PEERAGES
Last updated 27/11/2018 (23 Jan 2024)
Date Rank Order Name Born Died Age
TIBERRIS
17 Jun 1707 V[S] 1 Charles Douglas, later [1711] 3rd Duke of Queensberry and 2nd Duke of Dover
Created Lord Douglas, Viscount of Tiberris and Earl of Solway 17 Jun 1707
See
"Queensberry" - extinct on his death
24 Nov 1698 22 Oct 1778 79
TIBETOT
10 Mar 1308 B 1 Pain de Tibetot
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Tibetot 10 Mar 1308
11 Nov 1279 24 Jun 1314 34
24 Jun 1314 2 John de Tibetot 20 Jul 1313 13 Apr 1367 53
13 Apr 1367
to    
13 Apr 1372
3 Robert de Tibetot
On his death the peerage fell into abeyance
11 Jun 1341 13 Apr 1372 30
TINMOUTH
19 Mar 1687
to    
1695
E 1 James Fitzjames
Created Baron of Bosworth, Earl of Tinmouth and Duke of Berwick-upon-Tweed 19 Mar 1687
See "Berwick upon Tweed"
21 Aug 1670 12 Jun 1734 63
TIPPERARY
27 Nov 1801 E 1 Adolphus Frederick
Created Baron of Culloden, Earl of Tipperary and Duke of Cambridge 27 Nov 1801
See "Cambridge" - extinct 1904
24 Feb 1774 17 Jul 1850 76
TIPTOFT
7 Jan 1426 B 1 Sir John de Tiptoft
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Tiptoft 7 Jan 1426
27 Jan 1443
27 Jan 1443
to    
18 Oct 1470
2 John de Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester
He was attainted and the peerages forfeited
8 May 1427 18 Oct 1470 43
TITCHFIELD
6 Jul 1716 M 1 William Henry Bentinck, 2nd Earl of Portland
Created Marquess of Titchfield and Duke of Portland 6 Jul 1716
See "Portland"
17 Mar 1682 4 Jul 1726 44
TIVERTON
19 Jan 1898 V 1 Hardinge Stanley Giffard, 1st Baron Halsbury
Created Viscount Tiverton and Earl of Halsbury 19 Jan 1898
See "Halsbury"
3 Sep 1823 11 Dec 1921 98
TODD
16 Apr 1962
to    
10 Jan 1997
B[L] Sir Alexander Robertus Todd
Created Baron Todd for life 16 Apr 1962
Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1957; OM 1977
Peerage extinct on his death
2 Oct 1907 10 Jan 1997 89
TOLLEMACHE
17 Jan 1876 B 1 John Tollemache
Created Baron Tollemache 17 Jan 1876
MP for Cheshire South 1841‑1868 and Cheshire West 1868‑1872
5 Dec 1805 9 Dec 1890 85
9 Dec 1890 2 Wilbraham Frederic Tollemache
MP for Cheshire West 1872‑1885
4 Jul 1832 17 Dec 1904 72
17 Dec 1904 3 Bentley Lyonel John Tollemache 7 Mar 1883 13 Jan 1955 71
13 Jan 1955 4 John Edward Hamilton Tollemache 24 Apr 1910 27 May 1975 65
27 May 1975 5 Timothy John Edward Tollemache
Lord Lieutenant Suffolk 2003‑2014
13 Dec 1939
TOMBS
28 Feb 1990
to    
11 Apr 2020
B[L] Sir Francis Leonard Tombs
Created Baron Tombs for life 28 Feb 1990
Peerage extinct on his death
17 May 1924 11 Apr 2020 95
TOMLIN
11 Feb 1929
to    
12 Aug 1935
B[L] Sir Thomas James Chesshyre Tomlin
Created Baron Tomlin for life 11 Feb 1929
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1929‑1935; PC 1929
Peerage extinct on his death
6 May 1867 12 Aug 1935 68
TOMLINSON
21 Jul 1998
to    
20 Jan 2024
B[L] John Edward Tomlinson
Created Baron Tomlinson for life 21 Jul 1998
MP for Meriden 1974‑1979; MEP for Birmingham West 1984‑1999
Peerage extinct on his death
1 Aug 1939 20 Jan 2024 84
TONGE
23 Jun 2005 B[L] Jennifer Louise Tonge
Created Baroness Tonge for life 23 Jun 2005
MP for Richmond Park 1997‑2005
16 Feb 1941
TONI
10 Apr 1299
to    
after Jun 1311
B 1 Robert de Toni
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Toni 10 Apr 1299
Peerage extinct on his death
4 Apr 1276 after Jun 1311
TONYPANDY
11 Jul 1983
to    
22 Sep 1997
V 1 Thomas George Thomas
Created Viscount Tonypandy 11 Jul 1983
MP for Cardiff Central 1945‑1950 and Cardiff West 1950‑1983; Minister of State, Welsh Office 1966‑1967; Minister of State, Commonwealth Office 1967‑1968; Secretary of State for Wales 1968‑1970; Speaker of the House of Commons 1976‑1983; PC 1968
Peerage extinct on his death
29 Jan 1909 22 Sep 1997 88
TOPE
4 Oct 1994 B[L] Graham Norman Tope
Created Baron Tope for life 4 Oct 1994
MP for Sutton & Cheam 1972‑1974
30 Nov 1943
TORBOLTOUN
5 Aug 1581 B[S] 1 Esme Stuart
Created Lord Darnley, Aubigny and Dalkeith and Earl of Lennox 5 Mar 1580 and Lord Aubigny, Dalkeith, Torboltoun and Aberdour, Earl of Darnley and Duke of Lennox 5 Aug 1581
See "Lennox"
c 1542 26 May 1583

9 Sep 1675 B[S] 1 Charles Lennox
Created Baron Setrington, Earl of March and Duke of Richmond 9 Aug 1675 and Lord of Torboltoun, Earl of Darnley and Duke of Lennox 9 Sep 1675
See "Richmond"
29 Jul 1672 27 May 1723 50
TORDOFF
11 May 1981
to    
22 Jun 2019
B[L] Geoffrey Johnson Tordoff
Created Baron Tordoff for life 11 May 1981
Peerage extinct on his death
11 Oct 1928 22 Jun 2019 90
TORPHICHEN
25 Jan 1564 B[S] 1 Sir James Sandilands
Created Lord Torphichen 25 Jan 1564
29 Sep 1579
29 Sep 1579 2 James Sandilands c 1574 Aug 1617
Aug 1617 3 James Sandilands c 1597 Jan 1622
Jan 1622 4 John Sandilands c 1598 Jul 1637
Jul 1637 5 John Sandilands 11 Feb 1625 Jul 1649 24
Jul 1649 6 Walter Sandilands 12 May 1629 May 1696 67
May 1696 7 James Sandilands 10 Aug 1753
10 Aug 1753 8 Walter Sandilands 16 Aug 1707 9 Nov 1765 58
9 Nov 1765 9 James Sandilands 15 Nov 1759 7 Jun 1815 55
7 Jun 1815 10 James Sandilands 21 Jul 1770 22 Mar 1862 91
22 Mar 1862 11 Robert Sandilands 3 Aug 1807 24 Dec 1869 62
24 Dec 1869 12 James Walter Sandilands 4 May 1846 20 Jul 1915 69
20 Jul 1915 13 John Gordon Sandilands 8 Jun 1886 1 Jul 1973 87
1 Jul 1973 14 James Bruce Sandilands 26 Oct 1917 12 Jul 1975 57
12 Jul 1975 15 James Andrew Douglas Sandilands 27 Aug 1946
TORRINGTON
7 Jul 1660 E 1 George Monck
Created Baron Monck, Earl of Torrington and Duke of Albemarle 7 Jul 1660
See "Albemarle" - extinct 1688
6 Dec 1608 3 Jan 1670 61

29 May 1689
to    
14 Apr 1716
E 1 Arthur Herbert
Created Baron Herbert of Torbay and Earl of Torrington 29 May 1689
MP for Dover 1685‑1686 and Plymouth 1689; First Lord of the Admiralty 1689‑1690; PC 1689
Peerages extinct on his death
c 1648 14 Apr 1716

20 Jun 1716
to    
27 May 1719
B 1 Thomas Newport
Created Baron Torrington 20 Jun 1716
MP for Ludlow 1695‑1698 and 1699‑1700, Winchelsea 1701 and Wenlock 1715‑1716; PC 1717
Peerage extinct on his death
before 1650 27 May 1719

21 Sep 1721 V 1 Sir George Byng, 1st baronet
Created Baron Byng of Southill and Viscount Torrington 21 Sep 1721
MP for Plymouth 1705‑1721; First Lord of the Admiralty 1727‑1733; PC 1721
27 Jan 1663 17 Jan 1733 69
17 Jan 1733 2 Pattee Byng
MP for Plymouth 1721‑1727 and Bedfordshire 1727‑1733; PC 1732; PC [I] 1734
25 May 1699 23 Jan 1747 47
23 Jan 1747 3 George Byng 1701 17 Apr 1750 48
17 Apr 1750 4 George Byng 11 Oct 1740 14 Dec 1812 72
14 Dec 1812 5 John Byng 11 Oct 1742 1 Jan 1813 70
1 Jan 1813 6 George Byng 5 Nov 1768 18 Jun 1831 62
18 Jun 1831 7 George Byng
Governor of Ceylon 1847‑1850
9 Sep 1812 27 Apr 1884 71
27 Apr 1884 8 George Stanley Byng 29 Apr 1841 20 Oct 1889 48
20 Oct 1889 9 George Master Byng
For information on his first wife, see the note at the foot of this page
10 Sep 1886 24 May 1944 57
24 May 1944 10 Arthur Stanley Byng 23 Jul 1876 28 Nov 1961 85
28 Nov 1961 11 Timothy Howard St. George Byng 13 Jul 1943
TOTNESS
5 Feb 1626
to    
27 Mar 1629
E 1 George Carew, 1st Baron Carew
Created Earl of Totness 5 Feb 1626
MP for Hastings 1604
Peerage extinct on his death
29 May 1555 27 Mar 1629 73

28 Jul 1675
to    
17 Oct 1680
B 1 Charles FitzCharles
Created Baron of Dartmouth, Viscount Totness and Earl of Plymouth 28 Jul 1675
Illegitimate son of Charles II
Peerage extinct on his death
1657 17 Oct 1680 23
TOUCHET
29 Dec 1299
to    
22 Mar 1322
B 1 William Touchet
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Touchet 29 Dec 1299
Peerage extinct on his death
c 1275 22 Mar 1322

30 Oct 1403 B 1 John Touchet
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Touchet 30 Oct 1403 and as 4th Baron Audley 21 Dec 1405
23 Apr 1371 19 Dec 1408 37
19 Dec 1408
to    
23 Sep 1459
2 James Touchet
See "Audley"
1398 23 Sep 1459 61
TOUHIG
28 Jun 2010 B[L] James Donnelly Touhig
Created Baron Touhig for life 28 Jun 2010
MP for Islwyn 1995‑2010; PC 2006
5 Dec 1947
TOVEY
11 Feb 1946
to    
12 Jan 1971
B 1 Sir John Cronyn Tovey
Created Baron Tovey 11 Feb 1946
Admiral of the Fleet 1943
Peerage extinct on his death
7 Mar 1885 12 Jan 1971 85
TOWNSHEND
20 Apr 1661
2 Dec 1682
B
V
1
1
Sir Horatio Townshend, 3rd baronet
Created Baron Townshend 20 Apr 1661 and Viscount Townshend 2 Dec 1682
MP for Norfolk 1656‑1658, 1659 and 1660; Lord Lieutenant Norfolk 1661‑1676
16 Dec 1630 10 Dec 1687 56
Dec 1687 2 Charles Townshend
Secretary of State 1714‑1716 and 1721‑1730; Lord President of the Council 1720‑1721; Lord Lieutenant Norfolk 1701‑1713 and 1714‑1730; PC 1708; KG 1724
1674 21 Jun 1738 63
21 Jun 1738 3 Charles Townshend
MP for Great Yarmouth 1722‑1723; Lord Lieutenant Norfolk 1730‑1739
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Townshend 23 May 1723. In order to distinguish him from his father, Viscount Townshend, this peer was known as Lord Lynn until the death of his father.
11 Jul 1700 12 Mar 1764 63
12 Mar 1764
31 Oct 1787
 
M
4
1
George Townshend
Created Marquess Townshend 31 Oct 1787
MP for Norfolk 1747‑1764; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1767‑1772; Lord Lieutenant Norfolk 1792‑1807; PC 1760
28 Feb 1724 14 Sep 1807 83
14 Sep 1807 2 George Townshend
Created Earl of Leicester 18 May 1784
PC 1782
18 Apr 1755 27 Jul 1811 58
27 Jul 1811 3 George Ferrars Townshend
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
13 Dec 1778 31 Dec 1855 77
31 Dec 1855 4 John Townshend
MP for Tamworth 1847‑1855
28 Mar 1798 10 Sep 1863 65
10 Sep 1863 5 John Villiers Stuart Townshend
MP for Tamworth 1856-1863
For further information of this peer's eccentricities, see the note at the foot of this page
10 Apr 1831 26 Oct 1899 68
26 Oct 1899 6 John James Dudley Stuart Townshend
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
17 Oct 1866 17 Nov 1921 55
17 Nov 1921 7 George John Patrick Dominic Townshend 13 May 1916 23 Apr 2010 93
23 Apr 2010 8 Charles George Townshend 26 Sep 1945
TRACTON
4 Jan 1781
to    
15 Jun 1782
B[I] 1 James Dennis
Created Baron Tracton 4 Jan 1781
MP [I] for Rathcormack 1761‑1768 and Youghal 1768‑1777; PC [I] 1777
Peerage extinct on his death
1721 15 Jun 1782 60
TRACY
12 Jan 1643 V[I] 1 Sir John Tracy
Created Baron and Viscount Tracy 12 Jan 1643
1648
1648 2 Robert Tracy
MP for Gloucestershire 1621‑1622, 1626 and 1640
c 1592 11 May 1662
11 May 1662 3 John Tracy 1617 4 Mar 1687 69
4 Mar 1687 4 William Tracy 1657 18 Apr 1712 54
18 Apr 1712 5 Thomas Charles Tracy 27 Jul 1690 4 Jun 1756 65
4 Jun 1756 6 Thomas Charles Tracy 15 Jun 1719 10 Aug 1792 73
10 Aug 1792 7 John Tracy 8 Aug 1722 2 Feb 1793 70
2 Feb 1793
to    
29 Apr 1797
8 Henry Leigh Tracy
Peerage extinct on his death
For further information on the various claims subsequently made for this peerage, see the note at the foot of this page
25 Jan 1732 29 Apr 1797 65
TRAFFORD
3 Apr 1987
to    
16 Sep 1989
B[L] Sir Joseph Anthony Porteous Trafford
Created Baron Trafford for life 3 Apr 1987
MP for Wrekin 1970‑1974
Peerage extinct on his death
20 Jul 1932 16 Sep 1989 57
TRANMIRE
9 May 1974
to    
17 Jan 1994
B[L] Sir Robert Hugh Turton
Created Baron Tranmire for life 9 May 1974
MP for Thirsk & Malton 1929‑1974; Minister of Pensions & National Insurance 1953‑1954; Minister of Health 1955‑1957; PC 1955
Peerage extinct on his death
8 Aug 1903 17 Jan 1994 90
TRAPRAIN
5 May 1922 V 1 Arthur James Balfour
Created Viscount Traprain and Earl Balfour 5 May 1922
See "Balfour"
25 Jul 1848 19 Mar 1930 81
TRAQUAIR
23 Jun 1633 E[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
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
c 1600 27 Mar 1659
27 Mar 1659 2 John Stewart 1624 Apr 1666 41
Apr 1666 3 William Stewart 18 Jun 1657 Dec 1673 16
Dec 1673 4 Charles Stewart 1659 13 Jun 1741 81
13 Jun 1741 5 Charles Stewart 31 Mar 1697 24 Apr 1764 67
24 Apr 1764 6 John Stewart 3 Feb 1699 28 Mar 1779 80
28 Mar 1779 7 Charles Stewart 1746 14 Oct 1827 81
14 Oct 1827
to    
2 Aug 1861
8 Charles Stewart
On his death the peerage became either extinct or dormant
31 Jan 1781 2 Aug 1861 80
TREDEGAR
16 Apr 1859 B 1 Sir Charles Morgan Robinson Morgan, 3rd baronet
Created Baron Tredegar 16 Apr 1859
MP for Brecon 1812‑1818, 1830‑1832 and 1835‑1847; Lord Lieutenant Brecknock 1866‑1875
10 Apr 1792 16 Apr 1875 83
16 Apr 1875
28 Dec 1905
to    
11 Mar 1913
 
V
2
1
Godfrey Charles Morgan
Created Viscount Tredegar 28 Dec 1905
MP for Breconshire 1858‑1875; Lord Lieutenant Monmouth 1899‑1913
On his death the Viscountcy became extinct whilst the Barony passed to -
28 Apr 1830 11 Mar 1913 82
11 Mar 1913
4 Aug 1926
 
V
3
1
Courtenay Charles Evan Morgan
Created Viscount Tredegar 4 Aug 1926
Lord Lieutenant Monmouth 1933‑1934
For information on this peer's only daughter, see the note at the foot of this page
10 Apr 1867 3 May 1934 67
3 May 1934
to    
27 Apr 1949
4
2
Evan Frederic Morgan
On his death the Viscountcy became extinct whilst the Barony passed to -
13 Jul 1893 27 Apr 1949 55
27 Apr 1949 5 Frederic George Morgan 22 Nov 1873 21 Aug 1954 80
21 Aug 1954
to    
17 Nov 1962
6 Frederic Charles John Morgan
Peerage extinct on his death
26 Oct 1908 17 Nov 1962 54
TREES
3 Jul 2012 B[L] Alexander John Trees
Created Baron Trees for life 3 Jul 2012
12 Jun 1946
TREFGARNE
21 Jan 1947 B 1 George Morgan Trefgarne
Created Baron Trefgarne 21 Jan 1947
MP for Hackney South 1924‑1929 and Aberdeen North 1935‑1945
14 Sep 1894 27 Sep 1960 66
27 Sep 1960 2 David Garro Trefgarne
PC 1989
[Elected hereditary peer 1999-]
31 Mar 1941
TREGOZ
26 Jan 1297
to    
6 Sep 1300
B 1 John de Tregoz
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Tregoz 26 Jan 1297
Peerage extinct on his death
6 Sep 1300

12 Nov 1304 B 1 Henry de Tregoz
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Tregoz 12 Nov 1304
c 1323
c 1323 2 Thomas de Tregoz May 1335
May 1335 3 Henry de Tregoz Jun 1361
Jun 1361 4 Robert de Tregoz c 1387
c 1387 5 Edward de Tregoz 23 Apr 1378 4 Aug 1400 22
4 Aug 1400
to    
8 Sep 1404
6 John de Tregoz
On his death the peerage became dormant
8 Sep 1404

3 Jan 1621 B 1 Sir Oliver St. John
Created Viscount Grandison 3 Jan 1621 and Baron Tregoz 20 May 1626
See "Grandison"
c 1560 29 Dec 1630
TREMATON
27 Jul 1726
to    
31 Oct 1765
V 1 William Augustus
Created Baron of Alderney, Viscount Trematon, Earl of Kennington, Marquess of Berkhampstead and Duke of Cumberland 27 Jul 1726
See "Cumberland"
15 Apr 1721 31 Oct 1765 44

16 Jul 1917
to    
16 Jan 1957
E 1 Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge
Created Viscount Trematon and Earl of Athlone 16 Jul 1917
See "Athlone"
14 Apr 1874 16 Jan 1957 82
TRENCH
4 Aug 1815 B 2 Richard le Poer-Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty
Created Baron Trench 4 Aug 1815 and Viscount Clancarty 8 Dec 1823
See "Clancarty"
18 May 1767 24 Nov 1837 70
TRENCHARD
23 Jan 1930
31 Jan 1936
B
V
1
1
Sir Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st baronet
Created Baron Trenchard 23 Jan 1930 and Viscount Trenchard 31 Jan 1936
Marshal of the RAF 1927; OM 1951
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
3 Feb 1873 10 Feb 1956 83
10 Feb 1956 2 Thomas Trenchard 15 Dec 1923 29 Apr 1987 63
29 Apr 1987 3 Hugh Trenchard
[Elected hereditary peer 2004-]
12 Mar 1951
TREND
7 Mar 1974 B[L] Sir Burke St. John Trend
Created Baron Trend for life 7 Mar 1974
PC 1972
Peerage extinct on his death
2 Jan 1914 21 Jul 1987 73
TRENT
18 Mar 1929 B 1 Sir Jesse Boot, 1st baronet
Created Baron Trent 18 Mar 1929
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
2 Jun 1850 13 Jun 1931 81
13 Jun 1931
to    
8 Mar 1956
2 John Campbell Boot
Peerage extinct on his death
19 Jan 1889 8 Mar 1956 67
TRENTHAM
8 Jul 1746 V 1 John Leveson-Gower, 2nd Baron Gower
Created Viscount Trentham and Earl Gower 8 Jul 1746
See "Gower"
10 Aug 1694 25 Dec 1754 60
TREOWEN
20 Jun 1917
to    
18 Oct 1933
B 1 Sir Ivor John Caradoc Herbert, 1st baronet
Created Baron Treowen 20 Jun 1917
MP for Monmouthshire South 1906‑1917; Lord Lieutenant Monmouth 1913‑1933
Peerage extinct on his death
15 Jul 1851 18 Oct 1933 82
TREVELYAN
12 Feb 1968
to    
8 Feb 1985
B[L] Sir Humphrey Trevelyan
Created Baron Trevelyan for life 12 Feb 1968
KG 1974
Peerage extinct on his death
27 Nov 1905 8 Feb 1985 79
TREVETHIN
24 Aug 1921 B 1 Sir Alfred Tristram Lawrence
Created Baron Trevethin 24 Aug 1921
Lord Chief Justice 1921‑1922; PC 1921
For information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
24 Nov 1843 3 Aug 1936 92
3 Aug 1936 2 Charles Trevor Lawrence 29 May 1879 25 Jun 1959 80
25 Jun 1959 3 Geoffrey Lawrence
Created Baron Oaksey 13 Jan 1947
Lord Justice of Appeal 1944‑1947; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1947‑1957; PC 1944
2 Dec 1880 28 Aug 1971 90
28 Aug 1971 4 John Geoffrey Tristram Lawrence (also 2nd Baron Oaksey) 21 Mar 1929 5 Sep 2012 83
5 Sep 2012 5 Patrick John Tristram Lawrence (also 3rd Baron Oaksey)
[Elected hereditary peer 2015-]
29 Jun 1960
TREVOR
28 Aug 1662 B[I] 1 Marcus Trevor
Created Baron Trevor and Viscount Dungannon 28 Aug 1662
See "Dungannon"
15 Apr 1618 10 Jan 1670 51

1 Jan 1712 B 1 Sir Thomas Trevor
Created Baron Trevor 1 Jan 1712
MP for Plympton Erle 1692‑1698 and Lewes 1701; Solicitor General 1692‑1695; Attorney General 1695‑1701; Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1701‑1714; Lord Privy Seal 1726‑1730 Lord President of the Council 1730; PC 1702
8 Mar 1658 19 Jun 1730 72
19 Jun 1730 2 Thomas Trevor c 1692 23 Mar 1753
23 Mar 1753 3 John Trevor
MP for Woodstock 1746‑1753
27 Aug 1695 27 Dec 1764 69
27 Dec 1764 4 Robert Hampden
He was created Viscount Hampden in 1776 with which title this peerage then merged until its extinction in 1824
17 Feb 1706 22 Aug 1783 77

5 May 1880 B 1 Arthur Edwin Hill‑Trevor
Created Baron Trevor 5 May 1880
MP for co. Down 1845‑1880
4 Nov 1819 25 Dec 1894 75
25 Dec 1894 2 Arthur William Hill‑Trevor 19 Nov 1852 19 May 1923 70
19 May 1923 3 Charles Edward Hill‑Trevor 22 Dec 1863 22 Dec 1950 87
22 Dec 1950 4 Charles Edwin Hill‑Trevor 13 Aug 1928 1 Jan 1997 68
1 Jan 1997 5 Marke Charles Hill‑Trevor 8 Jan 1970
TRIESMAN
9 Jan 2004 B[L] David Maxim Triesman
Created Baron Triesman for life 9 Jan 2004
30 Oct 1943
TRIM
7 Jan 1715 B[I] 1 Thomas Wharton, 1st Earl of Wharton
Created Baron of Trim, Earl of Rathfarnham and Marquess of Catherlough 7 Jan 1715, and Marquess of Wharton and Marquess of Malmesbury 15 Feb 1715
See "Wharton" - extinct 1731
23 Oct 1648 12 Apr 1715 66
TRIMBLE
2 Jun 2006
to    
25 Jul 2022
B[L] William David Trimble
Created Baron Trimble for life 2 Jun 2006
MP for Upper Bann 1990‑2005; Joint winner Nobel Peace Prize 1998; PC 1998
Peerage extinct on his death
15 Oct 1944 25 Jul 2022 77
TRIMLESTOWN
4 Mar 1461 B[I] 1 Sir Robert Barnewall
Created Baron Trimlestown 4 Mar 1461
c 1470
c 1470 2 Christopher Barnewall by 1513
by 1513 3 John Barnewall 25 Jul 1538
25 Jul 1538 4 Patrick Barnewall 1562
1562 5 Robert Barnewall 17 Aug 1573
17 Aug 1573 6 Peter Barnewall 14 Apr 1598
14 Apr 1598 7 Robert Barnewall c 1574 13 Dec 1639
13 Dec 1639 8 Matthias Barnewall 1614 17 Sep 1667 53
17 Sep 1667 9 Robert Barnewall Jun 1689
Jun 1689 10 Matthias Barnewall
He was attainted 16 Apr 1691 and the peerage forfeited. While the peerage was under attainder the descent was as follows:-
8 Sep 1692
[8 Sep 1692] [11] John Barnewall 1672 7 Apr 1746 73
[7 Apr 1746] [12] Robert Barnewall 6 Dec 1779
[6 Dec 1779]
1795
13 Thomas Barnewall
He obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1795
24 Dec 1796
24 Dec 1796 14 Nicholas Barnewall 29 Jun 1726 16 Apr 1813 86
16 Apr 1813 15 John Thomas Barnewall 29 Jan 1773 7 Oct 1839 66
7 Oct 1839 16 Thomas Barnewall 14 Apr 1796 4 Aug 1879 83
4 Aug 1879 17 Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall
For information on the claim made to this peerage in 1891, see the note at the foot of this page
6 Oct 1846 10 Sep 1891 44
10 Sep 1891 18 Charles Aloysius Barnewall 14 May 1861 26 Jan 1937 75
26 Jan 1937 19 Charles Aloysius Barnewall 2 Jun 1899 9 Oct 1990 91
9 Oct 1990 20 Anthony Edward Barnewall 2 Feb 1928 19 Aug 1997 69
19 Aug 1997
to    
10 Jan 2024
21 Raymond Charles Barnewall
On his death the peerage became either extinct or dormant
29 Dec 1930 10 Jan 2024 93
TROTMAN
2 Mar 1999
to    
26 Apr 2005
B[L] Sir Alexander Trotman
Created Baron Trotman for life 2 Mar 1999
Peerage extinct on his death
22 Jul 1933 26 Apr 2005 71
TRUE
23 Dec 2010 B[L] Nicholas Edward True
Created Baron True for life 23 Dec 2010
31 Jul 1951
TRUMPINGTON
4 Feb 1980
to    
26 Nov 2018
B[L] Jean Alys Barker
Created Baroness Trumpington for life 4 Feb 1980
PC 1992
Peerage extinct on her death
23 Oct 1922 26 Nov 2018 96
TRURO
15 Jul 1850 B 1 Sir Thomas Wilde
Created Baron Truro 15 Jul 1850
MP for Newark 1831‑1832 and 1835‑1841 and Worcester 1841‑1846; Solicitor General 1839‑1841; Attorney General 1841 and 1846; Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1846‑1850; Lord Chancellor 1850‑1852; PC 1846
7 Jul 1782 11 Nov 1855 73
11 Nov 1855 2 Charles Robert Claude Wilde 1 Nov 1816 28 Mar 1891 74
28 Mar 1891
to    
8 Mar 1899
3 Thomas Montague Morrison Wilde
Peerage extinct on his death
11 Mar 1856 8 Mar 1899 42
TRUSCOTT
10 Jun 2004 B[L] Peter Derek Truscott
Created Baron Truscott for life 10 Jun 2004
MEP for Hertfordshire 1994‑1999
20 Mar 1959
TRYON
18 Apr 1940 B 1 George Clement Tryon
Created Baron Tryon 18 Apr 1940
MP for Brighton 1910‑1940; Minister of Pensions 1922‑1924, 1924‑1929 and 1931‑1935; Postmaster General 1935‑1940; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1940; PC 1922
For information regarding this peer's father, see the note at the foot of this page
15 May 1871 24 Nov 1940 69
24 Nov 1940 2 Charles George Vivian Tryon
PC 1971
24 May 1906 9 Nov 1976 70
9 Nov 1976 3 Anthony George Merrik Tryon 26 May 1940 22 Dec 2018 78
22 Dec 2018 4 Charles George Barrington Tryon 15 May 1976
TUCKER
29 Sep 1950
to    
17 Nov 1975
B[L] Sir Frederick James Tucker
Created Baron Tucker for life 29 Sep 1950
Lord Justice of Appeal 1945‑1950;. Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1950‑1961; PC 1945
Peerage extinct on his death
22 May 1888 17 Nov 1975 87
TUFTON
1 Nov 1626 B 1 Nicholas Tufton
Created Baron Tufton 1 Nov 1626 and Earl of the Isle of Thanet 5 Aug 1628
See "Thanet"
19 Jan 1578 1 Jul 1631 53
TUGENDHAT
15 Oct 1993 B[L] Sir Christopher Samuel Tugendhat
Created Baron Tugendhat for life 15 Oct 1993
MP for London & Westminster 1970‑1974 and London & Westminster South 1974‑1976
23 Feb 1937
TULLAMORE
29 Dec 1797 B[I] 1 Charles William Bury
Created Baron Tullamore 29 Dec 1797, Viscount Charleville 29 Dec 1800 and Earl of Charleville 16 Feb 1806
See "Charleville"
30 Jun 1764 31 Oct 1835 71
TULLIBARDINE
10 Jul 1606 E[S] 1 Sir John Murray
Created Lord Murray of Tullibardine 25 Apr 1604 and Earl of Tullibardine 10 Jul 1606
1609
1609
to    
1 Apr 1626
2 William Murray
He resigned the peerages in 1626
c 1574 1626
30 Jan 1628 3 Patrick Murray
Created Lord Murray of Gask and Earl of Tullibardine 30 Jan 1628
c 1578 5 Sep 1644
5 Sep 1644 4 James Murray 22 Sep 1617 Jan 1670 52
Jan 1670 5 John Murray, 2nd Earl of Atholl
Created Lord Murray, Balvany and Gask, Viscount of Balquhidder, Earl of Tullibardine and Marquess of Atholl 17 Feb 1676
2 May 1631 6 May 1703 72
6 May 1703
27 Jul 1696
to    
14 Nov 1724
30 Jun 1703
 
E[S][L]
 
 
M[S]
6
 
 
 
1
James Murray
Created Lord Murray, Viscount Glenalmond and Earl of Tullibardine for life 27 Jul 1696 and Lord Murray, Balvenie and Gask, Viscount of Balwhidder, Glenalmond and Glenlyon, Earl of Strathtay & Strathardle, Marquess of Tullibardine and Duke of Atholl 30 Jun 1703
On his death the creations of 1696 became extinct, whilst the Earldoms of 1606 and 1676, and the Marquessate of 1703 merged in the Dukedom of Atholl and so remain
24 Feb 1659 14 Nov 1724 65
TULLOUGH
13 May 1662
to    
25 Jan 1686
E[I] 1 Lord Richard Butler
Created Baron Butler of Cloughgrenan, Viscount Tullogh and Earl of Arran 13 May 1662, and Baron Butler of Weston 27 Aug 1673
Peerage extinct on his death
15 Jun 1639 25 Jan 1686 46

8 Mar 1693
to    
17 Dec 1758
E[I] 1 Charles Butler
Created Baron of Cloughgrenan, Viscount of Tullogh and Earl of Arran 8 Mar 1693, and Baron Butler of Weston 23 Jan 1694
Peerages extinct on his death
4 Sep 1671 17 Dec 1758 87
TUNBRIDGE
3 Apr 1624 V 1 Richard Bourke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde
Created Baron of Somerhill and Viscount Tunbridge 3 Apr 1624 and Baron of Imanney, Viscount Galway and Earl of St. Albans 23 Aug 1628
See "Clanricarde" - extinct 1657
1572 12 Nov 1635 63

10 May 1695 V 1 William Henry Nassau-de-Zulestein
Created Baron Enfield, Viscount Tunbridge and Earl of Rochford 10 May 1695
See "Rochford" - extinct 1830
7 Oct 1649 Jan 1709 59
TUNNICLIFFE
2 Jun 2004 B[L] Denis Tunnicliffe
Created Baron Tunnicliffe for life 2 Jun 2004
17 Jan 1943
TURNBERG
4 May 2000 B[L] Sir Leslie Arnold Turnberg
Created Baron Turnberg for life 4 May 2000
22 Mar 1934
TURNBULL
11 Oct 2005 B[L] Sir Andrew Turnbull
Created Baron Turnbull for life 11 Oct 2005
21 Jan 1945
TURNER OF CAMDEN
29 May 1985
to    
26 Feb 2018
B[L] Muriel Winifred Turner
Created Baroness Turner of Camden for life 29 May 1985
Peerage extinct on her death
18 Sep 1922 26 Feb 2018 95
TURNER OF ECCHINSWELL
7 Sep 2005 B[L] 1 Jonathan Adair Turner
Created Baron Turner of Ecchinswell for life 7 Sep 2005
5 Oct 1955
TURNOUR
12 Feb 1766 V[I] 1 Edward Turnour Garth-Turnour
Created Baron Winterton 10 Apr 1761 and Viscount Turnour and Earl Winterton 12 Feb 1766
See "Winterton"
1734 10 Aug 1788 54

31 Jan 1952
to    
26 Aug 1962
B 1 Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton
Created Baron Turnour 31 Jan 1952
Peerage extinct on his death
4 Apr 1883 26 Aug 1962 79
TURVEY
29 Jun 1646 B[I] 1 Nicholas Barnewall
Created Baron Turvey and Viscount Barnewall 29 Jun 1646
See "Barnewall"
1592 20 Aug 1663 71
TWEEDDALE
1 Dec 1646 E[S] 1 John Hay, 8th Lord Hay of Yester
Created Earl of Tweeddale 1 Dec 1646
c 1595 25 May 1654
25 May 1654
17 Dec 1694
 
M[S]
2
1
John Hay
Created Lord Hay of Yester, Viscount of Walden, Earl of Gifford and Marquess of Tweeddale 17 Dec 1694
Lord Chancellor [S] 1692‑1696
1626 11 Aug 1697 71
11 Aug 1697 2 John Hay
Lord Chancellor [S] 1704‑1705
1645 20 Apr 1713 67
20 Apr 1713 3 Charles Hay 11 Nov 1667 17 Dec 1715 48
17 Dec 1715 4 John Hay
Secretary of State for Scotland 1742‑1746; PC 1742
c 1695 9 Dec 1762
9 Dec 1762 5 George Hay 12 Jul 1758 4 Oct 1770 12
4 Oct 1770 6 George Hay 16 Nov 1787
16 Nov 1787 7 George Hay
Lord Lieutenant Haddington 1794‑1804
1753 9 Aug 1804 51
9 Aug 1804 8 George Hay
Governor of Madras 1842‑1848; Field Marshal 1875; Lord Lieutenant Haddington 1823‑1876; KT 1820
1 Feb 1787 10 Oct 1876 89
10 Oct 1876 9 Arthur Hay 9 Nov 1824 28 Dec 1878 54
28 Dec 1878
6 Oct 1881
 
B
10
1
William Montagu Hay
Created Baron Tweeddale 6 Oct 1881
MP for Taunton 1865‑1868 and Haddington Burghs 1878; KT 1898
27 Jan 1826 25 Nov 1911 85
25 Nov 1911 11
2
William George Montagu Hay
Lord Lieutenant East Lothian 1944‑1967
4 Nov 1884 30 Mar 1967 82
30 Mar 1967 12
3
David George Montagu Hay 25 Oct 1921 23 Jan 1979 57
23 Jan 1979 13
4
Edward Douglas John Hay 6 Aug 1947 1 Feb 2005 57
1 Feb 2005 14
5
Charles David Montagu Hay 6 Aug 1947
TWEEDMOUTH
12 Oct 1881 B 1 Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st baronet
Created Baron Tweedmouth 12 Oct 1881
MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed 1853‑1859, 1859‑1868 and 1874‑1881
29 Dec 1820 4 Mar 1894 73
4 Mar 1894 2 Edward Marjoribanks
MP for Berwickshire 1880‑1894; Lord Privy Seal 1894‑1895; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1894‑1895; First Lord of the Admiralty 1905‑1908; Lord President of the Council 1908; PC 1886; KT 1908
8 Jul 1849 15 Sep 1909 60
15 Sep 1909 3 Dudley Churchill Marjoribanks
Peerage extinct on his death
For an anecdote concerning this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
2 Mar 1874 23 Apr 1935 61
TWEEDSMUIR
1 Jun 1935 B 1 John Buchan
Created Baron Tweedsmuir 1 Jun 1935
MP for Scottish Universities 1927‑1935; Governor General of Canada 1935‑1940; CH 1932; PC 1937
26 Aug 1875 11 Feb 1940 64
11 Feb 1940 2 John Norman Stuart Buchan 25 Nov 1911 20 Jun 1996 84
20 Jun 1996 3 William James de L'Aigle Buchan 10 Jan 1916 29 Jun 2008 92
29 Jun 2008 4 John William Howard de L'Aigle Buchan 25 May 1950
TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
1 Jul 1970
to    
11 Mar 1978
B[L] Priscilla Jean Fortescue Buchan, Baroness Tweedsmuir (wife of the 2nd Baron Tweedsmuir)
Created Baroness Tweedsmuir of Belhelvie for life 1 Jul 1970
MP for Aberdeen South 1946‑1966; Minister of State for Scotland 1970‑1972; PC 1974
Peerage extinct on her death
25 Jan 1915 11 Mar 1978 63
TWINING
18 Aug 1958
to    
21 Jul 1967
B[L] Sir Edward Francis Twining
Created Baron Twining for life 18 Aug 1958
Governor of North Borneo 1947‑1949 and Tanganyika 1949‑1958
Peerage extinct on his death
29 Jun 1899 21 Jul 1967 68
TWYCROSS
7 Nov 2022 B[L] Fiona Ruth Taylor
Created Baroness Twycross for life 7 Nov 2022
29 May 1969
TYAQUIN
2 Jun 1687
to    
12 Jul 1691
B[I] 1 Ulick Bourke
Created Baron of Tyaquin and Viscount of Galway 2 Jun 1687
Peerages extinct on his death
c 1670 12 Jul 1691
TYE or TYEYS
See "Teyes"
TYLER
15 Jun 2005 B[L] Paul Archer Tyler
Created Baron Tyler for life 15 Jun 2005
MP for Bodmin Feb‑Oct 1974 and Cornwall North 1992‑2005; PC 2014
29 Oct 1941
TYLER OF ENFIELD
28 Jan 2011 B[L] Claire Tyler
Created Baroness Tyler of Enfield for life 28 Jan 2011
4 Jun 1957
TYLNEY OF CASTLEMAINE
11 Jun 1731 E[I] 1 Sir Richard Child (later Tylney), 3rd baronet
Created Baron Newtown and Viscount Castlemaine 24 Apr 1718 and Earl Tylney of Castlemaine 11 Jun 1731
MP for Maldon 1708‑1710 and Essex 1710‑1722 and 1727‑1734
5 Feb 1680 Mar 1750 70
Mar 1750 2 John Tylney
MP for Malmesbury 1761‑1768
Peerages extinct on his death
22 Oct 1712 17 Sep 1784 71
TYNDALE
7 Mar 1688 B 1 Sir Francis Radclyffe
Created Baron Tyndale, Viscount Radclyffe & Langley and Earl of Derwentwater 7 Mar 1688
See "Derwentwater"
1625 Apr 1697 71
TYRAWLEY
10 Jan 1706 B[I] 1 Sir Charles O'Hara
Created Baron Tyrawley 10 Jan 1706
PC [I] 1714
c 1640 9 Jun 1724
9 Jun 1724
to    
14 Jul 1773
2 James O'Hara
Created Baron Kilmaine 8 Feb 1722
Field Marshal 1763; PC [I] 1724; PC 1762
Peerages extinct on his death
1682 14 Jul 1773 91

7 Nov 1797
to    
15 Jun 1821
B[I] 1 James Cuffe
Created Baron Tyrawley 7 Nov 1797
MP [I] for Mayo County 1768‑1797; PC [I] 1782
Peerage extinct on his death
by 1747 15 Jun 1821
TYRCONNEL
27 Sep 1603
to    
30 Jul 1608
E[I] 1 Roderick O'Donnell
Created Baron Donegall and Earl of Tyrconnel 27 Sep 1603
He was attainted and the peerage forfeited
1575 30 Jul 1608 33

20 Apr 1661
to    
11 Apr 1667
E[I] 1 Oliver Fitzwilliam, 1st Viscount Fitzwilliam of Meryon
Created Earl of Tyrconnel 20 Apr 1661
Peerage extinct on his death
11 Apr 1667

20 Jun 1685
to    
14 Aug 1691
E[I] 1 Richard Talbot
Created Baron of Talbotstown, Viscount Baltinglass and Earl of Tyrconnel 20 Jun 1685
Viceroy of Ireland 1685‑1689; PC 1686
He was attainted and the peerages forfeited
For information on his wife, see the note at the foot of this page
1630 14 Aug 1691 61

23 Jun 1718
to    
27 Feb 1754
V[I] 1 Sir John Brownlow, 5th baronet
Created Baron Charleville and Viscount Tyrconnel 23 Jun 1718
MP for Grantham 1713‑1715 and 1722‑1741 and Lincolnshire 1715‑1722
Peerages extinct on his death
16 Nov 1690 27 Feb 1754 63

1 May 1761 E[I] 1 George Carpenter, 3rd Baron Carpenter
Created Viscount Carlingford and Earl of Tyrconnel 1 May 1761
MP for Taunton 1754‑1762
26 Aug 1723 9 Mar 1762 38
9 Mar 1762 2 George Carpenter
MP for Scarborough 1772‑1796 and Berwick upon Tweed 1796‑1802
30 Jun 1750 14 Apr 1805 54
14 Apr 1805 3 George Carpenter 10 Oct 1788 20 Dec 1812 24
20 Dec 1812
to    
25 Jun 1853
4 John Delaval Carpenter
Peerage extinct on his death
16 Dec 1790 25 Jun 1853 62
TYRIE
12 Jun 2018 B[L] 1 Andrew Guy Tyrie
Created Baron Tyrie for life 12 Jun 2018
MP for Chichester 1997‑2017
15 Jan 1957
TYRONE
1 Oct 1542 E[I] 1 Con Bacagh O'Neill
Created Earl of Tyrone 1 Oct 1542
c 1484 1559
1559 2 Brien O'Neill 12 Apr 1562
12 Apr 1562
to    
28 Oct 1614
3 Hugh O'Neill
He was attainted and the peerage forfeited
c 1540 20 Jul 1616

9 Oct 1673 E[I] 1 Richard Power, 6th Baron Power
Created Viscount Decies and Earl of Tyrone 9 Oct 1673
PC [I] 1667
1630 14 Oct 1690 60
14 Oct 1690 2 John Power
For further information on this peer, who is central to a famous Irish ghost story, see the note at the foot of the page containing details of the Beresford baronetcy
c 1665 14 Oct 1693
14 Oct 1693
to    
19 Aug 1704
3 James Power
Peerage extinct on his death
1667 19 Aug 1704 37

4 Nov 1720
18 Jul 1746
V[I]
E[I]
1
1
Sir Marcus Beresford, 4th baronet
Created Baron Beresford and Viscount of Tyrone 4 Nov 1720 and Earl of Tyrone 18 Jul 1746
MP [I] for Coleraine 1715‑1721
16 Jul 1694 4 Apr 1763 68
4 Apr 1763
21 Aug 1786
 
B
2
1
George de la Poer Beresford
Created Baron Tyrone 21 Aug 1786 and Marquess of Waterford 19 Aug 1789
See "Waterford"
8 Jan 1735 3 Dec 1800 65
TYRRELL
24 Jul 1929
to    
14 Mar 1947
B 1 Sir William George Tyrrell
Created Baron Tyrrell 24 Jul 1929
PC 1928
Peerage extinct on his death
For further information of this peer's wife, see the note at the foot of this page
17 Aug 1866 14 Mar 1947 80
 

Eleanor Mary Byng, Viscountess Torrington [1st wife of the 9th Viscount]
The daughter of Mr. Edwin Souray, Lady Torrington had a career as an actress who appeared in many musical comedies before marrying the 9th Viscount in 1910. She was found dead in 1931, The Times of 12 December 1931 reporting as follows:-
The inquest on the body of Eleanor Lady Torrington was held by Mr. Ingleby Oddie, the Westminster Coroner, yesterday. She was found dead in a bedroom at her flat in Ebury-street, Westminster, on Tuesday. Mr. Edmund O'Connor held a watching brief on behalf on an interested party. The case was called as that of Eleanor Mary Byng.
Mr. Alfred George Souray, a brother, gave evidence of identification and said that his sister was 51. She had divorced her husband, Viscount Torrington [in 1921]. She was in financial difficulties. On Monday last he heard from her by telephone. She spoke of the Vortex Club, which she promoted in Denman-street, and implied that it was not going so well as she expected.
Witnesses spoke to finding Lady Torrington in bed with the gas turned on. The medical evidence was that death was caused by asphyxiation due to poisoning by carbon monoxide.
Sidney Gooch, of Dorset-square, said that he was secretary of the Vortex Club, which was started by Lady Torrington on November 19. She was financially interested in it and anxious about it. She told him on Monday that she had been sleeping badly for several nights.
The Coroner said that Lady Torrington left a note showing that she obviously intended to take her life. He had no doubt that she had been worried and depressed about her financial position, and from being involved in this club, in which she took great interest. The result was sleeplessness, which led undoubtedly to mental instability. He recorded a verdict that she died by coal-gas poisoning self-administered while of unsound mind.
The Marquesses Townshend
This family has produced a number of interesting characters over the last 200 years or so.
The eldest son of the 1st Marquess succeeded to the titles in 1807. Two of his younger sons were the Rev. Lord Frederick Patrick Townshend and Lord Charles Patrick Thomas Townshend. On 25 May 1796, Lord Charles was elected to the House of Commons as one of the members for the borough of Great Yarmouth in the county of Norfolk, but within 48 hours Lord Charles was dead.
The following extract is from the newspaper, The True Briton of 28 May 1796:-
One of the most melancholy transactions it has ever fallen to our lot to record took place yesterday morning. Lord Charles Townshend, and his brother Lord Frederick Townshend, sons to the Marquis Townshend, had been to Great Yarmouth, for which place Lord Charles had just been chosen Representative: they arrived in Town yesterday morning about six o'clock, and when they reached Oxford-street, near the Pantheon, the post-boys stopped to inquire where the Bishop of Bristol, to whose house they had been ordered to drive, lived; when Lord Frederick jumped out of the chaise, and struck one of the boys, which gave rise to an altercation, that drew together several persons who were passing by. Among these was a Coachman, to whom Lord Frederick particularly addressed himself, insisting upon it that he knew where the Bishop lived; and on the man's protesting that he did not, his Lordship abused him with great violence; and, with the most deplorable marks of insanity, threw off his coat, waistcoat, and shirt, and challenged him to fight. Unable to provoke the man to a contest, he walked leisurely away towards Hanover-square, when some person, who had been attentive to the whole scene, looked into the carriage and saw a lifeless body on the seat, which proved to be the corps [sic] of Lord Charles. Lord Frederick was immediately pursued, and being taken near the end of Swallow-street, was conducted to a neighbouring watch-house, whither the body of his brother was also conveyed.
As soon as the Magistrates at the Police Office in Marlborough-street were apprized of the circumstance, they ordered Lord Frederick to be brought before them, together with the Postilions who drove him to town. His Lordship, when interrogated on the melancholy subject, betrayed the most unequivocal symptoms of a mental derangement, and it became necessary for the Magistrates to apply to the Postilions for the information they wanted. From their evidence, it appeared, that about seven miles from town, in the vicinity of Ilford, one of them had heard the report of a pistol, when, looking round, he saw Lord Frederick throw a pistol out of the chaise window; but he did not stop to inquire the cause of it. This was all that could be collected; it was intended to re-examine Lord Frederick in the evening, when, we understand, his agitation had subsided, and he had recovered a considerable degree of composure; but as the Coroner's Inquest could not be taken before this day, it was deemed proper to defer the examination until their verdict should be known.
The pistol which had put an end to the existence of this unfortunate young Nobleman, had been placed in his mouth, and loaded with two slugs or balls, one of which perforated the scull [sic], and the other was extracted from the mouth. Neither the teeth nor tongue were injured, so that it is evident that no violence had been used in the introduction of the fatal instrument, and that the death of Lord Charles was an act of his own, committed in a paroxysm of frenzy …
Notwithstanding the newspaper's comments that Lord Charles' death was 'an act of his own', at the subsequent inquest Lord Frederick was found to have murdered his brother. Lord Frederick was found to be insane and was confined until his death 40 years later.
Lord Frederick was the Rector of Stiffkey in Norfolk. This parish was made more famous (or infamous) by another of its Rectors, Harold Davidson, who was defrocked in 1932 due to concerns about his licentious lifestyle. Davidson died as a result of being mauled by a lion 5 years later. For further information on Davidson, refer to the Wikipedia article on him.
******************
The third Marquess succeeded to the titles in 1811, but only after being disinherited by his father, after which he re-located to Italy where he died on 31 December 1855. Burke's Peerage states that 'he had been obliged to live [in Italy] after what was presumably rather too openly homosexual activity.
After marrying Sarah Gardner in May 1807, she filed for divorce on the grounds of non-consummation a year later. Given the comments in Burke regarding the Marquess' sexual orientation, this charge probably comes as no surprise. For further information on this marriage and the later history of Sarah Gardner, see the note regarding John Dunn Gardner at the foot of the page containing details of the House of Commons constituency of Bodmin.
******************
According to an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune for 21 March 1902, the 5th Marquess Townshend
… was one of the most eccentric individuals it is possible to conceive, and who is remembered chiefly in connection with the relentless war which he waged upon Italian organ-grinders in London and likewise upon beggars, causing their arrest wherever he found them and devoting much of his time and a considerable amount of money to their prosecution and punishment. Indeed, the music-halls got hold of this craze of his and there used to be a popular song at one time which was given from the stage by vocalists in the guise of organ-grinders and which was to the effect 'His lordship won't let me alone'.
In 1881, the Marquess was before the courts, together with two other men, on a charge of assaulting Lord Edward Thynne. In 1872, when he was aged 65, Lord Edward had run off with the Marquess's wife. The Marquess appears to have obtained his revenge when, in May 1881, in the company of two others, he stopped Lord Edward's pony-carriage before assaulting him with the butt end of a whip. At that time Lord Edward was 74 and his assailant 24 years younger. When the case was heard in court, the Marquess received a fine of £500, which he initially refused to pay and called the chairman of the magistrates a disgrace to the bench, but after cooling his heels for four hours in custody, he paid the fine and was set free.
******************
In March 1906, the Master in Lunacy directed that the Marchioness Townshend, wife of the 6th Marquess Townshend, present a petition for an inquisition into her husband's mental condition. The following is a summary of a report which appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune of 12 March 1906:-
When the Marquis Townshend married Miss Gladys Sutherst last August [1905] it caused a sensation in smart society, because, although Miss Sutherst is a beauty and something of a poet, she had not previously moved in the exalted circles where peer husbands are picked up.
The proceedings now pending to have the Marquis adjudged a lunatic, involving a bitter family quarrel, have led to disclosures which show just how the business was done, and, incidentally, they shed an interesting light on the methods adopted by impecunious British noblemen to get good pay for their titles in the matrimonial market.
In August 1906, the question of the Marquis' sanity was tried before a jury in Lincoln's Inn. A report in the Washington Post of 12 August 1906 states that:-
[the jury] returned the curious verdict that his lordship is capable of taking care of himself, being dangerous neither to himself nor others, but that he is of unsound mind so far as managing his own affairs are concerned … it was alleged that the marquis was unduly influenced by one Robbins [other contemporary reports state that Robbins kept the Marquis in a hypnotic state] whom he had known for fourteen years, and the marchioness testified that Robbins' influence over the marquis had brought about a separation between herself and her husband soon after their marriage … It developed also that the young marquis, finding his estate heavily mortgaged, was persuaded to seek a wealthy alliance, and one witness testified that his engagement to a rich American heiress had nearly been concluded when he became affianced to Miss Sutherst, whose father, a barrister, was an undischarged bankrupt, but whom the marquis and his advisers thought was wealthy.
Although Miss Sutherst and, more particularly, her father, were severely criticised by the judge hearing the case, the marriage survived and two children were born of the marriage. On the death of the 6th Marquess in 1921, the title passed to his son, the late 7th Marquess.
On 2 March 2009, the 7th Marquess became the peer who had held his title for the longest period in the history of the peerage. Until he broke the record, the greatest length of time that peerage had been held by one individual was 87 years, 104 days, the previous record having been held by Charles St. Clair, 13th Lord Sinclair in the peerage of Scotland. On his death, the 7th Marquess had held his peerage for 89 years and 157 days.
The Tracy Peerage cases
Between 1835 and the mid-1860s, this peerage was the subject of at least four claims. The first claim was made in 1835 by Joseph Tracy, who alleged that he was descended from the son of the second Viscount Tracy by his second wife. Joseph petitioned to be recognised as Viscount Tracy in May 1835, but died in March 1836, apparently before his petition was heard. On Joseph's death, his son and heir, James Tracy, took up the fight. He petitioned the Attorney-General in May 1836, who referred the petition to the House of Lords in August 1837. Contemporary newspapers show that this petition was considered by the House of Lords in May and June 1839, but nothing appears to have been decided.
In July 1842, James Tracy lodged a further petition, which was dismissed by the House of Lords in June 1843. Tracy's argument was that his great-grandfather, William Tracy, was the son of Robert Tracy, son of the second Viscount. He alleged that William Tracy had married against his family's wishes and had been disinherited as a result. James's petition was unable to prove these assertions, his evidence resting solely upon an entry in a prayer book and a tombstone commemorating William's death, but which evidence showed had been forged. As a result, his petition was eventually dismissed in July 1848. James Tracy appears to have died in late April 1849.
In 1853, a Benjamin Wheatley Tracy published a pamphlet - The Tracy Peerage. Case of B.W. Tracy, Esquire, a Lieutenant of her Majesty's Royal Navy, claiming the titles, honours and dignities of Viscount and Baron Tracy, of Rathcoole, in the Kingdom of Ireland, with petition to Her Majesty, and observations thereon.
Another claimant emerged in 1859 in the person of Matthew Tracy. This claim appears to have been referred to the House of Lords in 1862, but I can find no information on any subsequent hearings of the case in that House.
John Stewart, 1st Earl of Traquair
During the reign of Charles I, a man named William Armstrong, who was invariably known as Christie's Will, was arrested for theft and imprisoned in the tollbooth at Jedburgh. Christie's Will was one of a band of men known as 'moss-troopers' who were raiders or reivers throughout the marshy border country between England and Scotland.
The Earl of Traquair, happening to be in Jedburgh and knowing Christie's Will, asked the reason for his imprisonment. Will replied that he had been confined for stealing two halters, but on being more closely interrogated, he acknowledged that there were two horses in the halters at the time. Traquair appreciated the humour of the situation and secured Christie Will's release.
Some time afterwards, the Earl was engaged in an important lawsuit which was to be decided in the Court of Session. He had every reason to believe that the outcome of the case would turn on the casting vote of the President of the Court of Session, Lord Durie, whose opinion was known to be unfavourable to Traquair. If Durie could be kept out of the way, Traquair would probably win.
Hearing of the Earl's dilemma, Christie's Will offered his services. He found that it was the judge's practice to frequently ride alone on the sands of Leith. On one of these excursions, he was approached by Christie's Will, who lured him into a lonely area where he pulled Durie from his horse, muffled him up in a large cloak and rode off with Durie tied on the horse behind him. He deposited his terrified captive in an old castle in Annandale, called the Tower of Graham.
When the judge's horse was found, it was assumed that it had thrown its rider into the sea and that he had drowned. His friends went into mourning and a successor was appointed to his office. Meanwhile, Durie suffered solitary confinement, receiving his food through a hole in the wall. He was convinced that he was being held in the dungeon of a sorcerer.
After three months, the lawsuit was decided in Traquair's favour. Accordingly, he directed Will to set the judge free. Will entered the judge's cell in the middle of the night, muffled him once more in his cloak, tied him to a horse, and, without speaking a single word, set the judge down at the same spot on Leith Sands where he had taken him up. He reclaimed his old position and title and continued in his role of President of the Court of Session until his death in July 1646.
Gwyneth Erica Morgan, daughter of the 3rd Baron and 1st Viscount Tredegar (5 Jan 1895‑Dec 1924)
One of the major stories in the newspapers during the early part of 1925 was the disappearance in December 1924 of Gwyneth Morgan, daughter of the 3rd Baron Tredegar. The following contemporary newspaper articles provide a history of the matter:-
The Irish Times of 20 January 1925:-
No trace has been found of Miss Morgan, the daughter of Lord Tredegar, who was been missing for a month.
Lord Tredegar, interviewed at Tredegar Park, Newport, by the South Wales Argus, made the following statement:-
"All I can say is that it is perfectly true that Miss Gwyneth Morgan, who has a house of her own in London, has not been very well lately, and has disappeared. No stone has been left unturned in efforts to trace her. Exhaustive inquiries have been instituted privately, because I had endeavoured to keep it private, but, so far, there is no trace of my daughter. At least, I have no information at present. Miss Morgan was taken seriously ill while abroad, and was latterly residing in a house I provided for her at Wimbledon, with a medical companion, in order that she might be in constant touch with her medical advisers. I know of no reason for the disappearance unless it is that she has been in ill-health for some time. Every care was naturally taken of her, and every effort made to restore her to health."
Miss Gwyneth Morgan spent most of her time in London and in travelling, and paid only occasional visits to Tredegar Park. She took part in a few village dances at Bassalleg, but has not attended a social function in the district for two or three years, having had the serious illness that led Lord Tredegar to give her a house at Wimbledon and to provide a medical companion.
It has been stated that Miss Morgan may have joined a theatrical company, but this suggestion is discounted by her friends. She had no really intimate acquaintances in the theatrical profession, although she knew some actresses. She was certainly not stage-struck, and had never displayed any enthusiasm for the dramatic profession, nor have the inquiries made as a result of the suggestion led to any evidence that she would be likely to seek her living on the stage.
Much anxiety is felt concerning the missing lady. The statement that she left the house at Wimbledon wearing a woollen dressing gown over a suit of pyjamas is officially denied.
After months of similar reports and speculation that Miss Morgan had gone to Denmark to live with friends, her body was found in the Thames on 25 May 1925, as reported in The Times on the following day:-
The body of a woman, which is thought to be that of Miss Gwyneth Erica Morgan, the daughter of Lord Tredegar, who has been missing since December last, was found early yesterday morning in the river at Rotherhithe and removed to the Rotherhithe Mortuary. It had evidently been in the water for some months, and the clothes were considerably decayed. One of the under-garments was marked "G.E.Morgan".
The mortuary was visited last evening by Lord Tredegar's London agent, a private inquiry agent, and a companion who had been employed by the family and knew Miss Morgan well. The latter was able to identify certain articles of clothing as belonging to Miss Morgan. A post-mortem examination was held last evening.
The inquest will be held at Rotherhithe Town Hall today.
Such inquest was reported in The Times on 30 May 1925:-
The inquest on the body of the Hon. Gwyneth Erica Morgan, only daughter of Lord Tredegar, whose body was recovered from the Thames on Monday, was resumed at Rotherhithe Town Hall yesterday, by Major W.H. Whitehouse, Coroner. Miss Morgan disappeared from The Niche, Lancaster-avenue, near Wimbledon Common, on December 11 last.
Kate Blacklock, housekeeper, living at Trinity-place, Hastings, and formerly personal maid to Miss Morgan, said that she entered Miss Morgan's service on November 7 last year at The Niche ‑ and from that date until Miss Morgan's disappearance on December 11 she was in constant personal communication with her.
The Coroner - So far as you are aware did Miss Morgan enjoy good health? - No. She was suffering from the after-effects of a bad attack of typhoid fever. She was suffering from great weakness and nervousness. She also suffered from sleeplessness.
Did she take any drugs? - No, sir.
The witness stated that on December 11 she went into Miss Morgan's bedroom to call her, but found she was not there. Her Burberry coat and a stockinette dress were missing, and the witness thought she had gone walking in the garden.
Did she ever threaten to take her life? - No.
Had you any reason to believe that she would take her life? - Not at all.
Have you had any reason to believe that she would do anything unusual? - No.
Miss Gladys Keeling, lady's companion, who gave an address near Birmingham, said she was companion to Miss Morgan from November last at the house at Wimbledon. They went there on November 7, and the witness left the house on February 6. The witness took over the domestic arrangements to relieve Miss Morgan of any trouble.
The Coroner - We heard from the last witness that Miss Morgan was in a poor state of health; that she did not take any drugs as far as she knew. Can you say the same thing? - Yes.
Did she ever suggest to you that she might commit suicide? - Oh, no.
The Coroner intimated to Lord Tredegar that he found that Miss Morgan died from suffocation by drowning, but there was no evidence to show how she came into the water. He returned an open verdict.
Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
The following biography of Viscount Trenchard appeared in the December 1964 issue of the Australian monthly magazine Parade:-
According to the British High Command, by October 1900 the [Second] Boer War was nearly over and it remained but to mop up the irregulars who still roamed the country. But the Boers took more subduing than expected. Among the troops fighting them was a scout party of tough Australian bushmen who had been handpicked by their leader, 27-year-old Captain Hugh Trenchard of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. At first the Australians did not think much of him. But they soon discovered that he was a steeplechase rider and polo player who could outride, outshoot and on occasion outswear them all.
They were well content to have Capt. Trenchard as leader when, at dawn on October 9, 1900, the patrol rode up to a farmhouse at Dwarvslei, west of Johannesburg, where some Boer guerrillas were reported hiding. As the patrol approached the house a woman came to the door waving a white tablecloth. Captain Trenchard took this as a token of surrender, dismounted and walked forward. As he reached the house a shot rang out. He pitched into the dust. In half an hour the Boers in the farmhouse were either dead or captured and the building was in flames. But, paralysed and apparently dying, Trenchard was carried away with a bullet through his right lung, and his spine injured. Doctors in South Africa and England held little hope for his recovery from a wound which was to affect his whole life. They took no account, however, of his strong will. He did more than merely survive. He lived to become Air Marshal Lord Trenchard, founder of the Royal Air Force.
The polo-playing fusilier who fathered Britain's air arm and put the red, white and blue roundel in the sky was born in Taunton, Somerset, in 1873. A big, ruggedly built lad backward at everything except riding and arithmetic, he failed dismally in the entrance examinations to both the Royal Naval College and the Woolwich Military Academy. After a lot of cramming he eventually scraped his way into the infantry as a second lieutenant and was posted to India. At that time it was almost impossible for an infantry subaltern to live on his pay. He had no private income, so he augmented his finances by discreet horse trading and a little betting. His daring horsemanship gained him renown as a steeplechase rider and polo player. His superiors appreciated his efficiency but his dislike of red tape brought him into frequent collision with authority.
In 1894 he won the All-Indian rifle shooting championship. Because of some blunder, the usual Viceroy's gold medal was not struck in time for the occasion, so it was decided to present him with the case and send the trophy along later. At the ceremony, Trenchard's sense of humour ran away with him. When the case was handed to him after a long speech by a beribboned general, he opened it, and, amid roars of laughter from the men of his regiment, gazed long and admirably at the invisible medal and the passed it to the general for his inspection. The joke was not appreciated by the Viceroy. Instead of a trophy, Trenchard received a sharp reprimand for conduct unbecoming a gentleman.
At the outbreak of the Boer War, Trenchard badgered the authorities until they sent him to South Africa. He was appointed to assist the elderly commandant of a rest camp. After vainly protesting that he had not come to do a job which could have been filled by any retired major, he jumped on a goods train bound for Johannesburg and vanished overnight. He turned up in Krugersdorp, where he encountered a wild group of unattached Australian troopers. Aggrieved at not being issued with horses and equipment, they were busy painting the town red. So far, their only fighting had been done with the Imperial Yeomanry and the military police.
Trenchard was given permission to organise the Australians into a long range patrol. Inviting them to select their own at the remount depot, he assured himself that they knew horseflesh. After dark he took them to a goods train which had been waiting weeks to be unloaded. When he told them to equip themselves and keep their mouths shut, his Australians realised that they had found an officer who would suit them admirably. In a fortnight what had been described as a "slovenly, surly, murderous-looking mob of ruffians" had been transformed into a smart body of soldiers.
Trenchard and his Australians patrolled the lines of communication between Pretoria and the Vaal River until the day he was treacherously shot at Dwarvslei farm. He was invalided back to England, his paralysed legs forcing him into a wheelchair. On the chance that mountain air might help his injured lung he went to St. Moritz, in the Swiss Alps, as soon as he could travel and there found that although he could neither skate nor ski, he could at least lie on a toboggan. Holidaymakers were astounded to see the maimed soldier who could just struggle along on two sticks, hurtling recklessly down the practice runs. Against the advice of all the experts he decided to tackle the wicked Cresta Run. He hit the sharp Shuttlecock Turn at terrific speed and shot over the bank into space. When he recovered consciousness, he was being carried back to his hotel on a stretcher. That day a remarkable thing happened. The fall had jolted his damaged spine back into place. Soon he recovered the use of his legs. A week later he rode the Cresta Run again. This time he won the Novice Cup for 1901.
After that he returned to South Africa to finish the war as a major commanding the 23rd Mounted Infantry. He spent the next seven years as a colonel in the West African Frontier Force, combining the jobs of civil engineer, explorer and military commandant at Lagos [Nigeria]. But the climate took its toll and at the age of 38 he returned to England so riddled with malaria that his friends did not recognise him.
In 1912 he showed up at Weybridge airfield, where he engaged a civilian flying instructor at a fee of £75. Declaring that he had no time to waste, he explained that his 39th birthday fell in a fortnight. Unless he learned to fly by then, he stood no chance of being accepted for the recently-formed Royal Flying Corps. The instructor earned his fee. Thirteen days later he was almost a nervous wreck, but Trenchard had passed the solo test after one hour and four minutes of flying time. He gained pilot's certificate No. 270, and became one of the first members of the Flying Corps. By the middle of 1913 he was second-in-command at Farnborough.
He now lived only for flying, and claimed aircraft would eventually change the entire complexion of war. Few agreed with him. His public statements on the future of the new weapon annoyed many die-hard generals and admirals who had no conception of the possibilities of the aeroplane. These men regarded it as an ingenious contrivance suitable only for reconnaissance work. Many looked on Trenchard as an upstart infantry officer who was trying to by-pass all the normal channels of promotion on the strength of his knowledge of a new toy.
Despite powerful opposition to his ideas, he came into his own at the outbreak of World War I. A major in 1912, by 1915 he was in France as general commanding the Royal Flying Corps. He was among the first to develop aircraft as an offensive weapon. He aroused bitter criticism when he sent his bombers ranging deep into the Ruhr and the Rhineland, destroying factories and military bases. His demand that the Flying Corps be removed from army control and established as a separate entity also aroused hostility. But he finally won his point. In 1917 the Royal Air Force was created. Before the end of the war Trenchard was appointed commander-in-chief of combined allied air forces on the Western Front.
On his rare visits to London, he liked to change into civilian clothes and wander inconspicuously through the parks. It was the time when sensational papers were devoting much space to the allegedly great number of "war babies" being born every week. While reading in Green Park one day, Trenchard was approached by an ultra-patriotic lady who was distributing white feathers to supposed shirkers. "Where's your war badge?" she demanded truculently. "Where's your war baby?" retorted the supposed civilian who had seen so much of war and courage.
He was knighted in 1918, [advanced to a baronet in 1919] and raised to the peerage in 1930 [as Baron Trenchard, being promoted to Viscount Trenchard in 1936]. Sixty-six years old when World War II broke out, he flew tens of thousands of miles inspecting air force squadrons in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He saw the air force he created win the Battle of Britain and was with it in Sicily, Italy and Normandy. In 1945 he stood amid the ruins of Berlin where at a party eight years before Marshal Goering had told him that the Luftwaffe would soon make the whole world tremble. "It's a pity Goering isn't here to see this," he remarked grimly.
Air-Marshal Lord Trenchard died in 1956 at the age of 83. He lies in the Battle of Britain Chapel in Westminster Abbey, an appropriate resting place for the creator of the RAF.
Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent
The following biography of Lord Trent appeared in the Australian monthly magazine Parade in its issue for September 1961:-
One morning in 1863, when income tax was sevenpence in the pound, a skinny, 13-year-old boy took down the shutters of his widowed mother's shop in Nottingham. He had just left school and talked himself into full-time management of the tiny business, which sold herbs and homely household necessities such as Epsom salt, camphor, castor oil and senna pods. As he busied himself blowing out paper bags and weighing up pennyworths of camomile, the energetic young shopkeeper, ambitious though he was, little dreamed that the struggling back-street business would one day grow into Britain's largest shop chain.
The boy's name was Jesse Boot and his story is one of the great romances of modern business. From his mother's stuffy little shop, he built a commercial empire with 1200 retail outlets, vast up-to-date factories and more than 20,000 employees. Boot pioneered the chain store in England. When he had finished he had the biggest string of chemist shops in the world. His name became a household word as he revolutionised merchandising in England and slashed prices to put medicine within reach of the masses.
Jesse Boot was born in a Nottingham slum on June 2, 1850. His father, John Boot, had been a 12-shilling-a-week farm worker. As a hobby he concocted old-time medicines for friends and neighbours from herbs and flowers. A breakdown in health making hard farm labour impossible, John Boot moved to Goose Gate, a narrow, cobbled street in the heart of Nottingham and opened a tiny shop to sell herbal remedies. His son Jesse was born in the poky residence above the shop. When the boy was 10 his father died, but his mother carried on the business to provide a precarious living. Three years later, Jesse Boot left school and took over the shop. He was shrewd, ambitious and determined.
When the shop closed at night the boy scurried away to the public library to devour books that enlarged his knowledge of herbs and drugs. Each Sunday he and his mother scoured the neighboring countryside for ingredients for the popular home-made remedies with which his father had made a reputation for curing complaints from colds to warts.
Jesse Boot tried all the classic methods of getting ahead - long hours, driving energy, pinch-penny thrift - but the results were not promising. At 21 and still in his father's original Goose Gate premises, he decided he needed a quicker way to fortune. He noted how local housewives thronged to the Nottingham cheap market in search of bargains. Chemists and druggists, however, had long entrenched themselves behind a tradition of high prices. Tradition meant nothing to Boot. He had big ideas for expansion - and they all depended on selling large quantities at reduced prices.
The foundation stone of the later gigantic chain of Boot's shops was really laid when he used his savings buying a ton of Epsom salt. The next week-end Boot and his mother toiled in the shop, weighing up the Epsom salt into pound packets. Monday morning they opened with nothing in the window but Epsom salt. Signs outside proclaimed that Epsom salt was on sale at a penny a pound. As it was a penny an ounce everywhere else, bargain-conscious crowds soon gathered and the packets began to sell like hot cakes. Other Nottingham chemists treated the whole thing as a joke. Their smiles faded when Boot, who had still shown a good profit on the Epsom salt, began to buy other lines in quantity and sell at prices people could not resist.
Within a few months, Boot had practically cornered the Nottingham trade in Epsom salt, camphor, bicarbonate of soda, soft soap and castor oil. He was shrewdly revolutionising the chemist-shop business. Then a workman one day saw a flaw in his scheme. The workman went into the shop and said: "I see you still sell bicarbonate of soda at a penny an ounce, threepence for four ounces, sevenpence for a pound. The card in the window also says 'larger quantities, greater reductions'. Is that right?" Boot, scenting a big sale, assured him it was. "Well, it seems to me," said the customer, "that on those figures if I bought a ton I ought to get it for free. So I'll take four ounces of it now and come back for the rest later." Boot gave a wry smile and handed over a four-ounce packet without a word. The well-satisfied wag departed. The card promising "larger quantities, larger reductions" was soon altered to prevent a repetition of what the chain-store magnate said was the smartest bit of business he ever saw in his life.
Boot ploughed all his profits back into the business. He began bulk-buying of proprietary medicines and sold them at reduced prices. This reduction meant booming business. In two years he opened his second shop. In three years he bought the freehold of his original Goose Gate premises and also six houses in the street behind it which were turned into a warehouse. Other Nottingham chemists combined against the newcomer with his Napoleon-like ideas of business conquest. They branded him an "illicit patent medicine vendor" and spread rumours that his drugs were inferior. Boot was described as "ceaselessly active, pugnacious, brusque and outspoken". He hit back at his competitors by employing qualified chemists so he could make up doctors' prescriptions.
By his thirty-third birthday, Boot had grown too big for Nottingham and his 10 shops. He opened branches in Sheffield, Lincoln and other cities. Other chemists called protest meetings and sent him threatening anonymous letters - but they refused to fight him by reducing prices, which were then in the exorbitant class. Boot worked like a machine. He kept his shops open until nine on week nights and until eleven on Saturdays. After the shops closed, he toiled on for more hours writing up the books.
The strain began to tell. Later, Boot had a near breakdown. Worn-out with over-work, he would have sold out cheaply if he could have found a buyer. Instead, he took the first holiday of his life in the Channel Island of Jersey - and came back with a beautiful 23-year-old wife. His wife Florence had ideas that sent the Boot profits soaring. She added new departments to each shop for the sale of toilet and fancy goods, stationery, jewellery and other lines. Boot himself, faced with a combination of chemists who were trying to block his sources of supply, opened factories to produce his own medicines. Every management detail of the ever-growing concern was kept in his own hands and he made every administrative decision. A new partition could not be put up in the office unless Boot settled where it was to go and supervised almost every nail the carpenters put in.
By the turn of the century, he had nearly 200 shops. At one time he was opening new ones at an average of one every 10 days. Many chemists sold out to him. However, he would not use his growing power and wealth to wipe out small men. He insisted his representatives paid a good price for every business he acquired and in many cases the previous owners were invited to stay on as managers.
At the age of 50 Jesse Boot was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis. It put him in a wheelchair and grew progressively worse until shortly before his death he was so paralysed he could move only his eyes. He who made millions as the poor man's doctor and had sold a cure for every ill vainly tried to cure himself over the next 31 years - while continuing doggedly to run his business. In a specially made Rolls-Royce, from which he could skilfully propel his own wheelchair, he regularly visited all his shops and factories. He was generally on hand when he opened a new shop. Crowds were invariably there to grab bargains which were still the backbone of his success. Each new shop advertised 10,000 different lines at a penny - and offered free treatment to any customer hurt in the rush to get them.
As his wealth grew, so did Jesse Boot's philanthropic undertakings. He gave back £2 million to his home city of Nottingham - for a university, sports grounds, gardens, swimming pools, parks and theatres. His illness inexorably worsened, but he fought it off. In his last days he insisted on signing all his own letters - although it caused him intense pain even to hold a pen.
In 1920 he surprisingly sold a controlling interest in his business to an American chemical company for £3 million. although he continued to direct it as chairman of the board. He sold out because he knew the Americans were planning to open up in Britain in competition. He felt that at 70, and physically almost helpless, he could not fight back.
In 1929 Boot was raised to the peerage as Lord Trent. Shrewdly realising that death was coming, he moved his domicile to the Channel Islands to avoid death duties. The business he started in his mother's shop had grown until it was then serving more than 100 million customers a year. When the American firm which had bought his controlling shares struck financial trouble in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Boot was able to step in and buy back his own business on advantageous terms. When he died in 1931, it passed to his son.
The extent of Boot's wealth was not revealed on his death, as probate details were not published in the Channel Islands. Whatever number of millions it was, however, they all really came from a ton of Epsom salt.
Alfred Tristram Lawrence, 1st Baron Trevethin
Trevethin was a Judge in the High Court of Justice when, in 1921, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice. His appointment was as a stopgap only, since apparently the then Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, wanted to appoint Sir Gordon Hewart to this post, but needed his services in the House of Commons. When Trevethin was appointed, he signed an undated letter of resignation for Lloyd George's future use. It is said that he subsequently learnt that his resignation letter had been put into effect when he read of it in the newspapers.
He died in 1936 after a fishing accident. The following report of the subsequent inquest appeared in The Scotsman of 5 August 1936:-
A verdict that death was from heart failure due to myocardial degeneration and to shock caused by long immersion in unusually cold water was returned at the inquest on Lord Trevethin at Builth Wells, Breconshire, yesterday. Lord Trevethin, a former Lord Chief Justice of England, fell into the water while fishing in the River Wye on Monday night.
Colonel the Hon. C. Trevor Lawrence, Lord Trevethin's son, said his father was 92 years of age. He last saw him about 10 a.m. on Monday before he went fishing at the Rocks Pool on the right bank of the Wye near Builth Wells. Later he was informed of the accident, and went along the road towards the Rocks. He met their own van with Mr Danner, their chauffeur, who told him that Lord Trevethin was dead.
Frederick Leslie Danner, Lord Trevethin's chauffeur, said that on Monday morning he drove Lord Trevethin to the rocks, leaving at 11 a.m. Lord Trevethin began fishing as soon as he got there, and continued until about 2.15. From then until 3.15 they had lunch, and then went to the upper waters.
Lord Trevethin had fished the water down, and went back again to fish it down again. He had just commenced coming down. He was standing on a rock to which he had waded in order to fish. The rock was only a few inches out of the water, and the water between the bank and the rock was only about a foot deep. Lord Trevethin saw a fish rise a little way above where he was standing and gave witness the rod to cast for him.
"I was about eight to ten yards immediately behind him. In making the second cast I turned round and saw his Lordship falling backwards into the river. He was going into mid-stream. I tried to reach him, but failed. I then rushed down to a rock in the middle of the river. The current was taking him down the river. I tried to get to him, but I got out of my depth, and he was about four to five yards away in very deep water. I was in waders, and I thought my only hope of getting him was to get to the rocks below and intercept him."
Mr Danner said he went down to a rock about 40 to 50 yards away, reaching there just as Lord Trevethin was floating to a point between two rocks. He caught hold of him and managed to keep his head above water. He called for assistance to a woman on the bank, and also sent for a doctor.
After about twenty minutes, said Mr Danner, a man helped him to hold up Lord Trevethin. "Together we held his head up out of the water. Three Boy Scouts then came along. His Lordship then said, 'All right, Danner, I'm all right. I can swim.' Lord Trevethin was moving his arms and legs and seemed to be trying to swim. His head was not under water for more than a few seconds. The rock his Lordship had been standing on was dry. Witness thought he might have lost his balance.
Mrs Edith Price Brynhaul, of Bryngroen, stated that she and three friends were watching some men fishing. Two of them went into the water. The younger one assisted an older man to a rock, and after the latter man had fished a little he handed the rod and line to the younger one, who took it and went a few steps up the river, leaving Lord Trevethin standing on the rock, and leaning on his staff. His staff seemed to slip, and Lord Trevethin fell backwards into the water. When he shouted- "I'm all right, I can swim" he seemed to swim quite well, but she thought the current overcame him.
James Lovell Resuggen, of Rubery, Birmingham, said he saw a young man supporting an older man nearly in midstream. "He shouted, "Come across," and I took off my coat and went across. I managed to reach him all right, and between us we supported the older man."
Dr S. H. Pugh, of Builth Wells, said he found Lord Trevethin lying on the bank. Three Scouts were giving artificial respiration, working in turn. Indications were that he had died of heart failure, due to shock, and through having been submerged for so long in the water. The fact that he was submerged for so long set a great strain on the heart, and added to that there would be the strain of suffocation for just a few seconds. Had he been a younger man he would probably not have died. He was of opinion that Lord Trevethin died from heart failure, due to shock caused by too long immersion in the unusually cold water. Everything was against his having had a seizure while he was on the rocks.
No further evidence was taken, and the verdict was in accordance with the evidence of Dr Pugh.
Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall, 17th Baron Trimlestown
In 1891, Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall claimed the right to vote at the election of Irish representative peers. Since the right to vote at such elections was limited to Irish peers, this claim was tantamount to claiming the right to the barony of Trimlestown. The following report appeared in The Irish Times on 1 August 1891:-
The Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords, presided over by the Earl of Morley, took into consideration to-day the claim of Christopher Patrick Mary Barnewall, of Trimlestown and Turvey, to the right to vote at the election of representative peers for Ireland as Lord Trimlestown. There were present - The Lord Chancellor, Lord Herschell, Lord Bramwell, Lord Watson, Lord Macnaghten, Lord Morris, and Lord Hannen.
Mr. D. FitzGerald, Q.C., of the Irish Bar (with him Mr. J.D. FitzGerald), in opening the case for the claimant, said that the barony was created in the second year of Edward IV. (1462), when Sir Robert Barnewall became Lord Trimlestown by letters patent. The barony descended by regular succession to Robert Barnewall, the seventh lord, who died in 1639. It was not necessary to trace the intermediate descent between Robert the first lord and Robert the seventh lord, as that portion of the pedigree was established when the House admitted the claims of John Thomas, fifteenth Lord Trimlestown in 1832, and declared him to be the heir male of Robert the first lord. Robert, the seventh lord, had three sons, Christopher, John, and Patrick. Christopher died in the lifetime of his father, leaving issue Matthias and George. Matthias was the eighth peer, and both he and his brother were engaged in the wars of Ireland in the time of Charles I. Matthias was transported to Connaught, where he died. George was killed at the siege of Drogheda. Matthias, after the Act of Settlement, recovered his estates, and is expressly named in the Act, but he never lived to take possession of the estates.
From Matthias the title regularly descended to the sixteenth lord, who died in 1879, and they contended that Christopher Patrick was entitled to vote at the election of the peers. Christopher Patrick was descended from the third son of the seventh lord, and in order to establish his claim they must dispose of certain collateral branches which had become extinct. The first person it was necessary to mention was John, the second son of the seventh lord. That John was a priest. In addition to this John, who had no issue, and, of course, was never married, there was Patrick, the third son, and ancestor of the present claimant. It would be necessary to establish that the claimant was the heir male of that Patrick. There was a series of documentary evidence, extending from the time of Robert the seventh lord, who made a settlement in 1625 down to the fourteenth lord, showing that the line of Patrick, the third son, was recognised by the various members of the family in possession as being entitled, subject to the extinction of their own male heirs, to the title of Thomas, the thirteenth lord, and the barony diverted to his cousin and heir male.
This thirteenth lord made a statement to the Rev. Charles Eustace, who was a member of the family, in 1785, that the next heir was Nicholas, Count of Toulouse, and failing him, Mr. Barnewall, of Fyanstown. On the death of Thomas, Nicholas succeeded, and his eldest son, John Thomas, who came to Ireland after the French Revolution, established his right to vote at the election of representative peers in 1832 as heir male of the first Lord Trimlestown. John Thomas died in 1839, and was succeeded by his son Thomas, the sixteenth lord, who established his right to vote in 1841. He had one son and one daughter, and no other issue. This son died when only five days old, and Thomas, the sixteenth lord, died in 1879. In a series of wills and codicils he had recognised that in the event of the failure of his own issue the remainder would be with Richard Barnewall, of Fyanstown, as the heir male. The claimant traces his descent from the Hon. Patrick Barnewall (who was living in 1639), the third son of Robert the seventh lord, through Richard Barnewall (who died in 1827), and Christopher Barnewall, of Woodtown, County Meath, whose son Charles married Lexitia Aylmer, and died 2d May, 1873, leaving a son, Christopher, the present claimant.
The first witness was Mr. Henry Eustace, of Darriston, who gave evidence respecting the hand-writing of various persons. He knew that the daughter of Nicholas, the fourteenth lord, lived when a girl at Roebuck, with his father. He knew Thomas, the sixteenth lord, who died in 1879, who was a cousin once removed of the witness. He had heard that Thomas had a son who only lived a few days. He could not say from whom he heard it. He knew the daughter, Mrs. Elliot, who now resided in India. He had never heard that the fourteenth lord had any issue by witness's aunt. He was certain there had been no such issue.
Mr. John M'Ginn, an official of Dublin Castle, produced a visitor's book with the signature of a certain Thomas Barnewall.
Dr. William Frazer, of Dublin, who said he had for several years interested himself in the collection of old books and manuscripts, identified a book which he had purchased and had bound. It was the pedigree of the Barnewalls. He bought it about 1880.
In cross-examination by the Attorney-General for England (who, along with the Attorney-General for Ireland, represents the Crown) witness said he had purchased the manuscript as a matter of curiosity, having no interest in the Barnewall family. He bought it with a lot of other papers. He knew nothing of the pedigree before he purchased it. It was now as it came into his hands, he had neither added to it nor withdrawn from it.
Witnesses from the office of Ulster King-at-Arms were called to give evidence respecting certain entries, and a discussion arose as to the admission of the pedigree. Their Lordships held that it should be admitted.
Further consideration was postponed for the production of additional evidence.
Before the Committee for Privileges could hear this matter any further, the claimant died. The right to the peerage then descended to his next surviving brother, who pursued the claim which was eventually allowed on 15 May 1893, as reported in the London Standard of 16 May 1893:-
The Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords sat yesterday for the purpose of hearing the claim of Charles Aloysius Barnewall, eighteenth Lord Trimlestown, in the Peerage of Ireland, to vote at the election of Representative Peers in Ireland. The Earl of Morley presided. The inquiry resolved itself entirely into one of pedigree, as to which a great amount of documentary and oral evidence was adduced. On the conclusion of the evidence, the Lord Chancellor said that no question of difficulty arose with regard to the pedigree, and he moved that the claimant, Charles Aloysius Barnewall, had established his claim to the barony of Trimlestown, in the Peerage of Ireland, and his right to vote at the election of Representative Peers for Ireland. The Resolution was agreed to, and ordered to be reported to the House.
Sir George Tryon (1832-1893), father of George Clement Tryon, 1st Baron Tryon
Sir George was a British vice-admiral who, in 1893, due to a miscalculation on his part, caused the deaths of not only himself, but over 350 other officers and sailors when two ships under his command collided and sank in the western Mediterranean. The following story of the collision appeared in the monthly Australian magazine Parade in June 1961:-
On the 22nd of June, 1893, thirteen great ships of war of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Navy steamed majestically in column abreast along the Syrian coast, bound from Beirut to Tripoli, their mighty prows carving twin furrows of froth in the blue Mediterranean. The world, for the nonce, was at peace. Britain ruled the waves, and life in the navy was grand. Suddenly the two leading dreadnoughts, the Victoria and the Camperdown, of the twin line of eight battleships and five cruisers, turned inwards toward each other when a mere six cables (1200 yards) apart. Like two great marine mammoths in conflict they rushed down upon each other, struck in a shattering crash of tearing steel, and broke apart, their armour-plated hulls rent by great gaps into which the ocean poured.
The Camperdown sheered off, head down, but still afloat, like a wounded whale. But within minutes the Victoria, with a great bubbling sigh, plunged beneath the calm sunlit sea, taking 358 of her crew with her.
Though many years have passed since the sinking of the Victoria by her sister ship the Camperdown, in galleys, gun rooms and upon quarter-decks today naval men often "chew the rag" about "Admiral Tryon's blunder" that brought about the catastrophe. Eminent authorities in naval lore still find it incomprehensible that such a brilliant exponent of naval tactics as Sir George Tryon, K.C.B., Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, was acknowledged to be, should have given an order patently impossible of execution, and which a subsequent court-martial held to be the cause of the disaster. This order was that the leading ships of the two lines should reverse the direction of sailing by turning about, inwards towards each other.
Evidence was given at the court-martial that high-ranking officers had pointed out to the admiral that the distance separating the two lines of ships was too short to permit of such a manoeuvre; that the admiral had agreed on this; but that he had nevertheless let his order stand. As the admiral paid for his folly - if the folly was his alone - by going down with his flagship, the Victoria, he was not there to throw light on the matter from his point of view, so a hundred different theories have been advanced in thousands of arguments since to explain his allegedly curious conduct.
He has been charged with having been motivated by a stubborn conceit in the superiority of his own judgment; of having been suddenly afflicted with mental paralysis; of having made a fatal schoolboy error in miscalculating his arc of turn by confusing the diameter of a circle with the radius.
He is not without defenders who maintain that the error could not have been his alone, and others who declare that his order, or at least his real intention, must have been misunderstood. Psychologists, as well as naval men, have pored over the evidence given at the court-martial that judged Tryon guilty, but the psychological cause of the fatal error has never been satisfactorily explained. The facts, in brief, were these:
The ships were arranged in two columns - that to starboard being headed by H.M.S. Victoria, a battleship of the dreadnought class, heavily armoured and carrying the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Tryon. The one to port was led by H.M.S. Camperdown, a similar vessel, aboard which was Tryon's second-in-command, Rear Admiral Markham. The captains of these two ships were Captain Bourke and Captain Johnstone respectively. These two men, notwithstanding whatever orders were given by the admiral regarding the fleet as a whole, were entirely responsible for the safety of their own particular vessels - an important point in view of what happened later.
The two columns of ships were spaced 1200 yards apart, when, calling Captain Bourke to his cabin, the admiral proposed a manoeuvre obviously fraught with danger. This was, to turn the columns about towards each other like a counter-march, and thus reverse their direction. The object was to try a manoeuvre designed to get the ships into order to berth quickly when they reached Tripoli. The minimum space in which any of the ships could turn was 800 yards, and it was clear than 1600 yards was thus the absolute minimum in which the movement could have been performed - and even then the mammoth, unwieldy vessels would come perilously close to each other.
Captain Bourke remonstrated with the admiral and pointed out the impracticability of the order. The admiral replied, "Yes, it should be eight" (eight cables - 1600 yards), and further discussion of the matter was dropped. It was accordingly with astonishment that Capt. Bourke a few minutes later received a signal on the bridge in the admiral's handwriting ordering the original six cables (1200 yards) separation to be maintained. He sent the bearer of the message back with it, believing the admiral had made a mistake. But the admiral reiterated, "Leave it at six" (cables) - and so the stage was set for the catastrophe that followed.
Now Tryon was an imperious and masterful character, and if there were two ways to do a job, he had the reputation of always choosing the more dangerous and less prosaic method. He was held in enormous regard by all who knew him, and it is said that no one but he could have caused so many senior and intelligent officers to attempt a manoeuvre so obviously impossible.
An hour elapsed, during which the admiral might have been persuaded not to attempt the feat, but obedience is a cast-iron habit in the navy, and when, at 3.28 pm, the signal for the manoeuvre was hoisted by flags it was duly acknowledged by all the other ships except one. Rear Admiral Markham in H.M.S. Camperdown immediately saw the hazards involved and ordered that no acknowledgment should be made but that a signal be made to the admiral asking him to explain. That signal was never despatched.
When the Camperdown made no acknowledgment, the Victoria flew another signal from Tryon asking why the delay. Markham, deciding then that the admiral must surely know what he was about, then gave the necessary acknowledgment, though he said to somebody at the time "It is impossible; it is an impracticable manoeuvre." At the subsequent inquiry, however, he said he thought that the admiral's column was to turn first, and that his column was to turn outside it, and seemingly he gave his orders with this intention, for while the Victoria applied 35 degrees of rudder, the Camperdown gave only 28 degrees.
The flags came fluttering down on the flagship and the great vessels began to turn. At the outset the captain of the Victoria worriedly remarked, "We're going to be close to that ship," nodding towards the Camperdown, but the admiral, standing on top of the chart-house watching the scene, made no reply. As the two ships drew nearer, Captain Bourke asked the admiral if he might jockey the screws - put one screw in reverse to diminish the turning-area of the ship. But this practice was frowned upon by Tryon, and he didn't answer.
As the ships drew closer and a collision seemed imminent, Captain Bourke repeated his question several times in rapid succession. Finally, Tryon, after a glance at H.M.S. Nile, who was next astern, assented. It was too late, however, for the delay in answering made a collision unavoidable; so Captain Bourke ordered both screws astern and the ship's company to collision stations. Down below men rushed madly to close watertight doors as the foghorn roared "collision stations" while the great engines stopped momentarily and then set up the pounding pulsations of full speed astern.
At 3.34 - only four minutes after the signal had begun to be executed, the two great mountains of steel met with a thunderous impact, and the Camperdown's bows cut into Victoria just forward of the thick armoured belt. The impact was so great that it pushed the Victoria bodily sideways for some 70 feet. The sharp ram of the Camperdown cut nine feet into the other ship through armour-plating, and men deep down in the bowels of the Victoria saw the ram coming through the hull amidst a cloud of coal dust and the hideous din of rent steel. The two ships were momentarily locked while their sterns swung together with their momentum adding to the din and damage.
Admiral Tryon hailed the Camperdown, ordering her to be backed away. As the ships parted, the water rushed into the enormous breach in the Victoria and she began to settle by the bow. Events aboard the Camperdown had followed a different sequence. Her commander, Captain Johnstone, though he had shared Rear Admiral Markham's apprehensions regarding the manoeuvre, had taken no steps to safeguard his ship by closing the watertight doors. Indeed it seems remarkable that although there was not one captain who did not think the manoeuvre highly dangerous, not one of the ships was ordered to be fully prepared for collision.
Captain Johnstone on the Camperdown did not use his screws to assist the turn either, and it was not until a collision was obviously pending that he ordered both screws to be reversed at full speed. Then, due to some defect in the engine-room telegraph, only three-quarter speed astern was signalled in the engine room.
Two minutes after the impact the ships parted, both badly holed. The crew of the Camperdown managed to keep her afloat by securing collision mats over the breach; but the crew of the doomed Victoria fought a losing battle. Captain Bourke went below and visited the men in the engine-room and boiler-rooms, who reported everything "all right" and courageously stuck to their stations. Passing through the passages that honeycombed the great ship, in the dimming lights he found absolute calmness and order. Partly reassured that the ship would keep afloat, he left the engine-room crews below though he ordered everybody else on deck.
Tryon was reported to have said at this stage to a nearby midshipman named Lanyon - "It's all my fault". He asked the executive officer if he thought the ship could be kept afloat and was answered in the affirmative. Soon, however, the forecastle was under water and men working up to their waists closing bulkhead doors and deadlights had to be ordered to abandon the task. The water was soon lapping at the two huge guns the Victoria carried for'd, the steering machinery became useless as the stern rose out of the water, and as the hydraulic hoists were out of action, it was impossible to get collision mats over the hole in the hull.
The commander of H.M.S. Dreadnought, convinced that the Victoria was sinking, started lowering his boats to pick up the crew as soon as the order was given to abandon ship, but Tryon ordered them back, and aware that there was shallow water nearby, ordered the Victoria's engines ahead in an attempt to reach it. This action, however, only caused the sea to rush in with even greater force. Suddenly the stricken ship heeled over violently. Many vents now came under water - gun ports, screen doors, and other openings - and the list became alarming. The complete calmness and order that prevailed was amazing, and as the list became even steeper not a man standing by on the upper deck broke ranks.
But the end was near. The wounded giant tilted almost perpendicular, abandon-ship was ordered, and every man was freed to look after himself. Some were thrown overboard by the sudden lurch, others scrambled up the sloping deck and leapt into the sea, but many unfortunates fell into the whirling screws while others slid to the lower side of the vessel to be sucked down with it.
The men on the other ships sent boats hurrying to the spot and rescued 338 survivors. The captain was among the survivors, the admiral among the 358 that were lost.
A court-martial was held the following month to determine responsibility for the disaster. In the absence of Admiral Tryon it followed that the answers to many pertinent questions sought by the court martial were unobtainable. He was, in the findings of the court, entirely responsible for the collision, but that view was not supported by many eminent naval authorities. The court-martial mildly rebuked Rear Admiral Markham by "regretting" that he, as second-in-command, did not communicate his doubts more forcibly to his commander-in-chief before the order was carried out. Captain Johnstone of the Camperdown was held blameworthy for not having made better preparations for the collision he claimed to have anticipated.
The Admiralty subsequently broke precedent by issuing a "minute" on the mishap summarising the affair and adding a tribute to the behaviour of the ship's company, declaring it to be "in the highest degree honourable to all concerned".
Dudley Churchill Marjoribanks, 3rd Baron Tweedmouth
An amusing anecdote relating to the 3rd Lord Tweedmouth appeared in that giant amongst newspapers, the Camperdown Chronicle, on 16 May 1912. Camperdown is a small country town in south-west Victoria, Australia.
The strange sight of a British peer walking on his hands across a San Francisco street was witnessed last month. The peer was Lord Tweedmouth, and the feat was to decide a singular wager with Mr. William Dupee, a wealthy owner of a large estate near San Diego, California, who makes a specialty of raising horses, and an especially fine breed of polo ponies. Lord Tweedmouth and a group of friends, including Mr. Dupee, were discussing polo ponies at the former's hotel, and, having seen a pony he had greatly liked at Mr. Dupee's ranch, Lord Tweedmouth made an offer for it. The breeder refused to sell it, but he said, "I will make you a wager. If you will walk on your hands from this hotel balcony to the middle of the street the pony is yours." With scarcely an instant's hesitation, Lord Tweedmouth dropped on to his hands and raised his heels over his head, and walked the distance indicated on his hands without once touching his feet to the ground. It was thirty steps, and he accomplished it amidst the cheers of a large crowd of on-lookers in the hotel and in the street. Exactly a year ago Lord Tweedmouth won a similar wager with Mr. Dupee, in which he took two polo ponies as prize. On that occasion Mr. Dupee bet the peer that he would not make his appearance on the stage at Los Angeles in a play called "The Deserts", in a scene depicting slumming in the lower quarters of a city. Lord Tweedmouth carried out his part, and duly won the bet. He shipped the polo ponies to England, where he intends the third shall join them.
Frances Jennings, wife of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel (creation of 1685) and 1st Duke of Tyrconnel (created in the Jacobite peerage 30 March 1689) (c 1647‑9 Mar 1730)
The following story is one of a series entitled Romantic Tales of the British Peerage by R L Hadfield which were published in the Adelaide Advertiser between June and August 1922:-
In the Strand, in London, many years ago, there existed a millinery establishment much patronised by the fashionable women of town. The deft fingers and good taste of the mistress of the shop attracted much custom, but many who came for bonnets and caps were piqued also by curiosity. No member of the outside world had ever seen the face of the milliner. Always she wore a white mask. Many were the romantic stories circulating about the wearer of this disguise. All could see that the woman once possessed great beauty. Though age was creeping on, the eyes could still flash and sparkle at a merry quip or a well-turned compliment.
It happened one day that the Duchess of Marlborough, escorted by the great Duke himself, paid a visit to the shop in search of some detail of finery. The purchase complete, both began to twit the mistress of the shop on her disguise, hinting broadly that it was a mere "advertising" dodge. When the Duke jokingly sought to unloose the mask, the eyes behind flashed dangerously. "Do not do so," said the woman of mystery, "for the face you will look upon will be known to you". This merely served to pique the more the curiosity of both Duke and Duchess. Seizing an opportunity as the milliner turned away, the latter deftly broke the silken cords and let the mask fall.
A cry of astonishment broke from both. "Frances - my own sister - I have found you at last," cried the Duchess, whilst her husband slapped his thigh and uttered a round oath. It was the truth. The little milliner of the Strand, fighting for a living - herself against the world - was none other than sister to the proud Duchess of Marlborough, and herself the Duchess of Tyrconnel.
Nearly 40 years before, in the country home of Richard Jennings, jovial fox-hunting squire, there had grown up two daughters of surpassing beauty. Jennings loved his daughters dearly, knew their worth, but himself given to the pleasures of an easy-going country life, little dreamed of the futures they were destined to fill. It was with surprise and excitement that a message was one day [1664] received from the Duchess of York, asking Mr. Jennings to allow his elder daughter Frances to come to Court in London to act as maid-of-honour to this Royal lady. It was well known throughout England that the Duchess surrounded herself with only the peerless beauties of the land; to be invited to become her maid-of-honour was a prize few girls could refuse.
To Court, therefore, went Frances Jennings. It was a great change from the peaceful life of her old home at Sandridge, near St. Albans - this new world into which she was suddenly introduced. But Frances was not long in accommodating herself to the dazzling light of Court, the gaiety, the wit, the excitement, that now took the place of existence in the home of a country squire.
Her beauty stood her in good stead, and soon the little country mouse was the centre of one of the brilliant circles revolving around the throne of the "Merry Monarch". She moved amongst the most beautiful and the highest of the land, commanding homage from man and woman alike, and there were not a few of the former who worshipped at the throne of her beauty. Frances coquetted with all, as was the custom. But she kept her head, and did allow the attentions she received to overcome her better judgment. Amongst those who fell a victim to her charms was the Duke of York himself, who in the extremity of his ardour made himself supremely ridiculous. He bombarded Frances with notes containing the tenderest expressions of love, but with no success; for Frances merely laughed at his suit and purposely left his letters lying about for all to read.
Even Charles himself paid her court, without success. The Marquis de Beray, member of one of France's oldest families, sought her in marriage. Recalled to France by his father, he gave up his suit in despair, but never to his dying day did he forget his first love, Frances Jennings. Then came Henry Jermyn, the wealthiest and handsomest man in England. He offered his heart and £20,000 a year to the cold little beauty - without avail. "No man's wife will I be until I love," she said, "and no man's mistress, even if he be of Royal blood". So the time passed in pleasure and coquetry. Pepys, the diarist, old scandalmonger that he was, writes thus of Frances:- "What mad freaks the maids-of-honour at Court have. Mistress Jennings the other day dressed herself as an orange wench, and went up and down crying 'Oranges' till falling down, and by some accident, her fine shoes were discovered, and she put to a great deal of shame." But though Pepys goes on to make remarks about the ladies of the Court by no means creditable to them, no breath of scandal tarnished the name of Frances Jennings. A madcap she may have been, but she was never forgetful of her own honour. Eventually she gave her heart to a mere soldier of fortune. There came to Court a man who, though of humble origin and of little wealth, had won for himself a reputation for his daring as a soldier. This was Dick Talbot, and to him at once the carefree girl succumbed. Within a few days of his arrival, Frances was his affianced wife. But the path of true love was not to run too smoothly. Frances, whose word had been law to men, could not endure the determined, autocratic demeanour of her lover. She chafed at the restraint put upon her, and with high and bitter words, she cast off the chains that bound her. Dick Talbot was dismissed.
As is so often the case, the heart of Frances Jennings was caught on the rebound by another suitor. Enraged with Talbot, she accepted the suit of George Hamilton, scion of the house of Abercorn, and to him she was shortly afterwards married [1665]. Hamilton had neither fortune nor position. It was therefore necessary for him to find some office, and, visiting the Court of Louis XIV of France, he was offered and accepted the post of captain in the Gens d'Armes Anglais. George Hamilton's career as a soldier of France was short. A few years after her marriage, in which two [actually three] daughters were born, Frances found herself a widow, penniless but for a small pension, her husband having fallen in battle. She was still young and still beautiful. In addition, she was now Countess of Hamilton [in the peerage of France], and assured of a welcome at the French Court. To Paris she went, and once more there flocked to pay her homage the rich and powerful of many lands. But none she would accept until once more there crossed her path the only man she had really loved - Dick Talbot. Soon after their romantic reunion they were married [in 1681].
Colonel Talbot - as he now was - repaired to London, and being a close friend of the King, honours were showered on him, and he was sent to Ireland in charge of the troops, with the dignity of an earldom [Tyrconnel]. Fortune once more smiled on the two lovers. After years of separation they had met and married. Honours continued to be thrust upon them, for Talbot was raised to the great position of Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Then, as "Queen of Ireland", Frances entered upon the most brilliant period of her career. On all sides she was surrounded by wealthy friends, proud to be acquainted with a woman so honoured in looks by Nature and in position by her King.
But the power of James II was waning. After the Battle of the Boyne all the hopes of the Talbots were dashed to the ground. Leaving Ireland, Frances and her husband lived for a time in France, until Talbot, revisiting Ireland, fell dead.
Of the days that then came upon the Duchess, only a little is known. In poverty and obscurity she crept from place to place. Her own daughters deserted her. From a pinnacle of power and popularity Frances fell almost to the gutter. In her straitened circumstances she fell in with a strange woman, to whom she disclosed her identity, and she, though of humble origin, took pity on the fallen "Queen", and took her into partnership in a milliner's shop. There, off the Strand, Frances worked for months sewing and designing mob-caps and millinery for the Court which she had once graced. But in order that none should know her, she insisted on wearing her white mask of silk. Even when her own sister visited her, she endeavoured to conceal her identity, and it was only an accident that revealed her secret.
When the Duke of Marlborough learned the unhappy lot of his sister-in-law, he made her an allowance that enabled her to leave the drudgery of work and retire to Dublin. So Frances bade farewell to her partner in the shop and to the city where once she had reigned as queen. The end of this brilliant and once beautiful woman was a sad one. Age crept on with its feebleness. One day she fell from her bed and "being too feeble to rise or call out, was found in the morning so perished with cold that she died in a few hours".
Margaret Ann Tyrrell, Lady Tyrrell (d. 1939)
Lady Tyrrell was the daughter of David Urquhart, MP for Stafford 1847‑1852. She married William George Tyrrell, later Baron Tyrrell, in 1891.
Lord Tyrrell was the British Ambassador to Paris between 1928 and 1934. During this time, Lady Tyrrell showed no interest whatsoever in acting as the hostess during official functions. In fact, she rarely visited Paris, the majority of her time being devoted to research for a history of the world from 2000 BC. On her rare visits to Paris, she preferred to spend her time perched in a tree in the Embassy garden. She sat in the branches writing her book and, when she wished to summon a footman, she emitted an ear-piercing whistle, a skill she had learned from the head doorman at the Ritz Hotel in London, who used it to summon taxis.
When there was no escaping from formal occasions, it was said that her charm and wit made up for her occasional absent-mindedness. On one occasion, she mistook the future King George VI for her husband's private secretary; on another, she talked for several hours with the Earl of Birkenhead under the impression that he was the Turkish Ambassador.