PEERAGES
Last updated 19/06/2018 (23 Jan 2024)
Date Rank Order Name Born Died Age
STAMP
28 Jun 1938 B 1 Josiah Charles Stamp
Created Baron Stamp 28 Jun 1938
21 Jun 1880 16 Apr 1941 60
16 Apr 1941 2 Wilfred Carlyle Stamp
For further information on the succession of this peer to the title, see the note at the foot of this page
28 Oct 1904 16 Apr 1941 36
16 Apr 1941 3 Trevor Charles Stamp 13 Feb 1907 16 Nov 1987 80
16 Nov 1987 4 Trevor Charles Bosworth Stamp 18 Sep 1935 20 Oct 2022 87
20 Oct 2022 5 Nicholas Charles Trevor Stamp 27 Feb 1978
STANHOPE
3 Jul 1717
14 Apr 1718
V
E
1
1
James Stanhope
Created Baron and Viscount Stanhope 3 Jul 1717 and Earl Stanhope 14 Apr 1718
The creations of 1717 contained a special remainder, failing heirs male of his body, to those of his second cousin, "John Stanhope of Elvaston, deceased"
MP for Newport (IOW) 1702 and 1717, Cockermouth 1702‑1713 and 1715‑1717 and Wendover 1714‑1715; Secretary of State 1714‑1717 and 1718‑1721; Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1717‑1718; PC 1714
1673 5 Feb 1721 47
5 Feb 1721 2 Philip Stanhope 14 Aug 1714 7 Mar 1786 71
7 Mar 1786 3 Charles Stanhope
MP for Wycombe 1780‑1786
For further information on this peer, and his daughter, Lady Hester Stanhope, see the notes at the foot of this page
3 Aug 1753 15 Dec 1816 63
15 Dec 1816 4 Philip Henry Stanhope
MP for Wendover 1806‑1807, Hull 1807‑1812 and Midhurst 1812‑1816
7 Dec 1781 2 Mar 1855 73
2 Mar 1855 5 Philip Henry Stanhope
MP for Wootton Bassett 1830‑1832 and Hertford 1832‑1852
30 Jan 1805 24 Dec 1875 70
24 Dec 1875 6 Arthur Philip Stanhope
MP for Leominster 1868 and Suffolk East 1870‑1875; Lord Lieutenant Kent 1890‑1905
13 Sep 1838 19 Apr 1905 66
19 Apr 1905
to    
15 Aug 1967
7 James Richard Stanhope
First Commissioner of Works 1936‑1937; President of the Board of Education 1937‑1938. First Lord of the Admiralty 1938‑1939; Lord President of the Council 1939‑1940; PC 1929; KG 1934
He succeeded as 13th Earl of Chesterfield in 1952
On his death the Earldoms (Stanhope and Chesterfield) became extinct whilst the Viscountcy and Barony passed to the 11th Earl of Harrington
11 Nov 1880 15 Aug 1967 86
STANHOPE OF HARRINGTON
2 May 1605 B 1 Sir John Stanhope
Created Baron Stanhope of Harrington 2 May 1605
9 Mar 1621
9 Mar 1621
to    
3 Dec 1675
2 Charles Stanhope
Peerage extinct on his death
27 Apr 1595 3 Dec 1675 80
STANHOPE OF SHELFORD
7 Nov 1616 B 1 Philip Stanhope
Created Baron Stanhope of Shelford 7 Nov 1616
He was subsequently created Earl of Chesterfield in 1628
1584 12 Sep 1656 72
STANLEY
15 Jan 1456 B 1 Thomas Stanley
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Stanley 15 Jan 1456
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1431‑1436; KG 1457
c 1405 20 Feb 1459
20 Feb 1459 2 Thomas Stanley, later [1485] 1st Earl of Derby c 1435 29 Jul 1504
29 Jul 1504 3 Thomas Stanley, 2nd Earl of Derby by 1485 23 May 1521
23 May 1521 4 Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby 10 May 1509 24 Oct 1572 63
24 Oct 1572 5 Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby 29 Sep 1593
29 Sep 1593
to    
16 Apr 1594
6 Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance
1559 16 Apr 1594 34
7 Mar 1921
to    
24 Feb 1960
7 Edith Maud Abney-Hastings, Countess of Loudoun (12th in line)
Abeyance terminated in her favour, but the title again fell into abeyance upon her death
13 May 1883 24 Feb 1960 76
STANLEY OF ALDERLEY
9 May 1839 B 1 Sir John Thomas Stanley, 7th baronet
Created Baron Stanley of Alderley 9 May 1839
MP for Wootton Bassett 1790‑1796
26 Nov 1766 23 Oct 1850 83
23 Oct 1850 2 Edward John Stanley, 1st Baron Eddisbury
MP for Hindon 1831‑1832 and Cheshire North 1832‑1841 and 1847‑1848; Vice President of the Board of Trade 1852 and 1853‑1855; President of the Board of Trade 1855‑1858; Postmaster General 1860‑1866; PC 1841
13 Nov 1802 16 Jun 1869 66
16 Jun 1869 3 Henry Edward John Stanley (also 2nd Baron Eddisbury)
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
11 Jul 1827 10 Dec 1903 76
10 Dec 1903 4 Edward Lyulph Stanley (also 3rd Baron Eddisbury)
MP for Oldham 1880‑1885; PC 1910
Succeeded as 4th Baron Sheffield [I] 1909
16 May 1839 18 Mar 1925 85
18 Mar 1925 5 Arthur Lyulph Stanley (also 4th Baron Eddisbury and 5th Baron Sheffield [I])
MP for Eddisbury 1906‑1910; Governor of Victoria 1914‑1920
14 Sep 1875 22 Aug 1931 55
22 Aug 1931 6 Edward John Stanley (also 5th Baron Eddisbury and 6th Baron Sheffield [I]) 9 Oct 1907 5 Mar 1971 63
5 Mar 1971 7 Lyulph Henry Victor Owen Stanley (also 6th Baron Eddisbury and 7th Baron Sheffield [I]) 22 Oct 1915 23 Jun 1971 55
23 Jun 1971 8 Thomas Henry Oliver Stanley (also 7th Baron Eddisbury and 8th Baron Sheffield [I]) 28 Sep 1927 19 Nov 2013 86
19 Nov 2013 9 Richard Oliver Stanley (also 8th Baron Eddisbury and 9th Baron Sheffield [I]) 24 Apr 1956
STANLEY OF BICKERSTAFFE
22 Dec 1832 B 1 Edward Smith-Stanley, later [1834] 13th Earl of Derby
Created Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe 22 Dec 1832
See "Derby" - with which title this peerage remains merged
21 Apr 1775 30 Jun 1851 76

4 Nov 1844 Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley
He was summoned to Parliament by Writ of Acceleration as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe 4 Nov 1844
He succeeded as 14th Earl of Derby in 1851 with which title this peerage remains merged
19 Mar 1799 23 Oct 1869 70
STANLEY OF PRESTON
27 Aug 1886 B 1 Frederick Arthur Stanley
Created Baron Stanley of Preston 27 Aug 1886
He succeeded as 16th Earl of Derby in 1893 with which title this peerage remains merged
15 Jan 1841 14 Jun 1908 67
STANMORE
21 Aug 1893 B 1 Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon
Created Baron Stanmore 21 Aug 1893
MP for Beverley 1854‑1857; Governor of New Brunswick 1861‑1866, Trinidad 1866‑1870, Mauritius 1871‑1874, Fiji 1875‑1880, New Zealand 1880‑1882 and Ceylon 1883‑1890
26 Nov 1829 30 Jan 1912 82
30 Jan 1912
to    
13 Apr 1957
2 George Arthur Morris Hamilton‑Gordon
PC 1932
Peerage extinct on his death
3 Jan 1871 13 Apr 1957 86
STANSGATE
12 Jan 1942 V 1 William Wedgwood Benn
Created Viscount Stansgate 12 Jan 1942
MP for St. Georges, Tower Hamlets 1906‑1918, Leith 1918‑1927, Aberdeen North 1928‑1931 and Gorton 1937‑1941; Secretary of State for India 1929‑1931; Secretary of State for Air 1945‑1946; PC 1929
10 May 1877 17 Nov 1960 83
17 Nov 1960
to    
31 Jul 1963
2 Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn
MP for Bristol South East 1950‑1960 and 1963‑1983 and Chesterfield 1984‑2001; Postmaster General 1964‑1966; Minister of Technology 1966‑1970; Minister of Power 1969‑1970; Secretary of State for Industry 1974‑1975; Secretary of State for Energy 1975‑1979; PC 1964
He disclaimed the peerage for life 1963
3 Apr 1925 14 Mar 2014 88
14 Mar 2014 3 Stephen Michael Wedgwood Benn
[Elected hereditary peer 2021-]
21 Aug 1951
STAPLETON
8 Jan 1313 B 1 Miles Stapleton
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Stapleton 8 Jan 1313
24 Jun 1314
24 Jun 1314 2 Nicholas Stapleton 1342
1342 3 Miles Stapleton c 1318 Dec 1372
Dec 1372
to    
10 Aug 1373
4 Thomas Stapleton
On his death the peerage became dormant
c 1350 10 Aug 1373
STAVORDALE
12 Jan 1747 B 1 Stephen Fox-Strangways
Created Baron Ilchester 11 May 1741, Baron Ilchester and Stavordale 12 Jan 1747, and Earl of Ilchester 17 Jun 1756
See "Ilchester"
12 Sep 1704 26 Sep 1776 72
STAWELL
15 Jan 1683 B 1 Ralph Stawell
Created Baron Stawell 15 Jan 1683
MP for Bridgwater Oct 1679
c 1640 5 Aug 1689
5 Aug 1689 2 John Stawell c 1669 30 Nov 1692
30 Nov 1692 3 William Stawell c 1683 23 Jan 1742
23 Jan 1742
to    
13 Apr 1755
4 Edward Stawell
Peerage extinct on his death
c 1685 13 Apr 1755

21 May 1760 B 1 Mary Bilson-Legge
Created Baroness Stawell 21 May 1760
For details of the special remainder included in the creation of this peerage, see the note at the foot of this page
12 Feb 1726 29 Jul 1780 54
29 Jul 1780
to    
25 Aug 1820
2 Henry Stawel Bilson-Legge
Peerage extinct on his death
22 Feb 1757 25 Aug 1820 63
STEDMAN
25 Jun 1974
to    
8 Jun 1996
B[L] Phyllis Stedman
Created Baroness Stedman for life 25 Jun 1974
Peerage extinct on her death
14 Jul 1916 8 Jun 1996 79
STEDMAN-SCOTT
12 Jul 2010 B[L] Deborah Stedman-Scott
Created Baroness Stedman-Scott for life 12 Jul 2010
23 Nov 1955
STEEL OF AIKWOOD
6 Jun 1997 B[L] Sir David Martin Scott Steel
Created Baron Steel of Aikwood for life 6 Jun 1997
MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles 1965‑1983 and Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale 1983‑1997; PC 1977; KT 2004
31 Mar 1938
STEINBERG
23 Jun 2004
to    
2 Nov 2009
B[L] Leonard Steinberg
Created Baron Steinberg for life 23 Jun 2004
Peerage extinct on his death
1 Aug 1936 2 Nov 2009 73
STEPHEN
2 Feb 2011 B[L] Nicol Ross Stephen
Created Baron Stephen for life 2 Feb 2011
MP for Kincardine & Deeside 1991-1992
23 Mar 1960
STERLING OF PLAISTOW
17 Jan 1991 B[L] Sir Jeffrey Maurice Sterling
Created Baron Sterling of Plaistow for life 17 Jan 1991
27 Dec 1934
STERN
13 Jul 1999 B[L] Vivien Helen Stern
Created Baroness Stern for life 13 Jul 1999
25 Sep 1941
STERN OF BRENTFORD
10 Dec 2007 B[L] Sir Nicholas Herbert Stern
Created Baron Stern of Brentford for life 10 Dec 2007
CH 2017
22 Apr 1946
STERNDALE
14 Nov 1918
to    
7 Aug 1923
B 1 Sir William Pickford
Created Baron Sterndale 14 Nov 1918
Lord Justice of Appeal 1914‑1918; Master of the Rolls 1919‑1923; PC 1914
Peerage extinct on his death
1 Oct 1848 7 Aug 1923 74
STEVENAGE
24 Dec 1951
to    
16 Aug 1957
V 1 William Allen Jowitt, 1st Viscount Jowitt
Created Viscount Stevenage and Earl Jowitt 24 Dec 1951
Peerages extinct on his death
15 Apr 1885 16 Aug 1957 72
STEVENS OF BIRMINGHAM
5 Jul 2021 B[L] Simon Laurence Stevens
Created Baron Stevens of Birmingham for life 5 Jul 2021
4 Aug 1966
STEVENS OF KIRKWHELPINGTON
6 Apr 2005 B[L] Sir John Arthur Stevens
Created Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington for life 6 Apr 2005
21 Oct 1942
STEVENS OF LUDGATE
27 Mar 1987 B[L] David Robert Stevens
Created Baron Stevens of Ludgate for life 27 Mar 1987
26 May 1936
STEVENSON
7 May 1924
to    
10 Jun 1926
B 1 Sir James Stevenson, 1st baronet
Created Baron Stevenson 7 May 1924
Peerage extinct on his death
2 Apr 1873 10 Jun 1926 53
STEVENSON OF BALMACARA
13 Jul 2010 B[L] Robert Wilfrid Stevenson
Created Baron Stevenson of Balmacara for life 13 Jul 2010
19 Apr 1947
STEVENSON OF CODDENHAM
13 Jul 1999 B[L] Sir Henry Dennistoun Stevenson
Created Baron Stevenson of Coddenham for life 13 Jul 1999
19 Jul 1945
STEWART OF ALVECHURCH
15 Jan 1975
to    
28 Dec 1984
B[L] Mary Elizabeth Henderson Stewart
Created Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch for life 15 Jan 1975
Peerage extinct on her death
8 May 1903 28 Dec 1984 81
STEWART OF DIRLETON
6 Nov 2020 B[L] Keith Douglas Stewart
Created Baron Stewart of Dirleton for life 6 Nov 2020
31 Oct 1965
STEWART OF FULHAM
5 Jul 1979
to    
10 Mar 1990
B[L] Robert Michael Maitland Stewart
Created Baron Stewart of Fulham for life 5 Jul 1979
MP for Fulham East 1945‑1955 and Fulham 1955‑1979; MEP 1975‑1976; Secretary of State for Education and Science 1964‑1965; Foreign Secretary 1965‑1966 and 1968‑1970; First Secretary of State 1966‑1968; PC 1964; CH 1969
Peerage extinct on his death
6 Nov 1906 10 Mar 1990 83
STEWART OF GARLIES
6 Jun 1796 B 1 John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway
Created Baron Stewart of Garlies 6 Jun 1796
See "Galloway"
13 Mar 1736 13 Nov 1806 70
STEWART OF RAMALTON
19 Mar 1683 V[I] 1 William Stewart
Created Baron Stewart of Ramalton and Viscount Mountjoy 19 Mar 1683
See "Mountjoy" - extinct 1769
24 Aug 1692
STEWART OF STEWART'S COURT
1 Jul 1814 B 1 Charles William Vane
Created Baron Stewart of Stewart's Court 1 Jul 1814
He subsequently [1822] succeeded as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, with which title this peerage remains merged
18 May 1778 6 Mar 1854 75
STEWART OF TRAQUAIR
23 Jun 1633 B[S] 1 Sir John Stewart, 1st baronet
Created Lord Stewart of Traquair 19 Apr 1628 and Lord Linton & Caberston and Earl of Traquair 23 Jun 1633
See "Traquair"
c 1600 27 Mar 1659
STEWARTBY
20 Jul 1992
to    
3 Mar 2018
B[L] Sir Bernard Harold Ian Halley Stewart
Created Baron Stewartby for life 20 Jul 1992
MP for Hitchin 1974‑1983 and Hertfordshire North 1983‑1992; Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1983‑1987; Minister of State, Armed Forces 1987‑1988; Minister of State, Northern Ireland 1988‑1989; PC 1989
Peerage extinct on his death
10 Aug 1935 3 Mar 2018 82
STEYN
11 Jan 1995
to    
28 Nov 2017
B[L] Sir Johan van Zyl Steyn
Created Baron Steyn for life 11 Jan 1995
Lord Justice of Appeal 1992‑1995; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1995‑2005; PC 1992
Peerage extinct on his death
15 Aug 1932 28 Nov 2017 85
STIRLING
14 Jun 1633 E[S] 1 Sir William Alexander, 1st baronet
Created Lord Alexander of Tullibody and Viscount of Stirling 4 Sep 1630, and Lord Alexander of Tullibody, Viscount Canada and Earl of Stirling 14 Jun 1633
Secretary of State [S] 1636‑1640
c 1576 12 Feb 1640
12 Feb 1640 2 William Alexander May 1640
May 1640 3 Henry Alexander Aug 1644
Aug 1644 4 Henry Alexander
MP for Berkshire 1678
11 Feb 1691
11 Feb 1691
to    
4 Dec 1739
5 Henry Alexander
On his death the peerages became dormant
For an account of the claim made to this peerage in the 1830s, see the note at the foot of this page
7 Nov 1664 4 Dec 1739 75
STIRRUP
28 Jan 2011 B[L] Sir Graham Eric ["Jock"] Stirrup
Created Baron Stirrup for life 28 Jan 2011
Chief of Defence Staff 2006‑2010; KG 2013
4 Dec 1949
STOCKS
17 Jan 1966
to    
6 Jul 1975
B[L] Mary Danvers Stocks
Created Baroness Stocks for life 17 Jan 1966
Peerage extinct on her death
25 Jul 1891 6 Jul 1975 83
STOCKTON
24 Feb 1984 E 1 Maurice Harold Macmillan
Created Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden and Earl of Stockton 24 Feb 1984
MP for Stockton 1924‑1929 and 1931‑1945 and Bromley 1945‑1964; Secretary of State for Air 1945; Minister of Housing and Local Government 1951‑1954; Minister of Defence 1954‑1955; Foreign Secretary 1955; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1955‑1957; Prime Minister 1957‑1963; PC 1942; OM 1976
10 Feb 1894 29 Dec 1986 92
29 Dec 1986 2 Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan
MEP for South West England 1999‑2004
10 Oct 1943
STODART OF LEASTON
1 Jun 1981
to    
31 May 2003
B[L] James Anthony Stodart
Created Baron Stodart of Leaston for life 1 Jun 1981
MP for Edinburgh West 1959‑1974; Minister of State Agriculture & Fisheries 1972‑1974; PC 1974
Peerage extinct on his death
6 Jun 1916 31 May 2003 86
STODDART OF SWINDON
14 Sep 1983
to    
14 Nov 2020
B[L] David Leonard Stoddart
Created Baron Stoddart of Swindon for life 14 Sep 1983
MP for Swindon 1970‑1983
Peerage extinct on his death
4 May 1926 14 Nov 2020 94
STOKE
19 Jul 1619
to    
18 Feb 1657
B 1 John Villiers
Created Baron Stoke and Viscount Purbeck 19 Jul 1619
Peerages extinct on his death
c 1590 18 Feb 1657
STOKES
9 Jan 1969
to    
21 Jul 2008
B[L] Sir Donald Gresham Stokes
Created Baron Stokes for life 9 Jan 1969
Peerage extinct on his death
22 Mar 1914 21 Jul 2008 94
STONE
24 Jun 1976
to    
17 Jul 1986
B[L] Sir Joseph Ellis Stone
Created Baron Stone for life 24 Jun 1976
Peerage extinct on his death
27 May 1903 17 Jul 1986 83
STONE OF BLACKHEATH
29 Oct 1997 B[L] Andrew Zelig Stone
Created Baron Stone of Blackheath for life 29 Oct 1997
7 Sep 1942
STONEHAM OF DROXFORD
17 Jan 2011 B[L] Benjamin Stoneham
Created Baron Stoneham of Droxford for life 17 Jan 2011
26 Aug 1948
STONEHAVEN
12 Jun 1925
27 Jun 1938
B
V
1
1
Sir John Lawrence Baird, 2nd baronet
Created Baron Stonehaven 12 Jun 1925 and Viscount Stonehaven 27 Jun 1938
MP for Rugby 1910‑1922 and Ayr Burghs 1922‑1925; Minister of Transport and First Commissioner of Works 1922‑1924; Governor General of Australia 1925‑1930; PC 1922
27 Apr 1874 20 Aug 1941 67
20 Aug 1941 2 James Ian Baird
He succeeded to the Earldom of Kintore in 1974 with which title the Viscountcy remains merged
25 Jul 1908 1 Oct 1989 81
STONHAM
2 Aug 1958
to    
22 Dec 1971
B[L] Victor John Collins
Created Baron Stonham for life 2 Aug 1958
MP for Taunton 1945‑1950 and Shoreditch & Finsbury 1954‑1958; Minister of State, Home Office 1967-1969; PC 1969
Peerage extinct on his death
1 Jul 1903 22 Dec 1971 68
STOPFORD
12 Apr 1762 V[I] 1 James Stopford, 1st Baron Courtown
Created Viscount Stopford and Earl of Courtown 12 Apr 1762
See "Courtown"
c 1700 12 Jan 1770
STOPFORD OF FALLOWFIELD
5 Aug 1958
to    
6 Mar 1961
B[L] Sir John Sebastian Bach Stopford
Created Baron Stopford of Fallowfield for life 5 Aug 1958
Peerage extinct on his death
25 Jun 1888 6 Mar 1961 72
STOREY
2 Feb 2011 B[L] Michael John Storey
Created Baron Storey for life 2 Feb 2011
25 May 1949
STORMONT
16 Aug 1621 V[S] 1 Sir David Murray
Created Lord Scone 7 Apr 1605 and Viscount of Stormont 16 Aug 1621
27 Aug 1631
27 Aug 1631 2 Mungo Murray Mar 1642
Mar 1642 3 James Murray, 2nd Earl of Annandale 28 Dec 1658
28 Dec 1658 4 David Murray, 2nd Lord Balvaird 24 Jul 1668
24 Jul 1668 5 David Murray 19 Nov 1731
19 Nov 1731 6 David Murray c 1689 23 Jul 1748
23 Jul 1748 7 David Murray
He succeeded to the Earldom of Mansfield in 1793 with which title this peerage then merged and still remains so
9 Oct 1727 1 Sep 1796 68
STOURTON
13 May 1448 B 1 Sir John Stourton
Created Baron Stourton 13 May 1448
19 May 1400 25 Nov 1462 62
25 Nov 1462 2 William Stourton c 1430 18 Feb 1479
18 Feb 1479 3 John Stourton c 1454 6 Oct 1485
6 Oct 1485 4 Francis Stourton 1485 18 Feb 1487 1
18 Feb 1487 5 William Stourton c 1457 17 Feb 1523
17 Feb 1523 6 Edward Stourton c 1463 13 Dec 1535
13 Dec 1535 7 William Stourton c 1505 16 Sep 1548
16 Sep 1548 8 Charles Stourton
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
c 1520 6 Mar 1557
6 Mar 1557 9 John Stourton Jan 1553 13 Oct 1588 35
13 Oct 1588 10 Edward Stourton c 1555 7 May 1633
7 May 1633 11 William Stourton c 1594 25 Apr 1672
25 Apr 1672 12 William Stourton 7 Aug 1685
7 Aug 1685 13 Edward Stourton 24 Jun 1665 6 Oct 1720 55
6 Oct 1720 14 Thomas Stourton 14 Jun 1667 24 Mar 1744 76
24 Mar 1744 15 Charles Stourton 2 Mar 1702 11 Mar 1753 51
11 Mar 1753 16 William Stourton Aug 1704 3 Oct 1781 77
3 Oct 1781 17 Charles Philip Stourton 22 Aug 1752 29 Apr 1816 63
29 Apr 1816 18 William Stourton 6 Jun 1776 4 Dec 1846 70
4 Dec 1846 19 Charles Stourton 13 Jul 1802 23 Dec 1872 70
23 Dec 1872 20 Alfred Joseph Stourton
The abeyance of the Baronies of Mowbray and Segrave were terminated in his favour on 3 Jan 1878 and 18 Jan 1878 respectively when this peerage merged with the other two and so remains - see "Mowbray"
28 Feb 1829 18 Apr 1893 64
STOWELL
17 Jul 1821
to    
28 Jan 1836
B 1 William Scott
Created Baron Stowell 17 Jul 1821
MP for Downton 1790‑1801 and Oxford University 1801‑1821; PC 1798
Peerage extinct on his death
28 Oct 1745 28 Jan 1836 90
STOWELL OF BEESTON
10 Jan 2011 B[L] Tina Wendy Stowell
Created Baroness Stowell of Beeston for life 10 Jan 2011
Lord Privy Seal 2014‑2016; PC 2014
2 Jul 1967
STOW HILL
7 Jun 1966
to    
1 Jan 1979
B[L] Sir Frank Soskice
Created Baron Stow Hill for life 7 Jun 1966
MP for Birkenhead East 1945‑1950, Neepsend 1950‑1955 and Newport (Monmouth) 1956‑1966; Solicitor General 1945‑1951; Attorney General 1951; Home Secretary 1964‑1965; Lord Privy Seal 1966; PC 1948
Peerage extinct on his death
23 Jul 1902 1 Jan 1979 76
STRABANE
8 May 1617 B[I] 1 James Hamilton
Created Lord Hamilton, Baron of Strabane 8 May 1617
He resigned the peerage in 1633 in favour of -
1633 2 Claud Hamilton 14 Jun 1638
14 Jun 1638 3 James Hamilton 16 Jun 1655
16 Jun 1655 4 George Hamilton 14 Apr 1668
14 Apr 1668 5 Claud Hamilton, later [by 1683] 4th Earl of Abercorn
He was outlawed after his death, and the Barony of Hamilton of Strabane [I] was forfeited 11 May  1691
13 Sep 1659 1690 30
24 May 1692 6 Charles Hamilton, 5th Earl of Abercorn
He obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1692
Jun 1701
Jun 1701
2 Sep 1701
 
V[I]
7
1
James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn
Created Viscount Strabane [I] and Baron Mountcastle [I] 2 Sep 1701
He had previously succeeded to the Earldom of Abercorn with which title this peerage then merged
1661 28 Nov 1734 73
STRABOLGI
20 Oct 1318 B 1 David de Strabolgi, formerly Earl of Atholl
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Strabolgi 20 Oct 1318
28 Dec 1327
28 Dec 1327 2 David de Strabolgi 1 Feb 1309 30 Nov 1335 26
30 Nov 1335
to    
10 Oct 1369
3 David de Strabolgi
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance
1332 10 Oct 1369 37
8 Apr 1496 4 Edward Burgh
Abeyance terminated in his favour
20 Aug 1528
20 Aug 1528 5 Thomas Burgh 28 Feb 1550
28 Feb 1550 6 William Burgh 10 Sep 1584
10 Sep 1584 7 Thomas Burgh 14 Oct 1597
14 Oct 1597
to    
26 Feb 1602
8 Robert Burgh
On his death the peerage again fell into abeyance
26 Feb 1602
9 May 1916 9 Cuthbert Matthias Kenworthy
Abeyance terminated in his favour
24 Feb 1853 12 Feb 1934 80
12 Feb 1934 10 Joseph Montague Kenworthy
MP for Hull Central 1919‑1931
7 Mar 1886 8 Oct 1953 67
8 Oct 1953 11 David Montague de Burgh Kenworthy
[Elected hereditary peer 1999-2010]
1 Nov 1914 24 Dec 2010 96
24 Dec 2010 12 Andrew David Whitley Kenworthy 25 Jan 1967
STRACHIE
3 Nov 1911 B 1 Sir Edward Strachey, 4th baronet
Created Baron Strachie 3 Nov 1911
MP for Somerset South 1892‑1911; Paymaster General 1912‑1915; PC 1912
30 Oct 1858 25 Jul 1936 77
25 Jul 1936
to    
17 May 1973
2 Edward Strachey
Peerage extinct on his death
13 Jan 1882 17 May 1973 91
STRADBROKE
18 Jul 1821 E 1 Sir John Rous, 6th baronet
Created Baron Rous 14 Jun 1796, and Viscount Dunwich and Earl of Stradbroke 18 Jul 1821
MP for Suffolk 1780‑1796
30 May 1750 27 Aug 1827 77
27 Aug 1827 2 John Edward Cornwallis Rous
Lord Lieutenant Suffolk 1844‑1886
13 Feb 1794 27 Jan 1886 91
27 Jan 1886 3 George Edward John Mowbray Rous
Governor of Victoria 1920‑1926; Lord Lieutenant Suffolk 1935‑1947
19 Nov 1862 30 Dec 1947 85
30 Dec 1947 4 John Anthony Alexander Rous
Lord Lieutenant Suffolk 1948‑1978
1 Apr 1903 14 Jul 1983 80
14 Jul 1983 5 William Keith Rous 10 Mar 1907 18 Jul 1983 76
18 Jul 1983 6 Robert Keith Rous 25 Mar 1937
STRAFFORD
12 Jan 1640
to    
12 May 1641
E 1 Sir Thomas Wentworth, 2nd baronet
Created Baron Wentworth and Baron of Newmarch & Oversley 22 Jul 1628, Viscount Wentworth 13 Dec 1628 and Baron Raby and Earl of Strafford 12 Jan 1640
MP for Yorkshire 1621-1622, 1625 and 1628 and Pontefract 1624; Lord Lieutenant Yorkshire 1628; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1633‑1641; KG 1640
He was attainted and the peerage forfeited
13 Apr 1593 12 May 1641 48
1 Dec 1641
19 May 1662
to    
16 Oct 1695
E 1
2
William Wentworth
Created Baron Wentworth, Baron of Newmarch & Oversley, Baron of Raby, Viscount Wentworth and Earl of Strafford 1 Dec 1641
He obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1662
KG 1661
All peerages except the Barony of Raby extinct on his death
8 Jun 1626 16 Oct 1695 69

29 Jun 1711 E 1 Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Baron Raby
Created Viscount Wentworth and Earl of Strafford 29 Jun 1711
These creations contained a special remainder, failing heirs male of his body, to his brother Peter Wentworth
First Lord of the Admiralty 1712‑1714; PC 1711; KG 1712
17 Sep 1672 15 Nov 1739 67
15 Nov 1739 2 William Wentworth Mar 1722 10 Mar 1791 69
10 Mar 1791
to    
6 Aug 1799
3 Frederick Thomas Wentworth
Peerages extinct on his death
25 Feb 1742 6 Aug 1799 57

12 May 1835
18 Sep 1847
B
E
1
1
Sir John Byng
Created Baron Strafford 12 May 1835 and Viscount Enfield and Earl of Strafford 18 Sep 1847
MP for Poole 1831‑1835; Field Marshal 1855; PC [I] 1828
1772 3 Jun 1860 87
3 Jun 1860
8 Apr 1853
2 George Stevens Byng
MP for Milborne Port 1830‑1831 and 1831‑1832, Chatham 1834‑1835 and 1837‑1852 and Poole 1835‑1837; PC 1835
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Strafford 8 Apr 1853
8 Jun 1806 29 Oct 1886 80
29 Oct 1886
26 Feb 1874
3 George Henry Charles Byng
MP for Tavistock 1852‑1857 and Middlesex 1857‑1874; Lord Lieutenant Middlesex 1884‑1898
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Strafford 26 Feb 1874
22 Feb 1830 28 Mar 1898 68
28 Mar 1898 4 Henry William John Byng
For further information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
21 Aug 1831 16 May 1899 67
16 May 1899 5 Francis Edmund Cecil Byng 15 Jan 1835 18 Jan 1918 83
18 Jan 1918 6 Edmund Henry Byng 27 Jan 1862 24 Dec 1951 89
24 Dec 1951 7 Robert Cecil Byng 29 Jul 1904 4 Mar 1984 79
4 Mar 1984 8 Thomas Edmund Byng 26 Sep 1936 12 Nov 2016 80
12 Nov 2016 9 William Robert Byng 10 May 1964
STRANG
16 Jan 1954 B 1 Sir William Strang
Created Baron Strang 16 Jan 1954
2 Jan 1893 27 May 1978 85
27 May 1978
to    
19 Dec 2014
2 Colin Strang
Peerage extinct on his death
12 Jun 1922 19 Dec 2014 92
STRANGE
24 Jun 1295
to    
31 Jul 1311
B 1 Roger le Strange
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Strange 24 Jun 1295
Peerage extinct on his death
31 Jul 1311

3 Dec 1326
to    
8 Sep 1335
B 1 Sir Eubulus le Strange
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Strange 3 Dec 1326
Peerage extinct on his death
8 Sep 1335

7 Mar 1628 B 1 James Stanley
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Strange 7 Mar 1628
Succeeded as 7th Earl of Derby 1642
For further information on this peerage, which was created in error, see the note at the foot of this page
3 Sep 1651
3 Sep 1651 2 Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby 19 Jan 1628 21 Dec 1672 44
21 Dec 1672
to    
5 Nov 1702
3 William George Richard Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance
c 1655 5 Nov 1702
23 Apr 1714 4 Henrietta Ashburnham
She became sole heir in 1714
26 Jun 1718
26 Jun 1718 5 Henrietta Bridget Ashburnham 8 Aug 1732
8 Aug 1732 6 James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby 3 Jul 1664 1 Feb 1736 71
1 Feb 1736 7 James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl 28 Sep 1690 8 Jan 1764 73
8 Jan 1764 8 Charlotte Murray c 1731 13 Oct 1805
13 Oct 1805
18 Aug 1786
 
E
9
1
John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl
He had previously been created Baron Murray of Stanley and Earl Strange 18 Aug 1786
30 Jun 1755 29 Sep 1830 75
29 Sep 1830 10
2
John Murray, 5th Duke of Atholl 26 Jun 1778 14 Sep 1846 68
14 Sep 1846 11
3
George Murray, 6th Duke of Atholl 20 Sep 1814 16 Jan 1864 49
16 Jan 1864 12
4
John James Stewart-Murray, 7th Duke of Atholl 6 Aug 1840 20 Jan 1917 76
20 Jan 1917 13
5
John George Stewart-Murray, 8th Duke of Atholl 15 Dec 1871 16 Mar 1942 70
16 Mar 1942
to    
8 May 1957
14
6
James Thomas Murray, 9th Duke of Atholl
On his death the Earldom became extinct whilst the Barony fell into abeyance
18 Aug 1879 8 May 1957 77
1965
to    
13 Apr 1982
15 John Drummond
Abeyance terminated in his favour. On his death the peerage again fell into abeyance
6 May 1900 13 Apr 1982 81
1986 16 Jean Cherry Drummond
Abeyance terminated in her favour
[Elected hereditary peer 1999‑2005]
17 Dec 1928 11 Mar 2005 76
11 Mar 2005 17 Adam Humphrey Drummond 20 Apr 1953
STRANGE DE BLACKMERE
13 Jan 1309 B 1 Fulk le Strange
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Strange 13 Jan 1309
1267 23 Jan 1324 56
23 Jan 1324 2 John le Strange 1305 21 Jul 1349 44
21 Jul 1349 3 Fulk le Strange 1320 30 Sep 1349 29
30 Sep 1349 4 John le Strange 1332 12 May 1361 28
12 May 1361 5 John le Strange 1353 3 Aug 1375 22
3 Aug 1375 6 Elizabeth Mowbray 6 Dec 1373 23 Aug 1383 9
23 Aug 1383 7 Ankaret Talbot 1361 1 Jun 1413 51
1 Jun 1413 8 Gilbert Talbot, 5th Lord Talbot 19 Oct 1419
19 Oct 1419 9 Ankaret Talbot, 6th Lord Talbot 13 Dec 1421
13 Dec 1421 10 John Talbot
He was created Earl of Shrewsbury in 1442 with which title this peerage then merged until it fell into abeyance in 1616
1390 17 Jul 1453 63
STRANGE DE KNOKIN
29 Dec 1299 B 1 John le Strange
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Strange de Knokin 29 Dec 1299
c 1254 8 Aug 1309
8 Aug 1309 2 John le Strange c 1282 1311
1311 3 John le Strange c 1297 1323
1323 4 Roger le Strange 15 Aug 1301 29 Jul 1349 47
29 Jul 1349 5 Roger le Strange c 1326 26 Aug 1392
26 Aug 1392 6 John le Strange c 1350 28 Jul 1397
28 Jul 1397 7 Richard le Strange
Succeeded as 3rd Lord Mohun when that peerage came out of abeyance in 1431
1 Aug 1381 9 Aug 1449 68
9 Aug 1449 8 John le Strange c 1440 15 Oct 1477
15 Oct 1477 9 Joan le Strange
She married George Stanley who was summoned to parliament in her right in 1482. He died 5 Dec 1497. KG 1487
c 1460 20 Mar 1514
20 Mar 1514 10 Thomas Stanley, 2nd Earl of Derby by 1485 23 May 1521
23 May 1521 11 Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby 10 May 1509 24 Oct 1572 63
24 Oct 1572 12 Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Strange 23 Jan 1559
25 Sep 1593
25 Sep 1593
to    
16 Apr 1594
13 Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Strange 28 Jan 1589
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance
16 Apr 1594
23 Feb 1921 14 Elizabeth Frances Philipps
Abeyance terminated in her favour 1921
19 Jun 1884 12 Dec 1974 90
12 Dec 1974 15 Jestyn Reginald Austen Plantagenet Philipps, 2nd Viscount St. Davids 19 Feb 1917 10 Jun 1991 74
10 Jun 1991 16 Colwyn Jestyn John Philipps, 3rd Viscount St. Davids 20 Jan 1939 26 Apr 2009 70
26 Apr 2009 17 Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, 4th Viscount St. Davids 16 Sep 1966
STRANGFORD
17 Jul 1628 V[I] 1 Sir Thomas Smythe
Created Viscount Strangford 17 Jul 1628
c 1599 30 Jun 1635
30 Jun 1635 2 Philip Smythe
MP for Hythe 1660‑1661
23 Mar 1634 8 Aug 1708 74
8 Aug 1708 3 Endymion Smythe 9 Nov 1724
9 Nov 1724 4 Philip Smythe 14 Mar 1715 29 Apr 1787 72
29 Apr 1787 5 Lionel Smythe 19 May 1753 1 Oct 1801 48
1 Oct 1801 6 Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe
Created Baron Penshurst 26 Jan 1825
PC 1808
31 Aug 1780 29 May 1855 74
29 May 1855 7 George Augustus Frederick Percy Sydney Smythe
MP for Canterbury 1841‑1852
16 Apr 1818 23 Nov 1857 39
23 Nov 1857
to    
9 Jan 1869
8 Percy Ellen Algernon Frederick William Sydney Smythe
Peerages extinct on his death
26 Nov 1825 9 Jan 1869 43
STRASBURGER
10 Jan 2011 B[L] Paul Cline Strasburger
Created Baron Strasburger for life 10 Jan 2011
31 Jul 1946
STRATFORD
23 Jun 2005
to    
8 Jan 2006
B[L] Anthony Louis Banks
Created Baron Stratford for life 23 Jun 2005
MP for Newham North West 1983‑1997 and West Ham 1997‑2005
Peerage extinct on his death
8 Apr 1943 8 Jan 2006 62
STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE
1 May 1852
to    
14 Aug 1880
V 1 Sir Stratford Canning
Created Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe 1 May 1852
MP for Old Sarum 1828‑1830, Stockbridge 1831‑1832 and Kings Lynn 1835‑1842; PC 1820; KG 1869
Peerage extinct on his death
4 Nov 1786 14 Aug 1880 93
STRATHALLAN
16 Aug 1686 V[S] 1 William Drummond
Created Lord Drummond of Cromlix and Viscount Strathallan 16 Aug 1686
c 1617 23 Mar 1688
23 Mar 1688 2 William Drummond
He succeeded as 4th Lord Maderty in 1692
8 Aug 1670 7 Jul 1702 31
7 Jul 1702 3 William Drummond 1694 26 May 1711 16
26 May 1711 4 William Drummond 14 Apr 1746
14 Apr 1746
to    
18 Apr 1746
5 James Drummond
He was attainted and the peerage forfeited
10 Jun 1722 22 Jun 1765 43
[22 Jun 1765] [James Drummond] 10 Dec 1775
[10 Dec 1775] [Andrew John Drummond] 1758 20 Jan 1817 58
[20 Jan 1817]
17 Jun 1824
 
6
James Andrew John Laurence Charles Drummond
He obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1824
MP for Perthshire 1812‑1824
24 Mar 1767 14 May 1851 84
14 May 1851 7 William Henry Drummond 5 Mar 1810 23 Jan 1886 75
23 Jan 1886 8 James David Drummond 23 Oct 1839 5 Dec 1893 54
5 Dec 1893 9 William Huntley Drummond
He succeeded to the Earldom of Perth in 1902 with which title this peerage then merged and so remains
5 Aug 1871 20 Aug 1937 66
STRATHALMOND
18 Feb 1955 B 1 William Fraser
Created Baron Strathalmond 18 Feb 1955
3 Nov 1888 1 Apr 1970 81
1 Apr 1970 2 William Fraser 8 May 1916 27 Oct 1976 60
27 Oct 1976 3 William Robertson Fraser 22 Jul 1947
STRATHAVON
3 Nov 1684 B[S] 1 George Gordon, 4th Marquess of Huntly
Created Lord Badenoch, Lochaber, Strathavon, Balmore, Auchindoun, Garthie and Kincardine, Viscount of Inverness, Earl of Huntly and Enzie, Marquess of Huntly and Duke of Gordon 3 Nov 1684
See "Gordon" - extinct 1836
c 1643 7 Dec 1716
STRATHCARRON
11 Jan 1936 B 1 Sir James Ian Macpherson, 1st baronet
Created Baron Strathcarron 11 Jan 1936
MP for Ross & Cromarty 1911-1935; Chief Secretary for Ireland 1919-1920; Minister of Pensions 1920-1922; PC 1918; PC [I] 1918
14 May 1880 14 Aug 1937 57
14 Aug 1937 2 David William Anthony Blyth Macpherson 22 Jan 1924 31 Aug 2006 82
31 Aug 2006 3 Ian David Patrick Macpherson 31 Mar 1949
STRATHCLYDE
15 Jan 1914
to    
2 Oct 1928
B 1 Alexander Ure
Created Baron Strathclyde 15 Jan 1914
MP for Linlithgowshire 1895‑1913; Solicitor General [S] 1905-1909; Lord Advocate 1909; Lord Justice General [S] 1913-1920; PC 1909
Peerage extinct on his death
22 Feb 1853 2 Oct 1928 75

4 May 1955 B 1 Thomas Dunlop Galbraith
Created Baron Strathclyde 4 May 1955
MP for Pollok 1940‑1955; Minister of State for Scotland 1955‑1958; PC 1953
20 Mar 1891 12 Jul 1985 94
12 Jul 1985 2 Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy de Blicquy Galbraith
PC 1995; CH 2013
[Elected hereditary peer 1999-]
22 Feb 1960
STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL
23 Aug 1897
to    
21 Jan 1914
26 Jun 1900
B
 
 
B
1
 
 
1
Donald Alexander Smith
Created Baron Strathcona & Mount Royal 23 Aug 1897 and 26 Jun 1900
For details of the special remainder included in the creation of the Barony of 1900, see the note at the foot of this page
On his death the Barony of 1897 became extinct whilst the Barony of 1900 passed to -
6 Aug 1820 21 Jan 1914 93
21 Jan 1914 2 Margaret Charlotte Howard 17 Jan 1854 18 Aug 1926 72
18 Aug 1926 3 Donald Stirling Palmer Howard
MP for Cumberland North 1922‑1926
14 Jun 1891 22 Feb 1959 67
22 Feb 1959 4 Donald Euan Palmer Howard 26 Nov 1923 16 Jun 2018 94
16 Jun 2018 5 Donald Alexander Smith Howard 24 Jun 1961
 

Wilfred Carlyle Stamp, 2nd Baron Stamp
On 16 April 1941, Josiah Charles Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, together with his wife and eldest son, Wilfred Carlyle Stamp, were killed when a German bomb hit their London house.
The question arose as to whether Lord Stamp or his son died first. If Lord Stamp died first, then Wilfred succeeded as the 2nd Baron Stamp, even if only for a split second. If Wilfred died first, then he never succeeded to the peerage. In either event, the peerage passed to the next eldest son, Trevor Charles Stamp, so that, either way, the descent of the peerage was not affected by the order of the deaths. However, the order of death would determine whether Wilfred's surviving family would enjoy the rights and style of a peer's widow and daughters.
Questions of the order of death had often, over previous centuries, exercised the minds of the Courts, and in particular the Probate Court, since, in default of evidence, there was no presumption that one of several persons involved in the same event outlived the others. Many early cases were more concerned with presumption of death. It was not uncommon 200 years ago, at a time when passage from say, England to Australia, took many months, both for people and for the mails, for people to leave England, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to be never heard from again. Such events raised a number of questions - who was entitled to any property left behind by the missing person?; at what point could a deserted spouse re-marry? Over time, it became generally accepted that a period of 7 years was sufficient to presume death.
The issue of presumption of death arises when there is no evidence of death, but what happens when one person, and another who would benefit in some way by the death of the first person, die in circumstances which render the order of their deaths uncertain? In most early cases, the Courts looked at the nature of the disaster and the comparative robustness of the parties in order to decide who had the best chance of surviving the other(s), even if only by a few seconds. Consequently, if, for example, a husband and wife both died in the same event, the Courts presumed that the husband, as the stronger party, survived his wife.
To settle this matter once and for all, the (British) Property Law Act of 1925 provided that 'in all cases where, after the commencement of this Act, two or more persons have died in circumstances rendering it uncertain which of them survived the other or others, such deaths shall (subject to the order of the court), for all purposes affecting the title to property, be presumed to have occurred in order of seniority, and accordingly the younger shall be deemed to have survived the elder.' It seems to me that this provision is, in some circumstances, highly doubtful - if a 30 year old man and his 6 month old son are shipwrecked in freezing waters, my money would be on the father surviving longer, but the law assumes the father dies first.
On 30 September 1941, based on the provision in the Property Law Act, the House of Lords approved the issuing of a writ to Trevor Stamp as the 3rd Baron Stamp, thereby assuming that Wilfred had succeeded as the 2nd Baron Stamp.
Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope
The following sketch of the 3rd Earl's life appeared in the Australian monthly magazine, Parade in its issue for April 1955:-
Crackpot or genius? That is the question that seems to have baffled most of the biographers of Charles Stanhope, 18th century statesman and scientist. Throughout his lifetime the eccentric earl had his contemporary Englishmen alternately agog with admiration, roaring with laughter, or white with fury; for his several outstanding achievements were so mixed with acts of what appeared to be sheer lunacy, and his disposition was so "wayward and excitable", that even his own family could not understand him.
One of his three daughters, Lady Hester Stanhope, eventually went off to Arabia to live in the desert like an Arab sheik; another eloped with the family apothecary. [For a biography of Lady Hester, see the next note after this.]
There was the time, for instance, when he invented a method of fire-proofing. At enormous cost, the earl caused to be erected an elaborate building for the sole purpose of burning it down. While the flames roared up from the basement, Stanhope sat in a room on the first floor that he had fire-proofed, emerging slightly singed but otherwise unhurt, thereby proving the merit of his invention. But it was a long time before people round about could be convinced that he wasn't a dangerous lunatic.
A scion of one of England's noblest and richest families, he was born in London in 1753. Even as a child he showed interest in scientific research, but he did not receive much encouragement from his parents; in fact, they forbade all mathematical studies to a boy who was one day to be considered one of the foremost mathematicians of his age, as being quite useless to his position as heir to a peerage. Nevertheless, Charles managed to cram his beloved figures secretly during his studies in Geneva while his parents thought he was engaged in literary pursuits.
When he returned to England from Switzerland he had absorbed enough of Genevan puritanism to be shocked and disgusted at the "goings-on" in fashionable London, where princes of the blood trifled with chambermaids, peers were found drunk in the gutters of Piccadilly, and more than one of the country's most influential statesmen lost fortunes at the gaming tables.
He at once attracted attention by refusing to wear powder or wig, and by "sleeping with no nightcap and the window open" in that stuffy age when fresh air by night was counted unhealthy.
Stanhope began his similarly independent career as a statesman as representative of High Wycombe, a post he held until his accession to the peerage in 1786 and his elevation to the Lords. From the moment he entered parliament, he was engaged in the most hectic series of political battles the House of Commons had seen staged in many a year. One of the firm friends of his youth was William Pitt, later Prime Minister, to whose star Stanhope at first hitched his wagon. Pitt was at that time an ardent reformer, and the friendship endured until 1789, when events made bitter enemies of the two. Meanwhile, in 1774, Stanhope had married Lady Hester Pitt, William Pitt's sister. Though he was fond of his wife, his main passion was already scientific research. The first year of the marriage was barren of issue - possibly because Stanhope was then engrossed in perfecting his fire-proofing invention. That done, however, he found more time for domestic matters; and towards the end of the second year, the more famous of his two daughters was born, the future Lady Hester Stanhope. The marriage was also blessed by the issue of a second daughter, the future Lady Lucy Rachel Stanhope, and four sons.
Coincident with the birth of his daughters he invented two remarkable calculating machines. The first, by means of cleverly constructed cogs and dial-plates, movable with a steel pin, performed formidable sums of addition and subtraction with speed and accuracy. The second solved division and multiplication problems.
His scientific interests and attainments brought Stanhope into contact with the American statesman-scientist Benjamin Franklin, who at that time was in England as ambassador for the newly-established republic of the United States. From him, Stanhope absorbed ultra-democratic principles that were later to make him an outcast among his fellow aristocrats, as "a revolutionary socialist pariah". With typical enthusiasm and fearlessness of consequences, he began to voice his democratic beliefs in parliament, and soon established a reputation as a man "of great verbal violence". In debates he was in the habit of wildly waving his arms, upsetting inkwells and generally turning even a mild discussion into bedlam.
In 1787 Stanhope joined an association in Parliament to work for the abolition of the slave trade. He had a number of savage encounters with the chief enemy of the abolitionists, Lord Thurlow, in which both sides used language that rocked even the fairly shock-proof Georgian Parliament.
After the question of slavery had been postponed because of war, Stanhope launched into the struggle for freedom of religious worship for Roman Catholics in Britain. While he was blasting the opposition with fierce debates on the subject, the bombshell of the French Revolution exploded. Stanhope, Pitt and Fox hailed the "rising of the masses in Paris" as the dawn of a new era, but Pitt and Fox later became opponents of the Revolution. Stanhope clung to his admiration of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" for the rest of his life, and so became a "minority of one" among his fellow peers and parliamentarians.
He formed a society, "Friends of the French Revolution", of which he was chairman, and engaged in cordial correspondence with various members of the National Assembly in Paris. In a series of letters he advised the new French government to establish a system of banking he had worked out to "abolish inequality of wealth once and for all". He also advised the rigid separation of Church and State in the new France, and recommended that no mercy should be shown to "counter-revolutionary aristocratic movements" - all of which was scarcely calculated to make him a popular figure in England, where despotism ruled in quaking fear of the Revolution's spreading. But, unmoved by anything but the dictates of his own conscience, Stanhope refused to be intimidated by public criticism. With much "verbal violence" and wild waving of arms, he vigorously argued and voted "as a minority of one" against Britain's interference in France's affairs, and against the Tories' endeavours to plunge the nation into war against the revolutionaries.
When the execution of King Louis and Queen Marie Antoinette swung public opinion on the side of the Tories and England joined Austria in war against France, he continued to exhort the nation against it. His was the only vote in the House opposing "interference in French internal affairs", and he was much abused at the time because of it. Later, a medal was struck in his honour, inscribed to "The Majority of One".
By now, the revolutionary Earl had become centre of a fierce controversy raging all over England. The Tory Party flooded the country with bitter caricatures of his lean and awkward figure, and his very appearance in parliament was signalled by a barrage of hisses, catcalls, and shouts of "Jacobine". The public in whose interests he fought had also turned against him. Abroad he was hailed as a courageous champion of liberty, but at home he was depicted in cartoons as a traitor assisting a French army of invasion.
With redoubled zeal, the Earl returned to scientific pursuits and experimental mechanics. He began to dabble with the idea of steam as a means of naval propulsion, and long before Fulton designed his first steam-powered boat, constructed a series of steam-driven models using various forms of paddles.
He also invented the first hand-operated printing machine entirely made of iron. Known as the Stanhope Press, it proved a considerable aid to the printing industry and long remained in use. Realising "what a material thing it is to prevents nuts from unscrewing", he invented the ingenious little contrivance used to this day in almost every form of machinery, the split pin.
His attempts to develop steam navigation were frustrated by the conservatism of the Admiralty Board. Turning to the study of waterways, Stanhope drew up plans and surveyed the course for a ship-carrying canal across Devonshire. Apathy greeted this idea, too, though, later, it was proved to be eminently sound.
While engaged on these inventions and in scientific researches that produced a lens bearing his name an a monochord for tuning musical instruments, he tried his hand at authorship, penning "Reflections on the French Revolution" [1790] and an "Essay on the Rights of Juries" [1792], that enhanced his reputation as a liberal-minded free-thinker.
He had a brief moment of triumph upon the abolition of slavery in 1804, but the rest of his second political period, which lasted until 1811, was spent in hectic but fruitless debates on corn-law reform and broader religious liberties that had their fruition after his death.
Frustrated in politics, Stanhope vented his spleen on his family, with the result that his home life at Chevening Manor became unbearable. His first wife had died in 1780 [aged only 24], and a year later he married Louisa Grenville, daughter and heiress of Lord Grenville. He soon found he had nothing in common with his second wife, a conservative and rather petty woman who was completely baffled by the "revolutionary" activities of her husband. He had never felt any deep affection for his children, and as his unpopular political ideals divested him of friends, he came to depend less and less on human sympathy, and his character became hard and unyielding.
Lucy, his youngest daughter, led the way by falling in love with [Thomas] Taylor, the family doctor. Stanhope's democratic principles did not cover a case like that, and when Lucy married the medico against his wishes Stanhope ceased to regard her as his daughter. Another daughter, Griselda, left home suddenly and later married an obscure army officer. Stanhope's eldest son, [Viscount] Mahon, was guarded like a prisoner and treated in such a manner that he was finally forced to flee with the aid of his elder sister, Hester. After that, Stanhope's behaviour towards his other sons grew outrageous and flogging was an almost daily occurrence.
In 1808, Stanhope's son Mahon charged his father with felling and selling timber rightfully belonging to himself. The court gave a decision in Mahon's favour. It was the bitterest humiliation in Stanhope's life. Stricken with dropsy and depending solely on his wife for company, Stanhope's last years were the unhappiest of an unhappy life. He died at Chevening in 1816, an embittered terribly lonely old man, who, as one of his biographers puts it, "had just missed greatness by an inch".
Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (12 March 1776‑23 June 1839), daughter of the 3rd Earl Stanhope
The following biography of Lady Hester Stanhope appeared in the April 1949 issue of the Australian monthly magazine Parade:-
Women, according to man-made tradition, are notoriously apt to do the queerest things at the oddest times. Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope was one woman who justified the tradition in no uncertain manner. At the height of her fame and popularity in London society as the beautiful and brainy niece of England's famous William Pitt the elder, at the beginning of the last [i.e. 19th] century she chose to run off and install herself as a kind of woman sheikh in a grim and grimy "castle" on the lonely summit of Mount Lebanon in Syria.
Born in the great halls of Chevening Manor, Kent, reared in the atmosphere of high society, scion of three noble houses, the Pitts, the Grenvilles and the Stanhopes, the darling of Mayfair drawing rooms, and the mistress of Downing Street, she ended her life alone and forlorn on a wind-swept mountain top, walled up in a fortress tomb of her own making, a senile old woman on a bed of rags. By "ordinary" standards it was an insane thing to do; but Lady Hester, though she was anything but an ordinary kind of woman, was by no means insane. A regal type nearly six feet tall, she had a shrewd mind and brilliant intelligence besides an impressive beauty of face and figure. That she was not just a crank is proven by the fact that for twenty‑five years she maintained herself as the acknowledged leader of an extensive Arab domain, and grew to be respected by the British Government as the female Lawrence of Arabia of her time.
The year of the American Declaration of Independence, 1776, witnessed her birth, and from her father, Charles, Viscount Mahon, later third Earl Stanhope, she, too, inherited an unquenchable independence. From her mother, Lady Hester Pitt, sister of England's great Prime Minister, came some of the other qualities which were to make her an extraordinary figure - a keen and inquiring mind, a flair for argument, and a certain imperiousness which won respect even when it inspired resentment. As a child, Hester laid down the law to her sisters and dominated the household generally - that is, all the members of it except her father, who alone had a temperament to match that of his wayward and headstrong daughter.
As a blossoming young woman, flattered and courted by male society, she was continually at loggerheads with her erratic, tyrannical father who brooked few contradictions outside his home and none at all inside it. No one house could hold two such personalities together for long. Although many suitors came none had what it takes to embark upon the sea of matrimony with such a bouncing mate, at the helm as the beautiful Hester. There were many flirtations, and scandal attached to the wayward Hester's name from her associations with the mad and murderous Lord Camelford, her cousin, who shot his superior officer in the Navy during a fit of insane fury. But no proposal came and in 1804 Camelford was himself shot dead in a duel in the fields of Kensington.
Hester travelled abroad seeking diversion in the rowdy society of her uncle's, Lord Chatham, military camps on the Continent. For peace and harmony's sake she packed her bags at the age of 27 and departed from home to serve her cousin, William Pitt, the younger, then battling to save England from Napoleon. She had had very little education, but fulfilled the duties of a secretary to Prime Minister Pitt and mistress of Downing Street with talent becoming the statesman like qualities of her famous uncle, winning the approval and friendship of the erratic sovereign George III himself. Stately, imperious and autocratic, she ruled the Pitt ménage with the lash of a biting tongue that spared neither prince nor peer, ever watchful of her adored cousin's interests. The association lasted three years. In 1806 Pitt succumbed at last to 32 years of over-indulgence in port on which he had been weaned as a child to cure him of anaemia.
During this period Hester had more stormy and scandalous love affairs, but still no proposals of marriage. Her love-making was too violent and demanding for her suitors whom she dropped by the wayside to be wooed and captured by lesser women. The death of Pitt left Hester impoverished and in poor health, but beforehand he had asked Parliament if it wished to honour him to provide for her. This it did with a pension of £1200 a year. After a period of bitter grief Hester was once more embroiled in scandal, her name being coupled with many men, among them Foreign Secretary George Canning, soldier Sir John Moore, hero of Corunna, and Lord Granville Leveson‑Gower.
Four years after Pitt's death Hester decided to quit her homeland for ever. Her health still poor, she engaged a young impecunious doctor, Charles Meryon, to accompany her, and set out on the travels that were to land her in the lonely heights of Lebanon. On February 10, 1810, she embarked for Sicily on the frigate Jason, one of the guardians of a merchant convoy bound for Gibraltar. Ill winds and violent storms dogged the ship which narrowly escaped being smashed to pieces on the shoals of Trafalgar. Nearly a month passed before Lady Hester stepped ashore to be greeted by the company she liked, the rough and hearty garrison officers of Gibraltar. Though rising 35 she laid siege to and conquered the heart of a 22-year-old wealthy socialite, Michael Bruce. With Dr. Meryon tagging along, nursing an unrequited passion, the trio sailed on to Malta.
Four months later the capricious lady set sail down the coast of Greece - then a Turkish domain - for Corinth, where she was entertained in regal splendour by the Turkish Bey. For a time she and her consort, Bruce, and the ubiquitous doctor set up house in Constantinople, where her daring in riding unveiled through the streets attracted the interest of His August Majesty the Sultan Mahmoud, Commander of the Faithful, debauched and insensate monarch of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
Here Lady Hester gained the acquaintance and friendship of several powerful Turkish pashas, while she maintained court for all the English residents and travellers who chose to visit her. She shocked the Turks by patronising bathing houses as a Turkish lady, by inspecting the Turkish fleet dressed as a man and by other defiances of the conventions. But her wit and hospitality won their esteem.
Soon Constantinople began to chafe her restless spirit and her entourage set sail on a ricketty Greek sailing vessel for Egypt. The boat was wrecked off Rhodes by a storm. Hester, Bruce and the doctor were washed up on a nearby rocky island, all their possessions, except a pocketful of sovereigns and a pair of pistols, sunk to the bottom of the Aegean Sea. Picked up by a passing ship after a miserable day-and-night fight against hordes of ravenous rats, the fantastic trio were given shelter on the island of Rhodes, where for months Hester lived and dressed like a Turk.
When she did reach Egypt and was entertained by the Turkish Pasha Mehamet Ali, then conspiring to break away from the domination of the Sultan, Lady Hester stuck to the garb of a glorified Barbary pirate - pantaloons of purple and gold, girdle and sash of brocaded velvet, jewelled dagger and all. The swashbuckling Albanian adventurer, Mehamet Ali, founder of the present Royal House of Egypt, and the convention-defying Lady Hester had much in common and spent a lot of time in each other's company. Mehamet paid her the unusual compliment, for a Turk, of receiving her standing.
From Egypt, Hester journeyed into Palestine. Legends of her popularity with Mehamet Ali Pasha and of her beauty, courage and generosity everywhere preceded her. After many adventures she was invited by the Emir Bechir, leader of the Druses, to visit him in his palace, at the Druse capital of Deir El Kammar in the Lebanon. The Druses were and are a mysterious race, speaking Arabic, but of Aryan descent, with a religion neither Mohammedan, Christian nor Jewish, but having some qualities from each. Savage, fearless fighters, they have fought all-comers for centuries to preserve intact their strange religion and semi-feudalistic form of society. Bruce soon tired of life among these people and left for Aleppo. But Hester stayed on, entranced by the homage paid her by the Druses.
Returning after a while to Damascus, she set up court as a kind of Anglo-Turkish potentate, living the life of a man in the Moslem quarter, and journeying into the desert dressed as an Arab sheik. In these journeys she gained an extensive knowledge of the mixed politics and ways of life of the peoples of Asia Minor, living among the Bedouin sheiks as an equal. Her popularity with the native peoples rose to its zenith in 1813, when, after a dangerous crossing of hundreds of miles of mountain and desert, the battlegrounds of a dozen warring tribes, she entered the ancient town of Palmyra to be crowned Melika (Queen) of the Arabs.
If the Lady Hester, now deserted by her lover, but still followed by her faithful medico, had any intention of ever returning to England the decision was taken from her by the great plague which just then swept through Asia Minor in the wake of war. Stricken by the plague and her health irreparably weakened, she established herself in the tumble-down buildings of a former Greek convent, Mar Elias, on a lonely mountainside near Sidon on the way to Deir El Kammar. Here she became the chatelaine of a considerable retinue of native servants and a kind of feudal baroness of the villagers round about. Her household was presided over by a huge Arab dragoman and the diminutive but ever loyal Dr. Meryon. An English maidservant, Anne Fry, was the sole companion of her own sex.
She lived thus for seven years, making many journeys into the remote interior of Asia Minor and Arabia. By order of the Sultan, every door was open to her. Soliman Pasha accorded her the dignity of royalty. She became the intermediary for Continental governments to the court of Constantinople. Her influence with the King of France on one occasion saved her erstwhile lover, Bruce, from gaol. At another time dire revenge was wreaked by her orders against the native Ansarys for their murder of a French government agent. Fifty-two villages were razed to the ground. Her word was virtually law throughout Syria. Her audacity won for her the reputation of a supernatural being. She herself believed that she was destined to become Queen of Jerusalem. Her vengeance on the Ansary tribes gained her the title "Defender of the Oppressed". Arab sheiks as well as Europeans sought audience with her in her remote mountain home. She was the acknowledged mistress of the Lebanon.
When Lady Hester was 44 she had another bizarre love affair with a young ex-officer of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, who came to Syria looking for his father who had been shipwrecked off the coast some years before. The young officer died at Mar Elias. The saddened Hester moved to a ruined monastery in an even more remote part of the Lebanon, on a bare mountain top above the Druse village of Djoun, taking the bones of her lover with her. Here she lived the life of a female prophetess, sleeping most of the day and coming out to study the stars at night. She remodelled her monastery as an impregnable fortress. Outside the walls there was nothing but barren mountain and empty valley; inside was a kind of feudal Eden.
For 18 years Lady Hester lived at Djoun attended by one lone Englishwoman. Dr. Meryon she sent back to England, where he married. Ill-health and debt began to overwhelm the ageing Hester as the years passed. Her influential friends died one by one and only the veneration of the Druses and the desert sheiks prevented her being driven out of the country by an unfriendly Emir. Gradually her mind began to fail; she began to dabble in magic and necromancy. Many distinguished travellers from Europe came to see her, but went away convinced that she was mad. Her superstitious native servants began to flee from her in terror.
At last one morning Hester awoke to find herself alone. Her Englishwoman companion had died during the night and the last of the native servants had fled. She was found days later lying in her bed, stiff and cold and on the verge of death from starvation, by a little Metoulay girl. The loyal Dr. Meryon returned with his wife to look after her. He was shocked at the change. Her sole attendant was a Nubian slave who slept in the doorway of the only room that was habitable in the many crumbling buildings of Djoun. The walls were tottering and the courtyards knee-high in weeds. Filth and squalor were everywhere. Meryon restored some semblances of order to this strange ménage and Hester recovered sufficient of her old strength and courage to hurl verbal shafts at the invading Mehamet Ali of Egypt, then in the process of conquering the Asiatic provinces of the Turkish Sultan.
Djoun again became crowded with refugees from the Egyptian invaders. The Druses were overcome, but Mehamet Ali hesitated to violate the domains of the queer Englishwoman though she repeatedly defied him. But poverty was pressing her hard. She appealed to England for aid and was refused. The refusal affected her deeply. She had the entrance to Djoun bricked up and swore never to communicate with the outside world again. On an afternoon in June, 1839, she died with only Dr. Meryon at her bedside. The next afternoon she was buried in one of the weedy courtyards of Djoun. One of the strangest woman adventurers in history had at last found peace.
Henry Edward John Stanley, third Baron Stanley of Alderley and second Baron Eddisbury
Stanley was the first Muslim peer, having converted to Islam in 1862. This conversion did not however, prevent him restoring the Llanbadrig Church (Welsh for the "Church of St. Patrick") on Anglesey.
Since alcohol is forbidden in Islam, he did, however, order the closure of all public houses and inns in Nether Alderley.
Stanley "married" three times - in 1862, 1869 and 1874 - to the same woman, Fabia, daughter of Santiago Federico San Roman, of Seville in Spain. The 1869 "marriage" was performed in the St. George, Hanover Square Registry Office and the 1874 "marriage" at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Alban in Macclesfield. It was later discovered that Fabia was identical with Serafina Fernandez y Funes of Alcandete, Jaen in Spain who had previously married a Ramon Peres y Abril in 1851. He died in 1870. As a result, the "marriages" of 1862 and 1869 were bigamous. As no children were born of these "marriages", the succession of the titles upon his death did not become an issue.
At Stanley's funeral in 1903, as the coffin was being lowered into the grave, Stanley's nephew removed his hat out of respect, whereupon Stanley's brother Algernon, who was a Roman Catholic bishop, said "Not your hat, you fool, your boots!"
The claim that the second Earl of Landaff was the first Muslim peer, as stated by Dr. Yaqub Zaki in a letter to Times Online in December 2007, appears to me to be highly doubtful.
The special remainder to the Barony of Stawell created in 1760
From the London Gazette of 17 May 1760 (issue 10001, page 1):-
The King has been pleased to grant unto the Honourable Mary Legge, Wife of the Right Honourable Henry Bilosn Legge, the Dignity of a Baroness of the Kingdom of Great Britain, by the Name, Stile and Title of Baroness Stawell, of Somerton, in the County of Somerset, and the Dignity of Baron Stawell, of Somerton, in the said County of Somerset, to her Heirs Male, by the said Henry Bilson Legge, her present Husband.
The Stirling Peerage claim of 1834‑1839
The following article, written by Dalrymple Belgrave, is taken from a series entitled Romances of High Life published in the Manchester Times in 1898:-
History tells us that James I granted a charter to his favourite, Sir William Alexander - courtier, poet, and Secretary of State for Scotland - giving him the whole of Nova Scotia, so that he could found a colony, with the right of making knights baronet of Nova Scotia, in order to raise money for colonisation. James afterwards, by another charter, granted him the whole of Canada, and Charles I confirmed these charters. They were, indeed, stupendous gifts, but it happened that French claims to Canada and Nova Scotia, and French ability in the Stuart reigns to enforce these claims, prevented their being of much effect. France always asserted her right to Canada. In Nova Scotia Alexander attempted to found colonies, but they were failures, and there was no successful colonisation there before 1667, when the French claims to the country were allowed.
In 1628 [actually 1630] Charles I created Alexander Viscount Stirling. Two years afterwards [but actually in 1633] he created him Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada, the peerage being granted to him and his heirs male. The first Earl died in 1640, and then there were four more Earls, his descendants. The fifth Earl died in 1739 and then the peerage became extinct or dormant, as there were no more male descendants of the first Earl. It was not allowed to sleep in peace. In 1760 an American Alexander - who afterwards fought against England in the War of Independence, and became a general - claimed the peerage, as the male heir of the first Earl's brother. He failed, however, to prove his claim. Early in this [the 19th] century there was a more remarkable claim. The claimant was a Mr. Alexander Humphreys. He was born in 1784, the son of a respectable and fairly affluent Birmingham merchant. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. John Alexander, a Presbyterian minister at Stratford-on-Avon. The Humphreys, father and son, were unfortunate enough to visit France in 1802, and to become victims to Napoleon's spite, as on war breaking out again he made prisoners of all the English tourists. The imprisonment ruined the family business, and in 1807 Mr. Humphreys the elder died in exile. The son's imprisonment, which lasted until 1814, was probably made less irksome by the fact that he met with a Neapolitan lady, Fortunata Barolloti, whom he married in 1812.
This lady had a rather remarkable friend, a Madame Le Norman, who, under the sympathetic surroundings of the First Empire, had made a reputation in the curious calling of a fortune-teller who told fortunes by cutting the cards and other methods. She told the fortune of her friend's husband, charging him one hundred francs for it. "He will encounter many toils and distresses, but will arrive at great honours." The toils and distresses came soon enough on his return to his native land, in the shape of an unsuccessful attempt to start a school, combined with the trade of a wine merchant. A few years after his return he attempted to arrive at greater honours by claiming the Earldom of Stirling. There seemed to be a difficulty in his way, for the original grant was to the first Earl and his heirs male, while Mr. Alexander Humphreys, or Alexander, as he then called himself, claimed through his mother. This difficulty, however, the claimant got over. Near the end of the first Earl's life, he said two of his sons had died, and being afraid that he would be left without sons he had resigned all his gifts to the Crown, and had received a new charter or Novodamus from the King, granting them all again to him and to the heirs male of his body, and to the eldest heir female of the last of his heirs male, and to her heir male. Where was that charter? Well, the claimant said, it had been stolen from his grandmother by the American claimant. It had been registered in the register of the Great Seal, but that part of the register was missing; and as a matter of fact there were some missing pages in the register. The claimant's evidence at first consisted of family papers. In 1723, his grandfather, the Rev. John, who was the son of John Alexander, of Antrim - the son of another John, who was the fourth son of the first Earl - made inquiries into the peerage. There was a letter to him from a Mr. Gordon, whom he had employed to look into matters, and who read the Novodamus, which was then, for some unexplained reason, in the possession of T. Conyers, Esq., of Castleclaigh, Ireland, and he gave an account of the limitations of the grant, which was of the title and the Nova Scotian and Canadian rights.
The letter said that Mr. Conyers would give up the charter, and on the letter the Rev. John had made a note that he had obtained the charter, and that the writer of the letter gave an exact description of the limitations.
On the strength of this evidence he took the title of the Earl of Stirling, but his enjoyment of it was limited by pecuniary embarrassment, and he was unsuccessful in attempting to raise money. In about 1824 he employed a Mr. Thomas Christopher Banks, a gentleman who had written a book on dormant peerages, and had great faith in the possibilities of a peerage claim. When he was in Ireland this gentleman made the first of a series of wonderful finds which were characteristic of the story. Someone sent to his hotel at Carlow a packet which contained an ancient document, which turned out to be an excerpt or copy of the deed of Novodamus. It was initialled by Mr. Conyers, who endorsed upon it that the original document was in his keeping. Encouraged by this, the claimant began to prosecute his claim vigorously.
In attempting to prove the tenour of the lost charter on the strength of the "excerpt" he was unsuccessful. The courts held he had not sufficient evidence. Probably he was confident that more evidence would turn up. Then he set to work to prove his pedigree. The Scotch law helped him in doing this, for it appeared that a person who wished to prove a question of pedigree could have the matter inquired into by a sheriff and a jury. In such an inquiry there would be no opposition, and any verdict obtained could not be set aside or challenged for 20 years. In this way he obtained a decree that he was the great-great-great grandson of the first Earl of Stirling, and heir to all his ancestors' property in Scotland, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Such a decree was of great importance to him, as it enabled him to raise £50,000. He also opened an office in Parliament-street for the sale of grants of land in Canada. As Hereditary Lieutenant of Nova Scotia he exercised his privilege of granting the dignity of a baronetcy of Nova Scotia to his friends and supporters. To this dignity, he raised Sir Thomas Christopher Banks, also rewarding him with a large grant of land. He claimed all the dignities of his Scotch peerage, while to the inhabitants of Canada he published an almost regal proclamation. He claimed the privilege to do homage at the coronation of William IV [in September 1831] as Lieutenant of Canada, and protested against the appointment of a Governor-General of that Colony.
By this time he had taken a house in a fashionable quarter, and was beginning to live in great style and splendour. For some years, the Earl enjoyed his title, raising money on his prospects, and congratulating himself and his creditors on the progress of his cause. Needless to say, he managed to interest a large portion of the press in his favour, and paragraphs about Lord Stirling were constantly appearing. His daughter married a gentleman whose position and prospects in life seem to have been a good deal better that her own, but it was announced in the papers as an elopement in high life. Lord Stirling granted one of his supporters a right to be buried in the ancient burying-place of the Earls of Stirling, and this found its way into the papers. Somewhat tardily, the Crown lawyers determined to put a check on the Earl's career. In 1834 they began proceedings under the Scotch law to obtain a decree that everything the claimant had hitherto done to establish his claim was null and void, that he was not the great-great-great grandson of the first Earl of Stirling, and that the documents which he had produced were forgeries.
About this time rather an ominous thing happened. Sir Thomas Christopher Banks, the newly-created baronet of Nova Scotia, found it prudent to quarrel with and separate himself from his friend and patron the Earl, and he even went so far as to renounce his grant of land and baronetcy. In the year 1836 the matter was tried before the Lord Ordinary, Lord Cockburn. The claimant's pedigree was a simple one enough. John, the fourth son of the first Earl of Stirling, had married a Miss Agnes Graham, the heiress of Gartmoor. He had by this marriage one son, John, who lived at Antrim, married, and had son, the Rev. John, who was the claimant's grandfather. The first John died in 1666, the second John died in 1712, and the third John died in 1743. So the Rev. John had been 'de jure' Earl of Stirling for five [sic] years without taking any steps to assert his rights, although, according to the claimant's story, some years before he had greatly interested himself in the matter.
The evidence tendered by the claimant on that occasion may be divided into two heads - the family papers, which had been collected by the Rev. John in 1723, when he inquired into his pedigree; and an inscription on the tomb of John the second, which undoubtedly proved the case, if it were believed, as neatly as if it had been made for the purpose. Under the first heading there were two affidavits that had been sworn in 1723. One was by Mr. Hovenden, who had been employed to examine the Charter of Novodamus. To the Novodamus most of his declaration related, but it began by saying he was well acquainted with the Rev. John Alexander, who was the grandson and only male representative of the Hon. John Alexander, of Gartmoor. Then there was an affidavit of a Sarah Lyners, who had been nurse to John of Antrim (John the second) when the Rev. John was born, that while she, when a girl, was in the service of Lady Montgomery, who had been an Alexander, she had seen John the first and John the second at her mistress's house, and knew they were father and son. The inscription was to the memory of John Alexander of Antrim. It spoke of him in the highest terms, as such inscriptions do, and, what was more to the point, said that he was the only son of the Hon. John Alexander, the fourth son of the first Earl of Stirling, and father of the Rev. John Alexander, Presbyterian minister, of Stratford-on-Avon. Now all the proof there was of this was a copy of it on what seemed to have been a page torn out of a book. There was a note on it: "Inscription on my grandfather's tomb at Newton, copied by Mr. Lyttelton". There was another note: "This leaf taken out of poor John's Bible, and put up with other family papers for my son Benjamin." This note was dated 1766, and signed by the widow of the Rev. John and three other persons. On the other hand, it was admitted that the tombstone no longer existed, but there were affidavits of two very old persons at Newton that they remembered having heard that there was such a tombstone.
Such was the claimant's case. That he was the grandson of the Rev. John there was no question. That there was an Hon. John, fourth son of the first Earl of Stirling, who married Agnes Graham, of Gartmoor, there was no question. But the Crown lawyers showed that the Hon. John and Agnes Graham had only one child, a daughter, for she inherited some Graham property as her mother's heir-at-law. Then, argued the plaintiff, there must have been a second marriage, the proof of which was that there was John of Antrim, the lawful son of the Hon. John. But John of Antrim's existence was just what the Crown lawyers denied. Lord Cockburn's judgment was that the claimant had failed to prove that the Rev. John Alexander was the son of John Alexander, of Antrim, and that he had also failed to prove that John of Antrim was the son of the Hon. John Alexander. This practically wiped out everything the plaintiff had done. It is not surprising that under these circumstances the claimant should find London, where he had raised large sums of money upon his prospects, and where he had opened the office in Parliament-street for the sale of grants of land in Canada and Nova Scotia, a somewhat troublesome place of residence. He made a hurried start for the Continent, without leaving an address for his supporters and creditors. In Paris he lived in considerable seclusion, spending a good deal of time at the house of Madame Le Norman. The latter was then seventy-five years old, but for her trade old age is an advantage, and she was daily gaining in reputation. She still appears to have believed in the destiny of the Earl of Stirling to triumph over all his misfortunes. His circumstances seemed dark enough; but suddenly there came a brilliant burst of light.
First one and then another wonderful thing happened. The claimant, of course, had published a statement of his rights and wrongs, and this had been published in London by Messrs De Porquet, booksellers. In April, 1837, Messrs De Porquet received a letter and a parcel. The former purported to be from a Mr. Innes Smith, who begged the publishers that they would send the packet to the Earl of Stirling, or any member of his lordship's family. The letter was sent to one of the claimant's sons, Mr. Eugene Alexander. Though the packet was directed to the Earl of Stirling, the young man determined that the best thing he could do was to open it himself. It was right, he thought, to have official witnesses of this act. He went to a public notary. Before the notary he opened the packet. Inside it were a parchment packet and a letter to the Earl of Stirling. On the packet was written: "Some of my wife's family papers". The letter, which was unsigned, was to the effect that the parchment packet was part of the contents of a cash-box, containing a good deal of money, that had been stolen from Mr. Humphreys 40 years before. The thief, who had been in a respectable position, had never been suspected. The thief had lately died, and his widow, having read Lord Stirling's case, had determined to send him the packet, which the thief had never dared to open. The letter concluded by saying that the writer, though willing to help Lord Stirling, would not make any disclosures which would bring disgrace on the family of the thief. Young Alexander then went with the parchment packet to a proctor of Doctors' Commons, where it was opened.
The packet contained two most important documents. One was a letter from one of the sons of the Rev. John Alexander, who had gone to Newton to inquire about the tombstone, to his brother. The letter said that the stone had been taken, but it went on: "You need not mind this, as you have Mr. Lyttelton's copy, which can be proved". It referred also to a memorandum on the back of a portrait of John of Antrim, which said that he had been educated under the eye of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Maxwell, and that he attained high distinction as a scholar. There was also a letter of about the same date, 1765, from a Mr. Bailie, who said that he was at John of Antrim's funeral when he was 21 years old, expressed his regret for a lawless act at Newton, the destruction of the tombstone by the American claimant, and went on to say: - "Your great-grandfather, the Hon. John Alexander, who was known as Mr. Alexander, of Gartmoor, died at Derry, but the parish registers were destroyed in 1689". This find, however, was nothing compared with one made by the famous Madame Le Norman. This windfall turned up also anonymously. Someone, who said he had been greatly served by Madame Le Norman, and wished to show her that she had not obliged an ungrateful man, sent her a document which he said would prove the case of Lord Stirling, in whom she was interested. He had kept it because of the interest of the autographs on it. He could not come forward personally, as he was in an official position. The foundation of this document was a map of Nova Scotia and Canada by the celebrated Guillaume Delisle, Premier Geographe du Roi, and it was dated 1703. On the back of this map there had been various notes written by various celebrated people, while some letters had also been pasted upon the back. Now, all these letters and notes referred to the rights which the Earls of Stirling had been granted by James and Charles. It appeared that for some reason a Monsieur Mallet wished to obtain information about the descendants of William, Earl of Stirling, as he had resided in Arcadie (Nova Scotia), and seen in the archives of that province an ancient document, the wonderful charter of grant of Novodamus to William, Earl of Stirling. Of this and of the terms of the grant he made a note, dated August 4th, 1706, on the back of the map, together with the curious note that if Canada was ever conquered by England the Earls of Stirling would own the whole of the country. This appeared to be the reason why various Frenchmen took an interest in the charter. Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, it appears, saw the map, and read over Mallet's note, and on June 3rd, 1707, wrote an endorsement to it that he had read a copy of the famous charter, and considered that M. Mallet's abstract was wonderfully accurate. That year Mallet died, but someone applied for more information to Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray. That famous man appeared to know that the Marchioness de Lambert was very intimate with John Alexander, of Antrim. She obtained from him a letter giving a full account of his family, and referring to the famous charter, which he said had been registered in Scotland, but the book containing its registration had been lost. Then on this wonderful map there was a note by no less a person than Louis XIV, who said: "Let the original charter be obtained". Then there was the inscription from the tombstone as the claimant had it, with a statement that it was from his father's tomb, signed in 1723 by the Rev. John.
These two finds were undoubtedly very wonderful, so wonderful that when the claimant attempted to put them in evidence in the Scotch courts he was subjected to very severe interrogation by the court. His explanations were thought so very unsatisfactory that it resulted in his being charged with perjury.
His trial came on at Edinburgh early in the year 1839. The judge who tried the case was Lord Meadowbank. There were three charges against the prisoner. He was charged with having forged and uttered, knowing it was forged, the excerpt of the charter. Then he was charged with having forged the documents on the map; and he was charged with having forged and uttered the documents which had been received by the publishers. Though the prisoner's position now looked very black, he still had many friends. His cause had been popular with the poor people, while several gentlemen of character and position, who had been at school with him, retained a high regard for him, and believed that he was a man who would never be guilty of fraud or falsehood. One of these was a Colonel D'Aguilar, a distinguished officer who was Deputy Adjutant-General of the Forces in Ireland. He showed the regard he had for the prisoner by sitting beside him in the dock all through the trial. As to the "excerpt", the evidence for the prosecution to show that it was a forgery might be divided into two heads - internal evidence, derived from the document itself; and external evidence, which showed that the document of which it supposed to be a copy could never have been in existence.
It was shown that in the supposed copy there were certain terms which were never in a Royal charter. Then, on it, there was a reference to the Reg. Mag. Sig. Lib. LVII. This was obviously abbreviated Latin for Register of the Great Seal Book 57, but it was proved for the prosecution that it was not until the year 1800 that the register had been divided into books, and, therefore, such a reference on a document supposed to have been written in 1723 must be a forgery. An even more conclusive piece of evidence to prove a forgery was that the date on the supposed charter was December 7th, 1639. The first charter was witnessed on that day by John, Archbishop of St. Andrews - our Chancellor, and to it there was the signature of this Archbishop, John Spottiswoode. But Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St. Andrews, who had been Chancellor, had ceased to be Chancellor a year before, while it was shown by his tombstone in Westminster Abbey that he died in London on November 25th, 1639. So the charter had been witnessed by a dead man. The prosecution were also able to suggest how the mistake arose by putting in a well-known book, "Crawford's Lives", in which there was a mistake made as to the year of the Archbishop's death, while he was stated to have been Chancellor from 1635 to 1641. As to the external evidence, it was admitted that there were some leaves missing from the 57th volume of the register of the Great Seal, but there was an index, which showed what charter would have been on those [missing] pages. It was proved also that if there had been any such charter it would not only have been registered in the book of the Great Seal, but in three other different registers, which were quite complete, and in none of them was there any mention of it. It was the boast of Scotland, so said Lord Meadowbank, that in no other country were the registers so well kept.
The French documents were rather cleverly done, and there was expert evidence in favour of the signatures, but the forger had made one great mistake, which was absolutely fatal. On the map which was the ground work of the forgeries was the date 1703. But the prosecution was able to show that particular copy could not have been published until 1718. The date 1703 was when the map had been first published, and copyright for it had been obtained, but it was not until 1718 that Delisle had been appointed Premier Geographe du Roi. Before that date Fenelon and Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, were both dead. So they had written on a document which was not in existence until after their death.
As to the map, a very curious incident happened during the trial. The copy of the inscription on the tombstone had been pasted on to the back of the map. No one had thought of removing it, but during the trial, owing either to the heat of the court or handling it, one corner began to turn up. It was clear there was writing underneath. The document was removed, and then it was found that it was pasted over what was evidently a bad attempt at a forgery of Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray's, signature to some notes about the Alexanders.
The proof that the documents sent to the publishers were forgeries was not so strong, though, of course, no one would believe that, if the other documents were forgeries, they were genuine. The point of the case on which the main stress came was whether it was proved that the prisoner forged these documents, or knew that they were forged. Of course, there was the fact for the prosecution that they were mainly of use to him. Then they proved that about the time Madame Le Norman found the wonderful map the prisoner was in daily communication with her. It was proved that he had given that celebrated lady a bond for no less than £16,000. Then came some rather interesting correspondence between the prisoner and Madame, which was rather like that of two conspirators. Madame reminded him in one letter that in a struggle so one sided as his, all means are fair, and begged him to look carefully over his papers. She wrote: "I will not have my reputation, which is European, taken away by your countrymen". Other letters seemed to be prompting him to say that the bond was for money she had lent him. "As I would look with abhorrence on myself if I were so far the slave of cupidity as to exact a high remuneration for a friendly service."
The prisoner's counsel, Mr. Robertson, though he fought the question of forgery, put all the stress of the defence on the point of guilty knowledge. The prisoner was a gullible man, who had been made a tool of by others. It was to this point that he used with effect the strong evidence of good character [that] Colonel D'Aguilar and other witnesses gave the prisoner, for the jury found that, while the excerpt was a forgery, and the Le Norman documents were forgeries, it was not proven that the prisoner knew them to be forged. As for the other documents, they held it was not proven that they were forged. So the prisoner was acquitted; but no more was heard of his claims to the Stirling Peerage.
Charles Stourton, 8th Baron Stourton
When the 7th Baron Stourton died, his son Charles, the 8th Baron, apparently entertained some fears regarding his inheritance. Accordingly, he drew up a document binding his mother, Lady Stourton, not to re-marry. Lady Stourton was hesitant, and refused to sign the document until she had consulted with George Hartgill, a gentleman farmer and neighbour, in whose integrity the whole of the surrounding county of Wiltshire trusted. Hartgill read the document and advised Lady Stourton not to sign it until her son had assigned her a fixed income. Lady Stourton heeded his advice.
Stourton, unaccustomed to having his wishes flouted, flew into a violent rage and threatened to kill Hartgill unless he reversed his decision, but Hartgill stood firm. The following Sunday, Stourton gathered a gang of thugs and went to the Hartgill house at Kilmington. They arrived while the Hartgills were in church and proceeded to smash everything in the house they could lay their hands on. Servants who opposed them were beaten unconscious, but one servant managed to escape to carry the news to the family. Hartgill's son, John, dashed for home and was able to gain access to his longbow. He then proved his reputation as a bowman by wounding five of the attackers.
The next day, the Hartgills sent a petition to the Queen, Mary I. In response, she sent an order to the Sheriff of Wiltshire to arrest Stourton and bring him to London for trial before her Lords in Council. In deference to his rank, Stourton was allowed to ride there with only a token escort. He spent three days in Newgate Prison while awaiting the Council's verdict. They took a lenient view of his actions and bound him over to keep the peace for a year, but made no order as to compensation for the Hartgills.
Stourton, however, had no intention of letting the matter rest. For the next few months, the Hartgills lived under a reign of terror - in the dead of night, arrows thudded into their door, favourite dogs vanished and reappeared on their doorstep, mangled beyond recognition. Their cattle died of arrow wounds, hayricks burst into flames and their servants and labourers were beaten up and warned to leave the Hartgills' employment.
At the height of this persecution, Queen Mary made a trip to Hampshire, where the Hartgills took the opportunity to complain. Mary was sympathetic and again ordered Stourton before the Council. Stourton admitted that he had persecuted the Hartgills, but swore that since Her Majesty had taken a personal interest, he would now relent. If the family would call at his house, he said, there would be a reconciliation and recompense.
The honest Hartgills believed his word and George Hartgill set out for Stourton's home - but he never reached it. He was ambushed in a lonely lane by six of Stourton's thugs and savagely battered with their cudgels. He would almost certainly have bled to death had his son, worried for his father's safety, not ridden after him. The local population then combined to send a further petition to the Queen, who passed it onto her Star Chamber. This time, the judges delivered a stern lecture, but released Stourton on a £2000 bond. The bond was, however, never lodged, the Chamber preferring to take his word as a gentleman.
On his return home, Stourton wrote to the Hartgills a letter couched in the most conciliatory terms, asking that they meet him at Kilmington Church, where he would pay them the compensation ordered by the Star Chamber. Believing that the Star Chamber had taught him a lesson, and that no violence would take place on holy ground, the Hartgills, father and son, arrived at the church, where Stourton cried 'I arrest you for a felony'.
Stourton's thugs seized the two Hartgills, bound them hand and foot and hustled them into the parsonage next to the church. Leaving one man to guard them, Stourton's party then dispersed, but returned a little later and transported them, across the backs of horses, to Bonham, a house near Stourton's home. Stourton called in two local magistrates and demanded they commit the prisoners to the local prison. They acceded to Stourton's request and then left hastily.
Stourton was infuriated by the Hartgills' refusal to beg for their lives, so he had them taken to his home that night. They had now been bound for 36 hours and were weak from thirst and hunger. Their captors dumped them in the back garden and disappeared into the house, returning with spades, with which they beat out their victims' brains. Believing them to be dead, the Hartgills were carried into Stourton's private apartment and laid them on the floor. When the old man stirred and groaned, Stourton drew his dagger and cut his throat. The murderers then buried the Hartgills in a 15-feet deep grave under the flagstones in the cellar.
Within a few days, the disappearance of the Hartgills was the talk of the county. The Sheriff of Wiltshire, Sir Anthony Hungerford, opened an investigation. The two local magistrates informed him that they had left the Hartgills in Stourton's charge. Gradually, Hungerford pieced the whole story together - one of the thugs confessed and the bodies were recovered from the cellar. Stourton and four of his henchmen were arrested and Stourton was sent to the Tower of London to await trial, with his henchmen being locked up at Salisbury. Here he was found guilty by a special commission. Stourton believed that, as Mary was at the time in the midst of a religious purge, and being of the same religion as her, she would take a lenient view of the praiseworthy killing of two heretics. But Mary, although intolerant of religious opposition, was extremely just in other respects and she viewed Stourton's crime as being murder.
Stourton was taken to Salisbury and hanged on 6 March 1557. He exercised his right as a peer to be hanged with a silken rope, which being thinner, compressed his windpipe much quicker than a normal rope, while its smoothness allowed the noose to run much more freely. His four henchmen were hanged in chains near the scene of their crime.
Henry William John Byng, 4th Earl of Strafford
On 16 May 1899, the 4th Earl of Strafford was killed when hit by a train at Potter's Bar, 18 miles north of London.
The report in The Times of 18 May 1899 states that:-
Inquiries have failed to clear up the precise circumstances of the terrible occurrence, and it is probable that not until the inquest is held today will the facts be ascertained with certainty. All that seems to be established beyond doubt is that Lord Strafford went down to Potter's Bar on Tuesday afternoon and engaged at the local station a cab to convey him to Wrotham Park. He drove in that direction, but discharged the man before reaching his destination. Some time later his dead and mutilated body was found near the railway station at Potter's Bar. The remains were removed to the Station Hotel, and afterwards, by special coroner's permit, to Wrotham Park. It is related that on Tuesday evening an elderly gentleman, apparently not known to the few people who were waiting at Potter's Bar Station, was seen to be strolling about the upper end of the platform just as an express train from Cambridge was passing through, at 6.30, on its way to London. No sound was heard, and nothing unusual was seen until the express was clear of the station, and then it was noticed that the gentleman had disappeared. A few minutes later, the Earl's mutilated body was found some 50 yards up the line, to which point it had apparently been carried by the engine. The identity of the body was in doubt for some time, but was ultimately settled by marks upon the linen and by documents in the pockets …
At the subsequent inquest, medical evidence showed that the Earl had a history of mild seizures after which his mind was temporarily dazed and semi-conscious. No evidence relating to possible suicide was presented and the verdict was that the Earl had met his death by misadventure, presumably when in a dazed state after one of his seizures.
The barony of Strange created in 1628
This is one of a number of peerages which were created in error. Similar examples relate to the baronies of Percy created in 1722 and Clifford, also created in 1628. In each case it was wrongly assumed that the ancient baronies were vested as subsidiary titles in higher ranked peerages, and were therefore available for use in "writs of acceleration", where the eldest son and heir apparent of a peer can be summoned to the House of Lords. In these cases, the subsidiary peerage to which the writ of acceleration applied were not vested as was assumed, with the result that the writ had the effect of creating a new peerage.
The barony of Strange de Knokin was a barony by tenure from the time of King Henry II, and became a barony by writ when John le Strange was summoned to attend Parliament in December 1299. The barony passed down through the descendants of the 1st baron until the death of the 8th Lord Strange de Knokin in 1477. He died without any male heirs, and his only daughter and heiress, Joan, married George Stanley, son of 1st Earl of Derby. He was summoned to Parliament in the right of his wife in 1482, but he died during the lifetime of his father in 1497. On the death of Joan in 1514, the barony of Strange de Knokin became merged in the earldom of Derby.
The earldom of Derby, together with the barony of Strange de Knokin, descended to Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby, who died in 1594, leaving three daughters and co-heiresses - Anne, married firstly to Grey Bridges, Lord Chandos and secondly to the notorious Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven; Frances, who married John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater; and Elizabeth, who married Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon. As a result, the barony of Strange de Knockin fell into abeyance between the three sisters, while the earldom of Derby passed to the heir male, William, 6th Earl of Derby.
However, under the erroneous notion that the barony of Strange de Knokin remained vested in the 6th Earl of Derby, his son, James Stanley, was summoned to Parliament in March 1628. The writ was meant to be one of acceleration, but because the barony in which he was being called was not vested in his father, the writ created a new peerage.
James Stanley succeeded as 7th Earl of Derby in 1642. His daughter and eventual heiress married John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl, and through this marriage James, 2nd Duke of Atholl, became on the death, without issue, of James, 10th Earl of Derby in 1736, heir to the barony of Strange created in 1628. The question of Atholl's entitlement to the barony was discussed in the House of Lords in March 1736, and his claim to it was allowed by the House. For a detailed discussion on this case, see Chapter 5, Section 78 of A Treatise on the Origin and Nature of Dignities or Titles of Honour by William Cruise [1823] available on Google Books. See also the notes under "Percy (creation of 1722)" and "Clifford (creation of 1628)".
The special remainder to the Barony of Strathcona and Mount Royal created in 1900
From the London Gazette of 26 June 1900 (issue 27205, page 3963):-
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 Donald Alexander, Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., High Commissioner in London for the Dominion of Canada, by the name, style, and title of Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, of Mount Royal in the Province of Quebec and said Dominion of Canada, and of Glencoe in the county of Argyll; to hold to him and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten; and in default of such issue male to hold the name, style, and title of Baroness Strathcona and Mount Royal, of Mount Royal in the Province of Quebec and said Dominion of Canada, and of Glencoe in the county of Argyll, to Margaret Charlotte, wife of Robert Jared Bliss Howard, of Queen Anne-street, Cavendish-square in the parish of Saint Marylebone in the county of London, Esquire, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., only daughter of the said Donald Alexander, Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal; and after her decease to hold the name, style, and title of Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, of Mount Royal in the Province of Quebec and said Dominion of Canada, and of Glencoe in the county of Argyll aforesaid, to the heirs male lawfully begotten of the body of the said Margaret Charlotte Howard.