710-1711 | |||||||||
20 Dec 1740 | and 1712-1715 and East Grinstead 1715-1734 | |||||||||
PC [I] 1721 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
20 Mar 1756 | E[I] | 1 | Henry Boyle | 1682 | 28 Dec 1764 | 82 | ||||
Created Baron of Castle Martyr, | ||||||||||
Viscount Boyle of Bandon and Earl of | ||||||||||
Shannon 20 Mar 1756 | ||||||||||
Speaker of the House of Commons [I] | ||||||||||
1733-1756. PC [I] 1733 | ||||||||||
28 Dec 1764 | 2 | Richard Boyle | 30 Jan 1728 | 20 May 1807 | 79 | |||||
Created Baron Carleton 6 Aug 1786 | ||||||||||
PC [I] 1763 PC 1782 KP 1783 | ||||||||||
20 May 1807 | 3 | Henry Boyle | 8 Aug 1771 | 22 Apr 1842 | 70 | |||||
Lord Lieutenant Cork 1831-1842 KP 1808. | ||||||||||
PC [I] 1809 MP for co.Cork 1801-1807 and | ||||||||||
Youghal 1807 | ||||||||||
22 Apr 1842 | 4 | Richard Boyle | 12 May 1809 | 1 Aug 1868 | 59 | |||||
MP for co.Cork 1830-1832 | ||||||||||
1 Aug 1868 | 5 | Henry Bentinck Boyle | 22 Nov 1833 | 8 Feb 1890 | 56 | |||||
8 Feb 1890 | 6 | Richard Henry Boyle | 15 May 1860 | 11 Dec 1906 | 46 | |||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
11 Dec 1906 | 7 | Richard Bernard Boyle | 13 Nov 1897 | 13 Apr 1917 | 19 | |||||
13 Apr 1917 | 8 | Robert Henry Boyle | 1 Feb 1900 | 29 Dec 1963 | 63 | |||||
29 Dec 1963 | 9 | Richard Bentinck Boyle | 23 Oct 1924 | 9 May 2013 | 88 | |||||
9 May 2013 | 10 | Richard Henry John Boyle | 19 Jan 1960 | |||||||
SHARKEY | ||||||||||
20 Dec 2010 | B[L] | 1 | John Kevin Sharkey | 24 Sep 1947 | ||||||
Created Baron Sharkey for life 20 Dec 2010 | ||||||||||
SHARMAN | ||||||||||
2 Aug 1999 | B[L] | 1 | Colin Morven Sharman | 19 Feb 1943 | ||||||
Created Baron Sharman for life 2 Aug 1999 | ||||||||||
SHARP | ||||||||||
19 Sep 1966 | B[L] | 1 | Dame Evelyn Adelaide Sharp | 25 May 1903 | 1 Sep 1985 | 82 | ||||
to | Created Baroness Sharp for life 19 Sep 1966 | |||||||||
1 Sep 1985 | Peerage extinct on her death | |||||||||
SHARP OF GRIMSDYKE | ||||||||||
21 Jul 1989 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Eric Sharp | 17 Aug 1916 | 2 May 1994 | 77 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sharp of Grimsdyke for life | |||||||||
2 May 1994 | 21 Jul 1989 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHARP OF GUILDFORD | ||||||||||
1 Aug 1998 | B[L] | 1 | Margaret Lucy Sharp | 21 Nov 1938 | ||||||
Created Baroness Sharp of Guildford for life | ||||||||||
1 Aug 1998 | ||||||||||
SHARPE OF EPSOM | ||||||||||
18 Sep 2020 | B[L] | 1 | Andrew Michael Gordon Sharpe, O.B.E. | 15 Jun 1962 | ||||||
Created Baron Sharpe of Epsom for life | ||||||||||
18 Sep 2020 | ||||||||||
SHARPLES | ||||||||||
18 Jun 1973 | B[L] | 1 | Pamela Sharples | 11 Feb 1923 | 19 May 2022 | 99 | ||||
to | Created Baroness Sharples for life | |||||||||
19 May 2022 | 18 Jun 1973 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on her death | ||||||||||
SHAUGHNESSY | ||||||||||
25 Jan 1916 | B | 1 | Sir Thomas George Shaughnessy | 6 Oct 1853 | 10 Dec 1923 | 70 | ||||
Created Baron Shaughnessy 25 Jan 1916 | ||||||||||
10 Dec 1923 | 2 | William James Shaughnessy | 29 Sep 1883 | 4 Oct 1938 | 55 | |||||
4 Oct 1938 | 3 | William Graham Shaughnessy | 28 Mar 1922 | 22 May 2003 | 81 | |||||
22 May 2003 | 4 | Michael James Shaughnessy | 12 Nov 1946 | 9 Dec 2007 | 61 | |||||
9 Dec 2007 | 5 | Charles George Patrick Shaughnessy | 9 Feb 1955 | |||||||
SHAW | ||||||||||
20 Feb 1909 | B[L] | 1 | Thomas Shaw | 23 May 1850 | 28 Jun 1937 | 87 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shaw for life 20 Feb 1909 | |||||||||
28 Jun 1937 | He was subsequently created Baron | |||||||||
Craigmyle in 1929 (qv). This peerage | ||||||||||
extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHAW OF NORTHSTEAD | ||||||||||
30 Sep 1994 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Michael Norman Shaw | 9 Oct 1920 | 8 Jan 2021 | 100 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shaw of Northstead for life | |||||||||
8 Jan 2021 | 30 Sep 1994 | |||||||||
MP for Brighouse and Spenborough 1960-1964, | ||||||||||
Scarborough and Whitby 1966-1974 | ||||||||||
and Scarborough 1974-1992 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHAWCROSS | ||||||||||
14 Feb 1959 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Hartley William Shawcross | 4 Feb 1902 | 10 Jul 2003 | 101 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shawcross for life 14 Feb 1959 | |||||||||
10 Jul 2003 | MP for St.Helens 1945-1958. Attorney | |||||||||
General 1945-1951. President of the | ||||||||||
Board of Trade 1951. PC 1946 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHEEHAN | ||||||||||
2 Oct 2015 | B[L] | 1 | Shaista Ahmad Sheehan | 29 Jul 1959 | ||||||
Created Baroness Sheehan for life 2 Oct 2015 | ||||||||||
SHEFFIELD | ||||||||||
16 Feb 1547 | B | 1 | Sir Edmund Sheffield | 23 Nov 1521 | 31 Jul 1549 | 27 | ||||
Created Baron Sheffield 16 Feb 1547 | ||||||||||
31 Jul 1549 | 2 | John Sheffield | c 1538 | 10 Dec 1568 | ||||||
10 Dec 1568 | 3 | Edmund Sheffield | c 1564 | 6 Oct 1646 | ||||||
He was created Earl of Mulgrave (qv) in | ||||||||||
1626 with which title this peerage then | ||||||||||
merged | ||||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
9 Jan 1781 | B[I] | 1 | John Baker-Holroyd | 21 Dec 1735 | 30 May 1821 | 85 | ||||
20 Sep 1783 | B[I] | 1 | Created Baron Sheffield [I] | |||||||
29 Jul 1802 | B | 1 | 9 Jan 1781 and 20 Sep 1783, Baron | |||||||
22 Jan 1816 | E[I] | 1 | Sheffield [UK] 29 Jul 1802 and | |||||||
Viscount Pevensey and Earl of | ||||||||||
Sheffield [I] 22 Jan 1816 | ||||||||||
For details of the special remainder included in the | ||||||||||
creation of the Barony of 1783, see the note at the | ||||||||||
foot of this page | ||||||||||
MP for Coventry 1780 and Bristol 1790-1802 | ||||||||||
President of the Board of Agriculture 1803 | ||||||||||
PC 1809 | ||||||||||
30 May 1821 | 2 | George Augustus Frederick Charles | ||||||||
Holroyd | 16 Mar 1802 | 5 Apr 1876 | 74 | |||||||
5 Apr 1876 | 3 | Henry North Holroyd | 18 Jan 1832 | 21 Apr 1909 | 77 | |||||
to | MP for Sussex East 1857-1865 | |||||||||
21 Apr 1909 | On his death all peerages except the Irish | |||||||||
Barony of 1783 became extinct. The Irish | ||||||||||
Barony of 1783 merged with the Barony of | ||||||||||
Stanley of Alderley (qv) | ||||||||||
SHEIKH | ||||||||||
6 Jun 2006 | B[L] | 1 | Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh | 13 Jun 1941 | 22 Sep 2022 | 80 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sheikh for life 6 Jun 2006 | |||||||||
22 Sep 2022 | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
SHELBURNE | ||||||||||
31 Dec 1688 | B[I] | 1 | Elizabeth Petty | c 1708 | ||||||
to | [L] | Created Baroness Shelburne for life | ||||||||
c 1708 | 31 Dec 1688 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on her death | ||||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
31 Dec 1688 | B[I] | 1 | Charles Petty | c 1673 | Apr 1696 | |||||
to | Created Baron Shelburne 31 Dec 1688 | |||||||||
Apr 1696 | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
29 Apr 1719 | E[I] | 1 | Henry Petty | 22 Oct 1675 | 17 Apr 1751 | 75 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shelburne 16 Jun 1699 | |||||||||
17 Apr 1751 | and Viscount Dunkerron and Earl of | |||||||||
Shelburne 29 Apr 1719 | ||||||||||
MP for Great Marlow 1715-1722 and Wycombe | ||||||||||
1722-1727 PC [I] 1701 | ||||||||||
Peerages extinct on his death | ||||||||||
For information on the Earl's son, who predeceased | ||||||||||
him,see the note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
6 Jun 1753 | E[I] | 1 | John Petty | 1706 | 14 May 1761 | 54 | ||||
Created Baron Dunkeron and Viscount | ||||||||||
Fitzmaurice 7 Oct 1751 and Earl of | ||||||||||
Shelburne 6 Jun 1753 and Baron | ||||||||||
Wycombe 20 May 1760 | ||||||||||
MP for Wycombe 1754-1760. PC [I] 1754 | ||||||||||
14 May 1761 | 2 | William Petty | 2 May 1737 | 7 May 1805 | 68 | |||||
He was created Marquess of Lansdowne (qv) | ||||||||||
in 1784 with which title this peerage then | ||||||||||
merged | ||||||||||
SHELDON | ||||||||||
22 Jun 2001 | B[L] | 1 | Robert Edward Sheldon | 13 Sep 1923 | 2 Feb 2020 | 96 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sheldon for life 22 Jun 2001 | |||||||||
2 Feb 2020 | MP for Ashton-under-Lyne 1964-2001. | |||||||||
Minister of State,Civil Service 1974. | ||||||||||
Minister of State,Treasury 1974-1975. Fin | ||||||||||
Sec to Treasury 1975-1979 PC 1977 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHEPHARD OF NORTHWOLD | ||||||||||
21 Jun 2005 | B[L] | 1 | Gillian Patricia Shephard | 22 Jan 1940 | ||||||
Created Baroness Shephard of Northwold | ||||||||||
for life 21 Jun 2005 | ||||||||||
MP for Norfolk SW 1987-2005. Min of State, | ||||||||||
Treasury 1990-1992. Secretary of State for | ||||||||||
Employment 1992-1993. Minister of Agriculture, | ||||||||||
Fisheries and Food 1993-1994. Secretary of State | ||||||||||
for Education and Employment 1994-1997. PC 1992 | ||||||||||
SHEPHERD | ||||||||||
28 Jun 1946 | B | 1 | George Robert Shepherd | 19 Aug 1881 | 4 Dec 1954 | 73 | ||||
Created Baron Shepherd 28 Jun 1946 | ||||||||||
PC 1952 | ||||||||||
4 Dec 1954 | 2 | Malcolm Newton Shepherd | 27 Sep 1918 | 5 Apr 2001 | 82 | |||||
Minister Of State,Foreign and | ||||||||||
Commonwealth Office 1967-1970. Lord | ||||||||||
Privy Seal 1974-1976. PC 1965 | ||||||||||
Created Baron Shepherd of Spalding | ||||||||||
16 Nov 1999 (see below) | ||||||||||
5 Apr 2001 | 3 | Graeme George Shepherd | 6 Jan 1949 | |||||||
SHEPHERD OF SPALDING | ||||||||||
16 Nov 1999 | B[L] | 1 | Malcolm Newton Shepherd,2nd Baron Shepherd | 27 Sep 1918 | 5 Apr 2001 | 82 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shepherd of Spalding | |||||||||
5 Apr 2001 | for life 16 Nov 1999 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHEPPARD OF DIDGEMERE | ||||||||||
6 Sep 1994 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Allen John George Sheppard | 25 Dec 1932 | 25 Mar 2015 | 82 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sheppard of Didgemere | |||||||||
25 Mar 2015 | for life 6 Sep 1994 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHEPPARD OF LIVERPOOL | ||||||||||
14 Feb 1998 | B[L] | 1 | David Stuart Sheppard | 6 Mar 1929 | 5 Mar 2005 | 75 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sheppard of Liverpool | |||||||||
5 Mar 2005 | for life 14 Feb 1998 | |||||||||
Bishop of Liverpool 1975-1997 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHEPPEY | ||||||||||
6 Sep 1680 | E[L] | 1 | Elizabeth Walter | c 1625 | Jul 1686 | |||||
to | Created Countess of Sheppey for life | |||||||||
Jul 1686 | 6 Sep 1680 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on her death | ||||||||||
The name of the peerage is variously spelled as | ||||||||||
"Shepey" or,according to the London Gazette | ||||||||||
(issue 1546,page 2) "Shippey". | ||||||||||
SHERARD | ||||||||||
10 Jul 1627 | B[I] | 1 | Sir William Sherard | 1 Aug 1588 | 1 Apr 1640 | 51 | ||||
Created Baron Sherard 10 Jul 1627 | ||||||||||
1 Apr 1640 | 2 | Bennet Sherard | 30 Nov 1621 | 15 Jan 1700 | 78 | |||||
MP for Leicestershire 1679-1681,1685-1687 | ||||||||||
and 1689-1695. Lord Lieutenant Rutland | ||||||||||
1690-1700 | ||||||||||
15 Jan 1700 | 3 | Bennet Sherard | 9 Oct 1677 | 16 Oct 1732 | 55 | |||||
31 Oct 1718 | V | 1 | Created Viscount Sherard 31 Oct 1718 | |||||||
to | MP for Leicestershire 1701-1702 and | |||||||||
16 Oct 1732 | Rutland 1713-1714. Lord Lieutenant | |||||||||
Rutland 1700-1712 and 1715-1732 | ||||||||||
He was later created Earl of Harborough | ||||||||||
(qv) in 1719. | ||||||||||
On his death the Viscountcy became extinct | ||||||||||
whilst the Barony passed to - | ||||||||||
16 Oct 1732 | 4 | Philip Sherard,2nd Earl of Harborough | c 1680 | 16 Feb 1750 | ||||||
16 Feb 1750 | 5 | Bennet Sherard,3rd Earl of Harborough | 3 Sep 1709 | 23 Feb 1770 | 60 | |||||
23 Feb 1770 | 6 | Robert Sherard,4th Earl of Harborough | 21 Oct 1719 | 21 Apr 1799 | 79 | |||||
21 Apr 1799 | 7 | Philip Sherard,5th Earl of Harborough | 10 Oct 1767 | 10 Dec 1807 | 40 | |||||
10 Dec 1807 | 8 | Robert Sherard,6th Earl of Harborough | 26 Aug 1797 | 28 Jul 1859 | 61 | |||||
28 Jul 1859 | 9 | Philip Castell Sherard | 7 Mar 1804 | 14 Mar 1886 | 82 | |||||
14 Mar 1886 | 10 | Castell Sherard | 17 Aug 1849 | 5 Oct 1902 | 53 | |||||
5 Oct 1902 | 11 | Philip Halton Sherard | 2 May 1851 | 1 May 1924 | 72 | |||||
1 May 1924 | 12 | Robert Castell Sherard | 1858 | 14 Jun 1931 | 72 | |||||
to | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
14 Jun 1931 | ||||||||||
SHERBORNE | ||||||||||
20 May 1784 | B | 1 | James Dutton | 22 Oct 1744 | 22 May 1820 | 75 | ||||
Created Baron Sherborne 20 May 1784 | ||||||||||
MP for Gloucestershire 1781-1784 | ||||||||||
22 May 1820 | 2 | John Dutton | 24 Jun 1779 | 19 Oct 1862 | 83 | |||||
19 Oct 1862 | 3 | James Henry Legge Dutton | 30 May 1804 | 8 Mar 1883 | 78 | |||||
8 Mar 1883 | 4 | Edward Lenox Dutton | 23 Apr 1831 | 19 Jul 1919 | 88 | |||||
19 Jul 1919 | 5 | Frederick George Dutton | 28 May 1840 | 2 Jan 1920 | 79 | |||||
2 Jan 1920 | 6 | James Huntley Dutton | 5 Mar 1873 | 17 Sep 1949 | 76 | |||||
17 Sep 1949 | 7 | Charles Dutton | 13 May 1911 | 25 Dec 1982 | 71 | |||||
25 Dec 1982 | 8 | Ralph Stawell Dutton | 25 Aug 1898 | 20 Apr 1985 | 86 | |||||
to | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
20 Apr 1985 | ||||||||||
SHERBOURNE OF DIDSBURY | ||||||||||
12 Sep 2013 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Stephen Ashley Sherbourne | 15 Oct 1945 | ||||||
Created Baron Sherbourne of Didsbury for life | ||||||||||
12 Sep 2013 | ||||||||||
SHERBROOKE | ||||||||||
25 May 1880 | V | 1 | Robert Lowe | 4 Dec 1811 | 27 Jul 1892 | 80 | ||||
to | Created Viscount Sherbrooke 25 May 1880 | |||||||||
27 Jul 1892 | MP for Kidderminster 1852-1859, Calne | |||||||||
1859-1868 and University of London 1868- | ||||||||||
1880. Vice President of the Board of Trade | ||||||||||
and Paymaster General 1855-1858. Vice | ||||||||||
President of the Council of Education | ||||||||||
1859-1864. Chancellor of the Exchequer | ||||||||||
1868-1873. Home Secretary 1873-1874. | ||||||||||
PC 1855 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
SHERFIELD | ||||||||||
29 Jun 1964 | B | 1 | Roger Mellor Makins | 3 Feb 1904 | 9 Nov 1996 | 92 | ||||
Created Baron Sherfield 29 Jun 1964 | ||||||||||
9 Nov 1996 | 2 | Christopher James Makins | 23 Jul 1942 | 28 Jan 2006 | 63 | |||||
28 Jan 2006 | 3 | Dwight William Makins | 2 Mar 1951 | |||||||
SHERLOCK | ||||||||||
17 Jun 2010 | B[L] | 1 | Maeve Christina Mary Sherlock | 10 Nov 1960 | ||||||
Created Baroness Sherlock for life 17 Jun 2010 | ||||||||||
SHERWOOD | ||||||||||
14 Aug 1941 | B | 1 | Sir Hugh Michael Seely,3rd baronet | 2 Oct 1898 | 1 Apr 1970 | 71 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sherwood 14 Aug 1941 | |||||||||
1 Apr 1970 | MP for Norfolk East 1923-1924 and | |||||||||
Berwick upon Tweed 1935-1941 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHIELDS | ||||||||||
16 Sep 2014 | B[L] | 1 | Joanna Shields | 12 Jul 1962 | ||||||
Created Baroness Shields for life 16 Sep 2014 | ||||||||||
SHINGAY | ||||||||||
7 May 1697 | B | 1 | Edward Russell | 1653 | 26 Nov 1727 | 74 | ||||
to | Created Baron of Shingay,Viscount | |||||||||
26 Nov 1727 | Barfleur and Earl of Orford | |||||||||
7 May 1697 | ||||||||||
See "Orford" | ||||||||||
SHINKWIN | ||||||||||
14 Oct 2015 | B[L] | 1 | Kevin Joseph Maximilian Shinkwin | 7 Jun 1971 | ||||||
Created Baron Shinkwin for life 14 Oct 2015 | ||||||||||
SHINWELL | ||||||||||
19 Jun 1970 | B[L] | 1 | Emanuel Shinwell | 18 Oct 1884 | 8 May 1986 | 101 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shinwell for life 19 Jun 1970 | |||||||||
8 May 1986 | MP for Linlithgowshire 1922-1924 and 1929-1931, | |||||||||
Seaham 1935-1950 and Easington 1950-1970. | ||||||||||
Minister of Fuel and Power 1945-1947. | ||||||||||
Secretary of State for War 1947-1950. | ||||||||||
Minister of Defence 1950-1951. PC 1945 | ||||||||||
CH 1965 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHIPBROOK | ||||||||||
8 Feb 1777 | E[I] | 1 | Francis Vernon | c 1715 | 15 Oct 1783 | |||||
to | Created Baron Orwell 7 Apr 1762, | |||||||||
15 Oct 1783 | Viscount Orwell 21 Jul 1776 and Earl | |||||||||
of Shipbrook 8 Feb 1777 | ||||||||||
MP for Ipswich 1762-1768 | ||||||||||
Peerages extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHIPLEY | ||||||||||
14 Jul 2010 | B[L] | 1 | John Shipley | 5 Jul 1946 | ||||||
Created Baron Shipley for life 14 Jul 2010 | ||||||||||
SHORE | ||||||||||
5 Jun 1997 | B[L] | 1 | Peter David Shore | 20 May 1924 | 24 Sep 2001 | 77 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shore for life 5 Jun 1997 | |||||||||
24 Sep 2001 | MP for Stepney 1964-1974, Stepney and | |||||||||
Poplar 1974-1983 and Bethnal Green and | ||||||||||
Stepney 1983-1997. Secretary of State for | ||||||||||
Economic Affairs 1967-1969. Minister | ||||||||||
without Portfolio 1969-1970. Secretary of | ||||||||||
State for Trade and Industry 1974-1976.. | ||||||||||
Secretary of State for the Environment | ||||||||||
1976-1979. PC 1967 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHREWSBURY | ||||||||||
1074 | E | 1 | Roger de Montgomery | 27 Jul 1094 | ||||||
Created Earl of Shrewsbury 1074 | ||||||||||
27 Jul 1094 | 2 | Hugh de Montgomery | 27 Jul 1098 | |||||||
27 Jul 1098 | 3 | Robert de Montgomery | after 1113 | |||||||
to | He was deprived of the peerage in 1102 | |||||||||
1102 | ||||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
20 May 1442 | E | 1 | John Talbot,7th Lord Talbot | 1390 | 17 Jul 1453 | 63 | ||||
Created Earl of Shrewsbury | ||||||||||
20 May 1442 and Earl of Waterford | ||||||||||
17 Jul 1446 | ||||||||||
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1414-1419, | ||||||||||
1425-1426 and 1445-1447. KG 1424 | ||||||||||
17 Jul 1453 | 2 | John Talbot | 1413 | 10 Jul 1460 | 47 | |||||
Lord Treasurer 1456-1458 KG 1457 | ||||||||||
10 Jul 1460 | 3 | John Talbot | 12 Dec 1448 | 28 Jun 1473 | 24 | |||||
28 Jun 1473 | 4 | George Talbot | 1468 | 26 Jul 1538 | 70 | |||||
KG 1488 | ||||||||||
26 Jul 1538 | 5 | Francis Talbot | 1500 | 21 Sep 1560 | 60 | |||||
KG 1545 | ||||||||||
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of | ||||||||||
Acceleration as Baron Talbot 17 Feb 1533 | ||||||||||
21 Sep 1560 | 6 | George Talbot | 1528 | 18 Nov 1590 | 62 | |||||
KG 1561 | ||||||||||
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of | ||||||||||
Acceleration as Baron Talbot 5 Jan 1553 | ||||||||||
For information on his wife,Bess of Hardwick,see | ||||||||||
the note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
18 Nov 1590 | 7 | Gilbert Talbot | 20 Nov 1552 | 8 May 1616 | 63 | |||||
MP for Derbyshire 1572-1583. Lord | ||||||||||
Lieutenant Derbyshire 1605. KG 1592 | ||||||||||
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of | ||||||||||
Acceleration as Baron Talbot 28 Jan 1589 | ||||||||||
8 May 1616 | 8 | Edward Talbot | 25 Feb 1561 | 8 Feb 1618 | 56 | |||||
MP for Northumberland 1584-1587 | ||||||||||
8 Feb 1618 | 9 | George Talbot | 2 Apr 1630 | |||||||
2 Apr 1630 | 10 | John Talbot | by 1601 | 8 Feb 1654 | ||||||
8 Feb 1654 | 11 | Francis Talbot | c 1623 | 16 Mar 1668 | ||||||
For information on this peer's wife,see the note | ||||||||||
at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
16 Mar 1668 | 12 | Charles Talbot | 24 Jul 1660 | 1 Feb 1718 | 57 | |||||
30 Apr 1694 | D | 1 | Created Marquess of Alton and Duke | |||||||
to | of Shrewsbury 30 Apr 1694 | |||||||||
1 Feb 1718 | Secretary of State 1689-1690 and 1694- | |||||||||
1699. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1713-1714. | ||||||||||
Lord High Treasurer 1714. PC 1689 | ||||||||||
KG 1694. Lord Lieutenant Staffordshire 1681-1687, | ||||||||||
Herefordshire 1694-1704, Hertford 1689-1691, | ||||||||||
Shropshire 1712-1714,Wiltshire 1689-1718 and | ||||||||||
Anglesey,Caernarvon 1694-1696 | ||||||||||
For information on the Duke's brother-in-law, | ||||||||||
see the note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
On his death the Dukedom became extinct | ||||||||||
whilst the Earldom passed to - | ||||||||||
1 Feb 1718 | 13 | Gilbert Talbot | 11 Jan 1673 | 22 Jul 1743 | 80 | |||||
22 Jul 1743 | 14 | George Talbot | 11 Dec 1719 | 22 Jul 1787 | 67 | |||||
22 Jul 1787 | 15 | Charles Talbot | 8 Mar 1753 | 6 Apr 1827 | 74 | |||||
6 Apr 1827 | 16 | John Talbot | 18 Mar 1791 | 9 Nov 1852 | 61 | |||||
9 Nov 1852 | 17 | Bertram Arthur Talbot | 11 Dec 1832 | 10 Aug 1856 | 23 | |||||
10 Aug 1856 | 18 | Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot | 8 Nov 1803 | 4 Jun 1868 | 64 | |||||
MP for Hertford 1830-1831 and 1832-1833, | ||||||||||
Dublin 1831-1832 and Staffordshire South 1837- | ||||||||||
1849. PC 1858 | ||||||||||
He had previously succeeded as 3rd Earl | ||||||||||
Talbot (qv) in 1849 | ||||||||||
For further information on the "Great Shrewsbury | ||||||||||
Case" of 1857-1858, see the note at the foot | ||||||||||
of this page | ||||||||||
4 Jun 1868 | 19 | Charles John Chetwynd-Talbot (also 4th Earl | ||||||||
Talbot) | 13 Apr 1830 | 11 May 1877 | 47 | |||||||
MP for Stafford 1857-1859,Staffordshire North | ||||||||||
1859-1868 and Stamford 1868 PC 1875 | ||||||||||
11 May 1877 | 20 | Charles Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot (also 5th | ||||||||
Earl Talbot) | 13 Nov 1860 | 7 May 1921 | 60 | |||||||
For information on this peer, his wife and his son, | ||||||||||
see the note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
7 May 1921 | 21 | John George Charles Henry Alton Alexander | ||||||||
Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot (also 6th Earl Talbot) | 1 Dec 1914 | 12 Nov 1980 | 65 | |||||||
12 Nov 1980 | 22 | Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd | ||||||||
Chetwynd-Talbot (also 7th Earl Talbot) | 18 Dec 1952 | |||||||||
[Elected hereditary peer 1999-] | ||||||||||
SHULDHAM | ||||||||||
31 Jul 1776 | B[I] | 1 | Molyneux Shuldham | c 1717 | 30 Sep 1798 | |||||
to | Created Baron Shuldham 31 Jul 1776 | |||||||||
30 Sep 1798 | Governor of Newfoundland 1772-1775. | |||||||||
MP for Fowey 1774-1784 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHUTE | ||||||||||
17 Apr 1880 | B | 1 | George William Barrington | 14 Feb 1824 | 7 Nov 1886 | 62 | ||||
Created Baron Shute 17 Apr 1880 | ||||||||||
For details of the special remainder included in the | ||||||||||
creation of this peerage,see the note at the | ||||||||||
foot of this page | ||||||||||
See "Barrington" - extinct 1990 | ||||||||||
SHUTT OF GREETLAND | ||||||||||
12 May 2000 | B[L] | 1 | David Trevor Shutt | 16 Mar 1942 | 30 Oct 2020 | 78 | ||||
to | Created Baron Shutt of Greetland for life | |||||||||
30 Oct 2020 | 12 May 2000 | |||||||||
PC 2009 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SHUTTLEWORTH | ||||||||||
16 Jul 1902 | B | 1 | Sir Ughtred James Kay-Shuttleworth,2nd baronet | 18 Dec 1844 | 20 Dec 1939 | 95 | ||||
Created Baron Shuttleworth | ||||||||||
16 Jul 1902 | ||||||||||
MP for Hastings 1869-1880 and Clitheroe | ||||||||||
1885-1902. Chancellor of the Duchy of | ||||||||||
Lancaster 1886. Lord Lieutenant Lancashire | ||||||||||
1908-1928. PC 1886 | ||||||||||
20 Dec 1939 | 2 | Richard Ughtred Paul Kay-Shuttleworth | 30 Oct 1913 | 8 Aug 1940 | 26 | |||||
8 Aug 1940 | 3 | Ronald Orlando Lawrence | ||||||||
Kay-Shuttleworth | 7 Oct 1917 | 17 Nov 1942 | 25 | |||||||
17 Nov 1942 | 4 | Charles Ughtred John Kay-Shuttleworth | 24 Jun 1917 | 5 Oct 1975 | 58 | |||||
5 Oct 1975 | 5 | Charles Geoffrey Nicholas | ||||||||
Kay-Shuttleworth | 2 Aug 1948 | |||||||||
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire 1997- KG 2016 | ||||||||||
SIDMOUTH | ||||||||||
12 Jan 1805 | V | 1 | Henry Addington | 30 May 1757 | 15 Feb 1844 | 86 | ||||
Created Viscount Sidmouth | ||||||||||
12 Jan 1805 | ||||||||||
MP for Devizes 1784-1805. Speaker of the | ||||||||||
House of Commons 1789-1801. Prime | ||||||||||
Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer | ||||||||||
1801-1805. Lord President of the Council | ||||||||||
1805,1806-1807 and 1812. Lord Privy Seal | ||||||||||
1806. Home Secretary 1812-1822. PC 1789 | ||||||||||
15 Feb 1844 | 2 | William Leonard Addington | 13 Nov 1794 | 25 Mar 1864 | 69 | |||||
25 Mar 1864 | 3 | William Wells Addington | 25 Mar 1824 | 28 Oct 1913 | 89 | |||||
MP for Devizes 1863-1864 | ||||||||||
28 Oct 1913 | 4 | Gerald Anthony Pellew Bagnall | ||||||||
Addington | 29 Nov 1854 | 25 Mar 1915 | 60 | |||||||
25 Mar 1915 | 5 | Gerald William Addington | 19 Aug 1882 | 4 Apr 1953 | 70 | |||||
4 Apr 1953 | 6 | Raymond Anthony Addington | 24 Jan 1887 | 7 Feb 1976 | 89 | |||||
7 Feb 1976 | 7 | John Tonge Anthony Pellew Addington | 3 Oct 1914 | 30 Jan 2005 | 90 | |||||
30 Jan 2005 | 8 | Jeremy Francis Addington | 29 Jul 1947 | |||||||
SIEFF | ||||||||||
18 Jan 1966 | B[L] | 1 | Israel Moses Sieff | 4 May 1889 | 14 Feb 1972 | 82 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sieff for life 18 Jan 1966 | |||||||||
14 Feb 1972 | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
SIEFF OF BRIMPTON | ||||||||||
14 Feb 1980 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Marcus Joseph Sieff | 2 Jul 1913 | 23 Feb 2001 | 87 | ||||
to | Created Baron Sieff of Brimpton for life | |||||||||
23 Feb 2001 | 14 Feb 1980 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SIKKA | ||||||||||
15 Sep 2020 | B[L] | 1 | Prem Nath Sikka | Aug 1951 | ||||||
Created Baron Sikka for life | ||||||||||
15 Sep 2020 | ||||||||||
SILCHESTER | ||||||||||
17 Jul 1821 | B | 1 | Thomas Pakenham | 14 May 1774 | 28 May 1835 | 61 | ||||
Created Baron Silchester 17 Jul 1821 | ||||||||||
See "Longford" | ||||||||||
SILKIN | ||||||||||
4 Jul 1950 | B | 1 | Lewis Silkin | 14 Nov 1889 | 11 May 1972 | 82 | ||||
Created Baron Silkin 4 Jul 1950 | ||||||||||
MP for Peckham 1936-1950 PC 1945 CH 1965 | ||||||||||
11 May 1972 | 2 | Arthur Silkin | 20 Oct 1916 | 25 Nov 2001 | 85 | |||||
to | He disclaimed the peerage for life 18 May 1972 | |||||||||
18 May 1972 | ||||||||||
25 Nov 2001 | 3 | Christopher Lewis Silkin | 12 Sep 1947 | |||||||
to | He disclaimed the peerage for life May 2002 | |||||||||
May 2002 | ||||||||||
SILKIN OF DULWICH | ||||||||||
13 May 1985 | B[L] | 1 | Samuel Charles Silkin | 6 Mar 1918 | 17 Aug 1988 | 70 | ||||
to | Created Baron Silkin of Dulwich for life | |||||||||
17 Aug 1988 | 13 May 1985 | |||||||||
MP for Dulwich 1964-1983. Attorney | ||||||||||
General 1974-1979. PC 1974 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SILSOE | ||||||||||
18 Jan 1963 | B | 1 | Sir Arthur Malcolm Trustram Eve,1st baronet | 8 Apr 1894 | 3 Dec 1976 | 82 | ||||
Created Baron Silsoe 18 Jan 1963 | ||||||||||
3 Dec 1976 | 2 | David Malcolm Trustram Eve | 2 May 1930 | 31 Dec 2005 | 75 | |||||
31 Dec 2005 | 3 | Simon Rupert Trustram Eve | 17 Apr 1966 | |||||||
SIMEY | ||||||||||
12 May 1965 | B[L] | 1 | Thomas Spensley Simey | 25 Nov 1906 | 27 Dec 1969 | 63 | ||||
to | Created Baron Simey for life 12 May 1965 | |||||||||
27 Dec 1969 | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
SIMON | ||||||||||
20 May 1940 | V | 1 | John Allsebrook Simon | 28 Feb 1873 | 11 Jan 1954 | 80 | ||||
Created Viscount Simon 20 May 1940 | ||||||||||
MP for Walthamstow 1906-1918 and Spen | ||||||||||
Valley 1922-1940. Solicitor General 1910- | ||||||||||
1913. Attorney General 1913-1914. Home | ||||||||||
Secretary 1915-1916 and 1935-1937. | ||||||||||
Chancellor of the Exchequer 1937-1940. | ||||||||||
Lord Chancellor 1940-1945. PC 1913 | ||||||||||
11 Jan 1954 | 2 | John Gilbert Simon | 2 Sep 1902 | 5 Dec 1993 | 91 | |||||
5 Dec 1993 | 3 | Jan David Simon [Elected hereditary peer 1999-2021] | 20 Jul 1940 | 15 Aug 2021 | 81 | |||||
to | Peerage extinct on his death | |||||||||
15 Aug 2021 | ||||||||||
SIMON OF GLAISDALE | ||||||||||
5 Feb 1971 | B[L] | 1 | Sir Jocelyn Edward Salis Simon | 15 Jan 1911 | 7 May 2006 | 95 | ||||
to | Created Baron Simon of Glaisdale for life | |||||||||
7 May 2006 | 5 Feb 1971 | |||||||||
MP for Middlesbrough West 1951-1962. | ||||||||||
Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1958- | ||||||||||
1959. Solicitor General 1959-1962. Lord of | ||||||||||
Appeal in Ordinary 1971-1977. PC 1961 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SIMON OF HIGHBURY | ||||||||||
16 May 1997 | B[L] | 1 | Sir David Alec Gwyn Simon | 24 Jul 1939 | ||||||
Created Baron Simon of Highbury for life | ||||||||||
16 May 1997 | ||||||||||
SIMON OF WYTHENSHAWE | ||||||||||
17 Jan 1947 | B | 1 | Sir Ernest Darwin Simon | 9 Oct 1879 | 3 Oct 1960 | 80 | ||||
Created Baron Simon of Wythenshawe | ||||||||||
17 Jan 1947 | ||||||||||
MP for Withington 1923-1924 and 1929-1931 | ||||||||||
3 Oct 1960 | 2 | Roger Simon | 16 Oct 1913 | 14 Oct 2002 | 88 | |||||
14 Oct 2002 | 3 | Matthew Simon | 10 Apr 1955 | |||||||
SIMONDS | ||||||||||
18 Oct 1954 | V | 1 | Sir Gavin Turnbull Simonds | 28 Nov 1881 | 28 Jun 1971 | 89 | ||||
to | Created Baron Simonds 18 Apr 1944 | |||||||||
28 Jun 1971 | [for life] and 24 Jun 1952 and | |||||||||
Viscount Simonds 18 Oct 1954 | ||||||||||
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1944 and 1954- | ||||||||||
1962. Lord Chancellor 1951-1954 PC 1944 | ||||||||||
Peerages extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SIMPSON OF DUNKELD | ||||||||||
5 Nov 1997 | B[L] | 1 | George Simpson | 2 Jul 1942 | ||||||
Created Baron Simpson of Dunkeld for life | ||||||||||
5 Nov 1997 | ||||||||||
SINCLAIR | ||||||||||
c 1449 | B[S] | 1 | William Sinclair,3rd Earl of Orkney | 1476 | ||||||
Created Lord Sinclair c 1449 and | ||||||||||
Earl of Caithness 28 Aug 1455 | ||||||||||
1476 | 2 | William Sinclair | Jul 1487 | |||||||
Jul 1487 | 3 | Henry Sinclair | 9 Sep 1513 | |||||||
9 Sep 1513 | 4 | William Sinclair | 1570 | |||||||
1570 | 5 | Henry Sinclair | 1528 | 21 Oct 1601 | 73 | |||||
21 Oct 1601 | 6 | Henry Sinclair | Mar 1581 | 1602 | 21 | |||||
1602 | 7 | James Sinclair | 1607 | |||||||
1607 | 8 | Patrick Sinclair | 1615 | |||||||
1615 | 9 | John Sinclair | 29 Oct 1610 | 10 Nov 1674 | 64 | |||||
10 Nov 1674 | 10 | Henry St.Clair | 3 Jun 1660 | Mar 1723 | 62 | |||||
to | On his death the heir was under attainder | |||||||||
Mar 1723 | ||||||||||
[Mar 1723] | [John St.Clair] | 5 Dec 1683 | 2 Nov 1750 | 66 | ||||||
[2 Nov 1750] | [James St.Clair] | 30 Nov 1762 | ||||||||
MP for Dysart Burghs 1722-1734 and | ||||||||||
1747-1754, Sutherland 1736-1747 and | ||||||||||
Fifeshire 1754-1762 | ||||||||||
30 Nov 1762 | 11 | Charles St.Clair | 4 Jan 1775 | |||||||
4 Jan 1775 | 12 | Andrew St.Clair | 30 Jul 1733 | 16 Dec 1775 | 42 | |||||
16 Dec 1775 | 13 | Charles St.Clair | 30 Jul 1768 | 30 Mar 1863 | 94 | |||||
30 Mar 1863 | 14 | James St.Clair | 3 Jul 1803 | 24 Oct 1880 | 77 | |||||
24 Oct 1880 | 15 | Charles William St.Clair | 8 Sep 1831 | 25 Apr 1922 | 90 | |||||
25 Apr 1922 | 16 | Archibald James Murray St.Clair | 16 Feb 1875 | 25 Nov 1957 | 82 | |||||
25 Nov 1957 | 17 | Charles Murray Kennedy St.Clair | 21 Jun 1914 | 1 Apr 2004 | 89 | |||||
Lord Lieutenant Dumfries and Kirkcudbright | ||||||||||
1982-1989 | ||||||||||
1 Apr 2004 | 18 | Matthew Murray Kennedy St. Clair | 9 Dec 1968 | |||||||
SINCLAIR OF CLEEVE | ||||||||||
21 Jan 1957 | B | 1 | Sir Robert John Sinclair | 29 Jul 1893 | 4 Mar 1979 | 85 | ||||
Created Baron Sinclair of Cleeve | ||||||||||
21 Jan 1957 | ||||||||||
4 Mar 1979 | 2 | John Robert Kilgour Sinclair | 3 Nov 1919 | 27 Aug 1985 | 65 | |||||
27 Aug 1985 | 3 | John Lawrence Robert Sinclair | 6 Jan 1953 | |||||||
SINGH OF WIMBLEDON | ||||||||||
12 Oct 2011 | B[L] | 1 | Indarjit Singh | 1932 | ||||||
Created Baron Singh of Wimbledon for life | ||||||||||
12 Oct 2011 | ||||||||||
SINHA | ||||||||||
14 Feb 1919 | B | 1 | Sir Satyendra Prasanno Sinha | Jun 1864 | 5 Mar 1928 | 63 | ||||
Created Baron Sunha 14 Feb 1919 | ||||||||||
PC 1919 | ||||||||||
5 Mar 1928 | 2 | Arun Kumar Sinha | 22 Aug 1887 | 11 May 1967 | 79 | |||||
For further information on this peer's petition | ||||||||||
for a writ of summons to the House of Lords, | ||||||||||
see the note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
11 May 1967 | 3 | Sudhindro Prossanho Sinha | 29 Oct 1920 | 6 Jan 1989 | 68 | |||||
6 Jan 1989 | 4 | Susanta Prasanna Sinha | 1953 | 1992 | 39 | |||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
1992 | 5 | Anindo Kumar Sinha | 1930 | 18 Jan 1999 | 68 | |||||
18 Jan 1999 | 6 | Arup Kumar Sinha | 23 Apr 1966 | |||||||
SKELMERSDALE | ||||||||||
30 Jan 1828 | B | 1 | Edward Bootle-Wilbraham | 7 Mar 1771 | 3 Apr 1853 | 82 | ||||
Created Baron Skelmersdale | ||||||||||
30 Jan 1828 | ||||||||||
MP for Westbury 1795-1796, Newcastle | ||||||||||
under Lyme 1796-1812, Clitheroe 1812-1818 | ||||||||||
and Dover 1818-1828 | ||||||||||
3 Apr 1853 | 2 | Edward Bootle-Wilbraham,later [1880] 1st | 12 Dec 1837 | 19 Nov 1898 | 60 | |||||
Earl of Lathom | ||||||||||
19 Nov 1898 | 3 | Edward George Bootle-Wilbraham,2nd Earl | ||||||||
of Lathom | 26 Oct 1864 | 15 Mar 1910 | 45 | |||||||
15 Mar 1910 | 4 | Edward William Bootle-Wilbraham,3rd Earl | ||||||||
of Lathom | 16 May 1895 | 6 Feb 1930 | 34 | |||||||
6 Feb 1930 | 5 | Arthur George Bootle-Wilbraham | 21 May 1876 | 9 Feb 1969 | 92 | |||||
9 Feb 1969 | 6 | Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham | 23 Sep 1896 | 21 Jul 1973 | 76 | |||||
21 Jul 1973 | 7 | Roger Bootle-Wilbraham [Elected hereditary peer | 2 Apr 1945 | 31 Oct 2018 | 73 | |||||
1999-2018] | ||||||||||
9 Aug 1977 | ||||||||||
31 Oct 2018 | 8 | Andrew Bootle-Wilbraham | ||||||||
SKENE | ||||||||||
1 Oct 1857 | B | 1 | James Duff,5th Earl of Fife | 6 Jul 1814 | 7 Aug 1879 | 65 | ||||
Created Baron Skene 1 Oct 1857 | ||||||||||
See "Fife" | ||||||||||
SKIDELSKY | ||||||||||
15 Jul 1991 | B[L] | 1 | Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky | 25 Apr 1939 | ||||||
Created Baron Skidelsky for life 15 Jul 1991 | ||||||||||
SKRIMSHIRE OF QUARTER | ||||||||||
2 Oct 1979 | B[L] | 1 | Margaret Betty Harvie Anderson | 12 Aug 1913 | 7 Nov 1979 | 66 | ||||
to | Created Baroness Skrimshire of Quarter | |||||||||
7 Nov 1979 | for life 2 Oct 1979 | |||||||||
MP for Renfrewshire East 1959-1979 PC 1974 | ||||||||||
Peerage extinct on her death | ||||||||||
SLAINS | ||||||||||
12 Jun 1452 | E[S] | 1 | Sir William Hay,2nd Lord Hay | 1462 | ||||||
Created Lord Slains and Earl of Erroll | ||||||||||
12 Jun 1452 | ||||||||||
See "Erroll" | ||||||||||
SLANE | ||||||||||
c 1370 | B[I] | 1 | Sir Simon Fleming | Oct 1370 | ||||||
Created Baron Slane c 1370 | ||||||||||
Oct 1370 | 2 | Thomas Fleming | 1435 | |||||||
1435 | 3 | Christopher Fleming | 30 Nov 1446 | |||||||
30 Nov 1446 | 4 | Christopher Fleming | 1457 | |||||||
1457 | 5 | David Fleming | 1463 | |||||||
1463 | 6 | Thomas Fleming | 8 Dec 1470 | |||||||
8 Dec 1470 | 7 | James Fleming | 1492 | |||||||
1492 | 8 | Christopher Fleming | 9 Aug 1517 | |||||||
9 Aug 1517 | 9 | James Fleming | 1578 | |||||||
1578 | 10 | Thomas Fleming | 9 Nov 1597 | |||||||
9 Nov 1597 | 11 | William Fleming | 1612 | |||||||
1612 | 12 | Christopher Fleming | 9 Jun 1625 | |||||||
9 Jun 1625 | 13 | Thomas Fleming | c 1604 | 2 Aug 1651 | ||||||
He resigned the peerage in favour of - | ||||||||||
1629 | 14 | William Fleming | 1641 | |||||||
1641 | 15 | Charles Fleming | 1661 | |||||||
1661 | 16 | Randall Fleming | 22 Oct 1676 | |||||||
22 Oct 1676 | 17 | Christopher Fleming | 1669 | 14 Jul 1726 | 57 | |||||
to | He was attainted and the peerage forfeited | |||||||||
16 Apr 1691 | ||||||||||
------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||
22 Jan 1816 | V[I] | 1 | Henry Conyngham,5th Earl Conyngham | 26 Dec 1766 | 28 Dec 1832 | 66 | ||||
Created Viscount Slane,Earl of Mount | ||||||||||
Charles and Marquess Conyngham | ||||||||||
22 Jan 1816 | ||||||||||
See "Conyngham" | ||||||||||
SLATER | ||||||||||
8 Jul 1970 | B[L] | 1 | Joseph Slater | 13 Jun 1904 | 21 Apr 1977 | 72 | ||||
to | Created Baron Slater for life 8 Jul 1970 | |||||||||
21 Apr 1977 | MP for Sedgefield 1950-1970 | |||||||||
Peerage extinct on his death | ||||||||||
SLIGO | ||||||||||
29 Dec 1800 | M[I] | 1 | John Denis Browne,3rd Earl of Altamont | 11 Jun 1756 | 2 Jan 1809 | 52 | ||||
Created Marquess of Sligo 29 Dec 1800 | ||||||||||
and Baron Monteagle 20 Feb 1806 | ||||||||||
PC [I] 1785 KP 1800 | ||||||||||
2 Jan 1809 | 2 | Howe Peter Browne | 18 May 1788 | 26 Jan 1845 | 56 | |||||
Lord Lieutenant Mayo 1842-1845. KP 1810 | ||||||||||
PC [I] 1809 PC 1834 | ||||||||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
26 Jan 1845 | 3 | George John Browne | 31 Jan 1820 | 30 Dec 1896 | 76 | |||||
30 Dec 1896 | 4 | John Thomas Browne | 10 Sep 1824 | 30 Dec 1903 | 79 | |||||
MP for Mayo 1857-1868 | ||||||||||
30 Dec 1903 | 5 | Henry Ulick Browne | 14 Mar 1831 | 24 Feb 1913 | 81 | |||||
24 Feb 1913 | 6 | George Ulick Browne | 1 Sep 1856 | 26 Feb 1935 | 78 | |||||
Lord Lieutenant Mayo 1914-1922 | ||||||||||
For further information on this peer, see the | ||||||||||
note at the foot of this page | ||||||||||
26 Feb 1935 | 7 | Ulick de Burgh Browne | 30 Mar 1898 | 7 Jan 1941 | 42 | |||||
7 Jan 1941 | 8 | Arthur Howe Browne | 8 May 1867 | 28 May 1951 | 84 | |||||
28 May 1951 | 9 | Terence Morris Browne | 28 Sep 1873 | 28 Jul 1952 | 78 | |||||
28 Jul 1952 | 10 | Denis Edward Browne | 13 Dec 1908 | 11 Sep 1991 | 82 | |||||
11 Sep 1991 | 11 | Jeremy Ulick Browne | 4 Jun 1939 | 13 Jul 2014 | 75 | |||||
13 Jul 2014 | 12 | Sebastian Ulick Browne | 27 May 1964 | |||||||
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury | ||||||||||
The following biography of Shaftesbury appeared in the March 1953 issue of the Australian | ||||||||||
monthly magazine "Parade":- | ||||||||||
'There was only a small attendance in the House of Commons on a summer evening of 1828 | ||||||||||
when a tall, melancholy young man rose nervously, and, in a voice that could hardly be heard, | ||||||||||
revealed to an indifferent House the atrocities that existed in Britain's uncontrolled lunatic | ||||||||||
asylums. Granitefaced businessmen and members of the aristocracy composing the majority | ||||||||||
of his audience smiled sardonically, and muttered sourly that Ashley, son and heir of the sixth | ||||||||||
Earl of Shaftesbury, was "making an awful fool of himself" in his first important speech. In a | ||||||||||
a voice strangled by nervousness and the strength of his emotions, he courageously sought to | ||||||||||
tell them in a wobbly whisper, of raving, half-naked men and women he had seen with pieces | ||||||||||
of red cloth tied around their loins with rope as the only clothing, chained hand and foot in | ||||||||||
cells little bigger than graves. He told of sick and half-starved lunatics untended for days on | ||||||||||
end; of others he had seen sluiced down with cold water in the bitterest weather to rid them | ||||||||||
of the filth in which they had been lying in straw that would have disgraced a pigsty. | ||||||||||
'It was a recital of facts grim enough to make a hangman blanch. But it was an age when the | ||||||||||
lords of the new industrial Machine Era were too busy making money, and those who called them | ||||||||||
master were too desperately engaged in a battle for survival on starvation wages, for much | ||||||||||
thought to be given to questions of humanity. So the House was quite unmoved by the idealistic | ||||||||||
young member's maiden speech, and dismissed it with a jocose reference to the quip that "there | ||||||||||
is pleasure in being mad that only a madman knows." | ||||||||||
'Ashley, who became the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury in 1851, recorded that he was disgraced. | ||||||||||
But there was pugnacious Churchill blood in his veins, and when he died some 57 years later, in | ||||||||||
1885, he had not only cleaned up the madhouses as legislator and commissioner, but had wiped | ||||||||||
out the heartless exploitation of child and women labour in mines, factories and fields, fixed the | ||||||||||
working day at 10 hours instead of 13 to 16, and given thousands of thieves, prostitutes and | ||||||||||
down-and-outs a chance of a new life in new lands. His triumph was all the greater by virtue | ||||||||||
of the environment into which he was born - an environment of ease and luxury that would have | ||||||||||
suborned the idealism of a less resolute mind. | ||||||||||
'Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, was born on April 28, 1801. His father, the | ||||||||||
sixth earl was a crotchety old curmudgeon and Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords. | ||||||||||
His mother was Anne Churchill, daughter of the fourth Duke of Marlborough, and a gay, elegant | ||||||||||
leader of fashion who bore her children with more resignation than affection. As Lord Ashley, he | ||||||||||
was sent at a tender age to a "good, old-fashioned, 'Dotheboys Hall,' a flogging school for | ||||||||||
noblemen" at Chiswick where he was most unhappy. "Nothing could surpass it for filth, bullying, | ||||||||||
starvation, oppression, cruelty and neglect," he afterwards wrote. He went on to Harrow, and | ||||||||||
then to Oxford, where he graduated with honours in the classics before entering parliament at | ||||||||||
25 to represent his grandfather Marlborough's "rotten borough" of Woodstock, and later | ||||||||||
Dorsetshire. | ||||||||||
'He entered parliament earnestly resolved to use his position as a power for good but sadly | ||||||||||
conscious of his limitations. He was a tyro in political strategies, of no worldly experience, and | ||||||||||
with no aptitude for impromptu speaking. Indeed, every sentence of every speech he ever made | ||||||||||
was the product of slow and hesitant construction in writing; and their delivery called for super- | ||||||||||
human efforts from a faulty memory. And it is a fact that many times the integrity of his purpose | ||||||||||
did achieve success when his naiveté seemed likely to bring the cause he sponsored to an | ||||||||||
impasse against the hostility of smarter minds than his. Indeed, the speech he thought a failure | ||||||||||
actually launched him on his life-long crusades. | ||||||||||
'Michael Sadler, M.P., who had earlier sponsored a Bill to restrict the working day of women and | ||||||||||
children in factories to 10 hours had been thrown out of his seat for Bradford [sic - Sadler was | ||||||||||
never MP for Bradford] by outraged vested interests, and the workers, seeking a new champion, | ||||||||||
asked the young sprig of aristocracy who had spoken so feelingly for the mad, to take up their | ||||||||||
cause. Ashley investigated conditions in the northcountry textile mills and found them revolting: | ||||||||||
"Children as young as six were forced to work 13 and sometimes 16, hours a day, six days a | ||||||||||
week, for three shillings, and were beaten with straps by overseers when they dozed at their | ||||||||||
benches through exhaustion. In the cotton industry alone, 28,000 workers were under 13, and | ||||||||||
thousands of them, bandylegged and crippled, died before they were 18. They were twisted by | ||||||||||
toil into the shape of all the letters of the alphabet," said the horrified Ashley after a lightning | ||||||||||
visit to Bradford. | ||||||||||
'When he introduced Sadler's Bill again he was savagely assailed by industrialists, and by their | ||||||||||
lackeys in Parliament who clamoured that without child labour British overseas trade would be | ||||||||||
ruined and profits would be entirely wiped out. Sycophantic doctors swore that 13 hours of | ||||||||||
daily labour in a factory was healthy for children. When Ashley stubbornly produced his facts, | ||||||||||
embellished by stories such as that a small boy beaten with a nail protruding from a piece of | ||||||||||
wood till his buttocks were a jelly, because he could not stay awake they gibed that he should | ||||||||||
go to his father's estate and see conditions there before he criticised conditions elsewhere. He | ||||||||||
went, and returned to denounce his father for his treatment of his labourers - and was promptly | ||||||||||
forbidden the family mansion at St.Giles. | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
employing children under nine, and limiting the hours of other female and juvenile workers. Many | ||||||||||
employers promptly evaded or defied it, and lock-outs and military suppression broke up embryo | ||||||||||
unions. In all the turmoil, quietly-spoken, but now more confident, Ashley returned to the attack | ||||||||||
with his Ten Hours Bill, only to be branded an agitator bent upon duping the workers to their | ||||||||||
undoing. He had ample reason to record that he was made the object of constant, minute and | ||||||||||
pointed hatred. But out of his campaigning, limited in its immediate success as it was, there | ||||||||||
blossomed a spirit of hope that added strength to his cause. | ||||||||||
'Four times his Ten Hours Bill was rejected - in 1838, '39, '40 and '41 - and it was ironical that at | ||||||||||
last enlightened public opinion forced parliament to accept it, thus bringing protection to more | ||||||||||
than 2,000,000 sweated workers. Ashley was out [of the House of Commons], and it was piloted | ||||||||||
through by his friend, John Fielden [MP for Oldham], one of Britain's few humane cotton-spinners. | ||||||||||
Ashley by then had resigned because his high sense of honour forbade him to continue repres- | ||||||||||
enting a protectionist county [Dorset] while approving the repeal of the Corn Laws with which a | ||||||||||
tardy Government tried to ameliorate the horrors of the Irish famine. A few months later he | ||||||||||
returned to parliament representing Bath. | ||||||||||
'While the factory battle was still raging Ashley demanded an inquiry into the condition of women | ||||||||||
and children in the mines. The report horrified the nation, which heard for the first time of | ||||||||||
children of six crouching alone in stygian darkness opening and shutting airdoors as half-naked | ||||||||||
women and children, tethered by chains like dogs, hauled heavy-laden coal trucks through foetid | ||||||||||
passages, some not more than 18 inches high. This time it was the land and coalowners in the | ||||||||||
Lords who denounced him as an agitator and traitor to his class, and blasted even wider the | ||||||||||
breach between the melancholy but stubborn young reformer and his father. Bitterly, the old | ||||||||||
Earl, as chairman of the Lords' Committees, framed the opposition to his son's Bill emancipating | ||||||||||
women from the mines. But in the end the Lords had to pass it. Public opinion forced it through. | ||||||||||
'Ashley was diffident, of a retiring disposition, inclined to melancholy, and faced every crusade | ||||||||||
he entered upon full of nervous dread of the rumpus that he knew it would create. But he was | ||||||||||
driven on, and mentally supported by an ardent religious faith. Indeed, some of his evangelical | ||||||||||
campaigns as a stalwart of the Church of England were fanatically puritan. It was this driving | ||||||||||
religious zeal that made him accept with proud humility the obloquy of his own class who | ||||||||||
regarded him as a "tedious, queer, stiff figure," but who, in the end, counted him among the | ||||||||||
great. In appearance he was tall with a sensitive face fringed with feathery side whiskers. | ||||||||||
Friends called him "The Sublime," as opposed to his brother William, "The Beautiful." | ||||||||||
He had great compassion. After viewing scenes of filth, discomfort and disease which no pen | ||||||||||
could describe in the slums of Bethnal Green and Whitechapel, he fought a campaign which | ||||||||||
resulted in the establishment of the first Board of Health and was its first Commissioner. To | ||||||||||
help the thousands of slum orphans who were knocked about from pillar to post, sleeping | ||||||||||
under arches, carts, sawpits, on staircases and in kilns, Ashley adopted the Ragged Schools to | ||||||||||
educate and train them. He formed associations to help London's submerged tenth, coster- | ||||||||||
mongers, shoeblacks, crossing sweepers, flowersellers, thieves and prostitutes, and once | ||||||||||
addressed a meeting of 400 men who had all been in gaol and 200 of whom admitted frankly | ||||||||||
that they lived by burglary alone. He found jobs or new homes in the colonies for some 300 | ||||||||||
of them. | ||||||||||
'Many attempts were made to suborn his reforming zeal. He was offered posts in the Cabinet, | ||||||||||
and the office of Chief Scullion to the Queen, which would have entitled him to carry a white | ||||||||||
wand and supervise the royal meals while bombarding Her Majesty with highly moral advice. | ||||||||||
But he turned them down because millions still waited to be brought under the protection of | ||||||||||
his Factory Acts. He earned the lifelong hostility of Queen Victoria by refusing the Order of | ||||||||||
the Garter, but later [1862] was persuaded by Palmerston to accept it. | ||||||||||
'Ashley succeeded his father and became the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury in 1851. He promptly | ||||||||||
sold costly family pictures to introduce reforms on his debt-encumbered estate, which, though | ||||||||||
always hard-pressed for money, he endowed with schools and sports and social clubs that made | ||||||||||
a model for other landowners. When he succeeded to the title he was in the middle of his | ||||||||||
longest parliamentary battle, a series of Bills designed to rescue hundreds of children, many of | ||||||||||
them only four or five years old, kidnapped and sold to chimney sweeps who forced them to | ||||||||||
climb the tortuous chimneys of stately homes to clean out the soot. It was 1875 before | ||||||||||
Shaftesbury could break down opposition and bring in a licensing system that ended the atrocity. | ||||||||||
'Though claimed by some to be Britain's greatest reformer, it is a curious fact that Shaftesbury | ||||||||||
himself never actually inaugurated the reforms he implemented. Shaftesbury, however, adopted | ||||||||||
them when they were forlorn hopes, galvanised them into life, and with the driving force of his | ||||||||||
religious zeal carried them through to success. He died on October 1, 1885, revered by many | ||||||||||
who had formerly opposed and detested him.' | ||||||||||
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury | ||||||||||
The following is extracted from "Reynolds' Newspaper" of 18 April 1886:- | ||||||||||
'The Earl of Shaftesbury committed suicide on Tuesday [13 April 1886], by shooting himself with | ||||||||||
a revolver, while being driven in a cab along Upper Regent-street. It appears that his lordship | ||||||||||
engaged a cab in the upper part of Regent-street shortly after four o'clock, and directed the | ||||||||||
cabman to drive down the street. The driver did so, and on reaching the lower end of the | ||||||||||
thoroughfare was told by the earl to return. This the man did, and when the upper end of the | ||||||||||
street was reached, his lordship again directed the cab to be turned around. This was done | ||||||||||
several times, and when the cab was near Oxford-street, about half-past four o'clock, the driver | ||||||||||
heard a shot. He jumped down, and the earl, who was unknown to him, said, "It's all right, | ||||||||||
cabman: drive on!" The man replied, Yes, I know it's all right; but what is this?" and pointed to | ||||||||||
a bullet-hole in the front part of the cab, adding, "I value my life too much to drive on." He was, | ||||||||||
however, about to mount the box again, when a second report was heard, and this time Lord | ||||||||||
Shaftesbury shot himself in the left temple. At this moment Police-constable Smith, who had | ||||||||||
heard the first report, came up, and entering the cab, told the cabman to drive up to the | ||||||||||
Middlesex Hospital. A crowd gathered around the vehicle, but the earl was not recognised by | ||||||||||
anyone until the hospital was reached, a few minutes afterwards. There the policeman and | ||||||||||
driver of the cab carried his lordship, who was still alive, into the in-patient's ward, and | ||||||||||
summoned the assistance of the house-surgeon, Dr. Bartlett, but Lord Shaftesbury was just | ||||||||||
breathing his last, and was beyond all surgical aid, the bullet having penetrated the brain. | ||||||||||
Meanwhile an intimation of the sad occurrence had been sent to the friends of the deceased, | ||||||||||
and in a short time the Countess of Shaftesbury arrived, followed by his lordship's butler, but | ||||||||||
only to learn that the worst had happened. The weapon used was a six-barrelled revolver, and | ||||||||||
it is supposed from the position of the first shot that it had been fired accidentally, but the | ||||||||||
situation of the fatal wound showed that the second was discharged with deliberate aim.' | ||||||||||
At the subsequent inquest, evidence was heard that the Earl had, for the last few months of | ||||||||||
his life, suffered from depression. The dead Earl's brother gave evidence that the Earl felt that | ||||||||||
life was no longer worth living. He would stay in bed for days on end, and all of the Earl's | ||||||||||
servants were directed to keep an eye on him. Great care was taken to remove all weapons | ||||||||||
out of his reach, although it was not considered necessary to place the Earl under restraint. | ||||||||||
When the Earl's clothing was searched after his death, a number of scraps of paper were | ||||||||||
found. On these, in the Earl's handwriting, were found the words "I am no good to anybody. | ||||||||||
I cannot live any longer. Forgive me! Bless you, dear Harriet! [Lady Shaftesbury]. You are too | ||||||||||
good for me." | ||||||||||
The coroner's jury returned a verdict that the Earl had committed suicide by shooting himself | ||||||||||
with a revolver whilst in a state of unsound mind. | ||||||||||
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury | ||||||||||
The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury was a very wealthy and flamboyant character, in the same mould | ||||||||||
as his father, Lord Ashley, the son of the 9th Earl. Lord Ashley died in 1947 before he could | ||||||||||
succeed to the title, which therefore passed, on the death of the 9th Earl in 1961, to his | ||||||||||
grandson, the 10th Earl. | ||||||||||
Lord Ashley had already shocked 1920s society by marrying the model and actress Sylvia | ||||||||||
Hawkes in 1927, before divorcing her some years later. She later married four more times, two | ||||||||||
of her later husbands being Douglas Fairbanks and Clark Gable. Lord Ashley later married | ||||||||||
Francoise Goussault, who became the mother of the 10th Earl. | ||||||||||
The 10th Earl was educated at Eton, where he developed a taste for exotic women. He does | ||||||||||
not appear to have had much regard for young women of his own class, describing them in the | ||||||||||
Eton school magazine as 'round-shouldered, unsophisticated garglers of pink champagne.' | ||||||||||
After studying at Oxford, the Earl embarked upon matrimony for the first time in 1966, when he | ||||||||||
married the 40-year old divorcee Bianca Le Vien. They were divorced in 1976 due to the Earl's | ||||||||||
adulterous habits. Later that year he married another divorcee, Christina Casella. This marriage | ||||||||||
produced the 11th and 12th Earls of Shaftesbury, but also ended in divorce. | ||||||||||
After the death of his mother in 1999 and the divorce from his second wife, the Earl re-located | ||||||||||
to France, spending much of his time on the Cote d'Azur, where, despite being in his early 60s, | ||||||||||
he plunged into a hectic social life, fuelled, it is said, by alcohol and Viagra. He was described as | ||||||||||
'a philanthropist who specialised in rescuing lap dancers.' | ||||||||||
In 2002, he announced that he planned to marry a French lingerie model named Nathalie Lions, | ||||||||||
but this marriage never eventuated. Instead, on 5th November 2002, he married a Dutch- | ||||||||||
Tunisian nightclub hostess named Djamila M'Barek. This marriage made no difference to his social | ||||||||||
life, and he and his wife were separated by early 2004, when he took up with a woman named | ||||||||||
Nadia Orch, variously described as a 'Moroccan prostitute' or, more euphemistically, 'a club | ||||||||||
hostess.' | ||||||||||
On 6 November 2004, the Earl checked out of his Cannes hotel and then vanished. When no | ||||||||||
trace of him was found, the French police launched a formal criminal enquiry. Initially, it was | ||||||||||
thought that he may have been kidnapped by gangsters in order to extort his fortune from him, | ||||||||||
but this theory was soon discounted and the police authorities came to believe that the Earl had | ||||||||||
been murdered. | ||||||||||
In February 2005, Djamila M'Barek was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she confessed | ||||||||||
to being involved in her husband's death. She claimed that her brother Mohammed M'Barek had | ||||||||||
strangled the Earl in her flat at Cannes, and had dumped the body. She was subsequently | ||||||||||
arrested, as was her brother. Mohammed denied his involvement and claimed no knowledge of | ||||||||||
the location of the Earl's body. | ||||||||||
By examining the Earl's phone records, the police were able to identify the telephone mast which | ||||||||||
received the last-known signal from the Earl's mobile phone. This clue led police to search the | ||||||||||
undergrowth in a valley on the outskirts of Cannes where, on 7 April 2005, they found a badly | ||||||||||
decomposed body that had been half-eaten by animals. | ||||||||||
In May 2007, Djamila and Mohammed M'Barek were tried for the murder of the Earl. Both were | ||||||||||
found guilty and both received 25-year prison sentences. | ||||||||||
Richard Henry Boyle, 6th Earl of Shannon | ||||||||||
On the death of the 5th Earl of Shannon in February 1890, the next heir was his eldest son, | ||||||||||
Richard Henry Boyle, known under his courtesy title of Viscount Boyle. The difficulty was that | ||||||||||
Richard had moved to Canada in 1883 and had not been heard of for the last two years. | ||||||||||
The following article is taken from "The Times" of 2 April 1890:- | ||||||||||
'The Hon. Henry Boyle left London on Saturday last [29 March 1890] for Canada, with the view | ||||||||||
of endeavouring to find some traces of his eldest brother, of whom nothing has been heard for | ||||||||||
over two years, and who, by the somewhat sudden death of his father, the [5th] Earl of | ||||||||||
Shannon, some months ago, has succeeded to the family titles and estates. | ||||||||||
'About seven years ago Viscount Boyle, having resigned his commission in the Rifle Brigade, | ||||||||||
left England with the view of settling in the west of Canada, and he was subsequently joined | ||||||||||
by his brother Henry, and they were engaged together for some time in ranching operations. | ||||||||||
As the speculation did not, however, prove as successful as was expected, the brothers | ||||||||||
separated, and after a short interval Mr. Henry Boyle decided some three years back to return | ||||||||||
to England in order to avail himself of an opening which [he had been] offered in the City. | ||||||||||
Before leaving Mr. Boyle wrote to his brother telling him he was going home. Lord Boyle decided, | ||||||||||
however, to remain in Canada, and since then, with the exception of a report received from an | ||||||||||
innkeeper that he was seen about two years ago near one of the mining camps, nothing has | ||||||||||
been heard of him. Last year every effort was made to find him, as, apart from the natural | ||||||||||
anxiety of his friends, Lord Boyle came into a considerable sum of money, and it became | ||||||||||
necessary to find him in order to procure his signature to some papers. It is understood that | ||||||||||
Lord Shannon, before he died, had arranged to sell a considerable portion of the estates in | ||||||||||
Ireland to the tenants…….He died, however, without signing the necessary deeds, and we | ||||||||||
believe the matter will have to stand over until it is discovered who the present owner of the | ||||||||||
estates is.' | ||||||||||
Some months later, the new Earl resurfaced in New York. This report is taken from the | ||||||||||
"Chicago Tribune" of 25 July 1890:- | ||||||||||
'New York, July 2 - Among the names on the passenger list of the White Star steamship | ||||||||||
Teutonic, which sailed from this port Wednesday, appeared that of a Mr. R. Boyle. This plain | ||||||||||
Mr. R. Boyle was the missing Viscount Boyle, now (because of the death of the old Earl) Earl of | ||||||||||
Shannon of County Cork, Ireland. Lord Boyle, or Earl [of] Shannon, as he is now called, is an | ||||||||||
eccentric young man with a decidedly interesting history. At the age of 22, just seven years | ||||||||||
ago, the young Viscount left his home to seek his fortune in the far Northwest. He is a young | ||||||||||
man of a decidedly roving disposition, democratic in his tastes, fond of outdoor sports, and | ||||||||||
equally fond, as it would appear, of indulging in what is known in this country as high rolling. | ||||||||||
His Lordship landed on these shores about seven years ago, with unbounded ambition, a | ||||||||||
pocketful of money, and a general desire to have a good time so far as circumstances would | ||||||||||
permit. After thoroughly "doing" this city in company with other kindred spirits, his Lordship | ||||||||||
went to a ranch in Montana and engaged in the delectable pursuit of "punching" cattle and | ||||||||||
waging a sportsmanlike warfare upon the wild denizens of the great North-western forests | ||||||||||
and streams. | ||||||||||
'Nor was the pursuit of politics forgotten in the land of his adoption. A real, live Irish Lord | ||||||||||
was a person to command respect, and Lord Boyle was, therefore, elected a member of the | ||||||||||
Legislature. He served a term with great credit to himself and to the unbounded satisfaction | ||||||||||
of his constituents. [Burke's Peerage states that he served as a member of the Canadian | ||||||||||
Parliament, but in reality he appears to have been a member of the Northwest Territories | ||||||||||
legislature] | ||||||||||
'Lord Boyle was next heard of in Victoria, B.C. There, according to accounts published in the | ||||||||||
papers at the time, he appears to have led a rather fast life. Then his Lordship suddenly | ||||||||||
disappeared, and from that time - over two years ago - until within the last week he had not | ||||||||||
been heard from. As his Lordship had not written home since his departure, over seven years | ||||||||||
ago, it is not to be wondered at that his relatives were worried by his erratic and wayward | ||||||||||
conduct. | ||||||||||
'Then came all sorts of conflicting reports as to where Lord Boyle had hidden himself. One | ||||||||||
gentleman who claimed to know located the missing nobleman in the diamond fields of | ||||||||||
South Africa. Others had met his Lordship digging for golden nuggets in the mines of Alaska, | ||||||||||
while not a few were positive that he gone to the Bengal jungles to wrestle with the tigers | ||||||||||
and huge-eared elephants. After speculating upon his Lordship's whereabouts until the four | ||||||||||
quarters of the globe had become exhausted, it was determined to call the young man dead | ||||||||||
as the best and only means of disposing of the matter. Like Stanley, therefore, Lord Boyle | ||||||||||
was killed in various ways. From this time on his Lordship died, at intervals, all manner of | ||||||||||
deaths. | ||||||||||
'Of course when the old Earl of Shannon, Lord Boyle's father, died some months ago and the | ||||||||||
missing Lord had himself become the Earl, it became a matter of some moment either that | ||||||||||
this much killed young man should be brought to life or that the fact of his death should be | ||||||||||
well established. For this purpose Lord Boyle's brother Henry came to this country soon after | ||||||||||
the Earl's death and scoured the great Northwest on the trail of his missing relative, but | ||||||||||
finding no trace, returned disheartened to this city. The brother's search, however, was not | ||||||||||
altogether futile, for a telegram was received two weeks ago from Idaho from the missing | ||||||||||
man, stating that he was alive and well and would shortly arrive in New York. Closely | ||||||||||
following the telegram came the young Earl himself, bronzed and weather-beaten as a Sioux | ||||||||||
Indian, but a splendid specimen of physical health and robust manhood. The new Earl of | ||||||||||
Shannon remained quietly in this city for a few days and then as plain R. Boyle left with his | ||||||||||
brother for home.' | ||||||||||
The special remainder to the Barony of Sheffield created in 1783 | ||||||||||
From the "London Gazette" of 16 September 1783 (issue 12476, page 1):- | ||||||||||
'The King has been pleased to order Letters Patent to be passed under the Great Seal of the | ||||||||||
Kingdom of Ireland, containing His Majesty's Grant of the Dignity of a Baron of that Kingdom to | ||||||||||
the Right Honourable John Lord Sheffield, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, by | ||||||||||
the Name, Stile and Title of Baron Sheffield of Roscommon, in the County of Roscommon, in the | ||||||||||
said Kingdom, with Remainders severally to his eldest Daughter the Honourable Maria Holroyd, | ||||||||||
and to his youngest Daughter the Honourable Louisa Holroyd, and the respective Heirs Male of | ||||||||||
their Bodies lawfully begotten.' | ||||||||||
James Petty, styled Viscount Dunkerron, son of the Earl of Shelburne (creation of 1719) | ||||||||||
(c 1708-17 Sep 1750) | ||||||||||
Although the Earl of Shelburne's entry in Wikipedia states that there were no children from the | ||||||||||
Earl's marriage, there were at least three sons, two of whom died young, while the youngest | ||||||||||
son, James Petty, who was styled Viscount Dunkerron after his father had been promoted to | ||||||||||
an earldom, predeceased his father by seven months. In his younger days, while on the Grand | ||||||||||
Tour, Dunkerron appeared to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong | ||||||||||
companions. The following is taken from a pamphlet published in 1732:- | ||||||||||
'A brief Narrative of the Unhappy Affair which happened at the City of Tours in France to the | ||||||||||
Lord Viscount Dunkeron......... | ||||||||||
'The Misfortune which happened to four Natives and Subjects of Great Britain, at the City of | ||||||||||
Tours in France, on the 20th of November last N[ew] S[tyle] being the Anniversary of the Feast | ||||||||||
of St. Andrew, the Tutelar [i.e. guardian or protector] of Scotland, being likely to make a great | ||||||||||
Noise in the World, and perhaps be liable to many Misrepresentations, to the Prejudice of the | ||||||||||
Unfortunate Gentlemen, and their Relations and Friends; it has been thought not improper to | ||||||||||
give the Publick a true and concise Account of that unhappy Affair. | ||||||||||
'The Lord Viscount Dunkeron, only [surviving] Child to the Right Honourable Henry Petty of | ||||||||||
High Wicomb, in the County of Bucks, Baron and Earl of Shelburne in the Kingdom of Ireland, a | ||||||||||
Youth of about Nineteen Years old, being abroad on his Travels, in the Province of Tourain, | ||||||||||
where he was to improve himself in the French Tongue; and after a Proficiency therein, to | ||||||||||
proceed to several Courts in Italy; happened to fall into Company with Mr. Hamilton, a Scots | ||||||||||
Gentleman, Nephew of the late Colonel Hamilton, who was Second to Duke Hamilton [sic], in | ||||||||||
the memorable Duel between his Grace and Lord Mohun [qv] in Hyde Park, who was likewise | ||||||||||
going for Italy. The young Lord finding Mr. Hamilton an agreeable Companion, took a great | ||||||||||
liking to his Conversation, and they kept together till they came to the City of Tours, about | ||||||||||
115 Miles South-West from Paris. | ||||||||||
'Here they found Mr. Kinnersly, a young Gentleman of about Ł1500 per Ann. Estate in England, | ||||||||||
Brother to the Lady of Sir John Frederick of Pall-mall Bart., and Mr. Stuart, a Scots gentleman | ||||||||||
of about Ł300 per Ann. in the Shire of Fife: They all became acquainted, and made frequent | ||||||||||
Visits to each other. | ||||||||||
'On the 20th of November, Mr. Hamilton presented all the Gentlemen with Crosses, to be worn | ||||||||||
in honour of St. Andrew, and invited them to an Entertainment at a Tavern. Mr. Kinnersly being | ||||||||||
out of order, seemed unwilling to go; but being at last overcome with the Importunities of his | ||||||||||
Companions, acquiesced. Towards the Evening, when they were all greatly heated with Wine, | ||||||||||
Mr. Hamilton desired leave to send for two Scots Gentlemen [of] his Acquaintance, who heard | ||||||||||
were in the City of Tours; and being inform'd of their Lodgings, said he would go himself, and | ||||||||||
give them a formal Invitation, in the Name of the Company. The others desired the Master of | ||||||||||
the Tavern might be sent with the Compliment, but Mr. Hamilton would not permit it, and went | ||||||||||
himself. As he was passing thro' the Street, one Maurepate, by some called a Frenchman, and | ||||||||||
by others an Italian, but allowed by all to be a Chevalier de Industry, insulted him as he went | ||||||||||
along, on account of the Cross he wore in his Hat, and gave him a Jostle against the Wall. Mr. | ||||||||||
Hamilton, resenting this Usage, drew his Sword, and bid the Fellow prepare, which he did by | ||||||||||
likewise drawing his Sword. After several violent Passes, Maurepate was ran into the Belly, and | ||||||||||
Mr. Hamilton received two Wounds, one in the Sword Arm, and the other in the Left Shoulder; | ||||||||||
and asking his Antagonist, if he had enough, the other continued the Engagement, till he | ||||||||||
received several more Wounds, and was then carried off to the Tavern, where Lord Dunkeron, | ||||||||||
and the other Gentlemen were drinking, and there expired in about an Hour. | ||||||||||
'The Populace assembled in great Numbers about the House, so that the whole City was soon in | ||||||||||
an Uproar. The young Lord, and his Companions came down Stairs, not knowing what had | ||||||||||
happened, and drew their Swords to defend themselves from the Insults of the Rabble. Mr. | ||||||||||
Hamilton was not to be found, having that Instant got Post-Horses, and was gone to the Earl | ||||||||||
Waldegrave [British Ambassador to France 1730-1740] in Paris, to give his Excellency an | ||||||||||
Account of what had happened. Mr. Kinnersly being unhappily intoxicated with Wine, could not | ||||||||||
be prevented from going into the Room where the Corpse lay, though Lord Dunkeron and Mr. | ||||||||||
Stuart, did all they were capable of, to hinder him. However the Master of the Tavern found | ||||||||||
means to convey his Three Guests out of the House, to their Lodgings; but as Lord Dunkeron | ||||||||||
and Mr. Kinnersly were undressing, the Seneschal came with a Guard, and arrested them both, | ||||||||||
on a Charge of being accessories to the Death of Maurepate. Mr. Stuart was not found till | ||||||||||
fourteen Hours later, and then was taken fast asleep in his Bed. They were carried before the | ||||||||||
Presidial, who after an Examination, which lasted Eight Hours, committed them all Prisoners to | ||||||||||
the Castle. | ||||||||||
'The Lord Dunkeron dispatched an Express to his Aunt, the Lady Ikerine [Ikerrin], in London; the | ||||||||||
Earl of Shelburne, his Father, being in Ireland: and Mr. Kinnersly wrote by the same Channel, to | ||||||||||
his Relations, to acquaint them with this Misfortune. | ||||||||||
'Mr. Hamilton having waited on the Earl Waldegrave, at Paris, and desired Protection, his | ||||||||||
Excellency told him he could not grant his an Asylum, in regard to the Strictness of the French | ||||||||||
Laws against Duelling; whereupon he immediately fled to Holland, after two very narrow Escapes | ||||||||||
of being taken, before he had got out of the Territories of France. | ||||||||||
'The English Ambassador being acquainted with the Circumstances attending this unhappy Affair, | ||||||||||
immediately went to Court to desire an Order to be sent to the City of Tours, for the | ||||||||||
Proceedings to be staid, and such other Indulgences granted as were consistent with the Laws | ||||||||||
of the Kingdom, and his most Christian Majesty's Goodness to Foreigners of their Condition, who | ||||||||||
had made the Tour of his Dominions from no other Motive, than that of a polite Curiosity, and | ||||||||||
of improving themselves in the French Language; to the end they might be enabled to write to | ||||||||||
their Relations and Friends, in England, for Advice and Assistance. | ||||||||||
'His Majesty, our most Gracious Sovereign King George, having been humbly acquainted with | ||||||||||
this Case, hath, as we are credibly informed, been graciously pleased to write a Letter, with his | ||||||||||
own Hand, to the most Christian King, in Behalf of these Gentlemen, and the whole Court hath | ||||||||||
been sensibly moved with the News of this Misfortune. | ||||||||||
'Large Remittances have been made to Lord Dunkeron, and Mr. Kinnersly, with Bills of Credit, on | ||||||||||
some of the most considerable Merchants, and others, in the South of France, to assist them | ||||||||||
with whatever shall be found necessary to extricate them out of this Difficulty; and their | ||||||||||
Relations and Friends, in London, are inconsolable, in that it hath happened at so remote a | ||||||||||
Distance, and in a Country whose Laws, particularly with respect to Duels and Rencounters, | ||||||||||
differ so widely from our own. | ||||||||||
'It is said the French Court have sent Orders for the Proceedings to be staid, till his Majesty's | ||||||||||
further Pleasure be known; and, that if any had been had, the English Gentlemen may Appeal | ||||||||||
from them to the Parliament of Paris.' | ||||||||||
Robert Lowe, 1st and only Viscount Sherbrooke | ||||||||||
The following biography, which concentrates on Lowe's period in Australia, appeared in the | ||||||||||
February 1955 issue of the Australian monthly magazine "Parade":- | ||||||||||
'By one of those curious whims of nature, Robert Lowe was born an albino, of lily-white skin, | ||||||||||
Arctic-blond hair, and weak pink eyes. But if he looked like an overgrown Angora rabbit, he had | ||||||||||
the tongue of an asp and the belligerence of a wild bull elephant. At the age of 31 he was told | ||||||||||
he might soon be blind and probably dead; so he came to Australia to make a quick bid for | ||||||||||
fortune and retire. Instead, he threw himself into the colony's fight for self-government and in | ||||||||||
the seven years he lived here, between 1842 and 1850, became embroiled in more fights than | ||||||||||
most men encounter in a lifetime. | ||||||||||
'Surviving at least two duels by men stung to fury by his caustic tongue as a member of the first | ||||||||||
Legislative Council, Lowe returned to England to achieve the Chancellorship of the Exchequer | ||||||||||
under Gladstone, a peerage as Viscount Sherbrooke and the distinction of being one of the most | ||||||||||
remarkable personalities of his day - defying death and the doctors to live to the ripe old age of | ||||||||||
81. | ||||||||||
'It was at Bingham, Notts, on December 4, 1811, that Robert Lowe's blood-red eyes first gazed | ||||||||||
upon the world. His father was a land-owning, foxhunting rector there, and Robert was the | ||||||||||
second son, and the fourth of seven children. An elder sister, Elizabeth, was also an albino. | ||||||||||
Because of this aberration and the delicate eyesight that accompanied it, he was not sent to | ||||||||||
a public school (Winchester) until he was 14, and he was 22 before he graduated at Oxford. He | ||||||||||
gained a distinguished pass, however, with a first in classics and a second in mathematics. He | ||||||||||
would have gained a first in the latter, also, so his friends maintained, had his poor eyesight | ||||||||||
not required him to put his face so close to the paper that his nose rubbed out half the answers. | ||||||||||
'He settled temporarily to tutoring, until in 1835 he won a fellowship at Magdalen College. That | ||||||||||
same year he became engaged to a Georgiana Orred and announced to his father that he had | ||||||||||
decided to become a barrister. Parental consent and cash were withheld from both projects. | ||||||||||
Nevertheless Robert married his Georgiana in March, 1836, and bought a small house at Oxford. | ||||||||||
He continued on with his tutoring, but at the same time drove his weak eyes to pore over law | ||||||||||
books. He was called to the Bar in January, 1842, but the hard work had taken toll of his eyes, | ||||||||||
and tormenting headaches and indifferent general health drove him to consult three specialists. | ||||||||||
Their verdict was unanimous: seven more years of eyesight and then complete blindness. They | ||||||||||
advised him for his health's sake to go to Australia. Robert talked the prospect over with | ||||||||||
Georgiana, and together they decided that in Australia he might reasonably hope to make a | ||||||||||
quick fortune, upon which, together with her income, he would be able to retire. | ||||||||||
'They sailed in June, 1842, and arrived in Sydney four months later. The Governor was then Sir | ||||||||||
George Gipps, and his wife was a relative of Georgiana's. After a fortnight's stay in the vice- | ||||||||||
regal residence at Parramatta, the Lowes took up house in Macquarie Street, and Lowe settled | ||||||||||
to what he called "the wretched trade of an advocate." For the first three months all went well, | ||||||||||
although he suffered greatly from the glaring Sydney sunlight. Then a local doctor, claiming that | ||||||||||
tic douloureux [trigeminal neuralgia - a very painful disease] and not merely congenital defic- | ||||||||||
iency of the eyes threatened his life as well as his eyesight, forbade him the use of his eyes | ||||||||||
altogether. | ||||||||||
'Lowe thought of returning to England, but as 1843 wore on he decided in desperation to forget | ||||||||||
all about doctor's orders, to nurse his eyesight as much as possible, but to continue his original | ||||||||||
plan of working at the Bar. A little later he adopted blinkers, dark goggles which hooded his eyes | ||||||||||
and admitted only pencil points of light. Gradually he began to get the "feel" of things in the | ||||||||||
colony of New South Wales, which then included Port Phillip (Victoria) and Moreton Bay | ||||||||||
(Queensland). | ||||||||||
'The year he arrived the colonists had been granted a measure of representative government | ||||||||||
under a new constitution establishing a Legislative Council of 36 members - 24 of them elected | ||||||||||
representatives and the other 12 Crown nominees and Government officials. The Governor, | ||||||||||
however, retained the power of veto over any decision of the Council, and Gipps was opposed | ||||||||||
to the elected representatives' demands for responsible government and upheld the English | ||||||||||
Colonial Office's right to supreme authority. At the end of 1843 Gipps appointed Lowe one of his | ||||||||||
Crown nominees to the Council to "strengthen the Government" against the demands of the | ||||||||||
popular members. | ||||||||||
'Lowe's success in the Council helped to advance his prestige at the Bar, although he never | ||||||||||
reached the rank of Richard Windeyer [1806-1847], or [Sir] Archibald Michie [1813-1899] [two | ||||||||||
of Sydney's leading barristers at the time]. The one trial by which he is remembered today was | ||||||||||
his defence of John Knatchbull, accused of the murder of the widowed Mrs. Jamieson. He was | ||||||||||
unsuccessful, but his defence was some 100 years ahead of its time - a suit for an acquittal on | ||||||||||
the grounds of moral insanity. [For further details see the note under the Knatchbull baronetcy]. | ||||||||||
The trial had results of personal importance. He and his wife were childless and adopted the | ||||||||||
two small orphaned children of the murdered widow, Mary [other sources name her as Polly] and | ||||||||||
Bobby Jamieson. The girl died soon after the Lowes returned to England, while Bobby lived to a | ||||||||||
restless, troublesome adulthood, and caused his foster parents endless misery before he died | ||||||||||
in an insane asylum. | ||||||||||
'For a time Lowe was a faithful ally of the Government in the Legislative Council, upholding the | ||||||||||
supreme infallibility of Whitehall, and few others in the Council could match his classic oratory | ||||||||||
or caustic wit. It was during this period that he made a reference in debate considered a | ||||||||||
personal affront by an Elderman Macdermott and a Captain Moore, who called upon him next | ||||||||||
day in his chambers in Elizabeth Street demanding that he make an immediate apology or "state | ||||||||||
a time and place." Lowe refused to do either, claiming his right to freedom of speech in the | ||||||||||
Council, and ordered them out of his chambers with some biting references to the effect that | ||||||||||
only gentlemen could have any honour to avenge, adding that in any case it was beneath his | ||||||||||
dignity to fight with those not his social equal. To add indignity to insult, he had them bound | ||||||||||
over to keep the peace and aired the whole affair in the Council by pressing for a prosecution. | ||||||||||
Public opinion was against him, however, and for a time he was the most unpopular man in the | ||||||||||
colony. | ||||||||||
'The affair eventually blew over, and Lowe's popularity was recovered, at least in part, when he | ||||||||||
pressed for an inquiry to draw up recommendations for improvements in education. At the same | ||||||||||
time he began to favour the colony's claims for more representative government, and towards | ||||||||||
the end of 1844 he resigned as a nominee of the after supporting the establishment of a | ||||||||||
separate colony for the area round Port Phillip (later constituted as Victoria.) | ||||||||||
'He fell back on journalism as a sideline to law, and put out the first number of "Atlas," a "weekly | ||||||||||
journal of politics, commerce and literature," in November, 1844. It became immediately popular | ||||||||||
because of its advocacy of representative government and the wit of Lowe's satirical skits and | ||||||||||
epigrams. Within six months he had become as popular as he had previously been unpopular, | ||||||||||
and in April, 1845, he was returned to the Council as an elected member. | ||||||||||
'Shortly afterwards he broke with [William Charles] Wentworth and the "squattocracy" over the | ||||||||||
land question. He was accused of betrayal, but Lowe was evidently sincere in his detestation | ||||||||||
of a land monopoly such as the squatters had secured from the English Ministry. Not only did it | ||||||||||
thwart the hopes of immigrants wanting "room to live in," he said, but it frustrated the only | ||||||||||
means by which the colony could settle people on the land and so establish a genuine | ||||||||||
yeomanry. | ||||||||||
'Before the issue was settled, Gipps retired and was succeeded as Governor by Sir Charles | ||||||||||
FitzRoy. In England W. E. Gladstone, the new Colonial Secretary, began suggesting the revival | ||||||||||
of transportation as a means of overcoming financial depression in the colony. There was an | ||||||||||
immediate public outcry against the move; but the squatting interests were jubilant at the | ||||||||||
at the prospect of free labour. Then, out of the blue, in 1849, the convict ship 'Hashemy' arrived | ||||||||||
in Sydney with 250 convicts aboard. The Sydney colonists collected at Circular Quay in a | ||||||||||
spontaneous meeting of protest, to which Lowe repaired. It was a day of drenching rain, but the | ||||||||||
crowd ignored the downpour as Lowe harangued them with fiery phrases. A deputation to the | ||||||||||
Governor headed by Lowe had some results. Eventually some of the convicts were permitted to | ||||||||||
land, but they were sent "up country" while the majority were pushed on by sea to Moreton Bay. | ||||||||||
It was some years before transportation ceased, but these public meetings of protest gave the | ||||||||||
death-blow to the system. | ||||||||||
'Towards the end of 1849 his wife's health and her constant wish to return to England decided | ||||||||||
Lowe to leave the colony, and they sailed with their young Jamieson charges on January 27, | ||||||||||
1850. He resumed practice at the Bar in England, and in April 1851, joined 'The Times' as a | ||||||||||
leader-writer. He was elected Liberal Member for Kidderminster the following year and politics | ||||||||||
thereafter were his main preoccupation until the end of his life. | ||||||||||
'For more than 30 years he played major roles in British politics, as Secretary of the Board of | ||||||||||
Control, Vice-President of the Board of Trade, President of the Board of Health, Minister for | ||||||||||
Education and Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this sphere he reverted to the upholding of | ||||||||||
established government, and he opposed any extension of voting rights. | ||||||||||
'Tall Bobby Lowe, of the white hair and witty tongue, became one of the best-known figures | ||||||||||
in English public life. In 1880 his ability and service were rewarded with a peerage. As Viscount | ||||||||||
Sherbrooke he devoted more time to his small estate in Surrey and less to politics, as his health | ||||||||||
at last began to fail. Georgiana died in 1884 and the following year he married again. It was not | ||||||||||
until 1892 that he, too, died, at Warlingham in Surrey.' | ||||||||||
************************* | ||||||||||
For many years, even after his death, a section of the Australian public believed that Lord | ||||||||||
Sherbrooke and his ward, Polly or Mary Jamieson, had eventually married. The following article, | ||||||||||
written by D[avid] B[lair] [1820-1899] was published in "The Australasian" on 24 September | ||||||||||
1892, two months after Sherbrooke's death. Though no names are mentioned, it is obvious that | ||||||||||
the article refers to Sherbrooke. Unfortunately, the turgidity of its prose is only exceeded by its | ||||||||||
inaccuracies as to the fate of the Jamieson girl. First, the article as it was published:- | ||||||||||
'An incident in the domestic history of an English nobleman recently deceased, at one time a | ||||||||||
distinguished Australian colonist, affords a very striking illustration of the inexhaustible mines | ||||||||||
of romance that lie beneath the prosaic surface of everyday life. It is not befitting to mention | ||||||||||
the names of the actors in this singularly strange story, but the certainty of the facts admits | ||||||||||
of no question. | ||||||||||
'On a Saturday night more than forty years ago there was perpetrated in the city of Sydney | ||||||||||
a murder which excited unusual interest in the public mind. A poor widow, who kept a shop in | ||||||||||
one of the by-streets of the city, was making up her returns for the day when suddenly there | ||||||||||
entered a man, who had been watching her movements through the window, and, rushing | ||||||||||
behind the counter, he felled her to the ground by a blow from a heavy bludgeon, rifled the | ||||||||||
till she had been emptying and then fled into the night, leaving his victim dead upon the floor. | ||||||||||
'When the crime was discovered shortly afterwards by a neighbour the alarm was given, and | ||||||||||
the police were speedily on the alert. Their suspicions fell on a ticket-of-leave man, who was | ||||||||||
known to be of a reckless, desperate character, and was on that account kept under | ||||||||||
surveillance. A careful searching of his well-known haunts dragged him forth into the light in | ||||||||||
circumstances that warranted his apprehension. The customary sequence of criminal procedure | ||||||||||
led up to his arraignment and conviction. He was sentenced to death and hanged. Respecting | ||||||||||
this unnamed villain it needs only to be added that he was an Englishman of noble family, a | ||||||||||
gentleman by social position and education; that a nephew of his sits at this moment in the | ||||||||||
House of Lords as a peer of the realm; and that amongst the black battalions of convicts whom | ||||||||||
Great Britain exiled from her shores to the southern world for over sixty years no more | ||||||||||
consummate villain ever landed in Botany Bay. | ||||||||||
'The widow left an orphan, a girl about ten years old. This child was naturally taken in charge | ||||||||||
by the Government, and placed in the keeping of a respectable woman until some means could | ||||||||||
be found of permanently providing for her education and maintenance. But it happened that | ||||||||||
the gentleman who acted as Crown prosecutor in the murder case, married and childless, was | ||||||||||
strongly moved with sympathetic pity for this hapless waif of humanity, and the feeling led him | ||||||||||
to take a personal interest in the steps taken for her guardianship. At that early period there | ||||||||||
existed no institution in Sydney in the nature of an orphanage or asylum for destitute children; | ||||||||||
and such Government as then existed was in no degree disposed to take upon itself the charge | ||||||||||
of providing for such innocent victims of an adverse fate. So much the more keenly were the | ||||||||||
compassionate sympathies of the Crown prosecutor evoked on the girl's behalf. He consulted | ||||||||||
a colleague at the bar - a man of finely benevolent feelings and exalted character - on the | ||||||||||
matter. He held conferences with the Colonial Secretary. He turned the question over in his | ||||||||||
own mind anxiously and frequently. Finally he took family council with his wife upon it. The good | ||||||||||
lady, it appears, had herself been deeply considering the sad fortunes of the orphan. Her | ||||||||||
impulses of pure benevolence prompted her to make to her husband the very proposal which | ||||||||||
now he was more than hinting to her. They agreed that this episode in their domestic experience | ||||||||||
took the aspect of a plain indication of a Providential duty, not to be evaded without incurring | ||||||||||
serious moral responsibility. So the point was settled. The girl should come to them, and they | ||||||||||
should thenceforward stand towards her as her parents. To this proposal the Government | ||||||||||
willingly assented. The orphan, protected by a pitying Providence, had thus found friends, | ||||||||||
parents, and a home. | ||||||||||
'It was a change in her social conditions for the girl, almost as strange as that which the fairy | ||||||||||
godmother's transforming power wrought for Cinderella in the nursery tale. Her new guardian | ||||||||||
was a man of very high distinction, both from his family connections in the old country and from | ||||||||||
his splendid intellectual gifts. An unusually brilliant career at his English university had made his | ||||||||||
name familiar in the highest circles of culture and refinement. He was a fellow of his college | ||||||||||
until his marriage, and a tutor of high classical renown. A born orator, a man of wide and varied | ||||||||||
learning, possessed of a strikingly handsome face and figure, he was eminently calculated to | ||||||||||
shine in society, and to win the most coveted prizes in professional and political life. Some event | ||||||||||
in his career had induced him, upon his marriage, to turn his eyes to the new world in the south | ||||||||||
as a promising sphere for his talents, and as opening up wide prospects for future advancement | ||||||||||
and wealth. On his arrival in New South Wales he was at once recognised as a first class power | ||||||||||
in every department of public life. But circumstances, partly of a personal and partly of a public | ||||||||||
nature, led him to see what the colonies, as then situated, were not the best sphere of | ||||||||||
usefulness that he could find, and in the course of a few years he went back to England. The | ||||||||||
orphan, being now fairly installed as daughter of the house, accompanied the family. | ||||||||||
'Arrived in England, the ex-Crown prosecutor retook instantly his old place in society. His | ||||||||||
former friends and companions gathered round him. Lucrative positions were offered, avenues | ||||||||||
of professional advancement were thrown open. He selected journalism as his profession, and | ||||||||||
was immediately enrolled on the staff of The Times. Here his powerful and trenchant articles | ||||||||||
attracted all men's attention, and it was felt that the writer of such articles - the other need | ||||||||||
for qualifications being present - would be a potent factor in practical politics. Mingling freely | ||||||||||
in society with the leading men of both parties, it was the most natural thing in the world that | ||||||||||
he should be thought to be the very man to join those of his own side in politics, and to aid in | ||||||||||
guiding them on to still other victories. In due time a seat in the House of Commons was gained | ||||||||||
by sheer dint of superior mental and moral force. Once within its walls he took rank as an orator | ||||||||||
and debater. Men saw in him a future Minister of the Crown. Accordingly, when the party to | ||||||||||
which he belonged won in a great Parliamentary battle he was installed in a high post in the | ||||||||||
Cabinet, and so became one of the advisers of the Crown. | ||||||||||
'In the meantime the adopted girl was being brought up as an English lady of the best rank and | ||||||||||
standing. Her education was exactly the same as that of a daughter born in the household. By | ||||||||||
the time that her school days were over, and she was of age to go forth into society, she made | ||||||||||
her debut amongst the circles of West End fashionable existence as the acknowledged daughter | ||||||||||
of Her Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer. | ||||||||||
'A prolonged career of distinguished political activity for the now celebrated statesman followed. | ||||||||||
As he advanced in years so did his honours increase. At length he gained his elevation to the | ||||||||||
peerage, and entered the House of Lords with the rank of a viscount. But by this time age had | ||||||||||
begun to tell upon him. His splendid powers were visibly failing. People said of him that he was | ||||||||||
an eclipsed meteor - an extinct volcano. But nature is supreme and despotic, and it is nature's | ||||||||||
decree that a man shall not be as vigorously active and as intellectually brilliant at three score | ||||||||||
and ten as he was at forty. In his domestic life he was blessed above most men. His devoted | ||||||||||
wife gave herself to the one sole object of serving and tending her husband, in the truest | ||||||||||
spirit of wifely heroism. Her assiduous care was as heroically sustained by the devotion of a | ||||||||||
loving and grateful daughter, now grown to mature womanhood. So that when, in due course | ||||||||||
of nature, the faithful wife was taken to her rest, the daughter's tender nursing care had | ||||||||||
become essential and indispensable to the feeble, but still noble, old gentleman. Propriety | ||||||||||
required that an intimacy so close as his extremely frail and dependent condition demanded | ||||||||||
should have a still more sacred sanction than even that of filial adoption. So, after a proper | ||||||||||
interval, a formal marriage was celebrated, and the once desolate orphan of Sydney had her | ||||||||||
name entered in the pages of Debrett, and took her station amongst the nobility as an English | ||||||||||
viscountess.' | ||||||||||
Notwithstanding the fact that D.B.'s version of events had been widely believed in Australia | ||||||||||
for some time, the "Burrowa News" of 20 January 1893 reported that:- | ||||||||||
'In "The Australasian" of September 24 appeared an article by ("D.B") David Blair, telling the | ||||||||||
story of the murder by Knatchbull, in Sydney, in the forties, and stating that the daughter of | ||||||||||
the woman he killed (Mrs. Jamieson) was adopted by the counsel who defended the prisoner, | ||||||||||
subsequently becoming the counsel's second wife many years afterwards, and so attaining a | ||||||||||
place in the peerage. Though no names were given, obviously Mr. Lowe, afterward Lord | ||||||||||
Sherbrooke, was meant. A Sydney correspondent wrote throwing doubts on the romantic | ||||||||||
conclusion of the story, and pointing out that the peer's second wife was not a Miss Jamieson. | ||||||||||
He has since communicated with Lady Sherbrooke who has replied as follows:- "Dear Sir - the | ||||||||||
little girl Jamieson, who was taken charge of by Mr and Mrs Lowe after the murder of her | ||||||||||
mother, died in London when she was about 13. I am glad to be able to answer your question | ||||||||||
at once. Yours faithfully, C. SHERBROOKE." The Sydney correspondent is a member of the | ||||||||||
Legislative Council. Strange to say the story told by "D.B." is one that has been current in | ||||||||||
Australia for many years. It is now shown to be no more than a romantic myth.' | ||||||||||
Elizabeth ("Bess") Hardwick, wife of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury | ||||||||||
The following biography, in which I have amended certain areas in the interests of accuracy, | ||||||||||
appeared in the June 1967 issue of the Australian monthly magazine "Parade":- | ||||||||||
'Young Bess Hardwick, daughter of John Hardwick, a financially insecure gentleman of England, | ||||||||||
was not only physically attractive, but was an amazingly good cook and housekeeper. The | ||||||||||
delectable "beres, broths and jellies" she concocted despite the limited kitchen expenses she | ||||||||||
was allowed, never ceased to amaze her parents, her other sisters and their few guests. But | ||||||||||
while Bess scrimped and saved and wrote up her kitchen accounts neatly and accurately, she | ||||||||||
took some time off to do a little scheming. | ||||||||||
With her ivory-like skin shining with sweat and her light amber hair dishevelled as she worked | ||||||||||
over the oven, she vowed that one day she would rise above her environment and win a place | ||||||||||
of affluence among the nobles who treated her family with disdain or pity. And Bess Hardwick, | ||||||||||
making the most of her cooking and business skills as well as her attractive face and figure, | ||||||||||
achieved her ambition with a vengeance. Going through four fabulously rich husbands, she | ||||||||||
inherited their estates and ended her life as the wealthiest woman in England. | ||||||||||
'The story of Elizabeth Hardwick, the most successful gold-digger of 16th century England, | ||||||||||
began in about 1518 when she was born to John and Elizabeth Hardwick at Hardwick Hall, | ||||||||||
Derbyshire. Bess was 14 when a family friend, Lady Zouche, told Bess's parents the girl needed | ||||||||||
a holiday in London, The parents agreed and the pair set out for Lady Zouche's London | ||||||||||
residence. Staying with Lady Zouche at that time was an eccentric and aged gentleman, a man | ||||||||||
of exceedingly poor health and excessively vast estates. Among the dying man's estates was a | ||||||||||
great tract of land that made him possibly the richest landowner in Bess's native county of | ||||||||||
Derbyshire. When Lady Zouche cajoled her into becoming the old man's nurse, she retired to the | ||||||||||
kitchen and began preparing him an endless stream of her best dishes. | ||||||||||
'The result was that Barlow's health began to improve. In fact it improved so startlingly that he | ||||||||||
began casting passionate eyes on his youthful nurse. Bess wasted no time in unnecessary | ||||||||||
courting. She persuaded Barlow to make out a will in her favour and, not long after her 15th | ||||||||||
birthday, led her tottering old groom to the altar. Barlow managed to survive his nuptial day | ||||||||||
for a few months. Then he died. The 15-year-old Bess was now a widow possessing vast | ||||||||||
wealth. [This story is totally at odds with other sources, which state that Barlow was a | ||||||||||
sickly teenager. In any event, the outcome was the same - his early death left Bess a very | ||||||||||
wealthy woman]. | ||||||||||
'Although she had sufficient assets to keep her in luxury for the rest of her life, Bess did not | ||||||||||
rest on her laurels. She began looking around for another wealthy husband, this time one with | ||||||||||
a noble title. Her great wealth making a hasty remarriage unnecessary, she bided her time. | ||||||||||
Indeed she had waited 3 years when Sir William Cavendish [c 1505-1557], who had already | ||||||||||
outlived two wives, came into her sights. | ||||||||||
'Cavendish had inherited from his father, Clerk of the Pipe in the Exchequer, tremendous land | ||||||||||
holdings in Suffolk. He was also a financial adviser to King Henry VIII. When Henry broke with | ||||||||||
the Pope and the State confiscated church property in England, William was given the task of | ||||||||||
taking over the monasteries. He performed this duty so efficiently and expeditiously that Henry | ||||||||||
rewarded him by handing over to him valuable slices of this nationalised property. | ||||||||||
'Bess and Cavendish were married at the unlikely hour of 2 am on August 20, 1547. Following | ||||||||||
the nuptials, the celebrations rollicked on for 24 hours before the exhausted couple retired to | ||||||||||
their bed chamber. Although six children were born during the next 10 years [actually eight, | ||||||||||
two of whom died in infancy], she found time to persuade her husband to join with her in the | ||||||||||
purchase of valuable real estate. In that time Bess and her husband bought not only her old | ||||||||||
family estate in Derbyshire, but built several mansions, some of which survive. At Chatsworth | ||||||||||
she built the mighty palace and ducal residence that became [and remains] one of England's | ||||||||||
showpieces. | ||||||||||
'In October 1557 Cavendish died, leaving Bess engulfed in assets. In fact, even at this stage | ||||||||||
of her life she was regarded as one of England's wealthiest women. Her widowhood also made | ||||||||||
her the most eligible. It was not long after this second bereavement that she met Sir William | ||||||||||
Saint Lo, the handsome captain of Queen Elizabeth's personal guard. He was also Grand Butler | ||||||||||
of England and the owner of extensive estates. | ||||||||||
'Bess could see only one impediment to a successful marriage - Saint Lo already had a large | ||||||||||
batch of daughters by a former wife. This meant, she knew, that in the event of his death she | ||||||||||
must divide his estate with the daughters. She solved the problem by assuring him they could | ||||||||||
never marry unless his will specified her as the sole heir. Falling for the bait, Saint Lo agreed. | ||||||||||
Three months after the wedding Saint Lo died peacefully following a short illness. | ||||||||||
'Bess was still officially in mourning when friends noticed she was being attended by George | ||||||||||
Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and one of Queen Elizabeth's most valued advisers. Shrewsbury, a | ||||||||||
nobleman of vast wealth, had found that the dual role of adviser to the Queen and manager of | ||||||||||
his extensive estates was getting too much for him. In Bess he saw the answer to all his | ||||||||||
worries. She was rich and handled financial affairs better than most men. Also, he knew, she | ||||||||||
was an excellent cook. | ||||||||||
'The earl came up against the business woman in Bess when he first asked for her hand in | ||||||||||
marriage. She said she would not consider it unless he settled a parcel of property worth | ||||||||||
hundreds of thousands of pounds on her. Also, his youngest daughter, Grace, was to marry | ||||||||||
Bess's eldest son, Henry Cavendish, while Gilbert Talbot, heir to the earldom, must marry Bess's | ||||||||||
youngest daughter. The subsequent marriage between Shrewsbury and Bess caused the Queen | ||||||||||
to heap praise on both parties. Of Bess, Elizabeth wrote: "There ys no Ladye yn thys land that | ||||||||||
I beter love and lyke." | ||||||||||
'On May 17, 1568, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, landed in England a fugitive from her kingdom. | ||||||||||
She was at once arrested by Elizabeth and, shortly afterwards, the Earl of Shrewsbury was | ||||||||||
selected as Mary's gaoler, first in one then in another of his castles. The relationship between | ||||||||||
Bess and her husband deteriorated rapidly from the day Mary was put in their care and within a | ||||||||||
few months they were openly abusing each other. | ||||||||||
'Bess began intriguing with Mary, at the same time accusing her husband of being their prisoner's | ||||||||||
lover. Then one day it was learned that the Countess of Lennox, mother of Charles Stuart [Earl | ||||||||||
of Lennox of the 1572 creation], would be passing the Shrewsbury mansion, Rufford, when Bess | ||||||||||
was in residence. So Bess arranged to have the lady invited into Rufford. There she lavished | ||||||||||
hospitality on her guest and managed to induce the countess to stay over for a few days. The | ||||||||||
reason for her graciousness was that the countess was travelling towards Scotland in search of | ||||||||||
a wife for her son Charles, then fourth in line to the English throne. | ||||||||||
The Countess of Shrewsbury's plans hinged on the hope that one of her daughters might impress | ||||||||||
the Countess of Lennox as a future daughter-in-law. When Charles Stuart and Elizabeth | ||||||||||
Cavendish later met, love was immediate. Less than a week after that meeting the pair was | ||||||||||
secretly married. When Shrewsbury heard of the match, he was delighted and wrote to his | ||||||||||
friend, Lord Burghley, the Queen's treasurer: "The young man is so far in love that belike he is | ||||||||||
sick without her. This truly effected I shall be well at quiet for there are few noblemen's sons | ||||||||||
in England that she (Bess) hath not prayed me to deal for at some time or another. And now | ||||||||||
this comes unlooked for without thanks to me." | ||||||||||
'But Queen Elizabeth did not take the marriage in the same spirit. Indeed she flew into a violent | ||||||||||
because she believed such a close union with the family of Mary Queen of Scots was close to | ||||||||||
treason. When the Queen issued orders demanding that the parties concerned must present | ||||||||||
themselves before her in London, Shrewsbury protested that the marriage took place without | ||||||||||
his consent. Thus he was allowed to remain out of the capital, but all others connected with | ||||||||||
the marriage set out for London and the Queen's wrath. | ||||||||||
'Immediately the Countesses of Shrewsbury and Lennox entered the city they were arrested | ||||||||||
and imprisoned in the Tower. While the Countess of Lennox complained that this was the third | ||||||||||
time she had been in the Tower over love matters, the Countess of Shrewsbury busied herself | ||||||||||
writing appeals for release to friends she thought could help her. In time, after promising the | ||||||||||
that she would do her "reverent dutie," Bess returned to her husband, where she learned that | ||||||||||
her daughter, the wife of Charles Stuart, had given birth to a child [Arbella, who was at one | ||||||||||
time considered a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth. She eventually starved herself to | ||||||||||
death in the Tower of London in 1615]. | ||||||||||
'By now there was no hope of reconciliation between Shrewsbury and his countess. Ultimately | ||||||||||
Bess left her husband and went to live at Hardwick Hall, the home of her childhood and now a | ||||||||||
part of her huge estates. In 1584 the Earl of Shrewsbury and 40 of his horsemen laid siege to | ||||||||||
Chatsworth, which was successfully defended by Bess's sons Charles and William Cavendish. | ||||||||||
Claiming the palace was his, Shrewsbury wrote to the Queen: "Why should my wife and her | ||||||||||
servants rule me, making me the wife and she the husband?" | ||||||||||
'But Elizabeth sided with Bess and ordered Shrewsbury to take her back and live with her. | ||||||||||
Bitterly he carried out the order, but demanded back from his wife everything he had given | ||||||||||
her. He was still trying to devise new ways of frustrating his wife when he died in 1590, a | ||||||||||
bitter, frustrated old man. | ||||||||||
'For the next 17 years Bess went on a building spree, sinking hundreds of thousands of pounds | ||||||||||
into new castles and mansions and extending the old. In 1608, after seeing Chatsworth | ||||||||||
extended to massive proportions, a heavy frost forced the workmen who were building extra | ||||||||||
wings on to Hardwick Hall to stop work for several days. And before they could get back to | ||||||||||
the job the old countess was dead, leaving an estate practically unrivalled in Britain.' | ||||||||||
Anna Maria Talbot [25 Mar 1642-20 Apr 1702], wife of Francis Talbot, 11th Earl | ||||||||||
of Shrewsbury | ||||||||||
The following biography of the Countess of Shrewsbury appeared in the Australian monthly | ||||||||||
magazine "Parade" in its February 1955 issue:- | ||||||||||
'As a sedan chair left St. James' Palace, London, one autumn night in the reign of Charles II, a | ||||||||||
slim figure slipped stealthily from the shadows and, before the chair-men could intervene, thrust | ||||||||||
a murderous sword three times through the side of the chair at the gallant within. The man who | ||||||||||
leapt out clutching a bleeding arm was, however, curiously evasive in his answers to the watch- | ||||||||||
men who pounded to the rescue. The sword thrusts, he privately suspected, were delivered by | ||||||||||
a woman, and that could only mean that Anna Brudenell, Countess of Shrewsbury, had decided | ||||||||||
to dispense with him as a lover. Life, even without his beautiful red-headed mistress, was still | ||||||||||
sweet to Thomas Killigrew, most talkative man at court; so for the first time, he shut his mouth | ||||||||||
tightly and made no accusations. | ||||||||||
'Men with far more courage than "Tom the Jester" had taken their dismissal passively. Though a | ||||||||||
threat from Anna, "the Devil Countess," came from the most provocative lips of the Restoration | ||||||||||
period, every word carried a promise of sudden death. Yet there was no shortage of men willing | ||||||||||
to play with the fire of Anna Brudenell's love. In the profligate court of the Merry Monarch, | ||||||||||
competition for distinction in amour and intrigue ran high. At the age of 20, Anna had earned | ||||||||||
undisputed leadership among the courtesans. | ||||||||||
'The Devil Countess began life in 1638 as the Honourable Anna Maria Brudenell, daughter of the | ||||||||||
second Earl of Cardigan. Few women less deserved the title "Honourable." From her fiery passage | ||||||||||
through a fiery era, history records not a single word of praise for her. At 21 Anna was in full | ||||||||||
bloom of the beauty that was the downfall of every male. According to one description: "There | ||||||||||
was in her round, fair visage, with its languishing eyes and full pouting mouth, something | ||||||||||
voluptuous and bold." If she had a physical fault, it was apparent only to a Frenchman. The | ||||||||||
Chevalier de Gramont thought she was slightly over-endowed with what he delicately called | ||||||||||
"embonpoint" [i.e. plumpness] -a minor matter in the days of bustles and bows. | ||||||||||
'She married Francis Talbot, the eleventh Earl of Shrewsbury when she was scarcely 21. Perhaps | ||||||||||
her beauty was the bait, perhaps her extensive dowry. In either case, after a short period of | ||||||||||
starry-eyed infatuation, the Earl went back to the placid life of a plodding middle-aged states- | ||||||||||
man and left Anna to amuse herself as she liked - and her liking was love. Her first acknowledged | ||||||||||
conquest at court was the handsome, dashing young Earl of Arran. Despite his immaturity he | ||||||||||
had built up a reputation as an experienced heartbreaker. | ||||||||||
'Anna changed that. The Earl became a court joke, mooning around like a student who had | ||||||||||
learned too much too quickly. Oblivious of the sniggers, his eyes followed Anna wherever she | ||||||||||
went. When she smiled, he smiled, when she frowned he was abjectly depressed. Tired of | ||||||||||
such cloying devotion, Anna fluttered her eyelashes at her brother-in-law, Richard Talbot. | ||||||||||
Talbot took the bait readily but proved to be more shark than minnow. He alone of Anna's lovers | ||||||||||
dominated her and whipped her into line. In a few months he tired of her and cast her aside. | ||||||||||
Worse, he kept the impassioned letters she wrote and presented them to his new mistress | ||||||||||
cynically tied with a lock of Anna's hair. | ||||||||||
'When she met Colonel Thomas Howard, brother of the Earl of Carlisle, Anna's score stood at one | ||||||||||
victory and one defeat on the field of love. Howard surrendered unconditionally. When, | ||||||||||
inevitably, she tired of him and cast eyes on Harry Jermyn, the colonel refused to be shaken off. | ||||||||||
He filled the air with unsoldierly blubbering and, when tears and pleading failed, threatened to | ||||||||||
confess details of the affair to her husband. The threat infuriated rather than alarmed her. The | ||||||||||
plot she laid to rid herself of the tiresome colonel was as twisted as her own nature. Harry [i.e. | ||||||||||
Henry Jermyn, later 3rd Baron Jermyn and 1st Baron Dover] - "the invincible Jermyn" - swords- | ||||||||||
man, bully, and lady-killer, was to be the instrument of Howard's death. | ||||||||||
'Reassuring Howard of her love, she persuaded him to take her to supper in a Charing Cross | ||||||||||
restaurant. She and the adoring Howard were tete-a-tete at a secluded table when, as pre- | ||||||||||
arranged, Jermyn hove in sight. Anna invited him to join them. While Howard glowered, Jermyn | ||||||||||
held Anna's hand and made such outrageous love to her that Howard had no choice but to | ||||||||||
challenge him to a duel. | ||||||||||
'Anna greeted the news joyfully. Those who had met Jermyn with swords had never left the | ||||||||||
field on their feet. Howard was as good as dead, she believed. Jermyn chose for his second | ||||||||||
Colonel Giles Rawlings. Howard was supported by the younger brother of Lord Dillon. As was | ||||||||||
the custom, all four fought. Unfortunately for Anna's plans, the invincible Jermyn was | ||||||||||
vulnerable. When the dust settled, he had a wound which kept him on his back for months, | ||||||||||
while Colonel Rawlings died where he lay. In one way Anna's plan had succeeded - Howard | ||||||||||
and his second who, according to rumour, had taken the precaution of wearing body armour - | ||||||||||
fled the country. But her fine new lover, Jermyn, was a wreck. | ||||||||||
'It was then that Anna's guttersnipe streak came uppermost. From the dozens of eligible and | ||||||||||
willing men ready to come when she beckoned, she chose Thomas Killigrew [1612-1683], court | ||||||||||
buffoon and professional funnyman. Killigrew, a mean-souled little gossip with a viperish tongue, | ||||||||||
held his place at court by playing cruel, practical jokes which infuriated his victims and sent his | ||||||||||
worthless audience into peals of laughter. | ||||||||||
'He was the most unlikely-looking lover of the batch, yet there was something about the futile | ||||||||||
little man that appealed to Anna's twisted nature. Elated and slightly incredulous at his fortune, | ||||||||||
Tom the Jester could not resist using the affair in his trade of buffoon. Night after night he | ||||||||||
regaled the gentlemen of the court with prurient details of the affair. His harping on the theme | ||||||||||
whetted the curiosity of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, acknowledged No. 1 | ||||||||||
romantic lover of his age. Anna threw no obstacles in the way of Buckingham's amorous | ||||||||||
experiments. Evidently he found that Killigrew had not exaggerated, for Buckingham was soon | ||||||||||
firmly on the hook. | ||||||||||
'Anna, however, learned from him that her boudoir secrets were rapidly becoming common | ||||||||||
property to every rake at court and there was black murder in her heart. Her plan to dismiss | ||||||||||
Killigrew was involved but effective. She persuaded him that to challenge Buckingham, a master | ||||||||||
swordsman, to a duel, would be the greatest prank of his clownish career. Killigrew felt that the | ||||||||||
duke would not soil a noble sword on a buffoon, but Anna was not so sure. Killigrew knew that | ||||||||||
his position depended on getting laughs, so he agreed and thanked Anna for the suggestion. | ||||||||||
Next night at the theatre he bandied insulting pleasantries with Buckingham, and when all eyes | ||||||||||
were on them climbed into his box and struck him in the face with a stocking. Buckingham was | ||||||||||
not amused. He cut the joker shrewdly across the seat of the breeches with a riding whip. | ||||||||||
Killigrew swung from box to box crying: "Mercy, your Grace, mercy!" while the audience went | ||||||||||
into paroxysms of mirth. Buckingham put an end to the farce by kicking the clown soundly. Next | ||||||||||
day Killigrew went to Anna for applause. He got a cold reception. She had no intention of | ||||||||||
consorting with a man who had been publicly kicked, she told him. | ||||||||||
'Dismissed, Killigrew continued to publicise his knowledge of Anna. He should have known her | ||||||||||
better. One night as his carriage turned into the drive of his house, a band of thugs wrenched | ||||||||||
open the door, dragged out the occupant and killed him with a dozen sword thrusts. The | ||||||||||
woman's voice which exhorted the bravoes to "Kill the villain!" belonged to Anna. It was not her | ||||||||||
her fault that the murdered man was not Killigrew but his unfortunate valet. Her next attempt, | ||||||||||
delivered personally as his sedan chair left St. James's Palace, silenced the braggart. He left | ||||||||||
town hastily. | ||||||||||
'Anna and Buckingham were soul-mates. Both were entirely without morals and above the laws | ||||||||||
that governed other people. They made no attempt at discretion and before long England and | ||||||||||
the Continent rang with their tempestuous affair. They shared even their contempt for | ||||||||||
patriotism. On one of their trips to France they entered into a pact with Louis XIV to spy on | ||||||||||
England, for which Anna received a pension of 10,000 livres. Between them they jockeyed | ||||||||||
Charles II into selling Dunkirk and other British possessions to France. | ||||||||||
'Only one thing marred their association - both had living spouses. Anna proposed to remedy | ||||||||||
that in her usual way. Until then, the ageing Earl of Shrewsbury had given her a free rein in | ||||||||||
her infidelities. She set her barbed tongue to work to break down his equanimity. All the world | ||||||||||
knew he was a cuckold, she told him, and if he had a spark of family honour he would set | ||||||||||
matters right. With his family honour impugned, the Earl challenged Buckingham, finest swords- | ||||||||||
man in the kingdom, to a duel with rapiers. | ||||||||||
'Not satisfied with engineering her husband's death, Anna insisted on seeing the deed | ||||||||||
accomplished. On the appointed morning [16 Jan 1668] she dressed herself as a page and rode | ||||||||||
to Barn Elms, the duelling ground. She held her lover's horse while he fought a duel which was | ||||||||||
no more than murder, for the stout, ageing Earl received no mercy from Buckingham. With her | ||||||||||
husband writhing on the ground with a mortal chest wound, Anna threw herself into her lover's | ||||||||||
arms oblivious of his bloodstained shirt. Wet with the blood of the murdered man, the couple | ||||||||||
carried on a love scene that sickened even the hardened bravoes. The Earl lingered for two | ||||||||||
months [dying on 16 March], but his house was closed to Anna. She moved in with Buckingham, | ||||||||||
who ordered his own duchess to return to her father, while Charles II set the seal of royal | ||||||||||
approval on the sordid affair by granting Buckingham a palpably illegal "divorce." | ||||||||||
'The cold-blooded killing, however, was the turning point both in the career of the Devil | ||||||||||
Countess and of Buckingham, to whom she bore a son. Their popularity wilted under public | ||||||||||
disapproval and it was then that the Shrewsbury clan dragged the pair into court and | ||||||||||
established the flagrant illegality of the Buckingham divorce. Buckingham returned to his wife | ||||||||||
and was forgiven; Anna Brudenell, still young, dropped from sight. | ||||||||||
'Twice before her death in 1702, she emerged from obscurity. At 38 she married the son of a | ||||||||||
Somersetshire knight, years her junior [George Rodney Brydges]. A little later the Devil Countess | ||||||||||
lived up to her name, when she lured her son [by Buckingham] into an ill-timed Jacobean plot | ||||||||||
against William III. Her advice almost cost the boy his head. With this indiscretion, one of the | ||||||||||
wickedest women faded from history.' | ||||||||||
Ferdinando Marquis de Paleotti, brother of the Duchess of Shrewsbury | ||||||||||
Charles Talbot, 1st and only Duke of Shrewsbury, married at Rome, 20 August 1705, Adelaide, | ||||||||||
daughter of Andrew, Marquis Palleotti, of Bologna in Italy. There are conflicting stories | ||||||||||
regarding the marriage, with many contemporaries believing that the Duke had been bullied | ||||||||||
into marrying her by her two brothers, one of whom earned his own entry in the "Newgate | ||||||||||
Calendar," as follows:- | ||||||||||
'THE MARQUIS DE PALEOTTI An Italian Nobleman, executed at Tyburn for the Murder of his | ||||||||||
Servant, 17th of March, 1718. | ||||||||||
'This nobleman was the head of a noble family in Italy, and was brought to a disgraceful death | ||||||||||
through the vice of gambling, with all the aggravated horrors of suffering in a strange country; | ||||||||||
thus doubly disgracing the honours of his house. | ||||||||||
'Ferdinando Marquis de Paleotti was born at Bologna. In the reign of Queen Anne he was a | ||||||||||
colonel in the Imperial army. Quitting the army at the Peace of Utrecht [1713], he visited | ||||||||||
England to see his sister; and being fond of an extravagant course of life, and attached to | ||||||||||
gaming, he soon ran into debt for considerable sums. His sister paid his debts for some time, till | ||||||||||
she found it would be a burdensome and endless task; and she therefore declined all further | ||||||||||
interference. Though she declined to assist him as usual, he continued his former course of life | ||||||||||
till he was imprisoned for debt; but his sister privately procured his liberty, and he was | ||||||||||
discharged without knowing who had conferred the favour on him. The habits of the Marquis, | ||||||||||
however, were in nowise changed, and one day, while walking in the street, he directed his | ||||||||||
servant, an Italian, to go and borrow some money. The servant, having met with frequent | ||||||||||
denials, declined going; on which the Marquis drew his sword and killed him on the spot. He was | ||||||||||
instantly apprehended and committed to prison and being tried at the next sessions was | ||||||||||
convicted on full evidence, and received sentence of death. But the Duke of Shrewsbury, his | ||||||||||
sister's husband, being dead, and the Duchess having little interest or acquaintance in England, | ||||||||||
it appears that no endeavours were used to save him from the punishment which awaited him, | ||||||||||
and he was executed at Tyburn, on the 17th of March, 1718. Italian pride had taken deep root | ||||||||||
in the mind of this man. He declared it to be disgraceful to this country to put a nobleman to | ||||||||||
death, like a common malefactor, for killing his servant; and lamented that our churches, as in | ||||||||||
Italy, did not offer a sanctuary for murderers. Englishmen, however, are thankful that neither | ||||||||||
of this Marquis' desires prevail in their country, where the law makes no distinction in offenders. | ||||||||||
To the last moment the pride of aristocracy was predominant in his mind. He petitioned the | ||||||||||
sheriffs that his body should not be defiled by touching the unhappy Englishmen doomed to | ||||||||||
suffer with him, and that he might die before them, and alone. The sheriffs, in courtesy to a | ||||||||||
stranger, granted this request, and thus, in his last struggle, he maintained the superiority of | ||||||||||
his rank. Vain man! of what avail were his titles in the presence of the Almighty?' | ||||||||||
The Great Shrewsbury Case of 1857-1858 | ||||||||||
On the death of the unmarried 17th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1856 at the age of 23, the Earldom | ||||||||||
(which is the Premier Earldom of England) was claimed by a distant cousin, Henry John | ||||||||||
Chetwynd-Talbot, 3rd Earl Talbot of Hensol. The claim also affected the possession of vast | ||||||||||
estates which had been bequeathed to Lord Edmund Howard, the infant 2nd son of the 14th | ||||||||||
Duke of Norfolk (and later 1st Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent). The property would become vested | ||||||||||
in Lord Edmund if the title of the Earl of Shrewsbury, to which the property was annexed by an | ||||||||||
Act of Parliament, was found to have become extinct. The question of the property is dealt with | ||||||||||
separately in this note. | ||||||||||
Given the possibility that Lord Edmund Howard would be deprived of his possible inheritance, the | ||||||||||
Earl Talbot's claim was resisted not only by the Duke of Norfolk, but also by the Princess Doria | ||||||||||
Pamphili-Landi of Rome, the only surviving child of the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, and a Major | ||||||||||
Talbot, of Castle Talbot, of Wexford in Ireland. Because so much was at stake, the case soon | ||||||||||
became known as the "Great Shrewsbury Case." | ||||||||||
The following is my summary of the pedigree relied upon by Earl Talbot in his claim. It is rather | ||||||||||
complex, but I hope you can follow it. | ||||||||||
The title of Earl of Shrewsbury was created in 1442 by Henry VI and conferred by that monarch | ||||||||||
on Sir John Talbot and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, as a reward for Sir John's | ||||||||||
distinguished services as commander of the English army in France. The title descended in direct | ||||||||||
succession through father and son for two generations to John Talbot, 3rd Earl. The 3rd Earl had | ||||||||||
a younger brother, Sir Gilbert Talbot of Grafton, to whom we will return later. | ||||||||||
After the death of the 3rd Earl, the title descended from father to son until the death of the 7th | ||||||||||
Earl in 1616, when he was succeeded by his brother, Edward Talbot, who became 8th Earl. He | ||||||||||
died two years later, when this branch of the Talbot family became extinct. | ||||||||||
We now go back to Sir Gilbert Talbot of Grafton, brother of the 3rd Earl. Sir Gilbert had three | ||||||||||
sons - the eldest, another Gilbert, died without male issue; the second, Humphrey, died in the | ||||||||||
Holy Land, also without male issue; the third, Sir John Talbot of Albrighton, left a number of male | ||||||||||
heirs from two marriages. His eldest son from his first marriage was Sir John Talbot of Grafton, | ||||||||||
and it was Sir John's grandson, George Talbot, who succeeded as 9th Earl of Shrewsbury on the | ||||||||||
death of the 8th Earl in 1618. | ||||||||||
The 9th Earl, who was a Roman Catholic priest, died childless in 1630. He was succeeded by his | ||||||||||
nephew, John Talbot as 10th Earl. This John was twice married - by his first wife, he had three | ||||||||||
sons; George, who died without issue in the lifetime of his father; Francis, who succeeded his | ||||||||||
father as 11th Earl in 1654; and Gilbert Talbot of Balchcoate, to whom we will return shortly. On | ||||||||||
the death of Francis, 11th Earl, in 1668 (of wounds received in a duel with the 2nd Duke of | ||||||||||
Buckingham), the title descended to his son, Charles Talbot, who was subsequently created | ||||||||||
Duke of Shrewsbury in 1694, the Dukedom becoming extinct on his death in 1718. The next heir | ||||||||||
to the Earldom was Gilbert, son of the Gilbert Talbot of Balchcoate mentioned above. He was a | ||||||||||
Jesuit priest, who never assumed the use of the title and who died unmarried in 1743. The title | ||||||||||
then passed to his nephew, George, 14th Earl and subsequently descended to Bertram Arthur | ||||||||||
Talbot, 17th Earl, who died unmarried in 1856. On his death, the descendants of Sir John Talbot | ||||||||||
of Albrighton by his first marriage became extinct. | ||||||||||
Back we go again to Sir John Talbot of Albrighton, and, in particular, the issue from his second | ||||||||||
marriage. His first son from the second marriage had died without issue, but the second son of | ||||||||||
the second marriage, John Talbot of Salwarp, in turn produced a number of sons, the eldest of | ||||||||||
whom, Sherrington Talbot, was twice married. By his first marriage, he had a number of sons, all | ||||||||||
of whom except the eldest, another Sherrington, died without issue. This Sherrington also had a | ||||||||||
number of sons, all of whom, with the exception of John Talbot of Lacock, had no male issue. | ||||||||||
John Talbot of Lacock married twice and had a number of children, but eventually the | ||||||||||
descendants of Sherrington Talbot by his first marriage died out and this line became extinct. | ||||||||||
The next heirs were, as a result, to be found amongst the descendants of Sherrington Talbot | ||||||||||
from his second marriage. The eldest son from the second marriage, George Talbot of Rudge, | ||||||||||
died leaving only a daughter. The next son, William Talbot of Whittington, had a son, also William | ||||||||||
Talbot, who became Bishop of Oxford 1699-1715 and Bishop of Salisbury 1715-1722. His son, in | ||||||||||
turn, was Charles Talbot, Lord Chancellor between 1733 and 1737 and who was created Baron | ||||||||||
Talbot of Hensol in 1733. The Earl Talbot who was the claimant in the Shrewsbury case was | ||||||||||
descended in a direct line from the 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol. | ||||||||||
After a great deal of lengthy argument placed before the House of Lords Committee for | ||||||||||
Privileges, mainly concerning the evidence of the extinction of all other possible lines of descent | ||||||||||
from the 1st Earl, the Committee decided, on 1 June 1858, that the Earl Talbot was entitled to | ||||||||||
become the 18th Earl of Shrewsbury. | ||||||||||
The next question to be decided was that of the ownership of the estates. It was commonly | ||||||||||
supposed at the time that the estates had been annexed to the Earldom by an Act of | ||||||||||
Parliament, and were therefore inalienable. As we have seen, the 17th Earl did not agree with | ||||||||||
this view and had included in his will a provision to leave the whole of the estates in trust for | ||||||||||
the second son of the Duke of Norfolk. The motivation behind the 17th Earl's wish to dispose | ||||||||||
of the estates could, perhaps, be that he thought that the Earldom would become extinct on | ||||||||||
his death, or, alternatively, his wish to keep the estates within his extended family, since the | ||||||||||
Dukes of Norfolk were descended from a daughter of the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury. | ||||||||||
In 1700, the owner of the Shrewsbury estates was Charles Talbot, 1st and only Duke of | ||||||||||
Shrewsbury. Although he came from a Catholic family, and had been raised as a Catholic, he | ||||||||||
converted to the Church of England and took a prominent role in the 1688 Revolution. In that | ||||||||||
year, an Act of Parliament was passed "to prevent the growth of Popery" which imposed upon | ||||||||||
Catholics an incapacity to acquire property unless they converted to the Protestant religion. | ||||||||||
The passing of this harsh act appears to have prompted the Duke to take precautions for | ||||||||||
preserving his estates for his Catholic relations by settling his estates by way of trust in the | ||||||||||
hands of Protestant friends who he knew would do the right thing, a device which was quite | ||||||||||
common at that time. Accordingly, on 31 October 1700, the Duke settled the whole of his | ||||||||||
estates, failing his own male issue, on his cousin George Talbot, later the 14th Earl. | ||||||||||
In 1720, by an Act of Parliament (6th George I, cap 29) the Shrewsbury estates were annexed | ||||||||||
to the Earldom and a bar was placed on the alienation of such estates. After much debate on | ||||||||||
the matter, the Court decided that this prevented the provisions of the will of the 17th Earl | ||||||||||
from operating, and thus the 18th Earl regained control of the Shrewsbury estates. | ||||||||||
Charles Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and 5th Earl Talbot, his | ||||||||||
wife and his son, Viscount Ingestre | ||||||||||
One of the greatest aristocratic scandals of the 19th century was the elopement of the 20th | ||||||||||
Earl of Shrewsbury with Ellen Miller-Mundy, wife of Alfred Edward Miller-Mundy, in April 1881. | ||||||||||
Miller-Mundy filed for divorce, and a decree nisi was granted on 10 December 1881. The decree | ||||||||||
was made absolute on 20 June 1882, and the following day the Earl and the former Mrs. Miller- | ||||||||||
Mundy were married. | ||||||||||
Following the marriage, the "Chicago Daily Tribune" of 23 June 1882 reported:- | ||||||||||
'England has a new premier Countess [the earldom of Shrewsbury is the premier earldom of | ||||||||||
England] who is not likely to be received at Court by the Queen with open arms. Charles Henry | ||||||||||
John Chetwynd-Talbot, twentieth Earl of Shrewsbury in the peerage of England, Earl of | ||||||||||
Waterford in the peerage of Ireland, Earl Talbot, Viscount Ingestre, and Baron Talbot of Hensol | ||||||||||
in the peerage of Great Britain, Premier Earl of England, and Hereditary Great Seneschal of | ||||||||||
Ireland, a youth just turned 21, was yesterday married to the divorced wife of Mr. Miller Mundy, | ||||||||||
of Derbyshire. Lord Shrewsbury, who was born Nov. 13, 1860, is the son of the nineteenth Earl, | ||||||||||
a man of ability, conspicuous in his youth, as Lord Ingestre, for his sympathy with all reform- | ||||||||||
atory and humanitarian movements. His mother was the daughter of a naval officer whose widow | ||||||||||
afterwards married the late Earl of Eglinton. He succeeded his father as twentieth Earl of | ||||||||||
Shrewsbury and fifth Earl of Talbot on the 11th of May, 1877. The lady whom he has now | ||||||||||
married is four years his senior, having been born in 1856. She was by birth a Miss Morewood, | ||||||||||
the daughter of Charles Rowland Palmer-Morewood, of Alfreton Hall, Derbyshire, a country | ||||||||||
gentleman of old family and good fortune, by his marriage with Georgiana, daughter of the | ||||||||||
seventh Lord Byron, the poet's nephew and successor. Her brother is the head of the family of | ||||||||||
Palmer to which Lord Selborne belongs, the name of Morewood having been assumed with the | ||||||||||
Morewood estates. Miss Morewood was married Sept. 25, 1873, to a country gentleman of | ||||||||||
fortune and of family equal to her own, Mr. Alfred Edward Miller-Mundy, of Shipley Hall, in | ||||||||||
Derbyshire, by whom she had one child, born in August, 1874. | ||||||||||
'Some time in the spring of 1880 Mrs. Miller-Mundy made the acquaintance of the Earl of | ||||||||||
Shrewsbury, then a lad of 20, and their intimacy soon became so marked as to lead to | ||||||||||
bickerings between her husband and herself. In April, 1881, she went to visit her sister at | ||||||||||
Torquay, from which charming seaside resort she suddenly eloped with the Earl. Her husband | ||||||||||
and her brother followed them to Strasburg, where the fugitives had registered themselves at | ||||||||||
the Hôtel de la Ville de Paris as "Mr. and Mrs. Grafton," and finally overtook them by a mere | ||||||||||
chance on a railway train just as it was moving out of the station. Mr. Palmer-Morewood | ||||||||||
clambered upon the platform rail of the railway carriage and through the window, and when the | ||||||||||
conductor opened the carriage at the next station it presented all the evidence of a conflict as | ||||||||||
hot as any ever waged the Earl's great ancestor, the historic Talbot of Shakespeare [in Henry V | ||||||||||
and Henry VI], on the soil of France. Mrs. Miller-Mundy went back to England and the scandal | ||||||||||
filled the clubs and the "society papers." Certain chroniclers scrupled not to aver that Mrs. | ||||||||||
Miller-Mundy had "given the straight tip" to her relatives in order to bring about an explosion | ||||||||||
which would result in a divorce. In the interval sundry incidents kept the scandal alive. Mrs. | ||||||||||
Mundy's mother meeting the Earl at the railroad station at Wirksworth, for example, savagely | ||||||||||
assaulted him with her umbrella, like another Mrs. Gamp [in Charles Dickens' "Martin Chuzzlewit"]. | ||||||||||
On another occasion the Earl artfully induced his brother-in-law (now deceased), Lord Helmsley | ||||||||||
[son of the 1st Earl of Feversham], who had been enjoined to keep an eye on him, to go and | ||||||||||
arrange preliminaries for a duel with Mr. Palmer-Morewood, who was keeping watch over Mrs. | ||||||||||
Miller-Mundy. While the two watch-dogs were thus occupied, the Earl flitted out of reach and | ||||||||||
met the lady. When in November last [1881] the Earl of Shrewsbury came of age, he took Mrs. | ||||||||||
Miller-Mundy down to Alton Towers, his seat, introduced her as "the lady whom he intends | ||||||||||
hereafter to make his wife" to his tenants, and kindly offered drive with her through the town | ||||||||||
of Stafford to rally the party of Church and State to the banners of the Conservative candidate | ||||||||||
in the then pending Parliamentary [by] election, an offer which, strange to say, was promptly | ||||||||||
declined by the local committee.' | ||||||||||
The new Countess's maiden name was Palmer-Morewood. While the scandal of her elopement | ||||||||||
was still very much to the forefront of the public's mind, a fresh scandal involving her brothers | ||||||||||
erupted. The Wikipedia articles on both the 20th Earl and on Alfreton Hall, the home of the | ||||||||||
Palmer-Morewood family, refer to this scandal, but unfortunately both articles are incorrect as | ||||||||||
to its dating. The events outlined below occurred in December 1881, not 1887, and the | ||||||||||
references to "Strange British Crime" shown at the foot of both articles to the New York Times | ||||||||||
of 29 January 1888 should read 29 January 1882. The New York Times report reads:- | ||||||||||
'An epidemic of scandal and social outrage appears to be afflicting England at the present time. | ||||||||||
There are epidemics of burglary and murder as well as epidemics of fever and small-pox. The | ||||||||||
latest trouble is a strange outbreak of crime affecting the domestic hearth and illuminating the | ||||||||||
ranks of the higher classes of society. "The Morewood Affair," a Derbyshire scandal, holds a | ||||||||||
foremost place in the social annals of the time. It is an episode of Christmas; but it is accent- | ||||||||||
uated in this new year by the estreating of bail money to the extent of $20,000 bonds entered | ||||||||||
into for the appearance of four "aristocratic" prisoners who have decamped to foreign lands. The | ||||||||||
story is a curious satire upon the supposed culture and good feeling of English country families. | ||||||||||
From my own knowledge of this society I am bound to say it is a somewhat exceptional case of | ||||||||||
utter blackguardism and lawlessness. | ||||||||||
'Alfreton Hall is a pleasant mansion situated on one of the uplands overlooking the Erewash | ||||||||||
Valley, just where the green plains of Nottinghamshire rise into the wooded heights of the Peak | ||||||||||
of Derbyshire. A sweet rural valley was this stretch of the midlands intersected by one little | ||||||||||
river - Erewash - in the days before coal was discovered throughout its entire length. Now, | ||||||||||
however, colliery shafting and steam engines seam and scar its face with an erysipelas [i.e. an | ||||||||||
acute disease of the skin] of smoke and dirt - pillars of cloud by day and fires by night. Out of | ||||||||||
these rich coal mines the Morewoods of Alfreton, a county family, have become opulent. They | ||||||||||
have "struck oil." The father of the family died recently, and the elder brother, Mr. Charles | ||||||||||
Palmer-Morewood, a county magistrate and the Squire of Alfreton, acting as head of the family, | ||||||||||
invited a Christmas gathering of his kinsmen at the ancestral hall. His mother and his four | ||||||||||
brothers assembled there on Christmas Day. They were hospitably entertained......All went on | ||||||||||
with peace and goodwill until the mother left. Then Mr. Morewood and his four brothers | ||||||||||
adjourned to the smoking-room. | ||||||||||
'There appears to have been an interval in which the merits of a greatly prized old rum, which | ||||||||||
was in a singular, antique bottle, were discussed. Suddenly, without words or warning, Squire | ||||||||||
Morewood was seized by his four brothers and thrust into the library. They locked the door | ||||||||||
inside. Then they endeavoured to dragoon him into signing a document to their pecuniary | ||||||||||
advantage. This document related to certain money mentioned in the dead father's will, some | ||||||||||
of which, being vested in colliery interests, had not had time to be realized and paid over to | ||||||||||
them. The father left each of his sons a legacy of $100,000. Part of this patrimony the four | ||||||||||
younger brothers had received. Now they resorted to fear and force to obtain the remainder. | ||||||||||
The victim of their treachery refused to sign the document. He would not be cowed by coercion. | ||||||||||
He was told that the four brothers had cast lots to take his life. A revolver was held at his head | ||||||||||
to emphasize the treat. The elder brother resisted, and a desperate and dastardly struggle | ||||||||||
ensued. It was four against one. The elder brother twice struggled to the bell and rang for help. | ||||||||||
When the butler answered the summons of his master he was dismissed by one of the brothers | ||||||||||
on some trivial errand, while the others held their victim. Finally the four miscreants left their | ||||||||||
victim on the floor senseless and bleeding. "Go into the library," they said to one of the servants | ||||||||||
as they left the house, "you will find your master lying very drunk." It was a sorrowful and | ||||||||||
sickening sight that met this servant's gaze when he went into the ancestral dining salon, | ||||||||||
furnished with all that wealth could procure and taste suggest. The Squire was lying on the | ||||||||||
carpet in a pool of blood. He was entirely naked. All his clothes had been cut from off his body. | ||||||||||
He was insensible and bleeding from several wounds. | ||||||||||
'While this fracas was going on, Mrs. Morewood, the Squire's wife, was lying in bed in the same | ||||||||||
house, her confinement having taken place only a short time previously. The four young heroes | ||||||||||
[George Herbert, Alfred, Ernest Augustus and William Louis Palmer-Morewood] were subsequently | ||||||||||
arrested upon warrants charging them with "unlawfully assaulting" Mr. C.R. Palmer-Morewood, | ||||||||||
Justice of the Peace, but they were liberated on bail, each in his own recognizance of $2,500, | ||||||||||
and sureties of $2,500 each, making a total sum of $20,000. When, however, the case came on | ||||||||||
for trial the defendants had absconded and the bail was estreated. The money was paid, and it | ||||||||||
is understood that it came from the pockets of the fugitives. The fact that the Police warrant | ||||||||||
was only for "common assault," and that the aristocratic ruffians were allowed bail at all, is | ||||||||||
regarded as a serious reflection on the justice dispensed by the English unpaid magistracy. Had | ||||||||||
these civilized savages been lower in the social scale, it is said they would have been charged | ||||||||||
with a more penal offense and been offered no opportunity of liberty. Now they are reported to | ||||||||||
be laughing at the law in France or Spain. One account which reaches us from Alfreton declares | ||||||||||
they are about to embark for a cruise in the Mediterranean in the beautiful yacht of the Earl of | ||||||||||
Shrewsbury. "These four young aesthetes, their divorced and divine sister, and the lordly | ||||||||||
libertine," says my correspondent, "will make, no doubt, a merry crew." | ||||||||||
In October 1913, the Earl's son, who used the courtesy title of Viscount Ingestre, made a pre- | ||||||||||
emptive petition seeking to prove that he was the legitimate son of Lord and Lady Shrewsbury. | ||||||||||
This petition was discussed in a report in the "Evening Post" of 2 December 1913:- | ||||||||||
'London, October 15 - The President of the Divorce Court had before him this week a rather | ||||||||||
remarkable case, this being the petition of the Hon. Charles John Alton Chetwynd Talbot, | ||||||||||
Viscount Ingestre, to be declared the legitimate son of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury. | ||||||||||
Lord Ingestre was born less than three months after the marriage of his parents, his mother | ||||||||||
being the divorced wife of Mr. Miller Mundy, of Derbyshire. Lord Ingestre is heir to the peerage, | ||||||||||
and the petition was brought to remove any possibility of doubt arising in the future. The | ||||||||||
Crown was represented by the Attorney-General, who was nominally the defendant, and the | ||||||||||
parties cited were those next in succession, including Major General Sir Reginald Talbot, Mr. | ||||||||||
Humphrey John Talbot, and Mr. Geoffrey Richard Henry Talbot. | ||||||||||
'In opening for the petition, Mr. Priestley, K.C., said that the present Earl of Shrewsbury, being | ||||||||||
then a bachelor, was married to Ellen Mary, formerly the wife of Alfred Edward Miller Mundy, at | ||||||||||
the Registry Office, St. George's, Hanover Square, on 21st June 1882. On 8th September 1882, | ||||||||||
"the same year," emphasized counsel, the petitioner was born at Alton Towers, Lord | ||||||||||
Shrewsbury's seat in Staffordshire, and, having been born after their marriage, he was their | ||||||||||
lawful and legitimate son. Having been born after wedlock, that was conclusive, unless proof to | ||||||||||
the contrary were given, that he was the son of Lord and Lady Shrewsbury. | ||||||||||
'He had always been recognized, said counsel, as their son by his father and mother, and by | ||||||||||
their relations and friends. He held a commission in the Horse Guards as Lord Ingestre; he was | ||||||||||
decorated by King Edward as Lord Ingestre; he was married as Lord Ingestre, that being the | ||||||||||
courtesy title of the Shrewsbury family. There had never been any question about it or his | ||||||||||
position, but lately someone in a business transaction put the question about his mother's | ||||||||||
former marriage, and as there were considerable interests involved Lord Ingestre and his father | ||||||||||
thought it desirable, while all the evidence was available, that a declaration should be | ||||||||||
pronounced in Court. | ||||||||||
'Counsel drew attention to the important dates in the case. On 21st or 22nd April 1881, he | ||||||||||
said, Mrs. Miller Mundy left her husband and went away with Lord Shrewsbury; and she had not | ||||||||||
lived with Mr. Miller Mundy after that date. Lord Ingestre having been born on the 8th | ||||||||||
September 1882, Mr. Miller Mundy could not, if the facts he had stated were true, be the father | ||||||||||
of the child. On the 26th April 1881, Mr. Miller Mundy and his brother-in-law, Mr. Morewood, saw | ||||||||||
Mrs. Miller Mundy at Strasburg. It was to be gathered from the evidence that he saw her there | ||||||||||
upon that date for the last time. So far as he (counsel) knew he had never spoken to or seen | ||||||||||
her since 26th April 1881. On 1st May 1881, Mrs. Miller Mundy came to England via Paris, and | ||||||||||
she did not go back to Mr. Miller Mundy. After 1st May 1881, she was constantly in Lord | ||||||||||
Shrewsbury's society and on 16 May 1881, Mr. Miller Mundy filed for divorce, alleging his wife's | ||||||||||
misconduct with Lord Shrewsbury. They did not defend that petition. On 5th July 1881, Mrs. | ||||||||||
Miller Mundy joined Lord Shrewsbury's yacht, 'Castalia' at Eastbourne. They went away from | ||||||||||
England and were absent until 21st October 1881, when they reached Flushing [in the Nether- | ||||||||||
lands]. They lived together continuously from 5th July 1881, until their marriage the following | ||||||||||
year. They, on 24 November 1881, went to the Hotel Windsor, Paris, staying there until 31st | ||||||||||
December of the same year. Next day they joined the yacht at Toulon and were cruising about | ||||||||||
together until 11th March 1882. On 24th March they went to Trent, in Sussex, to a house they | ||||||||||
had taken, and lived there until June. | ||||||||||
'On 10th December 1881, counsel also mentioned, the decree nisi was pronounced by Sir James | ||||||||||
Hanner, and it was made absolute on 20th June 1882. The next day there was the marriage in | ||||||||||
London, and Lord and Lady Shrewsbury went straight down to Alton Towers, and, as far as | ||||||||||
counsel knew, they remained there, until after the birth of Lord Ingestre. He was the only son, | ||||||||||
but there was a daughter, who was married. | ||||||||||
'On 23rd April 1904, Lord Ingestre married Lord Alexander Paget's daughter in the presence of | ||||||||||
many of their relations, and his father, Lord Shrewsbury, signed the register as one of the | ||||||||||
witnesses. His father was now present in Court to support his claim. There were seven others | ||||||||||
next in succession, and they had been cited, but had not appeared, except one, Sir Reginald | ||||||||||
Talbot, who at the last moment asked leave to come in so that he might support the claim. | ||||||||||
'The Attorney-General said he did not dispute any of the evidence, and the President declared | ||||||||||
the petitioner to be the legitimate son of Lord and Lady Shrewsbury.' | ||||||||||
The special remainder to the Barony of Shute | ||||||||||
From the "London Gazette" of 16 April 1880 (issue 15461, page 270):- | ||||||||||
"The Queen has been pleased to direct Letters Patent to be passed under the Great Seal of the | ||||||||||
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland granting the dignity of a Baron of the said United | ||||||||||
Kingdom to the Right Honourable George William, Viscount Barrington, in that part of the said | ||||||||||
United Kingdom called Ireland, and the heirs males of his body lawfully begotten, by the name, | ||||||||||
style, and title of Baron Shute, of Beckett, in the county of Berks, with remainder, in default of | ||||||||||
such issue male, to his brother Percy Barrington, Esq. (commonly called the Honourable Percy | ||||||||||
Barrington), and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten." | ||||||||||
Arun Kumar Sinha, 2nd Baron Sinha | ||||||||||
The 1st Baron Sinha received his peerage in 1919, the first Indian to be ennobled. On his | ||||||||||
death in 1928, his son attempted to prove his right to a seat in the House of Lords, but | ||||||||||
this was denied on a technicality. At the time of his birth, there was no registration of births | ||||||||||
and marriages in India. Every peer must produce a copy either of his birth or of his parents' | ||||||||||
marriage certificate before he can take his seat, but he was unable to do so. | ||||||||||
In December 1936, Lord Sinha took the opportunity at an audience with King Edward VIII (just | ||||||||||
prior to his abdication) to present a petition for a writ of summons to the House of Lords. This | ||||||||||
petition was subsequently considered by the Committee for Privileges in 1939. | ||||||||||
According to a report in "The Times" of 26 July 1939, 'there was no dispute in relation to any of | ||||||||||
the facts stated in the petition. The late Baron Sinha on May 15, 1880 [just prior to his 16th | ||||||||||
birthday], married Gobinda Mohini Sinha according to the formalities prescribed by Hindu law and | ||||||||||
usage. He and his wife were at all times domiciled in the Presidency of Bengal and were members | ||||||||||
of the Hindu community at the date of the marriage, which took place in the Presidency. Hindu | ||||||||||
law did not forbid a plurality of wives, but the marriage in fact remained a union between the | ||||||||||
late Lord Sinha and his wife to the exclusion of any other spouses. It was a monogamous | ||||||||||
marriage. | ||||||||||
'In 1886, and before the birth of the petitioner, Lord Sinha and his wife joined the religious sect | ||||||||||
known as the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, and they remained members of it during the whole of | ||||||||||
their married life. One of the main tenets of the sect was monogamy, and so long as the late | ||||||||||
Lord Sinha continued to be a member of the sect he could not while his first wife was alive | ||||||||||
contract a second marriage which the Courts in India would recognise as valid. He never did | ||||||||||
leave the sect. | ||||||||||
'The petitioner was born in Calcutta on 22 August, 1887, and was the eldest son of the | ||||||||||
marriage. Lord Sinha died in 1928; and the question was whether the petitioner, within the | ||||||||||
meaning of the patent, was the heir male of the body lawfully begotten. | ||||||||||
'The Lord Chancellor said that nothing in their decision of that petition was intended to apply | ||||||||||
to a case where the petitioner was claiming as a son of a parent who had in fact married two | ||||||||||
wives. It was apparent that great difficulties might arise in questions relating to the descent | ||||||||||
of a dignity where the marriage from which heirship was alleged to result was one of a | ||||||||||
polygamous character. | ||||||||||
'If sons were born to one or more of the wives it might be difficult to reconcile one of those | ||||||||||
sons with English ideas of "heirship," which must be involved in the words contained in a patent | ||||||||||
granted by the King in a well-known form and dealing with a British dignity which entitled the | ||||||||||
holder to sit and vote in the House of Lords. If there were several wives the son of a second or | ||||||||||
third wife might be a claimant to a dignity to the exclusion of a later born son of the first wife. | ||||||||||
The law as to heirship in England had provided no means of settling such questions as those. | ||||||||||
'Those difficulties, however, did not arise in the present case. The petitioner was beyond doubt | ||||||||||
the eldest son of the late Lord Sinha by his only wife and equally beyond doubt he was lawfully | ||||||||||
begotten according to the laws of India applicable to Hindu parents. Having regard to the | ||||||||||
domicile of the parties to the marriage at the date when it was solemnized the marriage would | ||||||||||
properly be treated as valid in this country for all purposes, except, it might be, the inheritance | ||||||||||
of real estate before the Law of Property Act, 1925, or the devolution of entailed interests as | ||||||||||
equitable interests before or since that date, and some other exceptional cases. | ||||||||||
'The present question related to the descent of a dignity conferred by the Crown on a subject | ||||||||||
resident and domiciled in India who, according to his religion at the date of the patent, was | ||||||||||
prohibited from forming a polygamous union. | ||||||||||
'The case was without precedent in peerage law, and, in the absence of authority, must be | ||||||||||
decided in the light of its special facts. Announcing the decision of the Committee, the Lord | ||||||||||
Chancellor (Lord Maugham) said: "I have formed the opinion, with which I believe your lordships | ||||||||||
concur, that the petitioner on the facts stated has established that is the 'heir male of the body | ||||||||||
of the late Lord Sinha, lawfully begotten.' " ' | ||||||||||
Susanta Prasanna Sinha, 4th Baron Sinha | ||||||||||
Susanta Sinha, son and heir of the 3rd Baron Sinha, together with his sister, was charged with | ||||||||||
the murder of two of his children in 1979. Both defendants were subsequently acquitted. Sinha | ||||||||||
succeeded his father as 4th Baron Sinha in 1989, and, in the normal course of events, his son | ||||||||||
would have succeeded as 5th Baron on the death of the 4th Baron in 1992. The story of these | ||||||||||
deaths and the subsequent trial verdicts is shown in the following edited newspaper extracts:- | ||||||||||
The Observer 27 May 1979:- | ||||||||||
'The death of a four-year-old boy who would one day have sat in the House of Lords as the | ||||||||||
fifth Baron Sinha of Raipur [sic], and that of his three-year-old sister, have provided Calcutta's | ||||||||||
cocktail-party circuit with a satisfyingly macabre topic for speculation. | ||||||||||
'The title involved is not ancient or grand by the standards of Indian maharajahs, but it is | ||||||||||
unique. The children's grandfather, Lord Sinha, is a prominent figure in Calcutta society. He is | ||||||||||
also the third holder of the only hereditary peerage ever to have been conferred on a non- | ||||||||||
European. | ||||||||||
'His father was counted among the Liberal peers, but Lord Sinha, 58, sits on the cross benches | ||||||||||
during his rare visits to the Lords. The original recipient in 1919 was his grandfather, Sir | ||||||||||
Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, an eminent Bengali lawyer who represented India at the Versailles | ||||||||||
conference and was for two years a member of Lloyd George's Government. | ||||||||||
'The case has all the other ingredients that make for a cause célčbre. According to West | ||||||||||
Bengal's fire chief, who investigated the mysterious circumstances in which Shane Patrick and | ||||||||||
Sharon Patricia perished in the small hours of 28 November last year, no one else was injured | ||||||||||
in the raging fire in the family mansion in Lord Sinha Road. | ||||||||||
'In a packed courtroom last week, Calcutta police brought a murder charge against the children's | ||||||||||
father, the Hon. Susanta Prasanna Sinha, 26, Lord Sinha's only son and heir. Mr Sinha is a | ||||||||||
dapper young tea broker with a fondness for jazz. In his spare time he plays the piano in a | ||||||||||
fashionable Calcutta restaurant. | ||||||||||
'Through the jazz band, Mr Sinha met an Anglo-Indian telephonist, Patricia Orchard, whom he | ||||||||||
married in 1972. The couple separated after three children were born (the elder daughter, | ||||||||||
Caroline, remained with her mother) and Mr Sinha's divorce application for adultery is still | ||||||||||
pending. | ||||||||||
'Also accused of murder is Lord Sinha's attractive 32-year-old daughter, the Hon. Manjula, | ||||||||||
divorced wife of Prince Tobgye Dorji, a first cousin of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan | ||||||||||
[who was King of Bhutan from July 1972 until he abdicated in December 2006] and now in New | ||||||||||
York with the Himalayan kingdom's United Nations team. | ||||||||||
'Under India's complex judicial system, there will be another magistrate's hearing on 12 June to | ||||||||||
provide the accused with prosecution documents before Mr Sinha and Mrs Dorji may be | ||||||||||
formally committed to the sessions court for trial. If convicted, they could be imprisoned for | ||||||||||
life. | ||||||||||
'Brother and sister have already spent 10 days in jail and are now on bail. Though not required | ||||||||||
to enter a plea until the sessions trial, Mrs Dorji and Mr Sinha maintain their innocence and | ||||||||||
insist that the deaths were accidental.' | ||||||||||
The Times of India 23 February 1980:- | ||||||||||
'Sushanta Prasanna Sinha alias Sunna and Mrs. Manjula Dorji, only son and daughter of Lord | ||||||||||
S. P. Sinha, were today committed to the sessions on the charge of murdering Shane (four) and | ||||||||||
Sharon (three), only son and the youngest daughter respectively, of accused Sushanta | ||||||||||
Prasanna Sinha, on November 28, 1978, and of causing disappearance of evidence. | ||||||||||
'It was stated that Sushanta and his sister drank till midnight with two guests in their house on | ||||||||||
November 27. A few hours later, there was a big fire in the bedroom of Sushanta. When the | ||||||||||
police and fire brigade men rushed to the spot, Sushanta and his sister were found lying in Mrs. | ||||||||||
Dorji's bedroom which was bolted from inside. | ||||||||||
'None of the members of Lord Sinha's family informed either the police or the fire brigade men | ||||||||||
that two children were lying in Sushanta's bedroom. An ayah [maid or nurse] of the house | ||||||||||
informed the police about the two children. The police rushed to the bedroom and found the | ||||||||||
charred bodies of the two children lying side by side on the floor carpet. | ||||||||||
'The post-mortem report revealed the presence of foreign chemical substance on the burnt | ||||||||||
tissues of the two children, on the garments and also on the carpet.' | ||||||||||
The Observer 7 September 1980:- | ||||||||||
'India's most sensational murder trial ended last week with the acquittal of the 28-year-old | ||||||||||
heir to the only non-European hereditary member of the British House of Lords. | ||||||||||
'The Hon. Susanta Prasanna Sinha, only son of the third Baron Sinha (his grandfather was | ||||||||||
raised to the Peerage in 1919) was found not guilty of murdering his two children, Shane | ||||||||||
Patrick, four, and Sharon Patricia, three, or of suppressing evidence of murder. Also acquitted | ||||||||||
of the same charges was Lord Sinha's elder daughter, Manjula, 33, divorced wife of Prince | ||||||||||
Tobgye Dorjee, a first cousin of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan. Both pleaded not | ||||||||||
guilty. | ||||||||||
'Rejecting the charges, Judge J. K. Bhattacharjee of Calcutta's Sessions Court said the | ||||||||||
prosecution case was 'entirely circumstantial.' | ||||||||||
'The case arose out of a fire which swept through the family's town mansion in Calcutta one | ||||||||||
night in November 1978. Shane Patrick and Sharon Patricia were asleep in their second floor | ||||||||||
bedroom. The fire brigade later recovered their charred bodies. | ||||||||||
'A week later their Anglo-Indian mother, Mrs Patricia Sinha, who is estranged from her husband, | ||||||||||
caused inquiries to be started. | ||||||||||
'The police case, supported by 47 witnesses, including members of the Sinha family, was that | ||||||||||
Manjula Dorjee wanted to get rid of her nephew and niece so that they did not share in the | ||||||||||
Sinha inheritance. Judge Bhattacharjee also accepted that the children had not been killed | ||||||||||
earlier but had perished in the fire, which was entirely accidental.' | ||||||||||
Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo | ||||||||||
In December 1812, Sligo was charged and convicted of "enticing British Seamen to desert." The | ||||||||||
following account is taken from the 'Newgate Calendar.' | ||||||||||
'At nine o'clock [on 16 December 1812] Sir William Scott attended, and charged the grand jury. | ||||||||||
The [Admiralty] Court then adjourned till ten o'clock, at which hour Sir William returned, | ||||||||||
accompanied by Lord Ellenborough, Mr Baron Thompson and several Doctors of Law. The Duke | ||||||||||
of Clarence was on the bench. The jury were then sworn to try the Marquis of Sligo, who | ||||||||||
appeared in court, and sat by his counsel, Messrs Dauncey, Dampier and Scarlett. | ||||||||||
'Before the trial began, Mr Dauncey stated that his lordship wished to plead guilty as to part, | ||||||||||
and not guilty to the rest; and wished, therefore, only one part now be entered into. | ||||||||||
'Dr Robinson, on the other side, was not unwilling to accede to this arrangement; but Lord | ||||||||||
Ellenborough said that the indictment must not be garbled. He must plead guilty to the whole, | ||||||||||
or not guilty to the whole. | ||||||||||
'After some conversation between the counsel the trial proceeded; the indictment was read, | ||||||||||
charging the Marquis with unlawfully receiving on board his ship William Elden, a seaman in the | ||||||||||
King's service, and detaining, concealing and secreting him. The second count charged him with | ||||||||||
enticing and persuading the said seaman to desert; the third count, with receiving the said | ||||||||||
Elden, knowing him to have deserted. | ||||||||||
'There were other counts with respect to other seamen, and a count for an assault and false | ||||||||||
imprisonment. | ||||||||||
'Dr Robinson (the Advocate-General) stated the case. Captain Sprainger (examined by the | ||||||||||
Attorney-General) stated that in April, 1810, the Marquis was introduced to him by letter from | ||||||||||
Admiral Martin; his lordship appeared desirous of making a tour, and for that purpose hired a | ||||||||||
vessel called the Pylades. The witness gave him all the assistance in his power, by sending him | ||||||||||
riggers and carpenters and gunners, who were lent to him for the purpose of outfitting his | ||||||||||
vessel, but still remained part of his (Captain Sprainger's) crew. In the course of these | ||||||||||
transactions his lordship passed and repassed in a boat called the gig, which was rowed by four | ||||||||||
men: Charles Lee, Robert Lloyd, James Foljambe and John Walker; they had belonged to the | ||||||||||
boat for three years, and were constantly in it. The defendant observed that they were fine | ||||||||||
clever-looking men. Afterwards, about a week before he sailed, he missed two of these men, | ||||||||||
which the more surprised him as they were very trusty seamen, had never been absent or | ||||||||||
irregular, and, though frequently suffered to go on shore without a midshipman, had never in | ||||||||||
any instance abused this confidence. They had, besides, the wages of three years due to them. | ||||||||||
'On the 13th, before he sailed, he went on board the Pylades to see Lord Sligo, and told him of | ||||||||||
the extraordinary circumstances of his missing these two men, whom his lordship probably | ||||||||||
recollected. He was then going to communicate to his lordship some suspicions which his | ||||||||||
officers had suggested to him, when Lord Sligo interrupted him, saying surely he (Captain | ||||||||||
Sprainger) could not think him so base as to take away these men, after the civilities by him | ||||||||||
shown to his lordship. He further said that some of the men whom he had lent to him had | ||||||||||
offered to desert, but he had refused to accept them. Witness then replied to Lord Sligo that | ||||||||||
he trusted he had not his men, and that he would not take them or any others from his | ||||||||||
Majesty's service; but, lest they should come to him, he (Captain S) would leave a description | ||||||||||
of their persons, and take his lordship's word of honour that he would not receive them, but | ||||||||||
give them up to the commanding officer at Malta, who had orders to keep them till his return. | ||||||||||
He then left his lordship, having received his promise and word of honour, and having remarked | ||||||||||
to his lordship how serious a thing it was to entice his Majesty's seamen. The fleet was at | ||||||||||
that time nearly two thousand below its complement, and it was very difficult to procure | ||||||||||
British seamen. He did not muster his lordship's crew; they seemed to be foreigners, in number | ||||||||||
about twenty or thirty. His lordship had proposed to take fifty men, as his vessel was to be a | ||||||||||
letter of marque. A few would have been sufficient for the purposes of navigation. As soon as | ||||||||||
reached the ship he ordered a description of the two men to be made out, and it was sent to | ||||||||||
Lord Sligo; he received no answer then, though he afterwards had a letter from his lordship. | ||||||||||
He had never seen Lee or Lloyd since. (The letter was here read, in which Lord Sligo stated | ||||||||||
that in the course of his voyage he found that he had on board some men-of-war's men, and | ||||||||||
that he was determined to send them on shore [at] the first opportunity. Whatever expenses | ||||||||||
he might incur on their account he should put down to the score of humanity, and glory in it. | ||||||||||
He thought this explanation necessary to Captain Sprainger, who had treated him like a | ||||||||||
gentleman; but the other captain who complained he should not notice. If the business was | ||||||||||
brought into court he should do his best to defend himself, and if he did not succeed he had | ||||||||||
an ample fortune, and could pay the fines.) The letter was dated Constantinople. | ||||||||||
'William Elden, a seaman - who was in the navy nearly thirteen years, and at the time | ||||||||||
mentioned was on board the Montague, off Malta, and had a ticket-of-leave to go ashore | ||||||||||
there on the 13th of that month, in the morning - said he and other seamen, belonging to the | ||||||||||
Montague, four of them in all, were going back to their ships when they were accosted by | ||||||||||
two men in livery, and another, who was dressed in a white jacket. The men in livery were | ||||||||||
servants of the Marquess of Sligo, and the other was the second mate of his lordship's vessel. | ||||||||||
They gave him drink, and so intoxicated him that he knew not how he got on board the Pylades, | ||||||||||
where he found himself placed in the pump well, abaft the mainmast, when he recovered his | ||||||||||
senses, and there he also saw two more of his shipmates, and a stranger, who was in a sailor's | ||||||||||
dress. Witness then came on deck, where he saw Macdermot, Thompson, Cook, Fisher and | ||||||||||
Brown on the deck. He also saw Lord Sligo on board, that evening on deck, who asked him his | ||||||||||
name, when witness told his name, and he belonged to the Montague. They were then two | ||||||||||
miles from shore. Next morning he again saw Lord Sligo, being then perfectly sober, when he | ||||||||||
was walking the deck with a shipmate of the Montague, of which they were talking. Lord | ||||||||||
Sligo again asked their names, and they answered that they were Elden and Story, and that | ||||||||||
those were the names by which they went on board that ship; but Story told his lordship that | ||||||||||
being men-of-war's men it would not do to go by their own names, and Lord Sligo immediately | ||||||||||
said: "Come to me, and I will alter them." They went on the quarterdeck, and defendant gave | ||||||||||
the name of William Smith to the witness. A few days afterwards his lordship told him that he | ||||||||||
would be useful in exercising the guns, to which he replied that he saw none there who did not | ||||||||||
know the use of the guns as well as himself. He then saw nine men of the Montague there: | ||||||||||
Cook, Fisher, Brown, Story, Sullivan, Thompson, Macdermot and Travers. Lord Sligo took an | ||||||||||
active part in the management of the vessel, and assigned to them all their duties. At Palermo | ||||||||||
he asked Lord Sligo for leave to go on shore to get clothes; his lordship gave him five four- | ||||||||||
dollar pieces for wages. He went onshore and returned, not surrendering himself to any King's | ||||||||||
ship. At Messina he begged leave to quit the Pylades, and offered to return all the money and | ||||||||||
clothes he had received; his lordship would not suffer him, and foreign sentinels were placed in | ||||||||||
arms over the crew to prevent any from escaping. Lord Sligo at Palermo told the crew that he | ||||||||||
had procured a protection from Admiral Martin, having pledged his honour that he had no men- | ||||||||||
of-war's men on board. They were afterwards chased by the Active frigate and a brig, and were | ||||||||||
brought to, and a King's boat came alongside. Lord Sligo the desired witness to go below, who | ||||||||||
said he would rather stay where he was. The rest were then below. Lord Sligo left him for a few | ||||||||||
minutes; but returned, and told him he must go down. He then went down into the after-hold | ||||||||||
underneath the cabin, where were the rest of the seamen of the Warrior and the Montague; | ||||||||||
the hatch was closed over them, and a ladder placed on top. In about half-an-hour they were | ||||||||||
called up. They then proceeded to Patmos, where he and some more had leave of absence | ||||||||||
for a few days. The next day Lord Sligo sailed without giving them any notice, and left him and | ||||||||||
six more in great distress. They were forced to sell their clothing; they had nothing but what | ||||||||||
they stood upright in. They got a boat, but could not overtake the Pylades; they then went to | ||||||||||
Scio, and went with a British consul to the Pylades; but Lord Sligo refused to take them in, | ||||||||||
and threatened to fire at them; he knew them very well, as they were all upon deck; he took | ||||||||||
four of them on board - the carpenter, the surgeon, the man of the Warrior (Lee) and the | ||||||||||
sailmaker. The witness had been since tried, and sentenced to receive two hundred lashes; | ||||||||||
but his punishment had been remitted. | ||||||||||
'Fisher, Sullivan and Brown, all belonging to the Montague, corroborated Elden's statement. | ||||||||||
Captain Hayes deposed to his having searched the Pylades, when the Marquis declared, upon | ||||||||||
his word, no men were concealed on board. | ||||||||||
'After a short consultation in the box the jury found his lordship guilty of all the counts in the | ||||||||||
indictment, except one for false imprisonment. | ||||||||||
'The judge (Sir William Scott [later Baron Stowell]) then ordered that his lordship, who was in | ||||||||||
court, should enter into recognisance to appear the next day to receive judgment. | ||||||||||
'The trial lasted till nearly two o'clock in the morning. | ||||||||||
'The Marquis of Sligo on Thursday [17 December 1812] appeared in court to receive sentence; | ||||||||||
an affidavit was put in, which purported that he knew nothing of the circumstances of his | ||||||||||
having men-of-war's men on board till the time of the search. | ||||||||||
'Lord Ellenborough interrupted it by observing that the affidavit must not impeach the evidence. | ||||||||||
Mr Scarlett said that was not its object. The affidavit was then continued, stating that as soon | ||||||||||
as he found two of the Warrior's men he was anxious to dismiss them; it then expressed | ||||||||||
contrition for his folly and rashness, and a hope that the letter which was written to Captain | ||||||||||
Sprainger (which was never intended for the public) would not be thought to convey any | ||||||||||
disrespect for the laws of his country, which he was ready and anxious to uphold. | ||||||||||
'Sir William Scott then, after an impressive speech, passed the sentence of the Court upon | ||||||||||
his lordship, which was, that his lordship should pay to the King a fine of five thousand | ||||||||||
pounds, and be imprisoned four months in Newgate. | ||||||||||
'His lordship bowed, and was conducted by the keepers through the private door to the jail.' | ||||||||||
There was a happy sequel to the Marquess's trial. His mother, the Dowager Marchioness, was | ||||||||||
so impressed with the fatherly advice given by Sir William Scott when sentencing the | ||||||||||
Marquess that she expressed the opinion that "it would be an excellent thing if her son could | ||||||||||
continue to have the benefit of such paternal counsels." Accordingly the Dowager Marchioness | ||||||||||
and Sir William were married shortly afterwards, although the Marquess, still being in prison, | ||||||||||
could not attend the ceremony. Nevertheless, the influence of his new step-father appears | ||||||||||
to have been beneficial, as the Marquess was subsequently rehabilitated, being Governor of | ||||||||||
Jamaica, Lord Lieutenant of Mayo and a Privy Counsellor. | ||||||||||
George Ulick Browne, 6th Marquess of Sligo | ||||||||||
The 5th Marquess of Sligo, father of the 6th Marquess, was employed in the Indian Civil Service | ||||||||||
under the name of Lord Henry Ulick Browne between 1850 and 1886. As a result, he was present | ||||||||||
in India during the time of the Indian Mutiny. | ||||||||||
According to an article in the 'Chicago Daily Tribune' of 1 March 1913:- | ||||||||||
'…..he [the 6th Marquess] was a 12 months' old baby when the great Sepoy mutiny broke | ||||||||||
out in India in 1857…..His father [Lord Henry Ulick Browne, later the 5th Marquess] left his wife | ||||||||||
and his little boy at Monghyr [now known as Munger, a city on the Ganges River in what was | ||||||||||
then Bengal, now the state of Bihar] in what he believed to be complete safety, while he | ||||||||||
himself hurried, in response to the call of duty, to the scene of the trouble. | ||||||||||
'To his dismay the rebels cut off all chance of his rejoining his wife and child, and, worse | ||||||||||
still, surrounded Monghyr. | ||||||||||
'Lady Ulick Browne, as she was then, sought refuge with the baby in the collector's house, | ||||||||||
together with the few other English people in the district, and during four weeks sustained a | ||||||||||
siege which cost the lives of most of the defenders through thirst, hunger, disease, and the foe. | ||||||||||
'Lady Ulick realised that her little boy would succumb if he remained, and she accordingly took | ||||||||||
the desperate risk of permitting her devoted Hindoo ayah, or nurse, to dye the child a dusky | ||||||||||
color with chestnut leaves and to make her way with him through the insurgents' lines by | ||||||||||
passing off the little fellow as her own offspring. | ||||||||||
'Three weeks later Monghyr was relieved by the British troops, Lady Ulick Browne being among | ||||||||||
the few of the gallant survivors of the siege. But not till nearly three months afterwards were | ||||||||||
she and her husband able to ascertain what had become of their child and nurse or to | ||||||||||
discover whether they had managed to get safely through the Sepoy lines around Monghyr | ||||||||||
and through the rebel infested country to safety, or had perished in the attempt. | ||||||||||
'Eventually, however, the faithful and devoted ayah turned up with the little fellow, who is | ||||||||||
now the new Marquis of Sligo……….' | ||||||||||
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