Peerages of the United Kingdom

Copyright © 2003-2018 Leigh Rayment

Copyright © 2020-2024 Helen Belcher OBE

LOREBURN

PEERAGES

Last updated 17/10/2018 (19 Jan 2024)

Date	Rank	Order	Name	Born	Died	Age


8 Jan 1906 4 Jul 1911 to 30 Nov 1923	B E	1 1	Robert Threshie Reid Created Baron Loreburn 8 Jan 1906 and Earl Loreburn 4 Jul 1911 MP for Hereford 1880‑1885 and Dumfries Burghs 1886‑1905; Solicitor General 1894; Attorney General 1894‑1895; Lord Chancellor 1905‑1912; PC 1905 Peerages extinct on his death	3 Apr 1846	30 Nov 1923	77

LORN

c 1439	B[S]	1	Robert Stewart Created Lord Lorn c 1439		c 1448

c 1448		2	John Stewart		20 Dec 1463

20 Dec 1463		3	Walter Stewart		c 1488

c 1488		4	Thomas Stewart		9 Sep 1513

9 Sep 1513		5	Richard Stewart		1532

1532		6	John Stewart		Jan 1570

Jan 1570		7	James Stewart		14 Feb 1586

14 Feb 1586		8	John Stewart, later [1596] 1st Earl of Athole		13 Apr 1605

13 Apr 1605 to 1625		9	John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Athole On his death the peerage became either dormant or extinct		1625

L'ORTI

6 Feb 1299	B	1	Henry de L'Orti Summoned to Parliament as Lord L'Orti 6 Feb 1299		1322

1322		2	Henry de L'Orti		1341

1341 to after 1341		3	John de L'Orti On his death the peerage fell into abeyance		after 1341

LORTON

28 May 1806	V[I]	1	Robert Edward King Created Baron Erris of Boyle 29 Dec 1800 and Viscount Lorton 28 May 1806 MP [I] for Jamestown 1796‑1798 and Boyle 1798‑1800; Lord Lieutenant Roscommon 1831‑1854 For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of the page containing details of the Earldom of Kingston	12 Aug 1773	20 Nov 1854	81

20 Nov 1854		2	Robert King He succeeded to the Earldom of Kingston in 1869 with which title this peerage then merged and so remains	17 Jul 1804	16 Oct 1869	65

LOTHIAN

10 Jul 1606	E[S]	1	Mark Kerr Created Lord Newbottle 28 Oct 1587 and Earl of Lothian 10 Jul 1606		8 Apr 1609

8 Apr 1609 to 15 Jul 1624		2	Robert Kerr Peerage extinct on his death		15 Jul 1624



31 Oct 1631	E[S]	1	William Kerr Created Lord Newbottle and Earl of Lothian 31 Oct 1631	c 1605	Oct 1675

Oct 1675 23 Jun 1701	M[S]	2 1	Robert Kerr He succeeded as 3rd Earl of Ancram in 1690 Created Lord Kerr of Newbottle, Viscount of Briene, Earl of Ancram and Marquess of Lothian 23 Jun 1701	8 Mar 1636	15 Feb 1703	66

15 Feb 1703		2	William Kerr, 5th Lord Jedburgh and 3rd Earl of Ancram (creation of 1633) KT 1705	1661	28 Feb 1722	60

28 Feb 1722		3	William Kerr KT 1734	c 1690	28 Jul 1767

28 Jul 1767		4	William Henry Kerr MP for Richmond (Yorks) 1747‑1763; KT 1768	1710	12 Apr 1775	64

12 Apr 1775		5	William John Kerr KT 1776	13 Mar 1737	4 Jan 1815	77

4 Jan 1815		6	William Kerr Created Baron Ker of Kersheugh 17 Apr 1821 Lord Lieutenant Midlothian 1819‑1824 and Roxburgh 1812‑1824; KT 1820	4 Oct 1763	27 Apr 1824	60

27 Apr 1824		7	John William Robert Kerr MP for Huntingdon 1820‑1824; Lord Lieutenant Roxburgh 1824‑1841; PC 1841	1 Feb 1794	14 Nov 1841	47

14 Nov 1841		8	William Schomberg Robert Kerr	12 Aug 1832	4 Jul 1870	37

4 Jul 1870		9	Schomberg Henry Kerr Secretary of State for Scotland 1887‑1892; KT 1878; PC 1886 For information regarding the death of the 9th Marquess's son, styled the Earl of Ancram, see the note at the foot of this page	2 Dec 1833	17 Jan 1900	66

17 Jan 1900		10	Robert Schomberg Kerr	22 Mar 1874	16 Mar 1930	55

16 Mar 1930		11	Philip Henry Kerr Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1931; CH 1920; PC 1939; KT 1940	18 Apr 1882	12 Dec 1940	58

12 Dec 1940		12	Peter Francis Walter Kerr MEP 1973‑1975	8 Sep 1922	11 Oct 2004	82

11 Oct 2004		13	Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr MP for Berwick and East Lothian 1974, Edinburgh South 1979‑1987 and Devizes 1992‑2010; PC 1996 Created Baron Kerr of Monteviot for life 22 Nov 2010	7 Jul 1945

LOUDOUN

30 Jun 1601	B[S]	1	Hugh Campbell Created Lord Campbell of Loudoun 30 Jun 1601		15 Dec 1622

15 Dec 1622		2	Margaret Campbell she married -

12 May 1633	E[S]	1	John Campbell Created Lord Tarrinzean and Mauchline and Earl of Loudoun 12 May 1633	1598	15 Mar 1663	64

15 Mar 1663		2	James Campbell		1684

1684		3	Hugh Campbell Secretary of State for Scotland 1705‑1707; Lord Lieutenant Ayrshire; KT 1706; PC 1708		20 Nov 1731

20 Nov 1731		4	John Campbell	5 May 1705	27 Apr 1782	76

27 Apr 1782		5	James Mure-Campbell MP for Ayrshire 1754‑1761	11 Feb 1726	28 Apr 1786	60

28 Apr 1786		6	Flora Rawdon-Hastings For further information on this peeress and her daughter, see the note at the foot of this page	Aug 1780	8 Jan 1840	59

8 Jan 1840		7	George Augustus Francis Rawdon‑Hastings, 2nd Marquess of Hastings	4 Feb 1808	13 Jan 1844	35

13 Jan 1844		8	Paulyn Reginald Serlo Rawdon‑Hastings, 3rd Marquess of Hastings	2 Jun 1833	17 Jan 1851	17

17 Jan 1851		9	Henry Weysford Charles Plantagenet Rawdon‑Hastings, 4th Marquess of Hastings	22 Jul 1842	10 Nov 1868	26

10 Nov 1868		10	Edith Maud Abney‑Hastings	10 Dec 1833	23 Jan 1874	40

23 Jan 1874		11	Charles Edward Rawdon‑Hastings	5 Jan 1855	17 May 1920	65

17 May 1920		12	Edith Maud Abney-Hastings She successfully terminated an abeyance to become the Lady Stanley (7th in line) in 1921, but that peerage fell into abeyance again on her death	13 May 1883	24 Feb 1960	76

24 Feb 1960		13	Barbara Huddleston Abney‑Hastings	3 Jul 1919	1 Nov 2002	83

1 Nov 2002		14	Michael Edward Abney‑Hastings	22 Jul 1942	30 Jun 2012	69

30 Jun 2012		15	Simon Michael Abney‑Hastings	29 Oct 1974



13 Feb 1817	V	1	Francis Rawdon-Hastings Created Baron Rawdon 5 Mar 1783, and Viscount Loudoun, Earl of Rawdon and Marquess of Hastings 13 Feb 1817 He was succeeded by the 7th Earl of Loudoun (see above)	9 Dec 1754	28 Nov 1826	71

LOUGHBOROUGH

23 Oct 1643 to 10 Jan 1667	B	1	Henry Hastings Created Baron Loughborough 23 Oct 1643 Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1661‑1667 Peerage extinct on his death	28 Sep 1610	10 Jan 1667	55



17 Jun 1780 to 3 Jan 1805 31 Oct 1795	B B	1 1	Alexander Wedderburn Created Baron Loughborough 17 Jun 1780 and 31 Oct 1795, and Earl of Rosslyn 21 Apr 1801 For details of the special remainder included in the creation of the barony of 1795, see the note at the foot of this page On his death the creation of 1780 became extinct. See "Rosslyn"	13 Feb 1733	3 Jan 1805	71

LOUGHGUYRE

22 Apr 1718	B[I]	1	Charles Fane Created Baron Loughguyre and Viscount Fane 22 Apr 1718 See "Fane"	30 Jan 1676	4 Jul 1744	68

LOUGHNEAGH

21 Nov 1660	B[I]	1	John Clotworthy Created Baron of Loughneagh and Viscount Massereene 21 Nov 1660 See "Massereene"		23 Sep 1665

LOUR

20 Apr 1639	B[S]	1	Sir John Carnegie Created Lord Lour 20 Apr 1639 and Lord Lour and Egglismaldie and Earl of Ethie 1 Nov 1647 He exchanged the titles for the Earldom of Northesk and Barony of Rosehill in 1662 See "Northesk"	c 1580	18 Jan 1667

LOUTH

12 May 1319 to 10 Jun 1329	E[I]	1	John de Bermingham Created Earl of Louth 12 May 1319 Peerage extinct on his death		10 Jun 1329



15 Jun 1541	B[I]	1	Oliver Plunkett Created Baron Louth 15 Jun 1541		c 1555

c 1555		2	Thomas Plunkett	c 1547	1 May 1571

1 May 1571		3	Patrick Plunkett	1548	1575	27

1575		4	Oliver Plunkett		5 Mar 1607

5 Mar 1607		5	Matthew Plunkett		19 Jul 1629

19 Jul 1629		6	Oliver Plunkett	Mar 1608	c 1679

c 1679		7	Matthew Plunkett Lord Lieutenant Louth and Drogheda; PC 1687		Sep 1689

Sep 1689		8	Oliver Plunkett	1668	1707	39

1707		9	Matthew Plunkett	1698	20 Jun 1754	55

20 Jun 1754		10	Oliver Plunkett	2 Apr 1727	4 Mar 1763	35

4 Mar 1763		11	Thomas Oliver Plunkett For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	28 Aug 1757	25 Jun 1823	65

25 Jun 1823		12	Thomas Oliver Plunkett	5 Aug 1809	26 Jun 1849	39

26 Jun 1849		13	Randal Percy Otway Plunkett	28 Aug 1832	19 Jul 1883	50

19 Jul 1883		14	Randal Pulgrim Ralph Plunkett	24 Sep 1868	28 Oct 1941	73

28 Oct 1941		15	Otway Randal Percy Oliver Plunkett	26 Apr 1892	3 Feb 1950	57

3 Feb 1950		16	Otway Michael James Oliver Plunkett	19 Aug 1929	6 Jan 2013	83

6 Jan 2013		17	Jonathan Oliver Plunkett	4 Nov 1952



23 Apr 1759 to 11 Jan 1799	E[I]	1	Thomas Bermingham, 19th Baron Athenry Created Earl of Louth 23 Apr 1759 MP [I] for Galway County 1745‑1750; PC [I] 1755 Peerage extinct on his death	16 Nov 1717	11 Jan 1799	81

LOVAINE

28 Jan 1784	B	1	Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland Created Baron Lovaine 28 Jan 1784 For details of the special remainder included in this creation, see the note at the foot of this page	c 1714	6 Jun 1786

6 Jun 1786		2	Algernon Percy, later [1790] 1st Earl of Beverley	21 Jan 1750	21 Oct 1830	80

21 Oct 1830		3	George Percy, 2nd Earl of Beverley He succeeded to the Dukedom of Northumberland in 1865 when the peerages merged	22 Jun 1778	21 Aug 1867	89



22 Jul 1887			Henry George Percy He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Lovaine 22 Jul 1887 He succeeded as Duke of Northumberland in 1899	29 May 1846	14 May 1918	71

LOVAT

1458	B[S]	1	Hugh Fraser Created Lord Lovat 1458		c 1500

c 1500		2	Thomas Fraser		21 Oct 1524

21 Oct 1524		3	Hugh Fraser		2 Jun 1544

2 Jun 1544		4	Alexander Fraser		1558

1558		5	Hugh Fraser		1 Jan 1577

1 Jan 1577		6	Simon Fraser	c 1572	3 Apr 1633

3 Apr 1633		7	Hugh Fraser		16 Feb 1646

16 Feb 1646		8	Hugh Fraser	2 May 1643	27 Apr 1672	28

27 Apr 1672		9	Hugh Fraser	28 Sep 1666	14 Sep 1696	29

14 Sep 1696		10	Thomas Fraser	1636	May 1699	62

May 1699 to 9 Apr 1747		11	Simon Fraser He was attainted and the peerage forfeited For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of the page containing details of the peerage of Kilmarnock	c 1667	9 Apr 1747

13 Aug 1857 28 Jan 1837	B	12 1	Thomas Alexander Fraser Created Baron Lovat 28 Jan 1837 He was restored to the Scottish peerage in 1857 Lord Lieutenant Inverness 1853‑1873; KT 1865	17 Jun 1802	28 Jun 1875	73

28 Jun 1875		13 2	Simon Fraser Lord Lieutenant Inverness 1873‑1887 For further information relating to a claim for this peerage, see the note at the foot of this page	21 Dec 1828	6 Sep 1887	58

6 Sep 1887		14 3	Simon Joseph Fraser KT 1915	25 Nov 1871	18 Feb 1933	61

18 Feb 1933		15 4	Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser	9 Jul 1911	16 Mar 1995	83

16 Mar 1995		16 5	Simon Fraser	13 Feb 1977

LOVEL

6 Feb 1299	B	1	John Lovel Summoned to Parliament as Lord Lovel 6 Feb 1299	1254	1311	57

1311		2	John Lovel	1289	1315	26

1315		3	John Lovel		Nov 1347

Nov 1347		4	John Lovel	1340	Dec 1361	21

Dec 1361		5	John Lovel KG 1405	1341	10 Sep 1408	67

10 Sep 1408		6	John Lovel		19 Oct 1414

19 Oct 1414		7	William Lovel	1397	13 Jun 1455	57

13 Jun 1455		8	John Lovel	1433	9 Jan 1465	31

9 Jan 1465 4 Jan 1483 to 1485	V	9 1	Francis Lovel Created Viscount Lovel 4 Jan 1483 KG 1483 He was attainted and the peerages forfeited	1456	16 Jun 1487	30

LOVEL OF CASTLE CARY

20 Nov 1348 to 31 Jan 1351	B	1	Richard Lovel Summoned to Parliament as Lord Lovel 20 Nov 1348 Peerage extinct on his death		31 Jan 1351

LOVELACE

31 May 1627	B	1	Richard Lovelace Created Baron Lovelace 31 May 1627 MP for Berkshire 1601 and 1621, Abingdon 1604 and Windsor 1614	c 1568	22 Apr 1634

22 Apr 1634		2	John Lovelace Lord Lieutenant Berkshire 1660‑1670	Feb 1616	25 Nov 1670	54

25 Nov 1670		3	John Lovelace MP for Berkshire 1661‑1670	c 1640	27 Sep 1693

27 Sep 1693		4	John Lovelace Governor of New York		6 May 1709

6 May 1709		5	John Lovelace		May 1709

May 1709 to 28 Jul 1736		6	Nevill Lovelace Peerage extinct on his death	1708	28 Jul 1736	28



30 Jun 1838	E	1	William King-Noel, 8th Baron King of Ockham Created Viscount Ockham and Earl of Lovelace 30 Jun 1838 Lord Lieutenant Surrey 1840‑1893	21 Feb 1805	29 Dec 1893	88

29 Dec 1893		2	Ralph Gordon Noel King‑Noel, 13th Baron Wentworth	2 Jul 1839	28 Aug 1906	67

28 Aug 1906		3	Lionel Fortescue King	16 Nov 1865	5 Oct 1929	63

5 Oct 1929		4	Peter Malcolm King	30 Mar 1905	4 Dec 1964	59

4 Dec 1964 to 31 Jan 2018		5	Peter Axel William Locke King Peerages extinct on his death	26 Nov 1951	31 Jan 2018	66

LOVELL

9 May 1744 to 20 Apr 1759	E	1	Thomas Coke Created Baron Lovell 28 May 1728, and Viscount Coke and Earl of Leicester 9 May 1744 Peerages extinct on his death	c 1695	20 Apr 1759

LOVELL AND HOLLAND

7 May 1762	B	1	John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont Created Baron Lovell and Holland 7 May 1762 See "Egmont"	25 Feb 1711	4 Dec 1770	59

LOVELL-DAVIS

26 Jun 1974 to 6 Jan 2001	B[L]		Peter Lovell-Davis Created Baron Lovell-Davis for life 26 Jun 1974 Peerage extinct on his death	8 Jul 1924	6 Jan 2001	76

LOW

16 Nov 1999 to 7 Dec 2000	B[L]		Toby Austin Richard William Low, 1st Baron Aldington Created Baron Low for life 16 Nov 1999 Peerage extinct on his death	24 May 1914	7 Dec 2000	86

LOW OF DALSTON

13 Jun 2006	B[L]		Colin MacKenzie Low Created Baron Low of Dalston for life 13 Jun 2006	23 Sep 1942

LOWRY

18 Jul 1979 to 15 Jan 1999	B[L]		Sir Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry Created Baron Lowry for life 18 Jul 1979 Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland 1971‑1988; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1988‑1994; PC [NI] 1971; PC 1974 Peerage extinct on his death	30 Jan 1919	15 Jan 1999	79

LOWTHER

28 May 1696	B	1	John Lowther Created Baron Lowther and Viscount Lonsdale 28 May 1696 See "Lonsdale"	25 Apr 1655	10 Jul 1700	45



24 May 1784 to 24 May 1802 26 Oct 1797	V V	1 1	James Lowther Created Baron Lowther, Baron of the Barony of Kendal, Baron of the Barony of Burgh, Viscount of Lonsdale, Viscount of Lowther and Earl of Lonsdale 24 May 1784 and Baron and Viscount Lowther 26 Oct 1797 For details of the special remainders included in the creation of the Barony and Viscountcy of 1797, see the note at the foot of this page On his death the Earldom and Viscountcy of Lonsdale became extinct, while the Barony and Viscountcy created in 1797 passed to -	5 Aug 1736	24 May 1802	65

24 May 1802		2	William Lowther Created Earl of Lonsdale 7 Apr 1807 See "Lonsdale"	29 Dec 1757	19 Mar 1844	86



8 Sep 1841			William Lowther He was summoned to Parliament by Writ of Acceleration as Baron Lowther 8 Sep 1841 He succeeded as Earl of Lonsdale in 1844	30 Jul 1787	4 Mar 1872	84

LUCAN

24 Jul 1776 1 Oct 1795	B[I] E[I]	1 1	Sir Charles Bingham, 7th baronet Created Baron Lucan 24 Jul 1776 and Earl of Lucan 1 Oct 1795 MP [I] for Mayo County 1761‑1776	22 Sep 1735	29 Mar 1799	63

29 Mar 1799		2	Richard Bingham MP for St. Albans 1790‑1800	4 Dec 1764	30 Jun 1839	74

30 Jun 1839		3	George Charles Bingham MP for Mayo 1826‑1830; Lord Lieutenant Mayo 1845‑1888; Field Marshal 1887	16 Apr 1800	10 Nov 1888	88

10 Nov 1888		4	George Bingham MP for Mayo 1865‑1874; Lord Lieutenant Mayo 1901‑1914; KP 1899	8 May 1830	5 Jun 1914	84

5 Jun 1914		5	George Charles Bingham Created Baron Bingham 26 Jun 1934 MP for Chertsey 1904‑1906; PC 1938	13 Dec 1860	20 Apr 1949	88

20 Apr 1949		6	George Charles Patrick Bingham	24 Nov 1898	21 Jan 1964	65

21 Jan 1964		7	Richard John Bingham	18 Dec 1934	by 3 Feb 2016

by 3 Feb 2016		8	George Charles Bingham On 3 Feb 2016 the High Court issued a death certificate for the 7th Earl, thus allowing his son, George Charles Bingham, to inherit as the 8th Earl	21 Sep 1967

LUCAS OF CHILWORTH

27 Jun 1946	B	1	George William Lucas Created Baron Lucas of Chilworth 27 Jun 1946	29 Mar 1896	11 Oct 1967	71

11 Oct 1967		2	Michael William George Lucas	26 Apr 1926	10 Nov 2001	75

10 Nov 2001		3	Simon William Lucas	6 Feb 1957

LUCAS OF CRUDWELL

7 May 1663	B	1	Mary Grey, Countess of Kent Created Baroness Lucas of Crudwell 7 May 1663		1 Nov 1702

1 Nov 1702		2	Henry Grey, 12th Earl of Kent, later [1710] 1st Duke of Kent	28 Sep 1671	5 Jun 1740	68

21 Jul 1723		3	Jemima Yorke, Marchioness Grey in her own right (2nd in line)	9 Oct 1722	10 Jan 1797	74

10 Jan 1797		4	Amabell Hume-Campbell, later [1816] 1st Countess de Grey in her own right	22 Jan 1751	4 May 1833	82

4 May 1833		5	Thomas Philip de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey	8 Dec 1781	14 Nov 1859	77

14 Nov 1859		6	Anne Florence Cowper, Countess Cowper	8 Jun 1806	23 Jul 1880	74

23 Jul 1880		7	Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper	11 Jun 1834	18 Jul 1905	71

18 Jul 1905		8	Auberon Thomas Herbert (also 11th Lord Dingwall) President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 1914‑1915; PC 1912 For further information on this peer and his father, see the note at the foot of this page	25 May 1876	3 Nov 1916	40

3 Nov 1916		9	Nan Ino Cooper (also Baroness Dingwall in her own right - 12th in line)	13 Jun 1880	23 Nov 1958	78

23 Nov 1958		10	Anne Rosemary Palmer (also Baroness Dingwall in her own right - 13th in line)	28 Apr 1919	31 Dec 1991	72

31 Dec 1991		11	Ralph Matthew Palmer (also 14th Lord Dingwall) [Elected hereditary peer 1999-]	7 Jun 1951



8 Nov 1718	B		Anthony Grey Summoned to Parliament as Lord Lucas of Crudwell 8 Nov 1718 He was the son and heir apparent of the 1st Duke of Kent, but died before he could succeed to that title For information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	21 Feb 1695	21 Jul 1723	28

LUCAS OF SHENFIELD

3 Jan 1645	B	1	John Lucas Created Baron Lucas of Shenfield 3 Jan 1645	23 Oct 1606	2 Jul 1671	64

2 Jul 1671		2	Charles Lucas		28 Nov 1688

28 Nov 1688 to 31 Jan 1705		3	Robert Lucas Peerage extinct on his death	c 1649	31 Jan 1705

LUCE

2 Oct 2000	B[L]		Sir Richard Napier Luce Created Baron Luce for life 2 Oct 2000 MP for Arundel & Shoreham 1971‑1974 and Shoreham 1974‑1992; Governor of Gibraltar 1997‑2000; PC 1986; KG 2008	14 Oct 1936

LUCY

15 May 1320	B	1	Anthony de Lucy Summoned to Parliament as Lord Lucy 15 May 1320	1283	c 1342

c 1342		2	Thomas de Lucy		5 Dec 1365

5 Dec 1365		3	Anthony de Lucy	1341	Sep 1368	27

Sep 1368		4	Joan de Lucy	Jun 1366	1 Oct 1369	3

1 Oct 1369 to 24 Dec 1398		5	Maud de Umfravill, Countess of Angus On her death the peerage became dormant		24 Dec 1398

LUDFORD

30 Sep 1997	B[L]		Sarah Ann Ludford Created Baroness Ludford for life 30 Sep 1997 MEP for London 1999‑2014	14 Mar 1951

LUDLOW

27 May 1748	V	1	Henry Arthur Herbert Created Baron Herbert of Chirbury 21 Dec 1743, Baron Powis, Viscount Ludlow and Earl of Powis 27 May 1748 and Baron Herbert of Chirbury 16 Oct 1749 See "Powis"	c 1703	10 Sep 1772



19 Dec 1755 3 Oct 1760	B[I] E[I]	1 1	Peter Ludlow Created Baron Ludlow 19 Dec 1755 and Viscount Preston and Earl Ludlow 3 Oct 1760 MP for Huntingdonshire 1768‑1796; PC 1782	21 Apr 1730	26 Oct 1803	73

26 Oct 1803		2	Augustus Ludlow	1 Jan 1755	7 Nov 1811	56

7 Nov 1811 10 Sep 1831 to 16 Apr 1842	B	3 1	George James Ludlow Created Baron Ludlow 10 Sep 1831 Peerages extinct on his death	12 Dec 1758	16 Apr 1842	83



26 Jul 1897	B	1	Henry Charles Lopes Created Baron Ludlow 26 Jul 1897 MP for Launceston 1868‑1874 and Frome 1874‑1876; Lord Justice of Appeal 1885‑1897; PC 1885	3 Oct 1828	25 Dec 1899	71

25 Dec 1899 to 8 Nov 1922		2	Henry Ludlow Lopes For information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of this page Peerage extinct on his death	30 Sep 1865	8 Nov 1922	57

LUGARD

16 Mar 1928 to 11 Apr 1945	B	1	Sir Frederick John Dealtry Lugard Created Baron Lugard 16 Mar 1928 Governor of Hong Kong 1907‑1912 and Nigeria 1912‑1914; Governor General of Nigeria 1914‑1919; PC 1920 Peerage extinct on his death	22 Jan 1858	11 Apr 1945	87

LUGTOUN

29 May 1680 to 27 Jul 1681	V[S]	1	John Leslie, 7th Earl of Rothes Created Lord Auchmotie and Caskieberry, Viscount of Lugtoun, Earl of Leslie, Marquess of Ballinbrieich and Duke of Rothes 29 May 1680 Peerage extinct on his death	1630	27 Jul 1681	51

LUKE

9 Jul 1929	B	1	Sir George Lawson‑Johnston Created Baron Luke 9 Jul 1929 Lord Lieutenant Bedfordshire 1936‑1943	9 Sep 1873	23 Feb 1943	69

23 Feb 1943		2	Ian St. John Lawson‑Johnston	7 Jun 1905	25 May 1996	90

25 May 1996		3	Arthur Charles St. John Lawson‑Johnston [Elected hereditary peer 1999‑2015]	13 Jan 1933	2 Oct 2015	82

2 Oct 2015		4	Ian James St. John Lawson‑Johnston	3 Oct 1963

LUMLEY

28 Sep 1384 to 5 Jan 1400	B	1	Ralph de Lumley Summoned to Parliament as Lord Lumley 28 Sep 1384 He was attainted and the peerage forfeited	1362	5 Jan 1400	37

28 Jul 1461		2	Thomas de Lumley He obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1461	29 Sep 1408	c 1480

c 1480		3	George de Lumley		13 Nov 1508

13 Nov 1508		4	Richard de Lumley		26 May 1510

26 May 1510 to 1544		5	John de Lumley On his death the peerage passed to his son George who had however been previously attainted. Thus the peerage was forfeited	1492	1544	52



1547 to 11 Apr 1609	B	1	John Lumley Created Baron Lumley 1547 Peerage extinct on his death	c 1533	11 Apr 1609



12 Jul 1628	V[I]	1	Richard Lumley Created Viscount Lumley 12 Jul 1628	7 Apr 1589	1663	74

1663 31 May 1681 10 Apr 1689	B V	2 1 1	Richard Lumley Created Baron Lumley 31 May 1681, Viscount Lumley 10 Apr 1689 and Earl of Scarbrough 1690 See "Scarborough"	Mar 1650	17 Dec 1721	71



4 Mar 1715			Richard Lumley He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Lumley 4 Mar 1715 He succeeded as Earl of Scarbrough in 1721	30 Nov 1686	29 Jan 1740	53

LUNDIE

28 Mar 1642 to 1645	B[S]	1	James Campbell, 1st Lord Kintyre Created Lord Lundie and Earl of Irvine 28 Mar 1642 Peerages extinct on his death	c 1610	1645

LUPTON

6 Oct 2015	B[L]		James Roger Crompton Lupton Created Baron Lupton for life 6 Oct 2015	15 Jun 1955

LURGAN

14 May 1839	B	1	Charles Brownlow Created Baron Lurgan 14 May 1839 MP for co. Armagh 1818‑1832; PC [I] 1837	17 Apr 1795	30 Apr 1847	52

30 Apr 1847		2	Charles Brownlow Lord Lieutenant Armagh 1864‑1882; KP 1864	10 Apr 1831	16 Jan 1882	50

16 Jan 1882		3	William Brownlow	11 Jan 1858	3 Feb 1937	79

3 Feb 1937		4	William George Edward Brownlow	22 Feb 1902	30 Jan 1984	81

30 Jan 1984 to 17 Sep 1991		5	John Desmond Cavendish Brownlow Peerage extinct on his death	29 Jun 1911	17 Sep 1991	80

LUTTRELL

24 Jun 1295 to 1297	B	1	Robert Luttrell Summoned to Parliament as Lord Luttrell 24 Jun 1295 Peerage extinct on his death		1297

LUXBOROUGH

8 Aug 1745 to 30 Mar 1772	B[I]	1	Robert Knight Created Baron Luxborough 8 Aug 1745, Viscount Barrells and Earl of Catherlough 16 May 1763 See "Catherlough"	17 Dec 1702	30 Mar 1772	69

LYELL

4 Jul 1914	B	1	Sir Leonard Lyell, 1st baronet Created Baron Lyell 4 Jul 1914 MP for Orkney and Shetland 1885‑1900	21 Oct 1850	18 Sep 1926	75

18 Sep 1926		2	Charles Anthony Lyell VC For further information on this peer and VC winner, see the note at the foot of this page	10 Jun 1913	27 Apr 1943	29

27 Apr 1943 to 10 Jan 2017		3	Charles Lyell [Elected hereditary peer 1999‑2017] Peerage extinct on his death	27 Mar 1939	10 Jan 2017	77

LYELL OF MARKYATE

27 Jun 2005 to 30 Aug 2010	B[L]		Sir Nicholas Walter Lyell Created Baron Lyell of Markyate for life 27 Jun 2005 MP for Hemel Hempstead 1979‑1983, Bedfordshire Mid 1983‑1997 and Bedfordshire North East 1997‑2001; Solicitor General 1987‑1992; Attorney General 1992‑1997; PC 1990 Peerage extinct on his death	6 Dec 1938	30 Aug 2010	71

LYLE

c 1446	B[S]	1	Robert Lyle Created Lord Lyle c 1446		c 1470

c 1470		2	Robert Lyle		c 1500

c 1500		3	Robert Lyle		1511

1511 to 1545		4	John Lyle On his death the peerage became dormant		1545

LYLE OF WESTBOURNE

13 Sep 1945	B	1	Sir Charles Ernest Leonard Lyle, 1st baronet Created Baron Lyle of Westbourne 13 Sep 1945 MP for Stratford 1918‑1922, Epping 1923‑1924 and Bournemouth 1940‑1945	22 Jul 1882	6 Mar 1954	71

6 Mar 1954 to 1 Aug 1976		2	Charles John Leonard Lyle Peerage extinct on his death	8 Mar 1905	1 Aug 1976	71

LYMINGTON

11 Jun 1720	V	1	John Wallop Created Baron Wallop and Viscount Lymington 11 Jun 1720, and Earl of Portsmouth 11 Apr 1743 See "Portsmouth"	15 Apr 1690	22 Nov 1762	72

LYNDHURST

25 Apr 1827 to 12 Oct 1863	B	1	John Singleton Copley Created Baron Lyndhurst 25 Apr 1827 MP for Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) 1818, Ashburton 1818‑1826 and Cambridge University 1826‑1827; Solicitor General 1819‑1824; Attorney General 1824‑1826; Master of the Rolls 1826‑1827. Lord Chancellor 1827‑1830, 1834‑1835 and 1841‑1846; PC 1826 Peerage extinct on his death	21 May 1772	12 Oct 1863	91

LYNEDOCH

17 May 1814 to 18 Dec 1843	B	1	Thomas Graham Created Baron Lynedoch 17 May 1814 MP for Perthshire 1794‑1806 Peerage extinct on his death	19 Oct 1748	18 Dec 1843	95

LYON AND GLAMIS

10 Jul 1606	B[S]	1	Patrick Lyon, 9th Lord Glamis Created Lord Lyon and Glamis and Earl of Kinghorne 10 Jul 1606	1575	1 Sep 1616	41

1 Sep 1616		2	John Lyon, 2nd Earl of Kinghorne	13 Aug 1596	12 May 1647	50

12 May 1647 1 Jul 1677	V[S]	3 1	Patrick Lyon, 3rd Earl of Kinghorne On 1 July 1677 he received a new charter as Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Viscount Lyon, Lord Glamis, Tannadyce, Sidlaw and Stradichtie with the original precedence See "Strathmore and Kinghorne"

LYONS

25 Jun 1856	B	1	Sir Edmund Lyons, 1st baronet Created Baron Lyons 25 Jun 1856	21 Nov 1790	23 Nov 1858	68

23 Nov 1858 24 Nov 1881 to 5 Dec 1887	V	2 1	Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons Created Viscount Lyons 24 Nov 1881 PC 1865 Peerages extinct on his death	26 Apr 1817	5 Dec 1887	70

LYONS OF BRIGHTON

22 Jan 1975 to 18 Jan 1978	B[L]		Braham Jack Dennis Lyons Created Baron Lyons of Brighton for life 22 Jan 1975 Peerage extinct on his death	11 Sep 1918	18 Jan 1978	59

LYTTELTON

18 Feb 1641 to 27 Aug 1645	B	1	Edward Littleton Created Baron Lyttelton 18 Feb 1641 MP for Bishops Castle 1614, Leominster 1625 and Carnarvon 1628; Solicitor General 1634‑1640; Lord Keeper 1641‑1645 Peerage extinct on his death	1589	27 Aug 1645	56



18 Nov 1756	B	1	Sir George Lyttelton, 5th baronet Created Baron Lyttelton 18 Nov 1756 MP for Okehampton 1735‑1756; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1755‑1756; PC 1754	17 Jan 1709	22 Aug 1773	64

22 Aug 1773 to 27 Nov 1779		2	Thomas Lyttelton MP for Bewdley 1768‑1769; PC 1775 Peerage extinct on his death For further information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	30 Jan 1744	27 Nov 1779	35



13 Aug 1794	B	1	Sir William Henry Lyttelton, 7th baronet Created Baron Westcote 29 Apr 1776 and Baron Lyttelton 13 Aug 1794 MP for Bewdley 1748‑1755 and 1774‑1790; Governor of South Carolina 1755‑1760 and Jamaica 1760‑1766	24 Dec 1724	14 Sep 1808	83

14 Sep 1808		2	George Fulke Lyttelton MP [I] for Granard 1798‑1800; MP for Bewdley 1790‑1796	27 Oct 1763	12 Nov 1828	65

12 Nov 1828		3	William Henry Lyttelton MP for Worcestershire 1806‑1820; Lord Lieutenant Worcester 1833‑1837	3 Apr 1782	30 Apr 1837	55

30 Apr 1837		4	George William Lyttelton Lord Lieutenant Worcester 1839‑1876; PC 1869 For information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	31 Mar 1817	18 Apr 1876	59

18 Apr 1876		5	Charles George Lyttelton MP for Worcestershire East 1868‑1874 He succeeded to the Viscountcy of Cobham in 1889 with which title this peerage then merged and so remains	27 Oct 1842	9 Jun 1922	79

LYTTELTON OF ALDERSHOT

19 Apr 2000	B[L]		Thomas Orlando Lyttelton, 3rd Viscount Chandos Created Baron Lyttelton of Aldershot for life 19 Apr 2000	12 Feb 1953

LYTTON

14 Jul 1866	B	1	Sir Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer‑Lytton, 1st baronet Created Baron Lytton 14 Jul 1866 MP for St. Ives 1831‑1832, Lincoln 1832‑1841 and Hertfordshire 1852‑1866; Secretary of State for Colonies 1858-1859; PC 1858 For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	25 May 1803	18 Jan 1873	69

18 Jan 1873 28 Apr 1880	E	2 1	Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer‑Lytton Created Viscount Knebworth and Earl of Lytton 28 Apr 1880 Viceroy of India 1876‑1880; PC 1888	8 Nov 1831	24 Nov 1891	60

24 Nov 1891		2	Victor Alexander George Robert Bulwer‑Lytton Governor of Bengal 1922‑1927; PC 1919; KG 1933	9 Aug 1876	25 Oct 1947	71

25 Oct 1947		3	Neville Stephen Bulwer‑Lytton	6 Feb 1879	9 Feb 1951	72

9 Feb 1951		4	Noel Anthony Scawen Lytton He subsequently [1957] succeeded as 17th Lord Wentworth	7 Apr 1900	18 Jan 1985	84

18 Jan 1985		5	John Peter Michael Scawen Lytton [Elected hereditary peer 2011-]	7 Jun 1950

LYVEDEN

28 Jun 1859	B	1	Robert Vernon (Vernon Smith until 1859) Created Baron Lyveden 28 Jun 1859 MP for Tralee 1829‑1831 and Northampton 1831‑1859; Secretary at War 1852; President of the Board of Control 1855-1858; PC 1841	23 Feb 1800	10 Nov 1873	73

10 Nov 1873		2	Fitzpatrick Henry Vernon	27 Apr 1824	25 Feb 1900	75

25 Feb 1900		3	Courtenay Robert Percy Vernon For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	29 Dec 1857	25 Dec 1926	68

25 Dec 1926		4	Robert Fitzpatrick Courtenay Vernon	1 Feb 1892	9 Jan 1969	76

9 Jan 1969		5	Sidney Munro Vernon	21 Nov 1888	19 Sep 1973	84

19 Sep 1973		6	Ronald Cecil Vernon	10 Apr 1915	12 Sep 1999	84

12 Sep 1999		7	Jack Leslie Vernon	10 Nov 1938	18 Dec 2017	79

18 Dec 2017		8	Colin Ronald Vernon	3 Feb 1967

	Walter William Schomberg Kerr, styled Earl of Ancram (1867‑1892), son of the 9th Marquess of Lothian

	Ancram was born 29 March 1867, the eldest son of Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian. After entering the army, he was a captain in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Scots Lothian Regiment when, in October 1890, he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the 7th Earl of Jersey, who at that time was Governor of New South Wales.

	As a result, he proceeded to New South Wales where he was accidentally shot dead on 16 June 1892. Burke's Peerage gives his date of death as 15 June, but it is clear from the following reports that he died on 16 June, even after making due allowance for the time difference between the United Kingdom and Australia.

	Little beyond the mere fact of his death was ever reported in the British newspapers of the time. However, as one would expect, his death was fully reported in Australian newspapers. The following report, dated Friday 17 June, appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 18 June 1892:-

	News was received late last night [i.e. 16 June] of the death of Lord Ancram, who had been accidentally shot while out duck shooting with a party consisting of Captain Leigh and Messrs. H.T. and W.T. Edwards. The accident occurred at a place called Merrianga, about 18 miles from Bombala, on the Delegate River. [Bombala is today a small town in the south-east corner of New South Wales in what is known as 'Platypus Country' after the unique Australian animal, which are often found in this area. At one time Bombala was considered as a site for the capital of Australia, but Canberra was eventually chosen for this honour.]

	Great sympathy is expressed on all sides at the death of Lord Ancram.

	An inquest on the body was held at Rowley's Hotel today, before Mr. Coroner Murphy and a jury of 12. Captain Leigh stated that on Thursday, the 16th June, he was out shooting with Lord Ancram and Messrs. H.T. Edwards, Wilbraham Edwards, Hugh Greer, and Richard Smith. About 2 p.m. we had finished luncheon, and Mr. H.T. Edwards proposed we should go on shooting. I saw Mr. H.T. Edwards and Lord Ancram mount their horses, and was starting to get my horse, which was about 50 yards away, when I heard an explosion and saw Lord Ancram fall from his horse. I went to him and found him lying dead. Mr. H.T. Edwards was riding on about 70 yards in front of me. There was no one with the deceased when he fell. I don't know whose gun exploded. It was less than a minute after Lord Ancram and Mr. Edwards mounted that I heard the explosion. I was the first to reach Lord Ancram. I did not notice his gun on the ground. I don't think anyone was nearer to deceased than 15 yards when the explosion took place. The deceased was on friendly terms with all the party.

	H.T. Edwards deposed: I was with the shooting party yesterday on the Delegate River, near its junction with the Snowy River. After lunch we got our horses to start down the river. The horses were tied close to where we had lunch, and the guns were lying near them. I got on my horse and started to ride down the river. I had my gun in my hand. Greer walked on before me. He had a gun. After riding about 30 yards I heard the report of a gun behind me. I turned back to see who had shot. When I had gone back 20 yards I saw Lord Ancram lying on the ground, with blood flowing from his head. Captain Leigh and my nephew were kneeling at his head. I said, "In the name of Heaven, how did it happen?" My nephew and Captain Leigh did not seem to have any idea of how the accident occurred. I knelt down beside Lord Ancram, and saw that life was almost extinct. He breathed for a few moments after. We then washed the blood from his face. The accident occurred at 1.15 p.m. We then made a litter and carried the body to the road, about a mile away. I have no idea how it occurred. I did not see Lord Ancram get on his horse. There were two or three guns lying near the deceased. I cannot say whether they were loaded.

	Wilbraham Edwards stated: Just after luncheon yesterday I took up my gun, from which I had previously extracted the cartridges, and put it alongside of Smith's, which was a muzzle-loader, and wadded. I then got my horse, took up one of the guns, and proceeded to mount; but it being a nasty vicious animal, it started forward and bumped and squeezed me against either Leigh's or Smith's horse. During the confusion an explosion took place. I looked underneath my horse to see if I had shot him. Then I heard Captain Leigh call out, "Good God! Look at Ancram." I went over to him immediately and found him shot all over the face. I could not say whether it was the gun I was carrying that exploded. I may have taken up the muzzle-loader by mistake. I found afterwards that the muzzle-loader had exploded, and was marked all down the barrel as if it had been kicked by a horse. The gun was lying on the ground amongst the horses after the explosion. I did not see the deceased when the gun went off. I am not sure that I had the gun in my hand when it exploded. I don't know what became of the gun. In the confusion I may have dropped it. I don't think the horse kicked the gun when I was trying to get on, and caused the explosion. When I first saw the deceased lying on the ground he was about five yards from me. I am certain the explosion was accidental. Sometimes I think the gun exploded above and sometimes below the horse. I could not say which for certain. I was on friendly terms with the deceased.

	The jury decided not to call any further evidence, and without retiring returned a verdict as follows: - "We find that the deceased, William, Earl of Ancram, came to his death at Merrianga, on the 16th June, by means of a gunshot wound in the head, accidentally received."

	Flora Rawdon-Hastings, Countess of Loudoun in her own right (6th in line) and her daughter, Lady Flora Hastings

	Flora was the daughter of James Mure-Campbell, 5th Earl of Loudoun (pronounced "Looden"). On her father's death in 1786, she inherited the Earldom, since the Earldom's remainder permitted descent of the title in the female line.

	In Jul 1804, she married Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Earl of Moira, who was 26 years older than her. After serving in the British Army during the American Revolution, he was Governor-General of India between 1813 and 1823. During this period, he was promoted in the peerage to the 1st Marquess of Hastings in 1817. His last posting was as Governor of Malta from 1824 to 1826.

	Notwithstanding the difference in their ages, the marriage of the Marquess of Hastings and the Countess of Loudoun was extremely happy, both parties being devoted to each other. When the Marquess died at sea off Naples in 1826, his wife was at the family home in Scotland. Finding it impossible that his remains could be conveyed back to Scotland for burial in the family vault, he directed that, after death, his right hand should be cut off at the wrist and taken back to Scotland, to be ultimately buried with his wife upon her death. Fourteen years later, as the Countess lay dying in Loudoun Castle, she sent for the small metal box in which her late husband's hand had been preserved. The metal box was placed in the bed alongside the Countess and remained there until she died, when it was placed in her coffin to be buried with her.

	The Countess was the mother of Lady Flora Elizabeth Hastings, the unfortunate subject of one of the most painful scandals of the 19th century, and the scandal which arguably did the most damage to royal prestige in that period. In early 1834, Lady Flora had been appointed Lady of the Bedchamber to the Duchess of Kent, mother of the future Queen Victoria. The Duchess's household was dominated by John Conroy [for further information on him see the note under his baronetcy] who was loathed by Victoria, and Lady Flora, being part of his circle, also earned Victoria's enmity.

	Politics, too, played a major role in the forthcoming scandal. The Hastings family followed the Tory [i.e. Conservative] side of politics, but the ruling party at the time (and as a result the party which appointed most of the members of the Royal Household such as Ladies in Waiting) were the Whigs [i.e. Liberals] under Viscount Melbourne.

	In early 1839, Lady Flora consulted one of the royal physicians, Sir James Clark, about abdominal pains and a swollen stomach, but did not let him conduct a physical examination. The change in her figure soon aroused the obvious suspicion, and Victoria (who at this time was still a teenager) recorded in her diary that Lady Flora was pregnant, accusing Sir John Conroy of being the father. The Whig-dominated Ladies in Waiting were outraged and demanded Lady Flora's removal, but no action was taken until one of the Ladies requested Sir James Clark to make Lady Flora aware of the gossip circulating throughout the Royal Household. When Lady Flora heard of this, she demanded a medical examination, in order to dispel the rumours. After the examination had been completed, Lady Flora was totally vindicated - not only was she not pregnant, but the doctors confirmed she was still a virgin.

	Word of the affair soon spread beyond the palace walls. Lady Flora had told her family all of the details and they naturally wished to know who was to blame for the slander on their family member. The Hastings family contacted the press, and soon accusations and counter-accusations were flying thick and fast, each of these flavoured by the Tory leanings of the Hastings family or the politics of the incumbent Whig government. The result was that the Hastings family supplied copies of correspondence to the papers which was extremely damaging to Queen Victoria, her Ladies in Waiting and Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister.

	On 7 May 1839, Melbourne resigned precipitating what became known as the "Bedchamber Crisis". Sir Robert Peel, the leader of the Tory party, was invited to form a new government, but he made it a condition that the Queen dismiss some of her Whig-appointed Ladies in Waiting. Victoria flatly refused to do this, believing that they were friends and confidants rather than political appointees, and possibly also because their dismissal would be interpreted as an admission of guilt in the Lady Flora Hastings affair. Peel therefore declined to form a new administration and Melbourne was again returned to power.

	In the meantime, Lady Flora's health continued to deteriorate and by early June 1839, she had been confined to bed in Buckingham Palace, where she lingered until she died, aged 33, on 5 July 1839. At the subsequent autopsy, it was found that the cause of her swollen abdomen, and the eventual cause of her death, was a tumour on her liver.

	Her death caused a fresh outbreak of criticism of the Queen, which only died down months later. Lady Flora's family, however, never forgave her, and the Hastings family and, by marriage, the Marquesses of Bute, refused to have anything to do with the Queen during the rest of her reign.

	The special remainder to the Barony of Loughborough created in 1795

	From the London Gazette of 17 October 1795 (issue 13823, page 1074):-

	The King has been pleased to grant to the Right Honorable Alexander Baron Loughborough, His Majesty's Chancellor of Great Britain, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, the Dignity of a Baron of the Kingdom of Great Britain, by the Name, Stile and Title of Baron Loughborough, of Loughborough, in the County of Surrey, with Remainders severally and successively to Sir James St. Clair Erskine, Baronet, and to John Erskine, Esq; Brother of the said Sir James St. Clair Erskine, and the respective Heirs Male of their Bodies lawfully begotten.

	Thomas Oliver Plunkett, 11th Baron Louth

	Lord Louth was a magistrate who abused his position to unjustly imprison one of his tenants. The following report is from The Aberdeen Journal of 3 July 1811:-

	Lord Louth was this day brought up in the Court of King's Bench to receive judgement, being convicted in last Trinity Term upon a criminal information for abusing his authority, and oppression as a Magistrate in 1809, in issuing a warrant against _____ Mathews, his tenant, the Prosecutor, and having him arrested and committed to Dundalk Goal [sic] for an alleged felony, and having cut timber upon his Lordship's estate between sunrise and sun-set.

	Judge Day recited the evidence given on the trial, from which it appeared that the Prosecutor held under the Defendent [sic], since the year 1801, a piece of ground in the county of Louth, and was in the employment of his Lordship as a labourer. No disagreement took place between them, until the Defendent took a fancy to about four acres of the Prosecutor's land, which the latter refused to part with; and this drew down upon him the displeasure of his Lordship, which manifested itself in several acts of oppression. In the month of December, 1809, the act for which the Defendant was now before the Court was committed. On a Monday in that month he summoned the P[r]osecutor before him, for the alleged offence of cutting the timber; but the charge was not acted upon, and he was sent away, with orders to attend again on Saturday. His Lordship, however, did not wait for the expiration of the time, but on the intermediate Thursday he went with a constable to the Prosecutor's house, and arrested him upon the warrant. In vain did he implore his Lordship's clemency, urging that his wife was despaired of in a fever, and that his child lay dead in the next apartment to her. In vain did he urge his innocence; for, after a most minute investigation, not a trace appeared to warrant the charge of cutting the trees, none having ever grown where they were alleged to have been cut. His Lordship was inexorable, and, without either oath, information, or any document whatever to substantiate the charge, committed the Prosecutor to prison for a felony, where he lay confined in a dungeon, as a felon, for 24 days, and was not delivered until the Assizes, when he was discharged, for want of prosecution. The defence set up by the Defendent on his trial was error in judgment; but every circumstance tended to prove that his Lordship was actuated by malicious motives, and that is was done in revenge, in consequence of the Prosecutor's refusal to give up the few acres. The Learned Judge, after expatiating upon the several parts of this case in the most eloquent and impressive terms, stated that the Court had taken a considerable time to mature their opinion of what the sentence ought to be, and thereby afforded the Defendent an opportunity for making compensation to the Prosecutor, which had been done; but that reparation to the Public for the injury yet remained, and, in order to set an example to Magistrates, no matter what their rank, that the British Code of Law, like the Supreme Being, was no respecter of person or rank, the Court had decided as the sentence of his Lordship, that he be imprisoned in Newgate for three calender [sic] months. His Lordship made a bow and retired with the Sheriff.

	The special remainder to the Barony of Lovaine created in 1784

	From the London Gazette of 27 January 1784 (issue 12514, page 2):-

	The King has been pleased to grant to His Grace Hugh Duke of Northumberland, during his natural Life, the Dignity of a Baron of the Kingdom of Great Britain, by the Name, Stile and Title of Lord Lovaine, Baron of Alnwick in the County of Northumberland; with Remainder to his Grace's Second Son, Algernon Percy, Esq; (commonly called Lord Algernon Percy) and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten.

	The Lovat peerage claims of 1885 and 1897

	In June 1885, the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords heard a claim by a Mr. John Fraser, of Carnarvon in Wales, to the Lovat peerage. His claim was eventually dismissed, following which The Times commented on the case as follows [26 June 1885]:-

	The claim of Mr. John Fraser, of Carnarvon, to the dignity of Lord Lovat of the peerage of Scotland was rejected yesterday by the unanimous sentence of the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords. In Lord Bramwell's opinion the claim was honestly made; but this was the utmost that Lord Bramwell or any other member of the Committee could find to say in favour of it. It was improbable on the face of it, and the more it was looked into the stronger did the improbabilities appear. Of direct evidence there was little or none brought forward in its support, and plenty that was absolutely fatal to it. The case furnishes, at best, good material for a romance; but the story teller who adopts it must take liberties with the dates and facts if he is to present it in a form sufficiently credible to satisfy the demands of fiction. That the Committee of Privileges would accept it became more and more unlikely as the case went on, and when the case for the present holder of the title had been heard all doubt was at an end. The veritable history of the Lovat peerage and of its past holders has been strange enough, but fiction has, for once, been found stranger than the truth - too strange for Mr. Charles Russell's advocacy, or for the belief of the Committee of Privileges.

	The Lovat peerage case takes us back to very remote days. The disputed title is held by a descendant of the second son of Alexander, the fourth Lord Lovat, who died in 1558. This Lord Lovat was succeeded by his eldest son, Hugh, whose line became extinct in 1815, the title meanwhile having been forfeited by the attainder of the tenth [sic for eleventh] lord - an attainder which was reversed in 1857 in favour of the father of the present lord. The claim of the present lord is thus derived through a younger branch of the family, and is valid only if the elder branch has become extinct. The case of Mr. John Fraser, of Carnarvon, is that the elder branch has survived, and that he is the present representative of it. The whole question turns on the history and the date of the death of Alexander Fraser, eldest son of Thomas of Beaufort, a younger son of the seventh Lord Lovat, who died in 1646. It is certain that Thomas of Beaufort's line came duly to the succession, but the line was continued, not in Alexander, the eldest son, but in the younger son, Simon. The case put forward for John Fraser is that this ought not to have been, inasmuch that Alexander, the elder son, was alive at the time. Alexander, it was shown, was born not later than 1663. In 1689 he raised a force of clansmen to aid the rebellion under Dundee and on this account and as having been guilty of a homicide his life was in danger from the law. [The homicide charge related to the murder of a musician whom Alexander Lovat believed had insulted his family.] It seems, however, from the bills of mortality of the parish of Wardlaw, that Alexander Fraser died in 1689, pre-deceasing his father, Thomas of Beaufort. If this was so, there was an end to the petitioner's case, for it was not so much as alleged that Alexander Fraser had been married at that date [and therefore could not have left legitimate heirs]. But the petitioner's case is that Alexander Fraser did not die in 1689, but that he made his escape to Wales and there married and left issue. That there was an Alexander Fraser in Wales about that time and that the petitioner is his eldest descendant was satisfactorily made out. The doubt was as to the identity of the two Alexanders. Alexander the Welshman was proved to have been a common miner, who had worked in the land mines on the Marquis of Powis's estate, and had earned wages of 1s 4d a day up to the year 1776, in which year he died. In the year 1738 this man had married, and had had issue, his last child having being born in 1758. This is a strange history. It implies that the Welsh Alexander, if he is identified with his Scotch namesake, reached the almost patriarchal age of 113 at least, that he wooed and won a young wife of good family when he was 75 years of age, and that he was 95 when his last child was born. The handwritings of the two Alexanders, some specimens of which were produced before the Committee, were as unlike as their personalities seemed to be. Even their names were not quite the same. Alexander Fraser of Beaufort always began his name with two small ff's. Alexander of Wales began with a capital F, and signed his name sometimes as Fresar, sometimes as Fresr. It would have needed strong direct testimony in support of John Fraser's case to get over such grave difficulties as the above, but no such testimony was produced. There was a family tradition among the miner's descendants that they were entitled to the Lovat peerage, and this was about all. John Fraser's explanation of his ancestor's mode of life was that it was absolutely necessary for him to be in hiding, and that he worked as a common miner in order to be out of sight and safe. The Marquis of Powis, on whose estates he worked, was, like himself, a Jacobite, and was, moreover, a friend of the Lovat family. This might explain why it was that the exile had sought shelter with the Marquis of Powis, but it was not very friendly on the Marquis's part to put his illustrious guest to work in his mines, and to keep him at work there when he was some way advanced in his second century of life.

	The concealment of identity between the Scotch refugee and the Welsh miner was so complete and so thoroughly successful that it has carried conviction to the mind of the Committee of Privileges. Their resolve is that John Fraser has failed to establish his case. If they had come to an opposite conclusion, it would have been much the same as far as John Fraser was concerned. The title he sought had been in abeyance, and had been revived in 1857 by a special Act in favour of the father of the present lord. The present lord has a twofold right to the title of Lord Lovat, as a Scotch peer and a baron of the United Kingdom. John Fraser's petition was for the Scotch peerage, and the utmost he could have shown about this was that Lord Lovat has no right to it. This defect of title would have been without remedy, for the Crown has no power to create fresh Scotch peerages [as specified in the Act of Union of 1707]. John Fraser's success, therefore, would have amounted merely to a confirmation of his family tradition. He would have proved his right to a title which had no existence until the Crown might be pleased to revive it for him. It would be hard to find a more perfect instance of much ado about nothing than this whole case has been.

	In November 1897, John Fraser tried again. The Times of 17 November 1897 reported that:-

	Lord Low, in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, yesterday gave judgment in the action in which John Fraser, of Lovat-lodge, 10 Harrington-square, London, N.W., sues the Lord Advocate, as representing her Majesty's Woods and Forests, and also Lord Lovat, Beaufort Castle, Inverness‑shire, to have it declared that, as the heir male inter alia of Hugh, fifth Lord Lovat - the present Lord Lovat being a descendant of the second son of the sixth Lord Lovat - he is entitled to the barony and lands of Lovat and to the title of Lord Lovat. He also seeks to have the defender, Lord Lovat, ordained to account for his intromissions with the estate since his succession in 1887 [the previous Lord Lovat against whom he had brought the 1885 case had died in 1887, and he was thus suing the son of the previous peer], or to make payment of £120,000. Lord Low gave judgment for the defender. He held that Lord Lovat had produced a good prescriptive title, and that it was incompetent to go behind it and inquire into the origin and previous history of the title. Dealing next with the pursuer's contention that the barony and lands of Lovat should be declared an appendage of the title, that the barony and lands could only be held by the person legally entitled to the peerage, his Lordship said that the pursuer averred that the title was not created by patent, but that his ancestors who held that title sat as lords of Parliament in the Scottish Parliament, and that the lands and barony were bestowed on them by the Crown as an appendage of the title. The pursuer founded [his case] on the Crown charter of 1539 in favour of Hugh, fifth Lord Lovat, erecting the lands into the barony of Lovat. By that deed the lands had, his Lordship held, been held since 1539 under an ordinary feudal title, and there was no room for holding them to be an appendage of the title, assuming such a state of matters to be known to the law of Scotland. But further, in 1894 [1885?], the pursuer claimed the peerage of Lovat, and the finding of the Committee of Privileges in the House of Lords was that the pursuer had no title to the right, dignity, and honours claimed in his petition. That finding seemed to be destructive of the claim founded on the assumption that he was Lord Lovat. Lord Low dismissed the action against both sets of defenders, with expenses.

	Fraser immediately appealed this decision, but his appeal was dismissed in February 1898.

	The special remainders to the Barony and Viscounty of Lowther created in 1797

	From the London Gazette of 7 October 1797 (issue 14052, page 968):-

	The King has been pleased to grant the Dignities of Baron and Viscount of the Kingdom of Great Britain to the Right Honorable James Earl of Lonsdale for and during his natural Life, by the Names, Styles and Titles of Baron and Viscount Lowther, of Whitehaven in the County of Cumberland, with Remainder to the Heirs Male, lawfully begotten, of the body of Sir William Lowther, late of Swillington in the County of York, Baronet, deceased.

	Anthony Grey, 3rd Baron Lucas of Crudwell

	Anthony Grey was the eldest son of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, and this styled by the courtesy title of Earl of Harold. On 8 November 1718 he was summoned to the House of Lords by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Lucas of Crudwell, one of his father's subsidiary titles.

	He died during the lifetime of his father on 21 July 1723, choking to death as a result of an ear of barley becoming stuck in his throat. Because he had no children, the title of Baron Lucas of Crudwell reverted to his father.

	Peerage reference works have treated the numbering of the Barons Lucas of Crudwell in differing ways, depending upon the view taken as to whether Anthony Grey should be included in the numbering. The Complete Peerage and Burke's include him as the 3rd Baron, whereas Debrett does not - I have chosen to follow the numbering shown in The Complete Peerage.

	Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas of Crudwell, and his father, the Hon. Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert [18 June 1838‑5 November 1906]

	The peerage of Lucas of Crudwell has a remainder unique in the history of the English peerage. It is the only English barony which can be inherited by and through female lines of descent, but whose remainder also defines the way in which such descent will occur. In normal circumstances, when the holder of a barony by writ dies, leaving no sons and more than one daughter, the daughters become co-heirs and the peerage falls into abeyance until such time as a single surviving heir emerges, or, more commonly, the Sovereign terminates the abeyance in favour of one of the heirs. However, the remainder to this peerage states that, in default of any male heir, the title should pass to the female heirs of her [Mary Grey, the 1st Baroness] body by him [her husband, Anthony Grey], but without the equal division as to the right of succession between co-heiresses. As a result, the peerage cannot fall into abeyance, as would normally occur but for this special wording.

	The following report of Auberon Herbert's claim to the barony of Lucas of Crudwell appeared in the London Daily Mail of 5 June 1907:-

	The claim of Auberon Thomas Herbert to be summoned to the House of Lords as Baron Lucas of Crudwell in the peerage of England was considered by the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords yesterday.

	Sir Robert Finlay, K.C., and Mr. Geoffrey Ellis appeared for the petitioner; the Attorney-General (Sir Lawson Walton K.C.) and Mr. G.R. Askwith for the Crown.

	Sir Robert Finlay, K.C., said the peerage was created in 1663 by Charles II in favour of the first baroness, Mary, wife of the Earl of Kent, who was succeeded by her only son, Henry, 12th earl by succession and afterwards by creation 1st Duke of Kent and 1st Marquess de Grey. Henry, Earl of Kent, had already a seat among the earls in the House of Lords, and therefore his title of Baron Lucas remained in obscurity until 1718, when his son, Anthony, styled Earl of Harold, was summoned to the House of Lords in that barony, and by his death without issue the barony reverted to his father.

	The limitation to the first baroness was very peculiar. It was to the heirs of the body, but with a special clause that in case there should be co-heirs the usual rule that it should be in the power of the Crown to call the peerage out of abeyance and summon one of the co-heirs, did not apply, and that the Crown should forgo its usual right in that respect. In that event the peerage was to descend in such manner as it would descend in the case of an "office of trust", or that of a person "charged with the care of a castle for the protection of the realm".

	Jemima, 2nd Marchioness de Grey and 3rd Baroness Lucas, died in 1797, leaving two daughters only, Amabell and Mary Jemima. Amabell, the elder, married Alexander Lord Polwarth, who died in 1781 without heirs. Lady Polwarth succeeded her mother in the Polwarth estates in Wiltshire, and styled herself Baroness Lucas, and by a private Act of Parliament in 1810 the Crudwell estates were exchanged for others in Essex, and were settled exactly as had been the Manor of Crudwell. For this purpose every existing co-heir of Mary, 1st Baroness Lucas, was brought into settlement, the right of Amabell Baroness Lucas to the Crudwell estates being admitted to all.

	In 1816 Amabell Baroness Lucas was created Countess de Grey with a limitation to the heirs male of her junior sister, Mary Jemima Lady Grantham, and the Crown recognised Amabell's position as a peeress in her own right. She was succeeded in 1833 by her nephew, Thomas Philip Lord Grantham, as second Earl de Grey, who also succeeded to the Crudwell estates. He died in 1859, leaving two daughters, the elder of whom became Countess Cowper.

	The Earldom of de Grey, being limited to heirs male, devolved upon his nephew, George Frederick Samuel, 2nd Earl of Ripon, now first Marquis of Ripon, but the barony of Lucas, together with the Crudwell estates, went to the elder surviving daughter of the second Earl de Grey, Annie Florence Countess Cowper. She died in 1880 and was succeeded by her eldest son Francis Thomas, 7th Earl Cowper and 7th [8th] Baron Lucas. He died without issue and the Earldom of Cowper became extinct. The second sister of the 7th Earl Cowper was the mother of the claimant. On the death of the 7th Earl Cowper without issue, the claimant became tenant in tail in possession of the Crudwell estates, and he submitted that he succeeded to the Barony of Lucas also as 8th [9th] baron.

	The learned counsel said the claimant was the first person in the line of succession who, by reason of not being already a peer or a woman, had found it necessary to apply for a writ of summons before he could use the title of Baron Lucas. Alternatively, if his claim as the representative of the senior co-heir, who was the 6th [7th] Baroness Lucas, was not held valid, he asked that the Crown should call the peerage out of abeyance in his favour.

	The Attorney-General, on behalf of the Crown, said their lordships could not accept the claimant's case as established unless they decided that the words in the letters patent ousted the prerogative of the Crown to decide in the case of co-heirs by whom the title should be borne. The claimant asked their lordships to read the limitation in the patent as causing the peerage, in the event of the estate devolving on co-heiresses to pass to the elder sister as of right, and to descend through her to her heir. To so read the patent was an attempt to limit the prerogative of the Crown to say in such a case on whom the title should devolve; and he argued that the words used in the patent were quite insufficient, if that was the real intention, to carry it into effect.

	After hearing evidence of the Marquis of Ripon, the Lord Chancellor moved that the claim be allowed. The motion was carried.

	After a successful political career, Lucas joined the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. He was killed on 3 November 1916 while flying over the German lines.

	The following report appeared in The Washington Post of 13 November 1916:-

	Lord Lucas, formerly minister of agriculture, is reported by cable dispatches to be either a prisoner of war or dead - the presumption being that he lost his life while serving his country at the front in France as an officer of the aviation corps.

	In the event of his death, it is his only sister, the Hon. Nan Herbert, of Point Loma, Ca., a professing socialist, and a leader of the Theosophist cult of Mrs. Tingley [Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley 1847‑1929 who founded Lomaland, a Theosophist community at Point Loma, near San Diego], who becomes, nolens volens [willingly or unwillingly], a full-fledged peeress of the realm, as heir to his baronies of Lucas and of Dingwall.

	In spite of her socialism, I do not imagine that she will rebel against becoming a peeress. For when her brother, Auberon Herbert, succeeded to the baronies of Lucas and of Dingwall, on the death of his uncle, the last Earl Cowper, she demanded and obtained from the crown a patent [dated 7 September 1907] granting her the precedence and status of the daughter of a peer, and the consequent right to the predicate "honourable" to her Christian name, paying the customary fees, amounting to something in the neighbourhood of $1,000.

	Naturally, surprise was expressed that she should have made this outlay, since the spending of any money in procuring what is virtually a nobiliary title is not in keeping with the doctrines of socialism.

	The barony of Lucas dates from the reign of Charles II, [and] was for many years merged in the earldom of Cowper, and on the death without issue of the last and seventh Earl Cowper, went to his nephew, only son of his sister, Lady Florence Cowper, who married the late Auberon Herbert [i.e. the father of the 9th Baron]. The barony of Lucas is one of the very few created by the Stuart kings of England which descend in the female line, and was originally bestowed upon Mary, wife of Anthony, Earl of Kent, passing through a number of families until it reached that of the late Earl Cowper.

	The Hon. Nan Herbert, now presumably Lady Lucas, created a considerable sensation when not long after the death of her father, the late Auberon Herbert, she presented to her American friend and associate, Mrs Katherine A. Tingley, the head of the Theosophic cult in this country [America], the picturesque home she had inherited from him, in the heart of the New Forest, for use as a school of "Universal Brotherhood and Theosophy".

	Known as Berrywood, it occupies the site of the cottage or hut of a queer old character of the name of Squa, the last of a colony of charcoal-burners, who down to the Victorian era made the New Forest the scene of their operations. Squa had established a squatter's right to his hut and clearing, and before the crown could recover possession the late Auberon Herbert bought it, built himself a small cottage, consisting of a bed and sitting room, and then, bit by bit, as the humor took him, added a room here and a room there, until the crazy but picturesque looking pile was completed as it stands today.

	Although he detested fires and rather than pollute the atmosphere with any such invention sat in his overcoat to keep out the winter cold, yet he was compelled to retain, in what became his library, the old squatter's fireplace and hearthstone, in order to be assured of his forest rights.

	At Berrywood the late Auberon Herbert made his headquarters for nearly half a century during the intervals of his frequent visits to America. As the humor took him, he would sleep in a different room every night, and owing to this when Mrs. Tingley took possession she found a bed in every room on every floor.

	In the summer he used to proceed in one of those old-fashioned gypsy caravan wagons to the summit of one of the neighbouring heights and live there like a hermit.

	He was a younger son of the third Earl of Carnarvon, and uncle, therefore, of the present earl. In his early days he served in the English army, as a subaltern of the Seventh Hussars, throughout the Indian Mutiny, and then volunteered for service under the flag of Denmark during the latter's war with Prussia and Austria in 1864. It was there that he received the Order of the Danebrog for his gallantry in jumping over a breastwork and running out under heavy Prussian fire to bring in a badly wounded Danish soldier. He also was for some time an attaché of the British Embassy at Washington, and managed to win the friendship of Gen. Grant, whom he accompanied throughout a portion of the latter's campaign.

	The barony of Dingwall, which the Hon. Nan Herbert inherits along with that of Lucas, is a Scottish honor and constitutes the outward sign of her descent from the great Duke of Ormonde, whose duchess was Baroness Dingwall in her own right.

	Lord Lucas took service in the aviation corps, because he had lost a leg in the Boer War, in which he took part, first as correspondent of the London Times, and then as captain of a corps of mounted infantry.

	Henry Ludlow Lopes, 2nd and last Baron Ludlow

	After Lord Ludlow died as a result of a hunting accident, the inquest into his death was reported in The Scotsman on 13 November 1922:-

	At the inquest at Luton Hoo on Saturday on Lord Ludlow of Heywood, Brigadier-General Smythe, former secretary of the Herts Hounds, said the deceased was riding his favourite horse, which he had all last season, when he met with his fall. The accident [happened when he was] riding home from the hounds' opening meet. He had been in good spirits all day, and thoroughly enjoyed the day's sport. Taking a short cut across the path, he turned his horse to the left as if to ride to the hall door instead of the stables, and brought it sideways on to the rabbit wire round the cricket ground. Witness looked round to find the horse slipping up on all four legs.

	Dr. Lloyd said that the deceased had two, probably three, ribs broken and the shoulder blade fractured. Pneumonia developed. The deceased put up a great fight, but the heart gradually gave out.

	The jury returned a verdict of "Death from heart failure following injuries accidentally received.

	Charles Anthony Lyell VC, 2nd Baron Lyell

	In April 1943, Lyell was a temporary Captain in the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, who were at that time stationed in Tunisia. Lyell's actions during the period 22 April to 27 April earned him a posthumous Victoria Cross.

	The citation, which was published in The Times of 13 August 1943, reads as follows:-

	From April 22 to 27, 1943, Captain Lord Lyell commanded his company, which had just been placed under the orders of a battalion of the Grenadier Guards, with great gallantry, ability and cheerfulness. He led it down a slope under heavy mortar fire to repel a German counter-attack on April 22, led it again under heavy fire through the battalion's first objective on April 23 in order to capture and consolidate a high point, and held this point through a very trying period of shelling, heat, and shortage of water. During this period, through his energy and cheerfulness, he not only kept up the fighting spirit of his company but also managed through radiotelephony, which he worked himself from an exposed position, to bring most effective artillery fire to bear on enemy tanks, vehicles, and infantry positions.

	At about 1800 hours on April 27 this officer's company was taking part in the battalion's attack on Dj Bou Arara [Tunisia]. The company was held up in the foothills by heavy fire from an enemy post on the left; this post consisted of an 88 millimetre gun and a heavy machine-gun in separate pits. Realizing that until this post was destroyed the advance could not proceed, Lord Lyell collected the only available men not pinned down by fire - a sergeant, a lance-corporal, and two guardsmen - and led them to attack it. He was a long way in advance of the others and lobbed a hand grenade into the machine-gun pit, destroying the crew. At this point his sergeant was killed and both the guardsmen were wounded. The lance-corporal got down to give covering fire to Lord Lyell, who had run straight on towards the 88 millimetre gun pit and was working his way round to the left of it.

	So quickly had this officer acted that he was in among the crew with the bayonet before they had time to fire more than one shot. He killed a number of them before being overwhelmed and killed himself. The few survivors of the gun crew then left the pit, some of them being killed while they were retiring, and both the heavy machine-gun and 88 millimetre gun were silenced.

	The company was then able to advance and take its objective.

	There is no doubt that Lord Lyell's outstanding leadership, gallantry and self-sacrifice enabled his company to carry out its task, which had an important bearing on the success of the battalion and of the brigade.

	Thomas Lyttelton, 2nd Baron Lyttelton

	Lyttelton is the subject of possibly the most famous ghost story in English history. His career falls into two broad sections - dissipated rake in his earlier days, and rising politician in his final years. I will expand upon Lyttelton's earlier career at some future time, but for now I will content myself with the story of Lord Lyttelton's death. The story below is taken from Chambers' Book of Days [its full title is The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, including Anecdote, Biography and History, Curiosities of History and Oddities of Human Life and Character] written by Robert Chambers and first published in 1832.

	Thomas, second Lord Lyttelton, who died November 27, 1779, at the age of thirty five, was as remarkable for his reckless and dissipated life not to speak of impious habits of thought as his father had been for the reverse. One of the wicked actions attributed to him, was the seduction of three Misses Amphlett, who resided near his country residence in Shropshire. He had just returned from Ireland where he left one of these ladies when, residing at his house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, he was attacked with suffocating fits of a threatening character. According to one account, he dreamed one night that a fluttering bird came to his window, and that presently after a woman appeared to him in white apparel, who told him to prepare for death, as he would not outlive three days. He was much alarmed, and called for his servant, who found him in a profuse perspiration, and to whom he related the circumstance which had occurred. According to another account, from a relative of his lordship, he was still awake when the noise of a bird fluttering at the window called his attention; his room seemed filled with light, and he saw in the recess of the window a female figure, being that of a lady whom he had injured, who, pointing to the clock on the mantel piece, then indicating twelve o'clock, said in a severe tone that, at that hour on the third day after, his life would be concluded, after which she vanished and left the room in darkness.

	That some such circumstance, in one or other of these forms, was believed by Lord Lyttelton to have occurred, there can be no reasonable doubt, for it left him in a depression of spirits which caused him to speak of the matter to his friends. On the third day, he had a party with him at breakfast, including Lord Fortescue, Lady Flood, and two Misses Amphlett, to whom he remarked: "If I live over tonight, I shall have jockeyed the ghost, for this is the third day". The whole party set out in the forenoon for his lordship's country house, Pit Place, near Epsom, where he had not long arrived when he had one of his suffocating fits. Nevertheless, he was able to dine with his friends at five o'clock. By a friendly trick, the clocks throughout the house, and the watches of the whole party, including his lordship's, were put forward half an hour. The evening passed agreeably; the ghostly warning was never alluded to; and Lord Lyttelton seemed to have recovered his usual gaiety.

	At half past eleven, he retired to his bedroom, and soon after got into bed, where he was to take a dose of rhubarb and mint water. According to the report afterwards given by his valet, he kept every now and then looking at his watch. He ordered his curtains to be closed at the foot. It was now within a minute or two of twelve by his watch; he asked to look at mine, and seemed pleased to find it nearly keep time with his own. His lordship then put both to his ear, to satisfy himself that they went. When it was more than a quarter after twelve by our watches, he said: "This mysterious lady is not a true prophetess, I find." When it was near the real hour of twelve, he said: "Come, I'll wait no longer; get me my medicine; I'll take it, and try to sleep."

	Perceiving the man stirring the medicine with a toothpick, Lord Lyttelton scolded him, and sent him away for a teaspoon, with which he soon after returned. He found his master in a fit, with his chin, owing to the elevation of the pillow, resting hard upon his neck. Instead of trying to revive him, he ran for assistance, and when he came back with the alarmed party of guests, Lord Lyttelton was dead.

	Amongst the company at Pit Place that day, was Mr. Miles Peter Andrews, a companion of Lord Lyttelton. Having business at the Dartford powder mills, in which he was a partner, he left the house early, but not before he had been pleasingly assured that his noble friend was restored to his usual good spirits. So little did the ghost adventure rest in Mr. Andrews's mind, that he did not even recollect the time when it was predicted the event would take place. He had been half an hour in bed at his partner, Mr. Pigou's house at the mill, when suddenly his curtains were pulled open, and Lord Lyttelton appeared before him at his bedside, and thought it so odd a freak of his friend, that he began to reproach him for his folly in coming down to Dartford Mills without notice, as he could find no accommodation. However, said he, I'll get up, and see what can be done. He turned to the other side of the bed, and rang the bell, when Lord Lyttelton disappeared. His servant soon after coming in, he inquired: "Where is Lord Lyttelton?" The servant, all astonishment, declared he had not seen anything of his lordship since they left Pit Place. "Pshaw! You fool, he was here this moment at my bedside." The servant persisted that it was not possible. Mr. Andrews dressed himself, and with the assistance of the servants, searched every part of the house and garden; but no Lord Lyttelton was to be found. Still Mr. Andrews could not help believing that Lord Lyttelton had played him this trick, till, about four o'clock the same day, an express arrived to inform him of his lordship's death, and the manner of it.

	An attempt has been made to invalidate the truth of this recital, but on grounds more than usually weak. It has been surmised that Lord Lyttelton meant to take poison, and imposed the story of the warning on his friends; as if he would have chosen for a concealment of his design, a kind of imposture which, as the opinions of mankind go, is just the most hard of belief. This supposition, moreover, overlooks, and is inconsistent with, the fact that Lord Lyttelton was deceived as to the hour by the tampering with the watches; if he meant to destroy himself, he ought to have done it half an hour sooner. It is further affirmed and the explanation is said to have come from Lord Fortescue, who was of the party at Pit Place that the story of the vision took its rise in a recent chase for a lady's pet bird, which Lord Lyttelton declared had been harassingly reproduced to him in his dreams. Lord Fortescue may have been induced, by the usual desire of escaping from a supra natural theory, to surmise that the story had some such foundation; but it coheres with no other facts in the case, and fails to account for the impression on Lord Lyttelton's mind, that he had been warned of his coming death, a fact of which all his friends bore witness.

	On the other hand, we have the Lyttelton family fully of belief that the circumstances were as here related. Dr. Johnson tells us, that he heard it from Lord Lyttelton's uncle, Lord Westcote, and he was therefore willing to believe it. There was, in the Dowager Lady Lyttelton's house, in Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square, a picture which she herself executed in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a conspicuous part of her drawing room. The dove appears at the window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttelton his dissolution. Every part of the picture was faithfully designed, after the description given to her by the valet de chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all the circumstances. The evidence of Mr. Andrews is also highly important. Mr. J.W. Croaker [sic for Croker], in his notes on Boswell, attests that he had more than once heard Mr. Andrews relate the story, with details substantially agreeing with the recital which we have quoted from the Gentleman's Magazine. He was unquestionably good evidence for what had occurred to himself, and he may be considered as not a bad reporter of the story of the ghost of the lady which he had heard from Lord Lyttelton's own mouth. Mr. Croker adds, that Mr. Andrews always told the tale reluctantly, and with an evidently solemn conviction of its truth. On the whole, then, the Lyttelton ghost story may be considered as not only one of the most remarkable from its compound character, one spiritual utterance supporting another, but also one of the best authenticated, and which is most difficult to explain away, if we are to allow human testimony to be of the least value.

	George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton

	Lyttelton committed suicide by hurling himself down a high staircase well in April 1876. The following edited account is taken from the The Dundee Courier & Argus and Northern Warder of 21 April 1876:-

	We regret to announce that Lord Lyttelton was committed self-destruction. The melancholy affair happened at his London residence … He died from the effects of a fall over the banisters of the well staircase of his residence, No. 18 Park Crescent, Portland Place, London.

	The inquest, which was held this afternoon by Dr. Hardwicke, in the drawing room of the mansion, is conclusive of the lamentable fact that Lord Lyttelton, whose mind had lately been obscured by melancholy, caused his own death.

	At the inquest the Rev. Edward Stuart Talbot, youngest son of Mr. J.C. Talbot, Q.C., and son-in-law of the deceased, was the first witness, and said that being on a visit to his Lordship's home he had many opportunities of knowing that the deceased was suffering from a settled depression of mind, and was being attended by Dr. Andrew Clark and Dr. Munro for this disorder. On Tuesday morning last, witness, returning from a walk, was informed of the sad event, and saw his father-in-law in a state of insensibility. Sir William Gull, Sir James Paget and Dr. Andrew Clark were summoned, but could do nothing, and Lord Lyttelton, who had been carried from the hall where he fell, into an anteroom, died eighteen hours after having received his injuries.

	Thomas Barnes, who had had seven years' experience as an attendant on lunatics and persons of suicidal tendency, said he had been for two or three weeks employed in waiting on deceased. On Monday night his Lordship had little rest, and when he rose, shortly before eight o'clock, witness helped him to dress and began shaving him. He had shaved one side of his face, when Lord Lyttelton, who had previously asked for the razor, and had, of course, been refused, desired the witness to stop for a little time. His Lordship then rose from the chair and walked quietly up and down the room in a melancholy and reflective manner. With great suddenness he then dashed to the door, opened it, and rushing out, closed it after him. Witness followed as fast as he could, but was only in time to see his Lordship grasp the banisters and vault or roll over them, hanging for an instant, and then dropping down the well staircase from the second floor landing to the hall beneath. Descending the stairs rapidly, witness raised his head and found him insensible. He summoned the butler and a female servant, and they sent instantly for Dr. Clark. Witness said he had not the least doubt that the accident was intentional, as deceased had often told him he wanted to die. When Lord Lyttelton asked witness to give him the razor, he answered, "No, my Lord, I cannot". In the decided opinion of witness, Lord Lyttelton was deranged.

	Dr. Andrew Clark, who had known Lord Lyttelton fourteen years, said he had attended him latterly for melancholia. Both witness and Dr. Munro had agreed that it was necessary to have a watchful attendant, and Barnes was engaged, from the institution at Clapton. Witness was summoned to the house on Tuesday, and found the deceased in the arms of his attendant, quite insensible. Seeing that the injuries were such required clinical treatment, witness immediately sent for Sir James Paget. The deceased lingered in an unconscious state for 18 hours, and died very early on Wednesday morning of fainting of the heart, which organ had never recovered its action after the injuries caused by the fall. The mental disease, which in past months had developed largely, had existed without delusions of any kind. But he had suffered from the simplest phase of melancholia for some years. In the last few weeks of his life, Lord Lyttelton was decidedly insane.

	Sutton Howe, butler to the deceased, said he was carrying a cup of coffee upstairs to his Lordship when he saw him fall. In several particulars this witness confirmed other points of the evidence given.

	After a short summing up by the Coroner, the jury deliberated for a few minutes, and then returned a verdict of "Suicide while of unsound mind".

	Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer‑Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

	The following biography of Lord Lytton, which pays special attention to his relationship with his wife, appeared in the February 1956 issue of the Australian monthly magazine Parade:-

	The market place at Hertford, England, was ablaze with gay blue-and-white banners one bright spring day in 1858. The colour scheme was repeated in the rosettes and streamers of the well-dressed throng gathered round a central dais. Conservative candidate Sir Edward Bulwer‑Lytton, Bart., had won a resounding victory at the polls and rounds of applause greeted his appearance in cutaway coat, gay waistcoat and flowing cravat. Just as the cheers subsided, an unkempt woman leapt to the platform to tear at him and spit a stream of abuse before collapsing in an hysterical bundle at his feet. As she was hustled away to a lunatic asylum by outraged police and electoral officers, her voice rose high above the excited clamour of the crowd. "Lecher", "Political Titus Oates", "Martial Henry the Eighth", were some of the epithets caught by curious ears. Sir Edward stood calm and aloof on the buntingdraped rostrum until order was restored. Except for his pallor, he gave no sign of the humiliation he felt as he began a meticulously-worded address of thanks to his constituents. The meeting over, Bulwer‑Lytton donned cloak and silk hat, strode swiftly to his waiting carriage and drove to his divorced wife's place of confinement. Assured of her welfare, he returned to his estate at Knebworth to bury himself in a mass of literary and political work.

	Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, later Lord Lytton, had paid a bitter price for his marriage, 30 years before, to the once-lovely Rosina Wheeler. "Loving at first sight", the great novelist-reformer had tossed his inheritance away to espouse a penniless upstart of shady parentage. His "reward" was years of intolerable victimisation. Throughout his long struggle from self-imposed penury to wealth and power, Rosina dogged him ruthlessly, grudging every minute of toil over such master-pieces as "Eugene Aram" and "Last Days of Pompeii", yet recklessly squandering the fortune they earned. She insulted and cold-shouldered his brilliant friends and belittled him before lords and lackeys alike. When the exasperated genius finally discarded her, she frittered away her alimony and feathered the nests of rogue lawyers with reckless lawsuits that cost Lytton a fortune to defend.

	Third son of a foul-mouthed, gouty old roue of a general, William Earle Bulwer, and Elizabeth Lytton, a flighty but domineering woman who "never opened a book", Edward George Earle Bulwer, who later [1844] added his mother's maiden name to his title to become Bulwer‑Lytton, was born in London in May, 1803. The wealthy general frightened his wife, beat his sons and quarrelled with everyone. His passion for port was alarming and none wept when apoplexy carried him off in 1807. The two elder boys were bundled off to boarding school, but the delicate Edward stayed at home to keep his mother company and learn his letters from her. He was an apt scholar. He could read at four; wrote passable verse at seven, and rejoiced when grandfather Lytton willed his library of 20,000 volumes to mother and son. It occupied two-thirds of the house and Edward spent hours delving into tomes on witchcraft and other occult matters.

	Scorning Eton, he compromised by studying classics, politics and elocution under a tutor at Ealing, where, still in his teens, he plunged into a desperate romance with a girl whose name he never recorded. The girl's father bundled her away to Ullswater and married her off to a wealthy business associate. She died of a broken heart after writing Lytton a death-bed note vowing eternal love and imploring him to visit her "last lonely resting place". They were highly sentimental days. Lytton rushed to the gloomy lakeside village and spent a whole night weeping on her grave. At daybreak, still distraught, he set out to walk through the wild Windermere country as far north as the Scottish border. Benighted on the Yorkshire moors, he sought shelter at a rude shack tenanted by a seemingly-harmless halfwit. He woke at midnight to find his host bending over him brandishing a billhook, and only after a fierce struggle was he able to escape over the fells.

	Deep in the Cheviot Hills he was waylaid by a footpad, who robbed him of watch, money and clothes, leaving him to struggle on, bruised and bleeding, to Jedburgh, where he was succoured by a kindly Romany band. He drifted into a fantastic "rebound" romance with a pretty gypsy girl of 18, and wandered the Border country for weeks, sharing the Romany diet of clay-baked hedgehog, poached game and wild berries.

	When the fit of wanderlust wore off, Bulwer-Lytton returned to London, where his mother persuaded him to enter Cambridge. Though vowing that love was "dead within him", he was soon dancing attendance on lovely, elfish Lady Caroline Lamb [1785&8209;1828], who was already notorious for her fantastic romance with Lord Byron. Lytton's watchful mother broke this intrigue by packing him off to Paris, where he became wilder than ever. He seconded his friend Frederick Villiers in a duel with a French count, joined every reactionary group and dabbled in necromancy.

	His blond good-looks made him the target of every flighty Parisian society woman. The love-lorn beauties called him "Childe Harold" after Byron's hero. He kept his head until captivated by the Marquis de Roche-Jacquelein's daughter, Louise. Although Lytton was accepted as a suitor, his mother forbade the marriage on the score of the girl's religion, and he was summoned back to England. Before leaving he dashed off "Weeds and Wild Flowers", a slim volume of Byronic verse dedicated to the fair Louise. Then he drowned his sorrows in a round of Paris taverns. He arrived home as his mother was leaving for a soiree to which Bulwer‑Lytton escorted her. Mrs. Bulwer#8209;Lytton was still beautiful, and they made a striking pair.

	It was a night of destiny for it was there he met Rosina Wheeler, niece of Sir John Doyle, a retired general. The two were soon deeply in love. Rosina's father, however, was a "horsey" and doubtful character, and the domineering Mrs. Bulwer‑Lytton would again have none of the match. Back went her son to the Continent to plunge into the old round of dicing and boulevard-strolling. This time, however, he could not forget. He wrote Rosina more than 300 letters, sent her a glittering engagement ring and arranged a secret marriage.

	The extravagant absurdity of his love notes is almost beyond belief. Addressing her as "Poodle", he signed himself "Puppy". Commenting on a trip he made to Richmond, he wrote "And so they dressed my poodle in black and white? Oh zoo darling! How like a poodle! And had oo oo's ears curled nicely, and did oo not look too pretty, and did not all her puppy dogs run after oo and tell oo what a darling oo was? Me sends oo 9,000,000 kisses … Adieu my poodle of poodles … oo own puppy." He announced his imminent return for elopement by writing "My adored Poodle - Many, many thanks for oo darling letter. Me is so happy me is wagging my tail and putting my ears down. Me is to meet oo tomorrow. Oh, zoo love of loves, me is ready to leap out of my skin for joy …"

	The complete anthology of drivel by one who was to become a great author was assiduously treasured by Rosina, to be put to good use long after any poodlelike traits in her make-up had been displaced by a wolflike ferocity. The marriage was doomed from the start. His angry mother disinherited him. All he had from his father's estate was £200 a year. A young society buck, however, could not be expected to give up carriage or hacks and they were soon deep in debt.

	Something had to be done. Closing his town house, he moved to Pangbourne, Berkshire, where he shut himself in the library and tried his hand at novel writing. Within a year he had produced "Falkland" [1827] and "Pelham" [1828], a brilliant study of the age's dandyism. Both earned about £1000. When publishers clamoured for more, he tossed off "Eugene Aram" [1832], "Devereux" [1829], "Rienzi" [1835] and "Last Days of Pompeii" [1834], some of which are still best sellers.

	Rosina saw progressively less of her brilliant husband, and although baby Emily, born in 1828, engaged much of her attention, she began to fancy herself slighted. She cultivated a hacking cough and dropped dire hints of a consumptive history.

	Bulwer-Lytton worked harder as he grew in literary stature. His frequent trips to interview publishers increased Rosina's discontent, and she fancied herself deeply wronged. She sulked and raged by turns and ran up tremendous bills for dresses and jewellery. She was not even satisfied when he moved back to London for her benefit. Scornful of his great friends, Disraeli, Tom Moore and Byron's half-sister, Aurora Leigh, she sat like a stuffed owl at his dinner parties; blazing with diamonds, yet speechless. In three "tearing, raging years" of social climbing, domestic squabbling and political wire-pulling, Bulwer‑Lytton still managed to write three more novels, a magnificent historical volume called "England and the English", and the controversial "Paul Clifford", which flew the flag of prison reform [see further comments below].

	By 1834, he and his wife were hardly on speaking terms. When Rosina refused to answer a courteous dinner-table question one night, the exasperated author seized the carving knife and rushed at her. But instead of slitting her throat, he gave her a well-deserved spanking in the traditional place. When butler and footman came running at her screams, Bulwer‑Lytton broke from their grasp and rushed from the house in tears. Rosina slandered him before visitors, provoked him in front of the servants and accused him of every form of meanness, perversion and cruelty. It was so bad by 1836 that he collected his papers and walked out after allotting Rosina £600 a year.

	Although she came grovelling when he was made a baronet in 1838 he would have none of her. She retaliated by writing a melodramatic trash-novel, "Cheverley, or the Man of Honour", in which he was the villain. When he was elected M.P. she appeared at the hustings and denounced him before the crowd. Bulwer‑Lytton took no action to restrain his wife even after his elevation to the peerage as Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866. Working at terrific pressure, he brought his book tally to 59, supported numerous reform movements and held the post of Colonial Secretary 1858‑9. It was he who granted Queensland separation from New South Wales.

	By 1873 Rosina and the years had taken their toll. Lord Lytton, as he now was, died suddenly at Torquay. He was hardly buried before London was convulsed - and shocked - by the "Poodle Letters". Though finally suppressed by his indignant relatives, they besmirched the memory of a noble literary and political figure. Rosina died in 1882.

	Bulwer-Lytton is responsible for a number of phrases that have since become famous in the English language - "the great unwashed", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and "the pursuit of the almighty dollar". However, it is the opening lines of his novel "Paul Clifford" which have become his greatest legacy. "It was a dark and stormy night …" Since 1982 the English Department of the San Jose University has sponsored the Bulwer‑Lytton Fiction Contest which seeks to find the most deliberately bad opening lines of a novel. These efforts may be found by cutting and pasting the following address into your browser - www.bulwer-lytton.com/winners.html. Prepare to laugh out loud.

	Courtenay Robert Percy Vernon, 3rd Baron Lyveden

	The following is an extract from the Chicago Daily Tribune of 29 May 1910.

	[A] peer who has brought to the House of Lords the knowledge of what it is to have to toil for daily bread is Lord Lyveden. He is well known in the United States as the organizer of visits of municipal authorities and of members of parliament to this country for the purpose of instruction and of the promotion of a better understanding between the two great English speaking powers. Lord Lyveden, as Courtney Vernon, having failed to pass his examination for a commission in the army, enlisted in the Royal Artillery, then became an actor in the Bancroft Haymarket company, migrated to New York where, losing his money, he became in turn waiter in a Bowery restaurant, a market gardener in Wilmington, Del., a hackman in New York and in Charlotte, N.C., the part owner of a small fishing boat at Charleston, which foundered on the night of the earthquake in 1885; a cabin steward on the American ocean liner City of Paris, a purser on some of the lake steamers, impresario of a company touring the United States and caterer to a navigation company on its vessels running between Hamburg and Harwich.

	A more comprehensive account of Lyveden's adventurous life appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune on 3 January 1904:-

	Among the stories of the British peerage are many chapters as romantic as any you will find in fiction, but it is doubtful whether any of them all is as crowded with strange experiences and vicissitudes as that which gives the life story of the third and present Lord Lyveden.

	As Courtenay Percy Vernon, son of a country rector, he failed to pass his examination for the army. But he took his fate boldly into his hands and enlisted as a private in the Royal Artillery. "I put my pride in my pocket", he says, "and shared and thoroughly enjoyed the lot of the Tommy, whom I found to be a splendid fellow in all ways and a thorough gentleman at heart."

	But there was a restless, roving strain in Mr. Vernon's blood, and after eight months of soldiering we find him on the London stage, playing a utility part at the Haymarket theater. From this modest start he had risen within two years to the dignified position of "second lead", when he abandoned the footlights and made his way to America.

	Landing at New York with but a few pounds in his pocket, he served for a time in a Bowery restaurant, enlarging his acquaintance with humanity and thankfully pocketing his tips; and then he suddenly transported himself to North Carolina, where he tempted Fortune as a nurseryman.

	A little after he wearied of the life of nurseryman and engaged himself as steward on a vessel running between North Carolina and New York, making in this, as in all his other callings, hosts of friends by his geniality and entire absence of "side". But again, after two years of life aboard ship, his love of the stage reasserted itself and he spent some adventurous months travelling through this country with a company. From America he returned to England, and we find him playing the leading part in "Diplomacy", and playing it excellently, too; and, emboldened by his success, the embryo peer started a company of his own and toured with it, with varying success, for a year.

	He had now had ten years of roaming, and, thinking it was time to rest a little, he married, in 1890, a charming woman, the daughter of an army officer, and settled down to nursery work again - this time near Higham Ferrers, where he spent four years of hard work and happiness, and incidentally introduced to the world a new tomato known by his initials as the "P.V." But fortune was not kind to him, and he secured an engagement as third steward on a vessel trading between London and Dublin.

	After eight months of this experience he exchanged to the City of Paris, and later became bedroom steward on a mail boat sailing to South America. During this last term of service Mr. Vernon contracted yellow fever, and for some weeks lay betwixt life and death at Buenos Ayres.

	Another swift transition took this nomadic aristocrat back to England, and for two years he acted as steward on a vessel plying between Barrow and the Isle of Man, a post which, during the holiday season, was, perhaps, not so pleasant as it was lucrative.

	Then followed a more agreeable spell as principal steward on a holiday yacht, the Ceylon; and this paved the way to Lord Lyveden's last enterprise, which was that of caterer to a line of vessels belonging to the General Steam Navigation Company. This was the work on which his lordship was engaged when news reached him that his uncle, the second lord, was dead, and that he was Baron Lyveden and owner of several thousand acres of land.

	This is but a brief outline of Lord Lyveden's kaleidoscopic life. Its full story would fill volumes of thrilling interest; for he tells countless stories of adventures and of hair-breadth escapes on sea and land, not the least startling of which was when his boat was upset in a heavy sea off North Carolina, and, after being rescued at the point of death, he was taken ashore just in time to experience one of the worst earthquakes that ever devastated that coast.

	The hero of this eventful life is today a tall, handsome, resolute man of 46, with much of the breeziness and unconventional charm of a sailor; and now that he is a peer of the United Kingdom he is as absolutely free from affectation as during the many years when he made countless loyal friends as plain Percy Vernon.