PEERAGE
Last updated 11/10/2024
     Date Rank Order Name Born Died  Age
DE BLAQUIERE
30 Jul 1800 B[I] 1 Sir John de Blaquiere,1st baronet 15 May 1732 27 Aug 1812 80
Created Baron de Blaquiere 30 Jul 1800
MP for Rye 1801-1802 and Downton
1803-1806. PC [I] 1772
27 Aug 1812 2 John de Blaquiere 5 Nov 1776 7 Apr 1844 67
7 Apr 1844 3 William de Blaquiere 27 Jan 1778 12 Nov 1851 73
For information on the death of this peer,
see the note at the foot of this page
12 Nov 1851 4 John de Blaquiere 2 Jul 1812 2 Jan 1871 58
2 Jan 1871 5 William Barnard de Blaquiere 16 Dec 1814 24 Nov 1889 74
24 Nov 1889 6 William de Blaquiere 5 Sep 1856 28 Jul 1920 63
to     Peerage extinct on his death
28 Jul 1920
DECHMONT
3 Jan 1696 B[S] 1 Lord George Hamilton 9 Feb 1666 29 Jan 1737 70
Created Lord Dechmont and Earl of
Orkney 3 Jan 1696
See "Orkney"
DECIES
31 Jan 1569 V[I] 1 Sir Maurice Fitzgerald 28 Dec 1572
to     Created Baron of Dromana 27 Jan 1569
28 Dec 1572 and Viscount Decies 31 Jan 1569
Peerage extinct on his death
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
9 Oct 1673 V[I] 1 Richard Power,6th Baron Power 1630 14 Oct 1690 60
Created Viscount Decies and Earl of
Tyrone 9 Oct 1673
See "Tyrone"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
21 Dec 1812 B[I] 1 William Beresford 16 Apr 1743 6 Sep 1819 76
Created Baron Decies 21 Dec 1812
PC [I] 1794
6 Sep 1819 2 John Horsley-Beresford 20 Jan 1773 1 Mar 1855 82
1 Mar 1855 3 William Robert John Horsley-Beresford Jun 1811 3 Jul 1893 82
3 Jul 1893 4 William Marcus de la Poer Beresford 12 Jan 1865 30 Jul 1910 45
30 Jul 1910 5 John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford 5 Dec 1866 31 Jan 1944 77
PC [I] 1918
31 Jan 1944 6 Arthur George Marcus Douglas de la Poer
Beresford 24 Apr 1915 7 Nov 1992 77
7 Nov 1992 7 Marcus Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford 5 Aug 1948
DE CLIFFORD
29 Dec 1299 B 1 Robert de Clifford 1275 25 Jun 1314 38
Summoned to Parliament as Lord
de Clifford 29 Dec 1299
25 Jun 1314 2 Roger de Clifford 2 Feb 1299 23 Mar 1322 23
23 Mar 1322 3 Robert de Clifford 1 Nov 1305 20 May 1344 38
20 May 1344 4 Robert de Clifford 1331 c 1350
c 1350 5 Roger de Clifford 10 Jul 1333 13 Jul 1389 56
13 Jul 1389 6 Thomas de Clifford 1363 c 1392
c 1392 7 John de Clifford 1390 13 Mar 1422 31
KG 1421
13 Mar 1422 8 Thomas de Clifford 25 Mar 1414 22 May 1454 40
22 May 1454 9 John Clifford 1434 28 Mar 1461 26
to     He was attainted and the peerage forfeited
28 Mar 1461
1485 10 Henry Clifford c 1454 23 Apr 1523
He obtained a reversal of the attainder
in 1485
23 Apr 1523 11 Henry Clifford,1st Earl of Cumberland 1493 22 Apr 1542 48
22 Apr 1542 12 Henry Clifford,2nd Earl of Cumberland 1517 8 Jan 1570 52
8 Jan 1570 13 George Clifford,3rd Earl of Cumberland 8 Aug 1558 30 Oct 1605 47
30 Oct 1605 14 Anne Herbert 30 Jan 1590 22 Mar 1676 86
On her death the peerage fell into abeyance
1678 15 Nicholas Tufton,3rd Earl of Thanet 7 Aug 1631 24 Nov 1679 48
Abeyance terminated in his favour 1678
24 Nov 1679 16 John Tufton,4th Earl of Thanet 7 Aug 1638 27 Apr 1680 41
27 Apr 1680 17 Richard Tufton,5th Earl of Thanet 30 May 1640 8 Mar 1684 43
8 Mar 1684 18 Thomas Tufton,6th Earl of Thanet 30 Aug 1644 30 Jul 1729 84
to     On his death the peerage again fell into 
30 Jul 1729 abeyance
3 Aug 1734 19 Margaret Coke 16 Jun 1700 28 Feb 1775 74
to     Abeyance terminated in her favour 1734.
28 Feb 1775 On her death the peerage fell into 
abeyance for the third time
17 Apr 1776 20 Edward Southwell 6 Jun 1738 1 Nov 1777 39
MP for Bridgwater 1761-1763 and
Gloucestershire 1763-1776
Abeyance terminated in his favour 1776
1 Nov 1777 21 Edward Southwell 23 Jun 1767 30 Sep 1832 65
to     On his death the peerage fell into 
30 Sep 1832 abeyance for the fourth time
4 Mar 1833 22 Sophia Russell 4 Nov 1791 3 Jan 1874 82
Abeyance terminated in her favour 1833
3 Jan 1874 23 Edward Southwell Russell 30 Apr 1824 6 Aug 1877 53
MP for Tavistock 1847-1852
6 Aug 1877 24 Edward Southwell Russell 5 Apr 1855 6 Apr 1894 39
6 Apr 1894 25 Jack Southwell Russell 2 Jul 1884 1 Sep 1909 25
For further information on the death of this peer,
see the note at the foot of this page
1 Sep 1909 26 Edward Southwell Russell 31 Jan 1907 3 Jan 1982 74
For further information on this peer,see the
note at the foot of this page
3 Jan 1982 27 John Edward Southwell Russell 8 Jun 1928 2 Nov 2018 90
2 Nov 2018 28 Miles Edward Southwell Russell 7 Aug 1966
DE DUNSTANVILLE
17 Jun 1796 B 1 Sir Francis Basset,1st baronet 9 Aug 1757 14 Feb 1835 77
to     Created Baron de Dunstanville
14 Feb 1835 17 Jun 1796
MP for Penrhyn 1780-1796
Peerage extinct on his death
DEECH
5 Oct 2005 B[L] 1 Dame Ruth Lynn Deech 29 Apr 1943
Created Baroness Deech for life 5 Oct 2005
DEEDES
23 Sep 1986 B[L] 1 William Francis Deedes 1 Jun 1913 17 Aug 2007 94
to     Created Baron Deedes for life 23 Sep 1986
17 Aug 2007 MP for Ashford 1950-1974. Minister without
Portfolio 1962-1964.  PC 1962
Peerage extinct on his death
DEERHURST
26 Apr 1697 V 1 Thomas Coventry,5th Baron Coventry 1637 15 Jul 1699 62
Created Viscount Deerhurst and Earl
of Coventry 26 Apr 1697
See "Coventry"
DE FREYNE
16 May 1839 B 1 Arthur French c May 1788 29 Sep 1856 68
to     Created Baron de Freyne 16 May 1839
29 Sep 1856 and 5 Apr 1851
5 Apr 1851 B 1 For details of the special remainder included in the
creation of the Barony of 1851,see the note at the 
foot of this page
MP for Roscommon 1821-1832. Lord
Lieutenant Roscommon 1854-1856
On his death the creation of 1839 became
extinct whilst the creation of 1851 
passed to -
29 Sep 1856 2 John French 1788 22 Aug 1863 75
22 Aug 1863 3 Charles French 22 Oct 1790 28 Oct 1868 78
28 Oct 1868 4 Arthur French 9 Jul 1855 22 Sep 1913 58
For further information on this peer, see the
note at the foot of this page
22 Sep 1913 5 Arthur Reginald French 3 Jul 1879 9 May 1915 35
For further information on this peer, see the
note at the foot of this page
9 May 1915 6 Francis Charles French 15 Jan 1884 24 Dec 1935 51
24 Dec 1935 7 Francis Arthur John French 3 Sep 1927 24 Nov 2009 82
24 Nov 2009 8 Fulke Charles Arthur John French 21 Apr 1957
DE GREY
25 Oct 1816 E 1 Amabell Hume-Campbell 22 Jan 1751 4 May 1833 82
Created Countess de Grey 25 Oct 1816
For details of the special remainder included in the
creation of this peerage,see the note at the 
foot of this page
4 May 1833 2 Thomas Philip de Grey,2nd Baron Grantham 8 Dec 1781 14 Nov 1859 77
Lord Lieutenant Bedford 1818-1859. First
Lord of the Admiralty 1841-1844.  PC 1834
KG 1844
14 Nov 1859 3 George Frederick Samuel Robinson 24 Oct 1827 9 Jul 1909 81
He was created Marquess of Ripon (qv) 1871
with which title this peerage then merged
until its extinction in 1923
DEIGHTON
1 Nov 2012 B[L] 1 Paul Clive Deighton 18 Jan 1956
Created Baron Deighton for life 1 Nov 2012
DEINCOURT
6 Feb 1299 B 1 Edmund Deincourt 1327
to     Summoned to Parliament as Lord
1327 Deincourt 6 Feb 1299
Peerage extinct on his death
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
27 Jan 1332 B 1 William Deincourt 1301 2 Jun 1364 62
Summoned to Parliament as Lord
Deincourt 27 Jan 1332
2 Jun 1364 2 William Deincourt 1357 14 Oct 1381 24
14 Oct 1381 3 Ralph Deincourt c 1380 7 Nov 1384
7 Nov 1384 4 John Deincourt 28 Feb 1382 11 May 1406 24
11 May 1406 5 William Deincourt 1403 1422 19
to     Peerage extinct on his death
1422
DEINCOURT OF SUTTON
26 Oct 1624 B 1 Sir Francis Leke by 1581 9 Apr 1655
Created Baron Deincourt of Sutton
26 Oct 1624 and Earl of Scarsdale
11 Nov 1645
See "Scarsdale"
D'EIVILL
18 Dec 1264 B 1 John D'Eivill after 1274
to     Summoned to Parliament as Lord
after 1274 D'Eivill 18 Dec 1264
On his death the peerage is presumed to
have become extinct
DELACOURT-SMITH
13 Oct 1967 B[L] 1 Charles George Percy Smith 25 Apr 1917 2 Aug 1972 55
to     Created Baron Delacourt-Smith for life
2 Aug 1972 13 Oct 1967
MP for Colchester 1945-1950. Minister of
State,Technology 1969-1970.  PC 1969
Peerage extinct on his death
DELACOURT-SMITH OF ALTERYN
5 Jul 1974 B[L] 1 Margaret Rosalind Delacourt-Smith 5 Apr 1916 8 Jun 2010 94
to     Created Baroness Delacourt-Smith of
8 Jun 2010 Alteryn for life 5 Jul 1974
Peerage extinct on her death
DE LA MARE
6 Feb 1299 B 1 John de la Mare 1316
to     Summoned to Parliament as Lord
1316 de la Mare 6 Feb 1299
Peerage extinct on his death
DELAMER
20 Apr 1661 B 1 Sir George Booth,2nd baronet 18 Dec 1622 8 Aug 1684 61
Created Baron Delamer 20 Apr 1661
MP for Cheshire 1660-1661 Lord Lieutenant 
Cheshire
8 Aug 1684 2 Henry Booth,later [1690] 1st Earl of Warrington 13 Jan 1652 2 Jan 1694 41
2 Jan 1694 3 George Booth,2nd Earl of Warrington 2 May 1675 2 Aug 1758 83
2 Aug 1758 4 Nathaniel Booth 1709 9 Jan 1770 60
to     Peerage extinct on his death
9 Jan 1770
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
22 Apr 1796 B 1 George Harry Gray,5th Earl of Stamford 1 Oct 1737 23 May 1819 81
Created Baron Delamer and Earl of
Warrington 22 Apr 1796
See "Warrington" - extinct 1883
DELAMERE
17 Jul 1821 B 1 Thomas Cholmondeley 9 Aug 1767 30 Oct 1855 88
Created Baron Delamere 17 Jul 1821
MP for Cheshire 1796-1812
30 Oct 1855 2 Hugh Cholmondeley 3 Oct 1811 1 Aug 1887 75
MP for Denbigh 1841-1841 and Montgomery
1841-1848
1 Aug 1887 3 Hugh Cholmondeley 28 Apr 1870 13 Nov 1931 61
13 Nov 1931 4 Thomas Pitt Hamilton Cholmondeley 19 Aug 1900 13 Apr 1979 78
13 Apr 1979 5 Hugh George Cholmondeley 18 Jan 1934 7 Oct 2024 90
7 Oct 2024 6 Hugh Derrick Cholmondeley 9 Nov 1998
DE LA POLE
6 Aug 1385 B 1 Michael de la Pole c 1330 5 Sep 1389
to     Summoned to Parliament as Lord 
Feb 1388 de la Pole 20 Jan 1366
Lord Chancellor 1383-1386
He was subsequently created Earl of
Suffolk (qv) in 1385 but was attainted and 
the peerages forfeited - see "Suffolk"
DELAVAL
17 Oct 1783 B[I] 1 Sir John Hussey Delaval,1st baronet 17 Mar 1728 17 May 1808 80
to     Created Baron Delaval [I] 17 Oct 1783
17 May 1808 and Baron Delaval [GB] 21 Aug 1786
21 Aug 1786 B 1 MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed 1754-1761, 
to     1765-1774 and 1780-1786
17 May 1808 Peerages extinct on his death
DE LA WARDE
29 Dec 1299 B 1 Robert de la Warde 25 Jan 1307
Summoned to Parliament as Lord
de la Warde 29 Dec 1299
25 Jan 1307 2 Simon de la Warde 9 Apr 1334
to     Peerage extinct on his death
9 Apr 1334
DE LA WARR
6 Feb 1299 B 1 Roger la Warr c 1320
Summoned to Parliament as Lord
de la Warr 6 Feb 1299
c 1320 2 John la Warr c 1277 1347
1347 3 Roger la Warr c 1329 27 Aug 1370
27 Aug 1370 4 John la Warr c 1344 27 Jul 1398
27 Jul 1398 5 Thomas la Warr c 1358 7 May 1426
7 May 1426 6 Reginald West 7 Sep 1395 27 Aug 1450 54
27 Aug 1450 7 Richard West 28 Oct 1430 10 Mar 1476 45
10 Mar 1476 8 Thomas West c 1455 11 Oct 1525
KG 1510
11 Oct 1525 9 Thomas West 25 Sep 1554
to     KG 1549
25 Sep 1554 On his death the peerage fell into
abeyance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
5 Feb 1570 B 1 William West by 1520 30 Dec 1595
Created Baron de la Warr 5 Feb 1570
30 Dec 1595 2 Thomas West 1556 24 Mar 1602 45
24 Mar 1602 3 Thomas West 9 Jul 1577 7 Jun 1618 40
7 Jun 1618 4 Henry West 3 Oct 1603 1 Jun 1628 24
1 Jun 1628 5 Charles West Feb 1626 22 Dec 1687 61
22 Dec 1687 6 John West c 1663 26 May 1723
26 May 1723 7 John West 4 Apr 1693 16 Mar 1766 72
18 Mar 1761 E 1 Created Viscount Cantelupe and Earl 
de la Warr 18 Mar 1761
MP for Grampound 1715-1722. PC 1731
16 Mar 1766 2 John West 1729 22 Nov 1777 48
22 Nov 1777 3 William Augustus West 27 Apr 1757 Jan 1783 25
Jan 1783 4 John Richard West 28 Jul 1758 28 Jul 1795 37
28 Jul 1795 5 George John Sackville-West 26 Oct 1791 23 Feb 1869 77
PC 1841
23 Feb 1869 6 Charles Richard Sackville-West 13 Nov 1815 22 Apr 1873 57
For further information on the death of this
peer, see the note at the foot of this page.
22 Apr 1873 7 Reginald Windsor Sackville 21 Feb 1817 5 Jan 1896 78
He had previously succeeded as 2nd Baron
Buckhurst (qv) in 1870
For further information on the death of Viscount
Cantelupe, the 7th Earl's heir, see the note at
the foot of this page.
5 Jan 1896 8 Gilbert George Reginald Sackville 22 Mar 1869 16 Dec 1915 46
16 Dec 1915 9 Herbrand Edward Dundonald Brassey
Sackville 20 Jun 1900 28 Jan 1976 75
Lord Privy Seal 1937-1938. President of the
Board of Education 1938-1940.  PC 1936
28 Jan 1976 10 William Herbrand Sackville 16 Oct 1921 9 Feb 1988 66
For further information on the death of this
peer, see the note at the foot of this page.
9 Feb 1988 11 William Herbrand Sackville 10 Apr 1948
DELFONT
29 Jun 1976 B[L] 1 Sir Bernard Delfont 5 Sep 1909 28 Jul 1994 84
to     Created Baron Delfont for life 29 Jun 1976
28 Jul 1994 Peerage extinct on his death
DE L'ISLE AND DUDLEY
13 Jan 1835 B 1 Philip Charles Sidney 11 Mar 1800 4 Mar 1851 50
Created Baron de L'Isle and Dudley
13 Jan 1835
MP for Eye 1829-1831
4 Mar 1851 2 Philip Sidney 29 Jan 1828 17 Feb 1898 70
17 Feb 1898 3 Philip Sidney 14 May 1853 24 Dec 1922 69
24 Dec 1922 4 Algernon Sidney 11 Jun 1854 18 Apr 1945 90
18 Apr 1945 5 William Sidney 19 Aug 1859 18 Jun 1945 85
18 Jun 1945 6 William Philip Sidney VC 23 May 1909 5 Apr 1991 81
12 Jan 1956 V 1 Created Viscount de L'Isle 12 Jan 1956
MP for Chelsea 1944-1945. Secretary of
State for Air 1951-1955. Governor General
of Australia  1961-1965. PC 1951  KG 1968
For further information on this peer and VC
winner, see the note at the foot of this page
5 Apr 1991 2 Philip John Algernon Sidney 21 Apr 1945
DE LONGUEVILLE
21 Apr 1690 V 1 Henry Yelverton,15th Lord Grey de Ruthyn c 1664 24 Mar 1704
Created Viscount de Longueville
21 Apr 1690
See "Grey de Ruthyn"
DELORAINE
29 Mar 1706 E[S] 1 Henry Scott 1676 25 Dec 1730 54
Created Lord Scott of Goldielands,
Viscount of Hermitage and Earl of 
Deloraine 29 Mar 1706
25 Dec 1730 2 Francis Scott 5 Oct 1710 11 May 1739 28
11 May 1739 3 Henry Scott 11 Feb 1712 31 Jan 1740 27
31 Jan 1740 4 Henry Scott 8 Feb 1737 Sep 1807 70
to     Peerages extinct on his death
Sep 1807
DELVIN
c 1389 B[I]  1 Sir William Fitzrichard Nugent by 1415
Created Baron Delvin c 1389
by 1415 2 Richard Nugent after 1450
after 1450 3 Christopher Nugent c 1483
c 1483 4 Richard Nugent 28 Feb 1537
28 Feb 1537 5 Richard Nugent 1523 23 Nov 1559 36
23 Nov 1559 6 Christopher Nugent 1544 1 Oct 1602 58
1 Oct 1602 7 Richard Nugent 1583 1642 59
He was created Earl of Westmeath (qv) 1621
with which title this peerage then merged
DE MAULEY
10 Jul 1838 B 1 William Francis Spencer Ponsonby 31 Jul 1787 16 May 1855 67
Created Baron de Mauley 10 Jul 1838
MP for Poole 1826-1831, Knaresborough
1832 and Dorset 1832-1837
16 May 1855 2 Charles Frederick Ashley Cooper Ponsonby 12 Sep 1815 24 Aug 1896 80
MP for Poole 1837-1847 and Dungarvon
1851-1852
24 Aug 1896 3 William Ashley Webb Ponsonby 2 Mar 1843 13 Apr 1918 75
For further information on the death of this peer,
see the note at the foot of this page
13 Apr 1918 4 Maurice John George Ponsonby 7 Aug 1846 15 Mar 1945 98
15 Mar 1945 5 Hubert William Ponsonby 21 Jul 1878 13 Sep 1962 84
13 Sep 1962 6 Gerald John Ponsonby 19 Dec 1921 17 Oct 2002 80
17 Oct 2002 7 Rupert Charles Ponsonby  [Elected hereditary 30 Jun 1957
peer 2005-]
DE MONTALT
18 Jul 1776 B[I] 1 Sir Thomas Maude,1st baronet 1726 17 May 1777 50
to     Created Baron de Montalt 18 Jul 1776
17 May 1777 PC [I] 1768
Peerage extinct on his death
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
25 Jun 1785 B[I] 1 Sir Cornwallis Maude 19 Sep 1729 23 Aug 1803 73
Created Baron de Montalt 25 Jun 1785
and Viscount Hawarden 10 Jun 1791
23 Aug 1803 2 Thomas Ralph Maude,2nd Viscount Hawarden 16 Apr 1767 26 Feb 1807 39
26 Feb 1807 3 Cornwallis Maude,3rd Viscount Hawarden 28 Mar 1780 12 Oct 1856 76
12 Oct 1856 4 Cornwallis Maude,4th Viscount Hawarden 4 Apr 1817 9 Jan 1905 87
9 Sep 1886 E 1 Created Earl de Montalt 9 Sep 1886
to     Lord Lieutenant Tipperary 1885-1905
9 Jan 1905 On his death the Earldom became extinct
whilst the Barony remains united with
the Viscountcy of Hawarden (qv)
DENBIGH
28 Sep 1564 B 1 Lord Robert Dudley 24 Jun 1532 4 Sep 1588 56
to     Created Baron of Denbigh 28 Sep 1564
4 Sep 1588 and Earl of Leicester 29 Sep 1564
KG 1559
Peerage extinct on his death
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
14 Sep 1622 E 1 William Feilding c 1582 8 Apr 1643
Created Baron Feilding and Viscount
Feilding 30 Dec 1620 and Earl of 
Denbigh 14 Sep 1622
8 Apr 1643 2 Basil Feilding c 1608 28 Nov 1675
Created Baron St.Liz 2 Feb 1664
Lord Lieutenant Denbigh and Flint 1642
and Warwick 1643
28 Nov 1675 3 William Feilding 29 Dec 1640 23 Aug 1685 44
He had previously succeeded as 2nd Earl of 
Desmond in 1666. The two Earldoms remain
united
23 Aug 1685 4 Basil Feilding  (also 3rd Earl of Desmond) 1668 18 Mar 1717 48
Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1703-1706 and
1711-1714. Lord Lieutenant Denbigh
18 Mar 1717 5 William Feilding  (also 4th Earl of Desmond) 26 Oct 1697 2 Aug 1755 57
2 Aug 1755 6 Basil Feilding  (also 5th Earl of Desmond) 3 Jan 1719 14 Jul 1800 81
PC 1760
14 Jul 1800 7 William Basil Percy Feilding  (also 6th Earl of
Desmond) 25 Mar 1796 25 Jun 1865 69
PC 1833
25 Jun 1865 8 Rudolph William Basil Feilding  (also 7th Earl of
Desmond) 9 Apr 1823 10 Mar 1892 68
10 Mar 1892 9 Rudolph Robert Basil Aloysius Augustine Feilding
(also 8th Earl of Desmond) 26 May 1859 25 Nov 1939 80
25 Nov 1939 10 William Rudolph Stephen Feilding  (also 9th
Earl of Desmond) 17 Apr 1912 31 Dec 1966 54
31 Dec 1966 11 William Rudolph Michael Feilding  (also 10th 
Earl of Desmond) 2 Aug 1943 23 Mar 1995 51
23 Mar 1995 12 Alexander Stephen Rudolph Feilding  (also 11th
Earl of Desmond) 4 Nov 1970
DENHAM
24 May 1937 B 1 Sir George Edward Wentworth Bowyer,
1st baronet 16 Jan 1886 30 Nov 1948 62
Created Baron Denham 24 May 1937
MP for Buckingham 1918-1937
30 Nov 1948 2 Bertram Stanley Mitford Bowyer 3 Oct 1927 1 Dec 2021 94
PC 1981  [Elected hereditary peer 1999-]
1 Dec 2021 3 Richard Grenville George Bowyer 8 Feb 1959
DENINGTON
10 Jul 1978 B[L] 1 Dame Evelyn Joyce Denington 9 Aug 1907 22 Aug 1998 91
to     Created Baroness Denington for life
22 Aug 1998 10 Jul 1978
Peerage extinct on her death
DENMAN
28 Mar 1834 B 1 Thomas Denman 23 Feb 1779 22 Sep 1854 75
Created Baron Denman 28 Mar 1834
MP for Wareham 1818-1820 and Nottingham
1820-1826 and 1830-1832. Attorney General
1830. Chief Justice of the Kings Bench
1832-1850  PC 1832
22 Sep 1854 2 Thomas Aitchison-Denman 30 Jul 1805 9 Aug 1894 89
For further information on this peer,see
the note at the foot of this page
9 Aug 1894 3 Thomas Denman 16 Nov 1874 24 Jun 1954 79
Governor General of Australia 1911-1914
PC 1907
24 Jun 1954 4 Thomas Denman 2 Aug 1905 21 Mar 1971 65
21 Mar 1971 5 Sir Charles Spencer Denman,2nd baronet 7 Jul 1916 21 Nov 2012 96
21 Nov 2012 6 Richard Thomas Stewart Denman 4 Oct 1946
DENNING
24 Apr 1957 B[L] 1 Alfred Thompson Denning 23 Jan 1899 5 Mar 1999 100
to     Created Baron Denning for life 24 Apr 1957
5 Mar 1999 Lord Justice of Appeal 1948-1957. Lord
of Appeal in Ordinary 1957-1962. Master of
the Rolls 1962-1982. PC 1948. OM 1997
DENNY DE WALTHAM
27 Oct 1604 B 1 Sir Edward Denny 14 Aug 1569 27 Sep 1637 68
Summoned to Parliament as Lord
Denny de Waltham 27 Oct 1604
he was created Earl of Norwich (qv) 1625
27 Sep 1637 2 James Hay,2nd Earl of Carlisle c 1612 30 Oct 1660
to     Peerage extinct on his death
30 Oct 1660
DENTON
27 Jul 1914 B 1 Horatio Herbert Kitchener 24 Jun 1850 5 Jun 1916 65
Created Baron Denton,Viscount 
Broome and Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
27 Jul 1914
See "Kitchener"
DENTON OF WAKEFIELD
11 Jun 1991 B[L] 1 Jean Denton 29 Dec 1935 5 Feb 2001 65
to     Created Baroness Denton of Wakefield
5 Feb 2001 for life 11 Jun 1991
Peerage extinct on her death
DERAMORE
18 Nov 1885 B 1 Sir Thomas Bateson,2nd baronet 4 Jun 1819 1 Dec 1890 71
Created Baron Deramore 18 Nov 1885
For details of the special remainder included in the
creation of this peerage,see the note at the 
foot of this page
MP for Londonderry 1844-1847 and
Devizes 1864-1885
1 Dec 1890 2 George William de Yarburgh-Bateson 2 Apr 1823 29 Apr 1893 70
29 Apr 1893 3 Robert Wilfrid de Yarburgh-Bateson 5 Aug 1865 1 Apr 1936 70
Lord Lieutenant E Riding Yorkshire
1924-1936
1 Apr 1936 4 George Nicholas de Yarburgh-Bateson 20 Nov 1870 4 Nov 1943 72
4 Nov 1943 5 Stephen Nicholas de Yarburgh-Bateson 18 May 1903 23 Dec 1964 61
23 Dec 1964 6 Richard Arthur de Yarburgh-Bateson 9 Apr 1911 20 Aug 2006 95
to     Peerage extinct on his death
20 Aug 2006
DE RAMSEY
8 Jul 1887 B 1 Edward Fellowes 14 May 1809 9 Aug 1887 78
Created Baron de Ramsey 8 Jul 1887
MP for Huntingdonshire 1837-1880
9 Aug 1887 2 William Henry Fellowes 16 May 1848 8 May 1925 76
MP for Huntingdonshire 1880-1885 and
Ramsey 1885-1887
8 May 1925 3 Ailwyn Fellowes 16 Mar 1910 31 Mar 1993 83
Lord Lieutenant Huntingdon 1947-1965
and Huntingdon and Peterborough
1965-1968
31 Mar 1993 4 John Ailwyn Fellowes 27 Feb 1942
DERBY
1138 E 1 Robert Ferrers 1139
Created Earl of Derby 1138
1139 2 Robert Ferrers c 1162
c 1162 3 William Ferrers 21 Oct 1190
21 Oct 1190 4 William Ferrers 22 Sep 1247
22 Sep 1247 5 William Ferrers by 1200 24 Mar 1254
24 Mar 1254 6 Robert Ferrers c 1241 c 1279
to     The peerage was forfeited 1266
1266
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
 
16 Mar 1337 E 1 Henry Plantagenet c 1299 13 Mar 1362
to     Created Earl of Derby 16 Mar 1337
13 Mar 1362 Created Duke of Lancaster (qv) 1352
Peerage extinct on his death
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
3 Sep 1385 E 1 Henry Plantagenet 30 May 1366 20 Mar 1413 46
to        Summoned to Parliament as Earl of
30 Sep 1399 Derby 3 Sep 1385
He succeeded to the throne as Henry IV
in 1399 when the peerage merged with the
Crown
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
27 Oct 1485 E 1 Thomas Stanley,2nd Lord Stanley c 1435 29 Jul 1504
Created Earl of Derby 27 Oct 1485
KG 1483
29 Jul 1504 2 Thomas Stanley by 1485 23 May 1521
23 May 1521 3 Edward Stanley c 1508 24 Oct 1572
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire 1552 and
Cheshire 1569.  KG 1547
24 Oct 1572 4 Henry Stanley Sep 1531 25 Sep 1593 62
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire and Cheshire
1572. KG 1574
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of
Acceleration as Baron Strange 23 Jan 1559
25 Sep 1593 5 Ferdinando Stanley c 1559 16 Apr 1594
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire and Cheshire
1594
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of
Acceleration as Baron Strange 28 Jan 1589
16 Apr 1594 6 William Stanley c 1561 29 Sep 1642
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire and Cheshire
1607-1642.  KG 1601
29 Sep 1642 7 James Stanley 31 Jan 1607 15 Oct 1651 44
MP for Liverpool 1625. Lord Lieutenant
Lancashire and Cheshire 1626.  KG 1650
He had previously been created Baron
Strange (qv) 7 Mar 1628
For information on his wife,see the note at
the foot of this page
15 Oct 1651 8 Charles Stanley 19 Jan 1628 21 Dec 1672 44
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire and Cheshire 1660-1672
21 Dec 1672 9 William George Richard Stanley c 1655 5 Nov 1702
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire 1676-1687, 1688-
1689 and Jun-Nov 1702,Cheshire 1676-1687 
and 1688-1702, and Anglesey June-Nov 1702
5 Nov 1702 10 James Stanley 3 Jul 1664 1 Feb 1736 71
MP for Clitheroe 1685-1689, Preston 1689-
1690 and Lancashire 1690-1702. Lord
Lieutenant Lancashire 1702-1710 and 1714-
1736. Chancellor of the Duchy of 
Lancaster 1706-1710.  PC 1706
1 Feb 1736 11 Sir Edward Stanley,5th baronet 17 Sep 1689 22 Feb 1776 86
MP for Lancashire 1727-1736. Lord
Lieutenant Lancashire 1742-1757 and 1771-
1776.
22 Feb 1776 12 Edward Smith-Stanley 12 Sep 1752 21 Oct 1834 82
MP for Lancashire 1774-1776. Lord
Lieutenant Lancashire 1776-1834.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1783
and 1806. PC 1783
21 Oct 1834 13 Edward Smith-Stanley 21 Apr 1775 30 Jun 1851 76
Created Baron Stanley of
Bickerstaffe 22 Dec 1832
MP for Preston 1796-1812 and Lancashire
1812-1832. Lord Lieutenant Lancashire
1834-1851. PC 1831  KG 1839
30 Jun 1851 14 Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley 19 Mar 1799 23 Oct 1869 70
MP for Stockbridge 1822-1826, Preston 1826-1830,
Windsor 1831-1832 and Lancashire North 1832-
1844. Chief Secretary for Ireland 1830-1833.
Secretary of State for Colonies 1833-1834
and 1841-1845. Prime Minister 1852, 1858-
1859 and 1866-1868.  PC 1830  PC [I] 1831
KG 1859
He was summoned to Parliament by Writ of
Acceleration as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe
4 Nov 1844
23 Oct 1869 15 Edward Henry Stanley 21 Jul 1826 21 Apr 1893 66
MP for Kings Lynn 1848-1869. Secretary of
State for Colonies 1858. Secretary of
State for India 1858-1859. Foreign Secretary
1866-1868 and 1874-1878. Secretary of
State for Colonies 1882-1885. PC 1858
KG 1884
21 Apr 1893 16 Frederick Arthur Stanley 15 Jan 1841 14 Jun 1908 67
Created Baron Stanley of Preston
27 Aug 1886
MP for Preston 1865-1868, Lancashire North
1868-1885 and Blackpool 1885-1886. 
Secretary of State for War 1878-1880.
Secretary of State for Colonies 1885-1886.
President of the Board of Trade 1886-1888.
Governor General of Canada 1888-1893.
PC 1878  KG 1897. Lord Lieutenant 
Lancashire 1897-1908
14 Jun 1908 17 Edward George Villiers Stanley 4 Apr 1865 4 Feb 1948 82
MP for Westhoughton 1892-1906.
Postmaster General 1903-1905. Secretary
of State for War 1916-1918 and 1922-1924
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire 1928-1948.
PC 1903  KG 1915
4 Feb 1948 18 Edward John Stanley 21 Apr 1918 28 Nov 1994 76
Lord Lieutenant Lancashire 1951-1968
For further information on the attempted murder
of this peer's wife in 1952,see the note at the
foot of this page
28 Nov 1994 19 Edward Richard William Stanley 10 Oct 1962
DE ROS
14 Dec 1264 B 1 Robert de Ros 17 May 1285
Summoned to Parliament as Lord
de Ros 14 Dec 1264
17 May 1285 2 William de Ros 1255 15 Aug 1316 61
15 Aug 1316 3 William de Ros 16 Feb 1342
16 Feb 1342 4 William de Ros 1326 1352 26
1352 5 Thomas de Ros 1338 8 Jun 1383 44
8 Jun 1383 6 John de Ros 1366 6 Aug 1393 27
6 Aug 1393 7 William de Ros 1369 1 Sep 1414 45
KG 1403
1 Sep 1414 8 John de Ros 1396 22 Mar 1421 24
22 Mar 1421 9 Thomas de Ros 1407 18 Aug 1431 24
18 Aug 1431 10 Thomas de Ros 9 Sep 1427 17 May 1464 36
to     He was attainted and the peerage forfeited
4 Nov 1461
1485 11 Edmund de Ros 1446 15 Oct 1508 62
to     He obtained a reversal of the attainder in
15 Oct 1508 1485. On his death the peerage fell into
abeyance
c 1512 12 Sir George Manners c 1470 27 Oct 1513
Abeyance terminated in his favour c 1512
27 Oct 1513 13 Thomas Manners,later [1525] 1st Earl of Rutland by 1492 20 Sep 1543
20 Sep 1543 14 Henry Manners,2nd Earl of Rutland 23 Sep 1526 17 Sep 1563 37
17 Sep 1563 15 Edward Manners,3rd Earl of Rutland 12 Jul 1548 14 Apr 1587 38
14 Apr 1587 16 Elizabeth Cecil Dec 1575 11 May 1591 15
11 May 1591 17 William Cecil 1590 27 Jun 1618 27
27 Jun 1618 18 Francis Manners,6th Earl of Rutland 1578 17 Dec 1632 54
17 Dec 1632 19 Katherine Villiers by 1663
by 1663 20 George Villiers,2nd Duke of Buckingham 30 Jan 1628 16 Apr 1687 59
to     On his death the peerage fell into abeyance
16 Apr 1687
9 May 1806 21 Charlotte Fitzgerald-de Ros 24 May 1769 9 Jan 1831 61
Abeyance terminated in her favour 1806
9 Jan 1831 22 Henry William Fitzgerald-de Ros 12 Jun 1793 29 Mar 1839 45
MP for West Looe 1816-1818
For further information on this peer,see
the note at the foot of this page
29 Mar 1839 23 William Lennox Lascelles Fitzgerald-de Ros 1 Sep 1797 5 Jan 1874 76
PC 1852
5 Jan 1874 24 Dudley Charles Fitzgerald-de Ros 11 Mar 1827 29 Apr 1907 80
KP 1902
29 Apr 1907 25 Mary Frances Dawson 31 Jul 1864 4 May 1939 74
to     On her death the peerage fell into abeyance
4 May 1939
May 1943 26 Una Mary Ross 1879 9 Oct 1956 77
to     Abeyance terminated in her favour 1943.
9 Oct 1956 On her death the peerage again fell into
abeyance
Aug 1958 27 Georgiana Angela Maxwell 2 May 1933 21 Apr 1983 49
Abeyance terminated in her favour 1958
21 Apr 1983 28 Peter Trevor Maxwell 23 Dec 1958
DERWENT
10 Oct 1881 B 1 Sir Harcourt Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone,
3rd baronet 3 Jan 1829 1 Mar 1916 87
Created Baron Derwent 10 Oct 1881
MP for Scarborough 1869-1880
1 Mar 1916 2 Francis Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone 26 May 1851 20 Apr 1929 77
20 Apr 1929 3 George Harcourt Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone 22 Oct 1899 12 Jan 1949 49
12 Jan 1949 4 Patrick Robin Gilbert Vanden-Bempde-
Johnstone 26 Oct 1901 2 Jan 1986 84
2 Jan 1986 5 Robin Evelyn Leo Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone 30 Oct 1930
DERWENTWATER
7 Mar 1688 E 1 Sir Francis Radclyffe,3rd baronet 1625 Apr 1697 71
Created Baron Tyndale,Viscount
Radclyffe and Langley and Earl of
Derwentwater 7 Mar 1688
Apr 1697 2 Edward Radclyffe 9 Dec 1655 29 Apr 1705 49
29 Apr 1705 3 James Radclyffe 28 Jun 1689 24 Feb 1716 26
to     He was beheaded for high treason and the
24 Feb 1716 peerage forfeited
For information on the attempt made by Amelia
Radcliffe, self-proclaimed Countess of 
Derwentwater, to claim the family estates, see
the note at the foot of this page
DESAI
5 Jun 1991 B[L] 1 Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai 10 Jul 1940
Created Baron Desai for life 5 Jun 1991
DESART
10 Nov 1733 B[I] 1 John Cuffe 1683 26 Jun 1749 65
Created Baron Desart 10 Nov 1733
26 Jun 1749 2 John Cuffe 16 Nov 1730 25 Nov 1767 37
25 Nov 1767 3 Otway Cuffe 1737 9 Aug 1804 67
20 Dec 1793 E [I] 1 Created Viscount Desart 6 Jan 1781
and Viscount Castle Cuffe and Earl of
Desart 20 Dec 1793
9 Aug 1804 2 John Otway Cuffe 20 Feb 1788 23 Nov 1820 32
MP for Bossiney 1808-1817
23 Nov 1820 3 John Otway O'Connor Cuffe 12 Oct 1818 1 Apr 1865 46
MP for Ipswich 1842
1 Apr 1865 4 William Ulick O'Connor Cuffe 10 Jul 1845 15 Sep 1898 53
15 Sep 1898 5 Hamilton John Agmondesham Cuffe 30 Aug 1848 4 Nov 1934 86
to     Created Baron Desart [UK] 12 May 1909
4 Nov 1934 PC 1913  KP 1919 Lord Lieutenant Kilkenny
1919-1922
Peerages extinct on his death
DE SAUMAREZ
15 Sep 1831 B 1 Sir James Saumarez,1st baronet 11 Mar 1757 9 Oct 1836 79
Created Baron de Saumarez 15 Sep 1831
9 Oct 1836 2 James Saumarez 9 Oct 1789 9 Apr 1863 73
9 Apr 1863 3 John St.Vincent Saumarez 28 May 1806 8 Jan 1891 84
8 Jan 1891 4 James St.Vincent Saumarez 17 Jul 1843 25 Apr 1937 93
25 Apr 1937 5 James St.Vincent Broke Saumarez 29 Nov 1889 16 Jan 1969 79
16 Jan 1969 6 James Victor Broke Saumarez 28 Apr 1924 20 Jan 1991 66
20 Jan 1991 7 Eric Douglas Saumarez 13 Aug 1956
William de Blaquiere, 3rd Baron de Blaquiere
Lord de Blaquiere committed suicide in November 1851. The following report on the resultant
inquest appeared in the London "Standard" of 17 November:-
'The lamentable circumstances attending the death of Lord William de Blaquiere [sic], of
Beulah Villa, Norwood, Surrey, aged 74, were on Friday investigated before W. Carter, Esq.,
coroner for West Surrey, and 14 highly respectable jurors.
'From the evidence of Caroline Brown, Mary Ann Shaw, Mr. Street (surgeon), and other 
witnesses, it appeared that the deceased gentleman had taken up his residence in the locality
of Norwood for about ten months past. During this period his charities and good offices to the
poor of the district had been in accordance with the course he has invariably pursued. His
health had for some time been very indifferent, arising from a lithotripic disease, but latterly
he had been seized with an attack of smallpox - which had evidently affected his lordship's
intellect; but this did not appear to be of a suicidal character, and consequently he was not
watched so strictly as might have been deemed necessary. 
'On Tuesday night last his lordship retired to rest at an early hour; he awoke at about four
o'clock on the following morning, and asked one of his female servants to bring him one of his
pistols, which was accordingly done. It was not then charged, but his lordship desired that
his valet, Francis Johnson, should be called, and during the absence of the female servant
it would seem that his lordship loaded the pistol with a heavy charge of powder and a large 
quantity of swan shot, and before the valet could be aroused the report of fire-arms created
the utmost alarm in the mansion, and on several of the domestics rushing to his lordship's
chamber they found him lying on the ground weltering in his blood. Immediately the services
of Mr. Street, of Norwood, surgeon, were called into requisition, but before the arrival of that
gentleman his lordship had ceased to exist.
'From a post mortem examination the noble lord, it would seem, hid discharged the pistol into
his mouth, through the roof of which the charge had passed, and several of the shots were 
found lodged in various cavities of the brain, quite sufficient to cause death. His lordship
must have been a great sufferer from disease, for a calculus of unusually large dimensions
was discovered in the bladder; and this circumstance, combined with the effects of the
disease of smallpox, had doubtless produced that nervous debility which had so impaired
his lordship's mind as to urge him to commit self-destruction.
'The noble lord was a peer of Ireland, and entered the army in 1791, in which he was actively
engaged for several years, attaining the rank of full general in 1841. His son and successor,
Lord John, a captain of the 3rd West Indies Regiment, is the possessor of the celebrated
yacht America.
'On the conclusion of the evidence, the Coroner summed up, and the Jury returned a verdict
of Temporary Insanity.'
Jack Southwell Russell, 25th Baron de Clifford
Lord de Clifford became one of the earlier victims of a car accident when he was killed in 1909,
aged only 25. The following account of the accident appeared in the London "Morning Leader"
of 1 September 1909:-
'Death, which is no respecter of persons, has claimed Lord de Clifford, head of an ancient 
family, who has lost his life in a motor car accident in Sussex.
'Lord de Clifford, who was accompanied by his chauffeur, was himself driving, when at the foot
of Small Dole Hill, on the Henfield road, between Henfield and Steyning, he was confronted
after rounding a curve in the road, by two market carts. Lord de Clifford applied the brakes with
such suddenness that the car turned a complete somersault. He was pinned under the car and
instantly killed. The chauffeur had a miraculous escape. He was flung from his seat on to the
bank beside the road, but was practically unhurt.
The spot where the accident occurred is some six miles from East Ridge, Lord de Clifford's
place at Cowfold, whither he was returning after a journey to Brighton. The road way is only 12
ft. wide, and is so winding that scarcely sixty yards of it can be seem from any one point, while
the hedges on either side are very high.
'Describing the accident, Edward Hards, aged seventy, the owner of one of the carts, said -
"Both carts were going at a slow walk. We had just come down the hill and had reached the 
flat, when a large motor car came suddenly round the corner. The car pulled up quite short.
It never touched the carts, but it turned completely over. Bridger's (the other driver's) horse
reared at the sight of the car and backed into my cart, which was upset, but I was not hurt
very much."
'Borman, the chauffeur, immediately ran for help, being powerless to shift the car or remove the
body of his master. When the car was eventually lifted away it was found that Lord de Clifford's
head had been terribly injured by one of the lamp brackets.'
Edward Southwell Russell, 26th Baron de Clifford
On 15 August 1935, a car driven by Lord de Clifford collided with another driven by Douglas
Hopkins on the Kingston by-pass. Lord de Clifford was subsequently charged with manslaughter.
At that time, a peer still had the right to be tried by 'God and his peers' in the House of Lords.
De Clifford was tried in the House of Lords on 12 December 1935 and was unanimously found
to be not guilty. For a description of the proceedings, see The Times of 13 December 1935.
The case gave rise to a number of questions in the House of Commons, especially in relation 
to the cost of such a trial and the right to trial by peers was eventually abolished by the
Criminal Justice Act 1948.
Lord de Clifford therefore became the last peer to be tried in the House of Lords. This right
was not often exercised, the previous occasion being the trial of Earl Russell for bigamy in 1901,
and, before that, the trial of the Earl of Cardigan on a charge of attempted murder (arising
from his duel with Harvey Tuckett) in 1841.
The special remainder to the Barony of de Freyne created in 1851
From the "London Gazette" of 7 March 1851 (issue 21189, page 659):-
"The Queen has been pleased to direct letters patent to be passed under the Great Seal, 
granting the dignity of a Baron of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland unto Arthur
Baron de Freyne, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, by the name, style, and
title of Baron de Freyne, of Coolavin, in the county of Sligo, with remainders, in default of
such heirs male, to his brothers, John French, Clerk, Charles French, Esq. and Fitzstephen
French, Esq. severally and successively, and to the heirs male of their bodies lawfully
begotten."
Arthur French, 4th Baron de Freyne
The 3rd Baron de Freyne was Charles French, who on 13 February 1851 married Catherine
Maree. The ceremony was performed by a Roman Catholic priest, under the rites of the Roman
Catholic Church. At that time, under the laws of Ireland, a marriage between a Protestant and
a Catholic, conducted by a Catholic priest, has held to be invalid and, as a result, the couple
were again married on 17 May 1854 in a ceremony performed under the rites of the Church of
Ireland.
When the 3rd Baron died in 1868, he left six sons. Of these sons, three had been born in the 
period between the first and second marriages - Charles, born 21 October 1851, John, born 13
March 1853, and William John, born 21 April 1854. The first son born after the second marriage
in 1854 was Arthur, who was born on 9 July 1855. 
For some years after the death of the 3rd Baron, the question remained as to who was entitled
to succeed as 4th Baron de Freyne. Eventually, it was decided that, since the 1851 marriage 
was considered to be invalid, any children born of that marriage were illegitimate. As a result,
Arthur, being the first son born after the 1854 marriage, was the oldest legitimate son of the 
late Lord, and therefore entitled to succeed as 4th Baron de Freyne. Exactly when this matter
was decided I have been unable to ascertain, but it appears to have taken quite a few years
after the death of the 3rd Baron. For example, the annual Roll of the House of Lords, which was
issued each year, shows blanks against the name of the holder of the de Freyne peerage in 
both 1875 and 1876, indicating that the matter was still undecided at that time.
The 4th Baron enjoyed the doubtful privilege of reading his own obituary in 'The Times' on
11 September 1913. On 23 September 1913, 'The Times' included a further death notice, which
stated that "Lord de Freyne, whose death was wrongly announced last Thursday week, died
yesterday morning at his residence, Frenchpark, County Roscommon, in his 59th year."
Arthur Reginald French, 5th Baron de Freyne
In early 1905, Arthur Reginald French, the eldest son of the 4th Baron de Freyne, disappeared
in New York while on his way to visit his uncle in New Mexico.
The following [abridged] report is from the 'New York Times' of 18 February 1905:-
'Arthur Reginald French, eldest son and heir of the Baron de Freyne, has strangely disappeared
in this city, and since yesterday the combined efforts of the British Consulate, the city 
detective force, and a private bureau have been directed toward finding him, so far without 
the slightest success.
'French came to this country on the Umbria of the Cunard Line on Jan. 16 last. Upon his arrival
here he went at once to the Hotel St. Denis, at Broadway and Eleventh Street, where he 
registered and a suite on the fourth floor was assigned to him. Three days later he went out 
and never returned. His luggage is still at the hotel.
'The young man was on his way to join his uncle, Captain French, who has a ranch in Cimarron,
New Mexico, and he had in his possession a draft for $1,000, which he cashed shortly before
his disappearance through a man named Clark. The police have been unable to find this man,
but the draft has been returned to the foreign bank on which it was drawn, and was in every
way straight and regular. As French had the $1,000 and expressed a desire "to do the Bowery"
when he disappeared, the police think there are grounds for the suspicion that he was foully
dealt with.'
Co-incidentally, his disappearance was solved on the same day as the above report was
published. His photograph was recognised by a sergeant at the Army recruiting office, who
informed the authorities that the man in the photograph had recently enlisted as Private
French in Company A, Eighth United States Infantry. French later explained that he had 
enlisted in the US Army because he did not have the means to support himself in the British
Army, where he had previously been a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers.
French appears to have served out his three-year enlistment period and eventually returned
to England, where he succeeded his father as 5th Baron in 1913. When war broke out in 1914,
he joined the South Wales Borderers as a captain in the 1st battalion, and was killed at the
Battle of Aubers Ridge on the Western Front on 9 May 1915. On the same day, his half-brother,
George Philip French, who was a lieutenant in the 3rd battalion of the same regiment, was also
killed in the same battle, and the two brothers were buried in the same grave.
                                   *******************************
Under the heading of "Barmaid to Baroness," the following report appeared in the "Nottingham
  Evening Post" on 30 September 1913:-
'There have just been disclosed the details of another romance in the career of the new Lord
De Freyne, who recently succeeded to the peerage. Formerly a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers,
Lord De Freyne visited New York in 1905, and while there was reported to have disappeared. For
many weeks no trace of him could be found, but eventually he was discovered at Fort Slocum, 
New Rochelle, where he had enlisted for three years as a private in the United States army.
'In the obituary notices of the late Lord De Freyne it was stated of the new peer: "He married,
in 1902, Annabel, daughter of Mr. William Angus." Behind this announcement there lies, according
to the Aberdeen Journal, "a love romance, the heroine of which is a Speyside girl, who spent
her early days in the quiet town of Rothes, went to London, and by her beauty and charm of
manner won the heart of the Hon. Arthur Reginald French, the eldest son of Lord De Freyne,
who made her his wife.
'Lady De Freyne's father and mother," says the Journal, "were of humble parentage. Her father
was the son of an hotel keeper in Aberdeenshire, and her mother the daughter of a Banffshire
crofter. There were three daughters of the marriage - Annabel being the second. Mr. Angus
died, leaving a widow with three young children. Mrs. Angus purchased the Seafield Arms Hotel,
Rothes, and went to reside in the Speyside village, where she spent the remainder of her days.
It was in the early 'eighties that the family settled in Rothes, and even as a child the future
Lady De Freyne was considered remarkably pretty.
"She was educated at the public school of the village, and was a favourite pupil of the school-
master, the late Mr. John Gordon, M.A. Not only was she a handsome and attractive girl, but she
was regarded by Mr. Gordon and by her own schoolmates as particularly clever; and when the
end of a session came - or 'hairst play,' as the annual vacation was known - she was never far
removed from the top of the class. A bright, gracious girl, she was popular with all her classmates.
She left school at an early page, and assisted her mother in the hotel. For a few years she helped
in the duties associated with the management of the hotel.
"When Lady De Freyne was 18 years of age she left the little town of Rothes for London. When 
she had been in London for a few years she was joined by her eldest sister, her other sister 
remaining with her mother, who died in 1899, and was buried in the churchyard of Rothes, where 
her grave is marked by a cross erected by her daughters. In London, where the future Lady De 
Freyne occupied a position in one of the leading hotels, she met the Hon. Arthur Reginald French,
the then Baron De Freyne's eldest son, by Lady Laura Octavia Dundas, sister of the first Marquis
of Zetland, who died in 1881. The young aristocrat became deeply attached to this charming girl, 
and he proposed to her and was accepted, the wedding taking place on November 14th, 1902, by 
special licence. The Hon. Arthur Reginald French and his beautiful young wife spent part of their 
honeymoon in the north of Scotland, visiting Aberdeen, where they lived for a short time in one 
of the principal hotels.
"Hackneyed as is the phrase 'Truth is stranger than fiction,' the romance of Lord and Lady De
Freyne certainly surpasses in interest any story written by a novelist. Lord De Freyne is an inter-
esting personality, and no less interesting is his wife. He is 34 years of age, and is the inheritor of
a well-known Irish peerage and two estates said to extend to 40,000 acres in Roscommon.
"Reference has been made to the new peer having served in the United States army. He dis-
appeared, as has been stated, while on a visit to New York. He seems to have been a young man
of spirit and independence, not afraid to encounter hardship, and with the ability to make his way
in world apart from social influence. He enlisted as a private for a period of three years, and liked
the life immensely. His salary was a United States soldier was £2 12s a month, and when found he
was greatly surprised to hear that his disappearnace had casuded a sensation as he had taken
care to inform his relatives of his whereabouts. He rose to the rank of sergeant."
To my mind, one major question arises out of this report: If, as the reader is led to believe, Lord
and Lady de Freyne were still married at the time of his succession to the barony, why on earth
had he previously proceeded to New York where he joined the US army? The statement that he
'rose to the rank of sergeant' suggests that he served out his enlistment period of three years.
Where was his wife during this time?
The special remainder to the Earldom of De Grey
From the "London Gazette" of 14 September 1816 (issue 17172, page 1767):-
"His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has been pleased, in the name and on the behalf of His
Majesty, to grant the dignity of a Countess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
unto the Right Honourable Amabell, Baroness Lucas, of Crudwell, in the County of Wilts (eldest
daughter and co-heir of Jemima the late Marchioness Grey), by the name, style, and title of
Countess de Grey, of Wrest, in the county of Bedford, and the dignity of an Earl of the said
United Kingdom to the heirs male of her body, lawfully begotten, by the name, style, and title
of Earl de Grey, of Wrest, in the said county of Bedford; and in default of such issue male, the
said dignity of Countess de Grey to the Right Honourable Mary Jemima, Dowager Baroness
Grantham (the only younger daughter and co-heir of the said Marchioness Grey); and the said
dignity of Earl de Grey to the heirs male of the body of the said Dowager Baroness Grantham
lawfully begotten."
Charles Richard Sackville-West, 6th Earl de la Warr
The following report is taken from 'The Derby Mercury' of 30 April 1873:-
'A painful feeling has been caused in aristocratic and military circles by the suicide of Earl de la
Warr. His lordship was on Monday night [i.e. 21 April] staying at the Bull Hotel, Cambridge, where
he expected the steward of his Bourne estate to visit him on the following day. His lordship rose
at seven o'clock on Tuesday morning, and after writing some letters left the house. From that 
time he was missing until Thursday morning, when his dead body was found in the [River] Cam.
In one of the letters which he wrote his lordship had expressed his intention to drown himself. 
Information was immediately given to the police, and the river dragged, but it was not until
Thursday morning that the body was found. His lordship's hat was first picked up, near the
Robinson Crusoe, Sheep's Green, and on the drags being taken to the part of the river where 
the hat was found the body was discovered………..We learn that at the inquest, Mr. Harradine,
his lordship's agent, produced the letters left addressed to him, which were as follows:- 
"Harradine - My body will be found in the river at the nearest point from the Bull Hotel, after
turning up to the left from the door. Delawarr." "Harradine - I have been the cause of the death
of Miss Ann Nethercote, who was living under my protection. I cannot survive this; indeed the
law would not allow it, so I shall be found in the river. Delawarr. Send word to Hastingfield I
shall not be there." Dr. Kirby, of Hyde Park, stated that he attended Miss Nethercote at the 
deceased's request. She was suffering from irritation of the stomach, produced by stimulants. 
There was no foundation for the supposition which the deceased seemed to entertain that she
had not had sufficient nourishment, or that he had done her any injury. She died rather 
suddenly on April 6th, and deceased seemed much distressed. The Earl's valet deposed to the
strangeness of his manner since the time, and the jury returned a verdict of temporary 
insanity.'
Lionel Charles Cranfield Sackville, styled Viscount Cantelupe, 
eldest son of the 7th Earl de la Warr
One of the most violent storms ever to hit England and Ireland struck on the night of 
7 November 1890. One of its victims was Viscount Cantelupe, eldest son and heir of the 
7th Earl de la Warr.
The following report is from 'Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper' of 16 November 1890:-
'Telegrams received from various parts of the country testify to the severity of the gale on
Thursday night. A Lloyd's telegram states that the yacht Urania was wrecked at Bangor, co.
Down. The crew were saved, but the owner was drowned. The owner proved to be Viscount
Cantelupe, eldest son of Earl de la Warr. The disaster occurred within a stone's throw of the
terrace of houses at the foot of the main street of the village of Bangor. A terrible sea was 
running. Signals of distress were sent up from the Urania, and it became evident that she was
drifting fast upon the Salt Pan rock, upon which the ship City of Lucknow was wrecked some 
years ago. The wind blew with terrific force, and the night was so dark that to launch a boat
at that moment would have been reckless folly. The Urania, therefore, drifted, with no hope
of assistance from the shore and finally, about 10 minutes past two, ran upon the rocks.
Her keel struck in a rocky cleft, and in that perilous position she remained for about two hours,
with the furious waves breaking clean over her. It was impossible for any living soul to remain
upon the storm-swept deck, and Lord Cantelupe and his men took to the rigging, in which
position they would be clear of the waves, although fully exposed to the furious biting cold
wind. The yacht, too, was beginning to fill, and it was evident that no time was to be lost. 
Lord Cantelupe went first, but just as his lordship had reached the top step, and was stooping
down, with a buoy on the arm which clasped the rigging, and the other hand extended to help
the next man, a tremendous sea struck the little craft, and the unfortunate young nobleman,
who at that moment was cheerily encouraging his men, was swept headlong into the boiling
surf, and was never seen again. Those left on board could do nothing except to throw life
buoys and other things into the sea, in the hope that the drowning man might, perchance,
seize hold of them, but these efforts were quite fruitless. Meanwhile, the people on shore had
not been idle. Captain Hanney and the gallant Coastguard men, with Mr. Arthur Hill Coates, and
several other residents of Bangor, were busily engaged preparing the rocket apparatus for
service and getting the life-lines ready. After a few ineffectual attempts the life-line was 
caught by one of the yachtsmen, and having been made secure, storm-beaten seamen were
safely hauled ashore one after the other, after three hours of very hard work for all the gallant
fellows concerned. The last man was landed at five o'clock, and a few minutes afterwards the
Urania slipped off the rocks and foundered.'
Lord Cantelupe's body was not recovered until 3 December, nearly a month after the storm,
and was identified by two watches and a pocketbook found on the body. The unfortunate
Viscount was only 22 years old and had been married for less than 5 months. 
William Herbrand Sackville, 10th Earl de la Warr
The 10th Earl committed suicide by throwing himself under a train on the London Underground
in February 1988. The following report on the subsequent inquest appeared in "The Times" of
17 March 1988:-
'The tenth Lord De La Warr killed himself when he dived under a London Underground train
after anxiety and depression brought on by the storms last October, a Westminster inquest
was told yesterday.
'The jury returned a verdict that he killed himself. Lord De La Warr, aged 66, died instantly.
The incident happened last month at St. James's Park Underground station.
'His suicide came after a board meeting and a lunch with business colleagues.
'Lord De La Warr was being treated for anxiety by his general practitioner, Dr. Trevor Hudson,
of Cadogan Place, south-west London, when the October storms wrought havoc to his
property, Ashdown Forest in East Sussex.
'Dr. Hudson said that Lord De La Warr was "considerably worse" after the storms. He had
recently offered to sell the forest to East Sussex County Council.
'The anxiety worsened when a young farmhand, Mr Daniel Thompson, of Crowborough, was
dragged into a muck-spreader and killed on his estate. The accident did not involve Lord De
La Warr in any way but he took it personally.'
William Philip Sidney VC, 6th Baron de L'Isle and Dudley and 1st Viscount de L'Isle
Sidney was a Captain and temporary Major in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World
War when he won the Victoria Cross for his actions at Anzio in Italy in February 1944. The
citation reads:-
'For superb courage and utter disregard of danger in the action near Carroceto, in the Anzio
beach-head, in February, 1944.
'The period February 6-10, 1944, was one of critical importance to the whole state of the
Anzio beach-head. The Germans attacked a British division with elements of six different
divisions and a continuous series of fierce local hand-to-hand battles was fought, each one 
of which had its immediate reaction on the position of other troops in the neighbourhood
and on the action as a whole. It was of supreme importance that every inch of ground should
be doggedly, stubbornly, and tenaciously fought for. The area Carroceto-Buonriposo Ridge
was particularly vital.
'During the night February 7-8 Major Sidney was commanding the support company of a
battalion of the Grenadier Guards, company headquarters being on the left of battalion
headquarters in a gully south-west of Carroceto Bridge. Enemy infantry who had by-passed
the forward rifle company north-west of Carroceto heavily attacked in the vicinity of Major
Sidney's company headquarters and successfully penetrated into the wadi. Major Sidney
collected the crew of a 3-inch mortar firing nearby and personally led an attack with tommy
guns and hand grenades, driving the enemy out of the gully. He then sent the detachment
back to continue their mortar firing while he and a handful of men took up a position on the
edge of the gully in order again to beat off the enemy, who were renewing their attack in
some strength. Major Sidney and his party succeeded in keeping the majority of the Germans
out, but a number reached a ditch 20 yards in front, from which they could outflank Major
Sidney's position. This officer - in full view and completely exposed - dashed forward without
hesitation to a point whence he could engage the enemy with his tommy gun at point-blank
range. As a result the enemy withdrew, leaving a number of dead.
'On returning to his former position on the edge of the gully, Major Sidney kept two guardsmen
with him and sent the remainder back for more ammunition and grenades. While they were away
the enemy vigorously renewed his attack, and a grenade struck Major Sidney in the face,
bounced off and exploded, wounding him and one guardsman and killing the second man. Major
Sidney, single-handed and wounded in the thigh, kept the enemy at bay until the ammunition
party returned five minutes later, when once more they were ejected. Satisfied that no further
attack would be made, he made his way to a cave near by to have his wound dressed, but
before this could be done the enemy attacked again. He at once returned to his post and
continued to engage the enemy for another hour, by which time the left of the battalion 
position was consolidated and the enemy was finally driven off. Only then did Major Sidney, by
that time weak from loss of blood and barely able to walk, allow his wound to be attended to.
'Throughout the next day contact with the enemy was so close that it was impossible to 
evacuate this officer until after dark. During that time, as before, although extremely weak, he
continued to act as a tonic and inspiration to all with whom he came in contact.
'Throughout the engagement Major Sidney showed a degree of efficiency, coolness, gallantry
and complete disregard for his personal safety of a most exceptional order, and there is no
doubt that as the result of his action, taken in the face of great odds, the battalion's position
was re-established with vitally far-reaching consequences on the battle as a whole.'
Later that year, Sidney was returned unopposed to the House of Commons for the constituency
of Chelsea for which he sat until he succeeded as 6th Baron de L'Isle and Dudley in June 1945.
He later became a minister in Churchill's second government of 1951-1955, Governor General of
Australia 1961-1965 and a Knight of the Garter in 1968.
William Ashley Webb Ponsonby, 3rd Baron de Mauley
Lord de Mauley disappeared on 13 April 1918 and his body was not found until a week later. The
following reports appeared in 'The Times' :-
18 April 1918 - 
'Lord de Mauley has been missing since Saturday, when he started to cycle from Brympton, near 
Yeovil, to Wantage, Berks, where his brother, Canon the Hon. Maurice Ponsonby, is vicar. The
circumstances have been reported to the Berkshire County Constabulary. His bicycle was found
on Sunday near Lambourn, and since that day the constabulary have been making close 
inquiries. He has not been seen at Wantage, nor has any message been received from him.
'It has been ascertained that a boy living in Lambourn passed a man in Pit Lane about 9.30 on
Saturday night. The stranger was standing by his bicycle, which had been laid on the grass. It
carried no light; indeed, no lamp has been traced as having been attached to the bicycle. The
boy states that the visitor asked him how far he was from Lambourn, and the boy told him. He
states that his questioner was a "tall gentleman, who spoke like a gentleman," but beyond that
he can give no description of the visitor. The bicycle was found near some woods in a thickly
wooded country.
'Lord de Mauley, who is the third baron, was born in 1843, and is unmarried. He was formerly a
lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade, and served as aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Canada.
He succeeded his father in 1896. The title was conferred on Mr. W.F. Spencer Ponsonby (son of
the third Earl of Bessborough), who married Lady Barbara Ashley-Cooper, co-heiress of the
ancient barony of Mauley, created in 1295, and abeyant since 1415.'
22 April 1918 -
'As announced in the later editions of 'The Times' on Saturday, the body of Lord de Mauley, who 
had been missing since April 13, was found on Friday evening about two miles from the spot 
where he had asked to be directed to Lambourn. He had cycled from Brympton, near Yeovil, a
distance of more than 90 miles, and it is supposed that he had lost his way and fallen from
exhaustion, after physical exertions which few men well over 70 would be prepared to attempt.
The inquest will be held to-day at Eastbridge Farm, Ramsbury.  
'Lord de Mauley is succeeded by his brother, the Rev. the Hon. Maurice John George Ponsonby,
Hon. Canon of Bristol, and vicar of Wantage, to whom he was going on a visit. The new peer
was born in 1846, and married, in 1875, the Hon. Madeleine Emily Augusta Hanbury-Tracy, 
daughter of the second Baron Sudeley, having issue Hubert William Ponsonby, born in 1878, a
lieutenant in the Yeomanry.'
23 April 1918 -
'At Eastbridge Farmhouse, situated in a lonely part of the borders of Wiltshire and Berkshire, an
inquest was held yesterday on the body of William Ashley Webb Ponsonby, third Baron de
Mauley, who disappeared on April 13 while on a bicycle ride from Yeovil to Wantage. The body
of Lord de Mauley, who was 75 years of age, was found lying face downwards last Friday
evening in a field, where it had lain undiscovered for a week, in spite of diligent search by Boy
Scouts and others.
'Canon the Hon. Maurice Ponsonby, vicar of Wantage, identified the body as that of his brother,
whom he had expected at Wantage on a visit on April 13 from Brympton, Yeovil.
'Joseph Prior, a lad of 16, said that at 10 on the night of April 13 Lord de Mauley stopped him
and inquired the distance to Lambourn. He asked the boy where his bicycle was, saying he had
placed it against some railings surrounding a pit near the spot.
'Sidney Thomas Marriner said that he found the bicycle by the roadside near the pit on Sunday
morning, April 14. The chain of the machine was off. There was no front lamp and no pump.
'''Dr. E.W. Moore, of Ramsbury, said that there were some abrasions on the face caused by a 
fall and a bruise on the knee. Death was due to heart muscle failure from exhaustion after such
a long bicycle ride at an advanced age. 
'Canon Ponsonby said that his brother very frequently took long cycle journeys.
'The jury returned a verdict that death was due to heart muscle failure caused by exhaustion
after a long bicycle ride.'
Thomas Aitchison-Denman, 2nd Baron Denman
When the 2nd Baron Denman died in 1894, a number of newspapers published articles which
described the eccentricities of the deceased peer. The following article, which appeared in the
Christchurch, New Zealand 'Star' of 29 September 1894, is typical:-
'The London papers contain many amusing anecdotes concerning the second Lord Denman, 
whose death, six or seven weeks ago, was announced here by cable. His Lordship was for years
the champion "crank" and bore of the House of Lords. His head was full of the queerest fads 
and follies and conceits. When he rose to speak every noble lord with one accord began to 
gossip to his neighbour. It proved, after many experiments, to be the only way to abate an 
intolerable nuisance. Lord Denman frequently told his brother peers they were no gentlemen. At 
one prorogation he threw over all traces of self-control, and, shaking his stick in the face of her
Majesty's Ministers, offered at his advanced age - he was then eighty-six - to fight a duel to 
the death with anyone who would take up his challenge. One night after a painful scene in the
House, which culminated in Lord Salisbury moving that "Lord Denman be not heard" the latter 
dined at the annual banquet of a Church of England corporation. The committee had not put 
him down to propose a toast, and the old gentleman was very angry. "I am stone deaf," he 
wheezed, "and nearly blind, and now they want to make me dumb, and I won’t have it." The 
committee, not knowing what he might or might not do, gave way at once and begged him to 
undertake [the toast to] "The Bishops and Clergy." Lord Denman began with a frightful blunder.
He asked an audience composed entirely of very orthodox Anglicans to drink to "the clergy of all
denominations." A storm of "Noes" and "Oh's" greeted the invitation, but the venerable peer
(deaf as a post) paid no sort of attention to the protests, and went stolidly on. Fortunately the
commotion subsided in time for the company to enjoy to the full his Lordship's definition of the
clergy as "a fine body of men, and surprisingly prolific."
The special remainder to the Barony of Deramore
From the "London Gazette" of 17 November 1885 (issue 25530, page 5243):-
"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 unto Sir Thomas Bateson, Bart., and the heirs amle of his body lawfully begotten, by
the name, style, and title of Baron Deramore, of Belvoir, in the county of Down, with remainder,
in default of such issue male, to George William Bateson-de-Yarburgh, Esq. (brother of the said
Sir Thomas Bateson), and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten."
Charlotte, Countess of Derby, wife of the 7th Earl of Derby (Dec 1599-21 March 1664)
The Countess of Derby is famous in English history for her spirited defence of her home, Lathom
House, during the English Civil War. The following account of her actions appeared in the
Australian monthly magazine "Parade" in its issue for December 1968:-
'At dawn on April 26, 1644, Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby, mustered her little garrison
of 300 men for their daily parade in the courtyard of her husband's ancestral home in
Lancashire. Around them the ancient walls and towers of Lathom House were steadily crumbling
into rubble under the cannon fire of the besieging Parliamentary Army. Deaths from wounds and
sickness were remorselessly sapping the defenders' strength. Already stores of food and 
ammunition had fallen perilously low.
 
'One of the last royalist strongholds in the north of England, Lathom House was still defiantly 
holding out after two months of ceaseless battering. Clad in man's clothes, wearing a huge 
plumed hat and with a sword by her side, the Countess surveyed the little band that was proud
to recognise her as its "captain general." This was a day of decision. Nearly half the garrison 
was to be launched in a desperate sortie against the main battery of the Parliamentary guns.
If the assault failed Lathom House was doomed. If it succeeded the defenders might yet hang
on until Prince Rupert's royalists fought their way to the scene. Inspired by the blazing courage
of their mistress the attackers swept all before them. Within an hour they had blown up, spiked
or captured every gun in the deadly battery. Lathom House was saved. And its 88-day siege
under the amazonian Countess of Derby was to go down in history as one of the most dramatic
incidents in the civil war between King and Parliament.
'Ironically, the romantic heroine of the cause of Charles I was not even an Englishwoman, but a
foreigner who cared nothing for the intricacies of British politics. She was born Charlotte de la
Tremoille in December 1599, daughter of the Duc de Thouars, one of the grandest of the French
Huguenot nobility. From a high-spirited girl she grew into a beautiful and imperious woman - so
imperious that she was reputed to frighten off every potential suitor. Charlotte was 26, almost
an old maid by the conventions of the times, when she and her mother went to London, in the
train of the French Princess Henriette, who was to wed King Charles I. At the court she met the
youthful James Stanley, Lord Strange, and within a few months a marriage had been arranged 
between them. 
'It seemed an ill-assorted match. Stanley was seven years younger than his bride. And he was
a shy, stolid youth who cared for little but farming, fox hunting and book collecting. He was,
however, also heir to the Earldom of Derby, and to vast estates in the north of England that
made the Thouars' possessions insignificant by comparison.
 
'The wedding was celebrated at The Hague in February 1626, and Charlotte confounded the
sceptics by settling down quietly with her "dull dog of a husband" for the next 16 years. Living
in the magnificent Stanley houses of Knowsley and Lathom in Lancashire, she bore nine children
and made few and fleeting appearances at the royal court in London. Then in 1642 came the 
war that was to transform Charlotte from the wife of a quiet country magnate into the national
heroine of the Cavalier cause. 
'As soon as the struggle between King Charles and Parliament became inevitable James Stanley,
now Earl of Derby, set about raising a royalist army in the north of England. But - despite his
efforts and the dashing generalship of the King's kinsman, Prince Rupert - most of Lancashire 
and the Midlands fell steadily into Parliamentary hands. By the end of 1643 one of the last 
royalist strongholds in Lancashire was the rambling, moated and strong-walled Stanley mansion 
of Lathom House. Derby himself was campaigning with Prince Rupert. Living at Lathom were the
Countess, her young family and a motley assortment of 50 retainers.
 
'When the Parliamentary General Fairfax occupied the nearby town of Bolton in February 1644 
he confidently supposed that Lathom would yield without a blow. Instead, the envoy sent to 
receive the submission of the Countess of Derby returned with astonishing news. In a passion-
ate outburst of broken English the Countess had sworn that, if God willed it, she would "see the
bright house of Lathom laid in ashes" before she handed it over to the King's enemies. Further-
more, the mansion was now defended by more than 300 well-armed royalist soldiers whom the
Countess had persuaded to form the garrison. At least 40 small guns had been planted on the
walls, including some deadly, chain-shot-firing "murderers" to rake the approaches to the house.
 
'Despite this array Fairfax was still convinced that the siege would be brief when on February
28, he sent three regiments of his army to surround Lathom House. Another surrender demand
was peremptorily rejected by the Countess. Next day the besiegers began digging a series of
trenches towards the moat and digging gun emplacements. Charlotte had six army captains in
her little force, but she quickly made it clear that she was the commander and her word was
law. Each morning at dawn she reviewed the garrison. Day and night, clad in masculine garb,
she went round the walls in full view of the Parliamentary gunners and musketeers.
 
'A week after the siege began the defenders made their first sortie, 100 men dashing across the
lowered drawbridge and falling on the enemy working in the trenches. They killed 30 in a fierce
flurry of hand-to-hand conflict before retreating into Lathom House carrying a dozen of their 
own dead or wounded with them. Day after day the duel continued, the besiegers steadily
bringing up guns and closing the ring of trenches while the garrison made desperate sallies to
beat them off. 
'By March 20 Parliamentary cannon were battering the walls with shot weighing 24lb. and even
the solid medieval battlements of Lathom began to crumble. One ball crashed through the 
window of the Countess's bedroom and embedded itself in the wall, but she still indomitably 
refused to quit her usual apartments. With the opening of April the situation of the garrison was
reaching a crisis though the Countess angrily refused even to consider the question of 
surrender. Furious sorties continued to spread death and panic among the besiegers. But every
week saw more and heavier guns planted in the earthworks surrounding Lathom House. On 
April 9 one early morning assault reached the second line of the Parliamentary trenches and left
more than 50 dead before the royalists were forced to retreat.
 
'But the garrison was weakening. Sickness added to the toll of battle losses and it was evident
that hunger might break down the resistance that had defied the might of Fairfax's army. 
Throughout April a succession of messengers tried to slip through the besieging ring and carry
appeals to Prince Rupert who was known to be moving towards Lancashire. Meanwhile, on April
26 the Countess ordered the greatest sortie and 140 men burst out of the postern gate, 
crossed the moat and stormed into the Parliamentary lines. For an hour the conflict raged 
bitterly and bloodily before the royalists fell back in triumph, dragging several of the heaviest
guns and leaving the wreckage of the others behind.
 
'After that the siege languished. Fairfax departed, leaving operations to his subordinates, none
of whom dared launch a direct assault on "the tigress of Lancashire." Famine and lack of
ammunition were now the main threats to the garrison. Then, at last, on May 23, a messenger
reached the house with the long-awaited news. Prince Rupert and the Earl of Derby had 
entered Lancashire, had swept the enemy out of their path and were advancing fast on Lathom
House. Three days later the Parliamentary forces broke up their camp and retreated to Bolton.
The epic 88-day siege was over and on May 30 Rupert hoisted the King's banner over the
battered walls of Lathom.
 
'The Countess of Derby, however, still had another colourful part to play in the last stages of 
the drama of the civil war. Rupert's victories in Lancashire were soon followed by the crushing
disaster on Marston Moor, where Cromwell's genius finally destroyed royalist hopes in the north.
After the debacle Derby fled with his wife and family to the stronghold of Rushen Castle on the
Isle of Man, from which the Stanleys had ruled the island as virtually independent princes for
generations. Here, during King Charles's downfall and execution, Derby and his Countess
continued. to shelter royalist refugees and defy every demand for surrender.
'The end came in 1651 when Derby rashly returned to Lancashire to join the young Charles II in
his abortive attempt to invade England from Scotland. Charles fled back to Europe. Derby was
captured and beheaded as a traitor. And once more his Countess was besieged, this time in 
Rushen Castle. For years the Manxmen had been restive under the dictatorship of the Stanleys
and now their leader, "Brown­haired Willie" Christian [Illiam Dhône or Illiam Dhôan (14 April 1608-
2 January 1663], saw his chance. When a Parliamentary army landed on the island and besieged
Rushen in October 1651, Christian saw to it that scarcely a single Manxman lifted a hand to help
the Countess. 
 
'On November 2 the embittered Charlotte was forced to open her gates to the enemy - having
achieved the distinction of being the last royalist commander to surrender in the civil war. 
Despite her inveterate hatred of Parliament she was treated generously and allowed to live as 
freely and luxuriously as ever at Knowsley in Lancashire throughout Cromwell's regime. She
survived to rejoice in the return of Charles II to his throne, to hear that the treacherous 
"Brown-haired Willie" had been executed, and to become a living legend in Restoration England.
When the stout-hearted Frenchwoman died at Knowsley on March 21, 1664, the Cavaliers 
mourned her as "a monument of feminine virtues and patriotism."
Isabel, Countess of Derby (18 Oct 1920-Mar 1990), wife of the 18th Earl of Derby
Isabel Milles-Lade, sister of the 4th Earl of Sondes, married the 18th Earl of Derby in 1948. The
marriage was celebrated in Westminster Abbey, and was attended by King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, and other members of the Royal Family.
On 9 October 1952, at the family seat at Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool, a young footman in the
employ of Lord and Lady Derby went berserk, fatally shooting the butler and the assistant butler
and wounding Lady Derby and a valet. After he had fled the scene, the footman, 19-year-old
Harold Winstanley, was arrested in a telephone box in Liverpool, still in possession of the gun.
The following edited report of Winstanley's subsequent trial appeared in 'The Times' on 17 
December 1952:-
'A plea of insanity was successfully put forward by the defence at the trial at the Assizes at
Manchester yesterday, of Harold Winstanley, aged 19, a footman in training at Knowsley Hall,
near Liverpool, the seat of Lord and Lady Derby. He was found Guilty but insane of the murder 
of Lord Derby's butler, Walter Stallard, aged 40, at Knowsley Hall on October 9, and Mr. Justice
Jones ordered him to be kept in custody as a Broadmoor patient until her Majesty's pleasure be
known. The jury reached their verdict without retiring.
'When Winstanley was committed for trial by the Prescot magistrates on November 6, he was
also charged with murdering Douglas Stuart, aged 29, under-butler, who was killed in the
shooting at the hall in which Lady Derby was injured. That indictment was ordered to remain
on the file of the court.
'Outlining the case for the Crown, Mr. Nelson said that one of the necessary ingredients of
murder was that the person alleged to have committed the crime should be of sound mind and
understanding. He had the authority of the defence to say that one of the issues the jury 
would have to consider was how far the accused man was, at the time the prosecution said he 
committed the acts, of sound understanding.
'Counsel thought he would establish beyond doubt that Winstanley shot Walter Stallard with an
automatic weapon. If so he was entitled to say that in law every man was deemed to be sane
and responsible for his actions until the contrary was proved. Therefore no attempt would be
made by the prosecution to do other than to prove that he shot Walter Stallard. If there was
any question as to his mental capacity or mental state at the time when the offence was
committed - in other words, if he were guilty but insane - that was a matter which must be 
proved to their satisfaction by the defence.
'Counsel then placed before the jury a plan of Knowsley Hall, the residence of Lord and Lady 
Derby, so that they could follow some of the events which took place at the hall on the night
of October 9.  Winstanley had been a "trainee" footman at Knowsley Hall for 10 months. There
was no evidence that there was any ill-feeling between any members of the staff, but rather
they were all on exceedingly happy terms. The same could be said of the relations between the
staff and Lord and Lady Derby. Therefore the prosecution had been unable to find and could
not offer any motive in explanation for the events.
'Winstanley had no animus against any of the persons who were concerned. He had told a
housemaid that he had a gun, and he showed it to her. He asked her not to tell anyone because
he would get into trouble for having no licence. The staff had their supper about 7 p.m. and
everybody was in the happiest of moods.
'The scene inside the smoke-room said counsel would be spoken of by Lady derby herself. She
was the only one who had first-hand knowledge of what took place.
'Lady Derby then went into the witness-box. She said she was dining alone in the smoke-room
and watching the television when she heard the door click. She saw Winstanley with a cigarette
in his mouth and that aroused her suspicions. He told her to get up and turn round, and seeing
he had a gun in his hand she did so. Then he shot her and she fell and felt a lot of blood on her
head. She lay still and could not see Winstanley, but realized somebody was still in the room.
After an interval she heard a burst of fire and the fall, apparently of a body. After a further
burst of firing she heard the fall of another body. The next thing she remembered was being
attended by her maid. She had been shot in the back of the neck.
'[Following lengthy medical evidence given by the principal medical officer of Walton Gaol in
Liverpool] witness formed the very definite opinion that he [Winstanley] suffered from grave
and advancing disease of the mind in the nature of schizophrenia and also gross hysteria. At
the material time of the shooting he was suffering from a defect of reason due to those 
diseases of the mind, and even if he did know what he was doing at the material time, he was
prevented by that defect from knowing the nature and quality of his act.
'Summing up, the Judge said that the doctor's opinion, that at the time Winstanley committed
this murder he was insane, was unchallenged.'
Henry William Fitzgerald-de Ros, 22nd Baron de Ros
In February 1837, a sensational trial was held as a result of allegations that Lord de Ros had
cheated at cards. He sued his accuser for libel, but with disastrous results for his reputation.
The following report of the case appeared in 'Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and
Cornish Advertiser' on 23 February 1837:-
 
'It is with a feeling of sincere regret, that, in the exercise of our duty as public journalists, we 
feel ourselves this week compelled to notice the result of a trial in the King's Bench, brought
by Lord de Ros, the Premier Baron of England, against a gentleman of fortune, named Cumming,
one of the members of the committee of Graham's Club, charging him with having published, in
the shape of a letter, a false and malicious libel, accusing him (Lord de Ros) with having been
guilty of cheating at cards, both at Graham's Club and elsewhere.
'The newspapers have for some months past, from time to time, contained various paragraphs
referring to this disagreeable occurrence; but we felt it incumbent upon us to refrain from 
taking the slightest notice of the affair until the circumstances should be fully and fairly
investigated in a Court of Justice. 
'On the occasion in question, the Court was crowded with members of the fashionable world,
and a vast body of evidence was produced, the substance of which may be thus stated:- 
'About the end of 1835, or the beginning of 1836, Lord de Ros, who had been some time
suspected, played at whist in a public room at Brighton with Mr. Higgins, Major Fancourt, and
another, when it was affirmed that Mr. Higgins, who had some suspicion of the fact, observed
that whenever the deal came to his Lordship's turn, and after the cut had been made, he (Lord
de Ros) was seized with what Sir Wm. Ingilby termed "a King cough." which apparently 
compelled him to lower his hands beneath the table, when Mr. Higgins saw some shuffling of the
cards take place, called the sauter la coupe, slipping the card, or reversing the cut, the result
invariably being, that aces and kings which had been at the bottom of the pack previous to the
cut, and ought by the cut to have been placed in the middle of the pack, were removed to 
their former position at the lower end, and turned up as trump cards. At the conclusion of the 
play, the cards were examined, when it was discovered that most of the aces and kings had
been marked in the corner by the impression of the thumb-nail, which caused an indentation
on one side, and a trifling but distinguishable ridge upon the other. His Lordship had won upon
that occasion; and a Mr. Holles, who had bet with Major Fancourt, and won on his Lordship's
play, on being informed of the discovery that had been made, refused to accept his winnings
from the Major. As might be expected, the disagreeable affair formed the subject of
conversation, and his Lordship's conduct was strictly watched. On the 13th, 15th and 16th
of the following February, Lord de Ros played at Graham's Club, after which the cards were
examined, and found to be marked in a precisely similar manner with those at Brighton. It was
subsequently ascertained that cards with which his Lordship had played at the Traveller's 
Club were also similarly marked. The result was, an anonymous letter to his Lordship, who
afterwards for some short period abstained from his usual practices. At length, however, these
practices were resumed, when an explosion took place, the thing became notorious, the
circumstance was loudly proclaimed while Lord de Ros was in the room, at Graham's early on 
the morning of July 2, by a Mr. Payne, a gentleman of Northamptonshire, who exclaimed. "This
is too bad; the cards are marked." Lord de Ros then finally withdrew from the Club, the affair
got into the newspapers, actions for libel were threatened - protestations of innocence 
uttered - and the conduct to the persons who had made the discovery, and who appear to 
have acted with much forbearance, was impeached - when Mr. Cumming, having previously
written several times on the subject, wrote a letter, on the 2nd of last December, to his 
Lordship, in which he accused him of cheating, and offered to prove the charge. It was this
letter which formed the subject of the present action.
'On behalf of the Noble Prosecutor [here follows a lengthy list of names] were examined. The
object of their evidence was to prove that his Lordship was an excellent whist player; that they
had not the slightest suspicion of unfair play; that his winnings were not to an extraordinary
amount; and that he had an infirmity in his joints which might give to his manner of dealing an
appearance of awkwardness. 
'For the defence, and to substantiate the charges brought against his Lordship [another long
list of names] were examined, several of whom deposed to the singular manner of dealing the
cards adopted by Lord de Ros, (Sir William Ingilby positively swore that he had seen Lord de Ros 
perform the trick of slipping the card, or sauter la coupe, at least fifty times), and almost the
whole of them deposed to the fact of the cards being marked on those occasions when his
Lordship formed one of the party at the whist table. In addition to the above, the marked cards
were produced and laid before the Court. One witness admitted that he was £35,000, and
another £10,000, the better for card-playing.
'The evidence having been gone through, and the speeches of counsel concluded, Lord Denman
summed up the case with his accustomed talent and impartiality - after which, the jury
deliberated about a quarter of an hour, when they returned a verdict for the defendant - thus
fixing on the Noble plaintiff the disgraceful charges from which it was the object of the present
action to exonerate him. The glimpse of fashionable life afforded during the progress of this long 
and interesting trial presents a far from favourable specimen of the mode in which a part, at
least of the beau monde avail themselves of that portion of time placed their disposal. Instead
of devoting this, one of the most valuable gifts of the Almighty, to purposes of mental
improvement or harmless recreation, we find their days and nights devoted to the unintellectual
and soul-debasing vice of gambling, than which there cannot be a pursuit more directly 
calculated to steel the heart against those feelings of kindness and benevolence which form the
finest traits in the human character - and which, if inordinately indulged, has a tendency to 
lead, as in the melancholy instance before us, to practices which have branded with indelible
disgrace the possessor of one of the oldest titles of honour in the kingdom, and will serve to
cast a shade even upon the noble order of which Lord de Ros was but recently considered the
ornament and pride.'
In her "Recollections" the Countess of Cardigan, widow of the 7th Earl of Cardigan who had led
the Charge of the Light Brigade, said that, on the death of Lord de Ros, the following epitaph
was suggested for him:-
                 Here lies
               Lord de Ros
               Waiting for
            The Last Trump
Charles Radclyffe, titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater
Radclyffe appeared to suffer from a disorder known as 'gamomania', which is defined as
an obsessive desire to make bizarre marriage proposals. He set his sights on Charlotte Maria
Livingston, Countess of Newburgh in her own right. She had previously, in 1713, married
Thomas Clifford, heir to the barony of Clifford of Chudleigh, but he died in February 1719.
Radclyffe is reputed to have made fifteen marriage proposals to Charlotte, who eventually
became so angry at his constant harassment of her that she locked herself up in her house
and gave orders to her servants that if Radclyffe was sighted on her property, he was to be
thrown out at once. Nothing daunted, however, Radclyffe finally gained entrance to her
house by scaling the walls onto the roof, from where he lowered himself down a chimney
into her drawing-room. There, black with soot from head to toe, he made his sixteenth and
last marriage proposal. This time his persistence was rewarded, and the two were married on
24 June 1724. For Radclyffe's later career, see the note below.
Amelia Radcliffe, self-proclaimed Countess of Derwentwater
The 3rd Earl of Derwentwater was a supporter of the Old Pretender in the Jacobite rebellion of
1715. He was made a prisoner after the defeat of the Jacobite army at Preston, and was sent
to the Tower of London. Having been found guilty of high treason, he was beheaded on Tower
Hill on 24 February 1716, and his peerages attainted and forfeited.
Notwithstanding the forfeiture of the peerages, the title was assumed by his son, John 
Radclyffe, titular 4th Earl of Derwentwater. John inherited the vast family estates, which were
not affected by the forfeiture of the peerages, since the estates were entailed. John died, aged
19, on 31 December 1731. His uncle, and heir male, then inherited the estates and assumed the
title of the 5th Earl of Derwentwater. He also had taken part in the 1715 rebellion and had been
taken prisoner and convicted of high treason. Before he could be executed, however, he 
escaped from Newgate Prison and fled to the Continent. When the 1745 rebellion broke out, he
embarked for Scotland, but his ship being captured, he was returned to the Tower of London.
He was there condemned to death on the basis of the sentence he had received 30 years
before, and was executed by being beheaded (a fate usually reserved for peers, even though
he was not legally a peer following the forfeiture of the titles in 1715) on 8 December 1746.
The right to the title of the Earl of Derwentwater (save for the attainder) then passed to his 
son, James Bartholomew Radclyffe, who subsequently inherited the Earldom of Newburgh (qv) 
from his mother in 1755. The titular 6th Earl died 2 January 1786, He, in turn, was succeeded
by his son, Anthony James Radclyffe, the titular 7th Earl of Derwentwater. When he died 29
November 1814, the male line of the 1st Earl came to an end, and the Earldom, titular or
otherwise, became extinct.
In a note in 'The Complete Peerage,' it is stated that "In 1865 there appeared at Blaydon in
the Tyne Valley a remarkable character stating herself to be Amelia Mary Tudor Radcliffe, suo
jure Countess of Derwentwater, then aged 35. According to her story, John, the [titular] 4th
Earl did not die a young man and unmarried in 1731 but fled to Germany and there married in
1740, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, the Countess of Waldstein. Of their eleven children all died
young but two, viz., (V) James, the [titular] 5th Earl, who succeeded his father, but who
d.s.p. [died without issue] and (VI) John James, the [titular] 6th Earl, who married, 4 June
1813, the Princess Sobieski. Of their six children, the eldest was the 7th and last [titular] 
Earl who died unmarried in 1854, leaving his property to his only surviving sister, Amelia, the
(soi-disant) [i.e. self-proclaimed] suo jure Countess abovenamed. On 29 September 1868,
this Lady effected a lodgement in Dilston Castle claiming it and some 4 other estates in the
Barony as her own inheritance. From this she was ejected in two days but she continued
encamped, close by, some 40 days longer. In 1870, on refusal of a tenant to pay his rent to
her, she caused his stock to be distrained and sold, for which acts all who were concerned
therein were  found guilty while 'The Countess' was adjudicated a bankrupt, 24 March 1871.
From 25 Nov 1872 till July 1873 she was in Newcastle Gaol for contempt of court. In 1874 she
made a raid on the Whittonstall estates and was mulcted in heavy damages accordingly……..
In March 1870 and again in May 1871 her 'heirlooms' had been sold at Newcastle……The result
of this last auction (one of two days) was £275, though the effects were valued by 'the
Countess' herself at £200,000!"
                                               ********************
The following account of the claim is taken from an anonymously written book titled "Celebrated
Claimants Ancient and Modern" published by Chatto and Windus, London, 1873.
'The unhappy fate of James, the last Earl of Derwentwater, has been so often recounted, both
in prose and verse, that it is almost unneccessary to repeat the story; but lest any difficulty
should be found in understanding the grounds on which the so-called countess now bases her
pretensions, the following short summary may be found useful:--
'James Radcliffe, the third and last Earl of Derwentwater, suffered death on Tower Hill, in the
prime of his youth, for his devotion to the cause of the pretender. He is described as having 
been brave, chivalrous, and generous; his name has been handed down from generation to
generation as that of a martyr; and his memory even yet remains green among the descendants
of those amongst whom he used to dwell, and to whom he was at once patron and friend.
 
'When he was twenty-three years of age he espoused Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Sir John
Webb of Cauford, in the county of Dorset, and had by her an only son, the Hon. John Radcliffe,
and a daughter, who afterwards married the eighth Lord Petre. By the articles at this time
entered into, the baronet agreed to give his daughter £12,000 as her portion; while the earl,
on his part, promised £1000 jointure rent charge to the lady, to which £100-a-year was added  
£100-a-year was added on the death of either of her parents, and an allowance of £300 a-year
was also granted as pin-money. The earl's estates were to be charged with £12,000 for the
portions of daughter or daughters, or with £20,000 in the event of there being no male issue;
while by the same settlement his lordship took an estate for life in the family property, which 
was thereby entailed upon his first and other sons, with remainder, and after the determination
of his or their estate to his brother, Charles Radcliffe, for life; on his first or other sons the
estates were in like manner entailed.
'If the Earl of Derwentwater had been poor his Jacobite proclivities might have been overlooked,
but he was very rich, and his head fell. Moreover, after his decapitation on Tower Hill the whole
of his immense property was confiscated, and given by the crown to the Commissioners of
Greenwich Hospital. The commissioners of to-day assert that the property became the property
of the representatives of the hospital absolutely. On the other hand, it is contended that, by
the Act of Attainder, the property of forfeiting persons was vested in the crown only, according
to their estate, rights, and interest, and that the earl, having only an estate for life in his
property, could forfeit no greater interest. 
'His only son, although he lost his title of nobility by the attainder of his father, was, by solemn
adjudication of law, admitted tenant in tail of all the settled estates, and the fortune of the 
earl's daughter was, moreover, raised and paid thereout. The earl's son was in possession of
the estates during sixteen years; and, had he lived to attain twenty-one, he might have
effectually dealt with them, so that they could not at any future time have been affected by 
the attainder of his father, or of his uncle Charles Radcliffe. At least so say the supporters of
the self-styled countess.
'Upon the death of the martyr-earl's son, in 1791, and presumably without issue, the life estate 
of Charles Radcliffe commenced, but it vested in the crown by reason of the attainder. Not so,
however, the estate in tail of the eldest son, James Bartholomew [Radcliffe]. This boy was born
at Vincennes, on the 23d of August, 1725; but by a statute passed in the reign of Queen Anne,
he had all the rights of a subject born in the United Kingdom; and, among others, of course, had
the right to succeed to any property to which he might be legally entitled. But the government
perceived the fix in which they were placed, and immediately on the death of the son of the 
earl, and when James Bartholomew was an infant of the age of five years, they hurried an Act
through Parliament which declared that nothing contained in the dictatory law of Queen Anne
gave the privilege of a natural born subject to any child, born or to be born abroad, whose 
father at the time of his or her birth either stood attainted of high treason, or was in the actual
service of a foreign state in enmity to the crown of Great Britain. This excluded the boy, and 
the government began to grant leases of the estates which would otherwise have fallen to him.
 
'And now we begin to plunge into mystery. It is asserted that the reported death of John 
Radcliffe, son of the last earl, was merely a scheme on the part of his friends to protect him
against his Hanoverian enemies who sought his life. Some say that he died at the age of 
nineteen, at the house of his maternal grandfather, Sir John Webb, in Great Marlborough Street,
on the 31st of December, 1731. Others maintain that he was thrown from his horse, and killed,
during his residence in France. But the most recent statement is that his interment was a sham,
and was part of a well-devised plan for facilitating his escape from France to Germany during 
the prevalence of rumoured attempts to restore the Stuarts, and that, after marrying the 
Countess of Waldsteine-Waters, he lived, bearing her name, to the age of eighty-six.
 
'By this reputed marriage it is said that he had a son, who was called John James Anthony
Radcliffe, and who, in his turn, espoused a descendant of John Sobieski of Poland. To them a
daughter was born, and was named Amelia. Her first appearance at the home of her supposed
ancestors was very peculiar; and the report of her proceedings, which appeared in the Hexham
Courant, of the 29th of September, 1868, was immediately transferred into the London daily
daily papers, and was quoted from them by almost the entire provincial press. The following is
the account of the local journal, which excited considerable amusement, but roused very little
faith when it was first made public:--
     "This morning great excitement was occasioned in the neighbourhood of Dilston by the
     appearance of Amelia, Countess of Derwentwater, with a retinue of servants, at the old
     old baronial castle of her ancestors--Dilston Old Castle--and at once taking possession of
     the old ruin. Her ladyship, who is a fine-looking elderly lady, was dressed in an Austrian
     military uniform, and wore a sword by her side in the most approved fashion. She was 
     accompanied as we have said, by several retainers, who were not long in unloading the 
     waggon-load of furniture which they had brought with them, and quickly deposited the 
     various goods and chattels in the old castle, the rooms of which, as most of our readers are
     aware, are without roofs; but a plentiful supply of stout tarpaulings, which are provided for 
     the purpose, will soon make the apartments habitable, if not quite so comfortable as those 
     which the countess has just left. In the course of the morning her ladyship was visited by
     Mr. C.J. Grey, the receiver to the Greenwich Hospital estates, who informed her she was
     trespassing upon the property of the commissioners, and that he would be obliged to report
     the circumstance to their lordships. Her ladyship received Mr. Grey with great courtesy, and 
     informed that gentleman she was acting under the advice of her legal advisers, and that she
     was quite prepared to defend the legality of her proceedings. The sides of the principal room
     room have already been hung with the Derwentwater family pictures, to some of which the 
     countess bears a marked resemblance, and the old baronial flag of the unfortunate family
     already floats proudly from the summit of the fine, though old and dilapidated tower."
 
'This is a bald newspaper account; but the lady herself is an experienced correspondent, and
in one of her letters, which she has published in a gorgeously emblazoned volume, thus gives
her version of the affair in her own vigorous way:--
 
                                                        "DEVILSTONE CASTLE, 29_th September, 1868.
     "Here I am, my dear friend, at my own house, my roofless home; and my first scrawl from
     here is to the vicarage. You will be sorry to hear that the Lords of Her Majesty's Council
     have defied all equitable terms in my eleven years' suffering case. My counsel and myself
     have only received impertinent replies from under officials. Had my lords met
     my case like gentlemen and statesmen, I should not have been driven to the course I 
     intend to pursue.
     "I left the Terrace very early this morning, and at half-past seven o'clock I arrived at the
     carriage-road of Dilstone Castle. I stood, and before me lay stretched the ruins of my
     grandfather's baronial castle; my heart beat more quickly as I approached. I am attended
     by my two faithful retainers, Michael and Andrew. Mr. Samuel Aiston conveyed a few
     needful things; the gentle and docile pony trotted on until I reached the level top of the
     carriage-road, and then we stopped. I dismounted and opened the gate and my squires to
     follow, and, in front of the old flag tower, I cut with a spade three square feet of green sod
     into a barrier for my feet, in the once happy nursery--the mother's joyful upstairs parlour--
     the only room now standing, and quite roofless. I found not a voice to cheer me, nothing
     but naked plasterless walls; a hearth with no frame of iron; the little chapel which contains
     the sacred tombs of the silent dead, and the dishonoured ashes of my grandsires. 
     "All here is in a death-like repose, no living thing save a few innocent pigeons, half-wild; but
     there has been a tremendous confusion, a wild and wilful uproar of rending, and a crash of
     headlong havoc, every angle is surrounded with desolation, and the whole is a monument of
     state vengeance and destruction. But here is the land--the home of my fathers--which I
     have been robbed of; this is a piece of the castle, and the room in which they lived, and
     talked and walked, and smiled, and were cradled and watched with tender affection. You
     never saw this old tower nearer than from the road; the walls of it are three feet or more in
     some parts thick, and of rough stone inside. The floor of this room where I am writing this
     scrawl is verdure, and damp with the moisture from heaven. It has not even beams left for
     a ceiling, and the stairs up to it are scarcely passable; but I am truly thankful that all the 
     little articles I brought are now up in this room, and no accident to my men.
 
     "Radcliffe's flag is once more raised! and the portraits of my grandfather and great-
     grandfather are here, back again to Devilstone Castle (alias Dilstone) and hung on each
     side of this roofless room, where both their voices once sounded. Oh! As I gaze calmly on
     these mute warders on the walls, I cannot paint you my feelings of the sense of injustice
     and wrong, a refining, a resenting sorrow--my heart bleeds at the thought of the cruel axe,
     and I am punished for its laws that no longer exist. I pray not to be horror-stricken at the 
     thoughts of the past ambition and power of princes who cast destruction over our house, 
     and made us spectacles of barbarity. But, nevertheless, many great and Christian men the 
     Lord hath raised out of the house of Radcliffe, who have passed away; and now, oh! Father 
     of Heaven! How wonderfully hast Thou spared the remnant of my house, a defenceless 
     orphan, to whom no way is open but to Thy Fatherly heart. Now Thou hast brought me
     here, what still awaits me? 'Leave Thou me not; let me never forget Thee. Thou hast girded
     me with strength into the battle. I will not therefore fear what man can do unto me.'
     "These are my thoughts and resolutions. But I am struggling with the associations of this
     lone, lone hearth--with no fire, no father, no mother, sister or brother left--the whole is
     heartrending. I quit you now, my kind friends; I am blind with tears, but this is womanly
     weakness.
     "Twelve o'clock the same day. My tears of excitement have yielded to counter-excitement.
     I have just had an intrusive visitor, who came to inquire if it is my intention to remain here. 
     I replied in the affirmative, adding earnestly, 'I have come to my roofless home,' and asked
     'Who are you?' He answered 'I am Mr. Grey, the agent for her Majesty, and I shall have to
     communicate your intention.' I answered, 'Quite right, Mr. Grey. Then what title have you to
     show that her Majesty has a right here to my freehold estates?' He replied, 'I have no title.' I 
     then took out a parchment with the titles and the barony and manors, and the names of my
     forty-two rich estates, and held it before him and said, 'I am the Countess of Derwentwater,
     and my title and claim are acknowledged and substantiated by the Crown of England,
     morally, legally, and officially; therefore my title is the title to these forty-two estates.' 
     He has absented himself quietly, and I do hope my lords will not leave my case now to under 
     officials.--Yours truly,
                             AMELIA, COUNTESS OF DERWENTWATER."
'Their lordships left the case to very minor officials, indeed; namely to a person whom the 
countess describes as "a dusky little man" and his underlings, and they without hesitation
ejected her from Dilstone Hall. The lady was very indignant, but was very far from being beaten,
and she and her adherents immediately formed a roadside encampment, under a hedge, in
gipsy fashion, and resolved to re-enter if possible. From her letters it appears that she was
very cold and very miserable, and, moreover, very hungry at first. But the neighbouring 
peasantry were kind, and brought her so much food eventually, that she tells one of her
friends that cases of tinned meats from Paris would be of no use to her. The worst of the
encampment seems to have been that it interfered with her usual pastime of sketching, which
could not be carried on in the evenings under a tarpaulin, by the light of a lantern.
 
'But her enemies had no idea that she should be permitted to remain under the hedge any more 
than in the hall itself. On the 21st of October, at the quarter sessions for the county of
Northumberland, the chief constable was questioned by the magistrates about the strange
state of affairs in the district, and reported that the encampment was a little way from the
highway, and that, therefore, the lady could not be apprehended under the Vagrant Act! A
summons, however, had been taken out by the local surveyor, and would be followed by a
warrant. On that summons the so-called countess was convicted; but appealed to the Court
of Queen's Bench.
'During the winter the encampment could not be maintained, and the weather, more powerful
than the Greenwich commissioners, drove the countess from the roadside. But in the bright 
days of May [1869] she reappeared to resume the fight, and this time took possession of a
cottage at Dilston, whence, says a newspaper report of the period, "it is expected she will
be ejected; but she may do as she did before, and pitch her tent on the high-road." On the
30th of the same month, the conviction by the Northumberland magistrates "for erecting a
hut on the roadside," was affirmed by the Court of Queen's Bench.
'On the 17th November, 1869, while Mr. Grey was collecting the Derwentwater rents, the 
countess marched into the apartment, at the head of her attendants, to forbid the proceedings.
She was richly apparelled, but her semi-military guise did not save herself, or those who came
with her, from being somewhat rudely ejected. Her sole consolation was that the mob cheered
her lustily as she drove off in her carriage.
 
'On the 5th of January, in the following year, a great demonstration in her favour took place at 
Consett, in the county of Durham. A few days previously, a large quantity of live stock had
been seized at the instance of the countess, for rent alleged to be due to her, and an interdict
had been obtained against her, prohibiting her from disposing of it. However, she defied the law,
and in the midst of something very like a riot, the cattle were sold, flags were waved, speeches
were made, and the moment was perhaps the proudest which the heiress of the Derwentwaters
is likely to see in this country.
'Such conduct could not be tolerated. The Lords of the Admiralty were roused, and formally
announced that the claims of the so-called countess were frivolous. They also warned their
tenants against paying their rents to her, and took out summonses against those who had
assisted at the sale. On the 16th of January, the ringleaders in the disgraceful affair were
committed for trial.
'Notwithstanding this untoward contretemps, the countess made a further attempt, in February 
[1870], to collect the rents of the forty-two freehold estates, which she said belonged to her.
But the bailiffs were in force and resisted her successfully, being aided in their work by a severe
snowstorm, which completely cowed her followers, although it did not cool her own courage. On
the 11th of February, 1870, the Lords of the Admiralty applied for an injunction to prevent the
so-called countess from entering on the Greenwich estates, and their application was 
immediately granted. Shortly afterwards the bailiff acting on behalf of the countess, and the 
ringleaders in the Consett affair, were sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. Thus those in
possession of the property could boast a decided victory.
'But the law courts are free to all, and the countess determined to take the initiative. She had
jewels, and pictures, and documents which would at once prove her identity and the justice of
her claim. Unfortunately they were all in Germany, and the lady was penniless. By the 
generosity of certain confiding gentlemen, about £2000 was advanced, to bring them to this 
country. They came, but their appearance was not satisfactory even to the creditors, who 
became clamorous for their money. There was only one way left to satisfy them, and Amelia, of
Derwentwater, took it. The jewels and pictures were brought to the hammer in an auction-room 
in Hexham--the countess disappeared from public ken, and the newspapers ceased to chronicle
her extraordinary movements.'
                                               ********************
When the 'Countess' died on 27 February 1880, the 'Newcastle Courant' printed the following 
obituary:-
'Information has just reached this place [Consett] of the death, at half-past two o'clock this
morning, of the 'Countess of Derwentwater,' the lady who laid claim to the vast estates which
formerly belonged to the Derwentwater family, and whose eccentric conduct in the prosecution 
of her claim has kept her constantly before the public. It is now 20 years since this lady first
notified to the world at large her claim, and her career since then has been full of interesting
incidents. History records the death of John Radcliffe, the fourth Earl of Derwentwater, at the
early age of nineteen, his death taking place at London in 1731. The Countess, however, 
asserted that the fourth Earl, instead of dying a minor in London, was smuggled over to 
Germany where he married in 1741, and left a large family, that to him succeeded a fifth, sixth,
and seventh earl, and of this seventh earl she was a daughter, and only surviving heiress of the
male descendants in a direct line. Twenty years ago, the soi-disant Countess left the foreign
home of her ancestors to assume the grandeur they had so carefully shirked. On her arrival in
this country, like the Tichborne claimant, she communicated her identity to those associates
whom she also deemed worthy of her confidence, but, feeling perhaps, her case required some
strengthening, and that sundry links in her chain of evidence were either wanting or decidedly
rusty, she resolved to restrict immediate operations to the sending of a vague warning to the 
tenants on the various estates. In 1869, her Ladyship having made such preparations as 
seemed to her adequate for the purpose, once more emerged from obscurity, and having the
sympathy of the masses, and being reinforced by an energetic aide-de-camp in the person of 
Harry Brown, then a bailiff of the Shotley Bridge Court, the campaign was opened with 
considerable pluck and activity. The local agents of the Admiralty were at Haydon Bridge on the
occasion of one of the regular rent days appointed, and a large portion of the tenants were
duly in attendance. Whilst the receiver was proceeding with the business in hand, a strange
diversion was created by the entrance of the "Countess," accompanied by her henchman, and
accoutred after a somewhat novel fashion of warlike equipment. Having duly announced her 
name, she warned the tenants present that the gentleman then receiving their rents was not
authorised by her to do so, and called upon them to pay their respective amounts to herself. 
The tenants, of course, preferred to make their payments to the receiver, and, as the lady
unceremoniously interrupted the proceedings, it was deemed advisable to induce her, if possible
by argument, or, failing that, by severe measures, to quit the room. The quieter method having
proved unavailing, and a threatened resort to qualified force having roused a slumbering lion,
a somewhat lively scene ensued. Eventually the room was cleared, but not until a blow had 
been struck, for being armed with an antiquated sword, her ladyship drew the weapon, and a
short struggle ensued, resulting in the snapping of the blade of the weapon. The immediate
object of this first movement had failed, but great advantage was derived from the prominent
place the extraordinary proceedings gained for her in the public interest.'
Copyright © 2020 Maltagenealogy.com