PEERAGES
Last updated 12/09/2017 (12 Apr 2024)
Date Rank Order Name Born Died Age
ROSSER
14 Jun 2004
to    
10 Apr 2024
B[L] Richard Andrew Rosser
Created Baron Rosser for life 14 Jun 2004
Peerage extinct on his death
5 Oct 1944 10 Apr 2024 79
ROSSIE
20 Jun 1831
to    
7 Jan 1878
B 1 George William Fox Kinnaird, 9th Lord Kinnaird
Created Baron Rossie 20 Jun 1831
Peerage extinct on his death
14 Apr 1807 7 Jan 1878 70
ROSSLYN
21 Apr 1801 E 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 Earldom, see the note at the foot of this page
MP for Ayr Burghs 1761‑1768, Richmond 1768‑1769, Bishops Castle 1770‑1774 and 1778‑1780 and Okehampton 1774‑1778; Attorney General 1778‑1780; Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1780‑1792; Lord Chancellor 1793‑1801; PC 1780
On his death the Barony of 1780 became extinct, but the other titles passed to -
13 Feb 1733 2 Jan 1805 71
2 Jan 1805 2 Sir James St. Clair-Erskine, 6th baronet
MP for Castle Rising 1782‑1784, Morpeth 1784‑1796 and Dysart Burghs 1796‑1805; Lord Privy Seal 1829‑1830; Lord President of the Council 1834‑1835; Lord Lieutenant Fife 1828‑1837; PC 1829
1762 18 Jan 1837 74
18 Jan 1837 3 James Alexander St. Clair‑Erskine
MP for Dysart Burghs 1830‑1831 and Great Grimsby 1831‑1832; PC 1841
15 Feb 1802 16 Jun 1866 64
16 Jun 1866 4 Francis Robert St. Clair‑Erskine
PC 1886
2 Mar 1833 6 Sep 1890 57
6 Sep 1890 5 James Francis Harry St. Clair‑Erskine
For information on the death of his son and heir, Francis Edward Scudamore St. Clair‑Erskine, styled Lord Loughborough, see the note at the foot of this page
16 Mar 1869 10 Aug 1939 70
10 Aug 1939 6 Anthony Hugh Francis Harry St. Clair‑Erskine 18 May 1917 22 Nov 1977 60
22 Nov 1977 7 Peter St. Clair‑Erskine
[Elected hereditary peer 1999-]
31 Mar 1958
ROSSMORE
19 Oct 1796 B[I] 1 Robert Cuninghame
Created Baron Rossmore 19 Oct 1796
For details of the special remainder included in the creation of this peerage, see the note at the foot of this page
MP [I] for Tulsk 1751‑1761, Armagh Borough 1761‑1768 and Monaghan Borough 1768‑1796; MP for East Grinstead 1788‑1789; PC [I] 1782
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
18 Apr 1726 6 Aug 1801
6 Aug 1801
7 Jul 1838
 
B
2
1
Warner William Westenra
Created Baron Rossmore [UK] 7 Jul 1838
MP [I] for Monaghan County 1800; MP for Monaghan 1800‑1801; Lord Lieutenant Monaghan 1831‑1842
14 Oct 1765 10 Aug 1842 76
10 Aug 1842 3
2
Henry Robert Westenra
MP for Monaghan 1818‑1830, 1831‑1832, 1834 and 1835‑1842; Lord Lieutenant Monaghan 1843‑1858
24 Aug 1792 1 Dec 1860 68
1 Dec 1860 4
3
Henry Cairnes Westenra 14 Nov 1851 28 Mar 1874 22
28 Mar 1874 5
4
Derrick Warner William Westenra
Lord Lieutenant Monaghan 1897‑1921
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
7 Feb 1853 31 Jan 1921 67
31 Jan 1921 6
5
William Westenra 12 Jul 1892 17 Oct 1958 66
17 Oct 1958 7
6
William Warner [Paddy] Westenra 14 Feb 1931 4 May 2021 90
4 May 2021 8
7
Benedict William Westenra 6 Mar 1983
ROTHERHAM
18 Jul 1910 B 1 Sir William Henry Holland, 1st baronet
Created Baron Rotherham 18 Jul 1910
MP for Salford North 1892‑1895 and Rotherham 1899‑1910
15 Dec 1849 26 Dec 1927 78
26 Dec 1927
to    
24 Jan 1950
2 Stuart Lund Holland
Peerage extinct on his death
25 Oct 1876 24 Jan 1950 73
ROTHERMERE
17 Jan 1914
17 May 1919
B
V
1
1
Sir Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st baronet
Created Baron Rothermere 17 Jan 1914 and Viscount Rothermere 17 May 1919
Minister for Air 1917‑1918; PC 1917
26 Apr 1868 26 Nov 1940 72
26 Nov 1940 2 Esmond Cecil Harmsworth
MP for Isle of Thanet 1919‑1929
29 May 1898 12 Jul 1978
12 Jul 1978 3 Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth 27 Aug 1925 1 Sep 1998 73
1 Sep 1998 4 Harold Jonathan Esmond Vere Harmsworth 3 Dec 1967
ROTHERWICK
5 Jul 1939 B 1 Sir Herbert Robin Cayzer, 1st baronet
Created Baron Rotherwick 5 Jul 1939
MP for Portsmouth South 1918‑1922 and 1923‑1939
23 Jul 1881 16 Mar 1958 76
16 Mar 1958 2 Herbert Robin Cayzer 5 Dec 1912 11 Jun 1996 83
11 Jun 1996 3 Herbert Robin Cayzer
[Elected hereditary peer 1999‑2022]
12 Mar 1954
ROTHES
For further information on this peerage, see the note at the foot of this page
1457 E[S] 1 George Leslie
Created Lord Leslie 1445 and Earl of Rothes 1457
c 1490
c 1490 2 George Leslie Mar 1513
Mar 1513 3 William Leslie 9 Sep 1513
9 Sep 1513 4 George Leslie 28 Nov 1558
28 Nov 1558 5 Andrew Leslie 1611
1611 6 John Leslie 1600 23 Aug 1641 41
23 Aug 1641
29 May 1680
to    
27 Jul 1681
 
D[S]
7
1
John Leslie
Created Lord Auchmotie and Caskieberry, Viscount of Lugtoun, Earl of Leslie, Marquess of Ballinbrieich and Duke of Rothes 29 May 1680
Lord High Treasurer [S] 1663‑1667; Lord Chancellor [S] 1667‑1681
On his death the creations of 1680 became extinct, whilst the Earldom passed to -
1630 27 Jul 1681 51
27 Jul 1681 8 Margaret Hamilton 20 Aug 1700
20 Aug 1700 9 John Leslie
Lord Lieutenant Fifeshire, Kinross and Aberdeen
21 Aug 1679 9 May 1722 42
9 May 1722 10 John Leslie
KT 1753; PC [I] 1756
c 1698 10 Dec 1767
10 Dec 1767 11 John Leslie 19 Oct 1744 18 Jul 1773 28
18 Jul 1773 12 Jane Elizabeth Evelyn 5 May 1750 2 Jun 1810 60
2 Jun 1810 13 George William Evelyn‑Leslie 28 Mar 1768 11 Feb 1817 48
11 Feb 1817 14 Henrietta Anne Leslie 26 Mar 1790 30 Jan 1819 28
30 Jan 1819 15 George William Evelyn Leslie 8 Nov 1809 10 Mar 1841 31
10 Mar 1841 16 George William Evelyn Leslie 4 Feb 1835 2 Jan 1859 23
2 Jan 1859 17 Henrietta Anderson Morshead Waldegrave‑Leslie 6 Feb 1832 10 Feb 1886 54
10 Feb 1886 18 Mary Elizabeth Haworth‑Leslie 9 Jul 1811 19 Sep 1893 82
19 Sep 1893 19 Norman Evelyn Leslie 15 Jul 1877 29 Mar 1927 49
29 Mar 1927 20 Malcolm George Dyer Edwardes Leslie 8 Feb 1902 17 May 1975 73
17 May 1975 21 Ian Lionel Malcolm Leslie 10 May 1932 15 Apr 2005 72
15 Apr 2005 22 James Malcolm David Leslie 4 Jun 1958
ROTHESAY
28 Apr 1398
to    
26 Mar 1402
D[S] 1 David Stewart
Created Duke of Rothesay 28 Apr 1398
Eldest son of Robert III of Scotland
On his death the peerage reverted to the Crown
1378 26 Mar 1402 23

1402
to    
4 Apr 1406
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Created Duke of Rothesay 1402
Third son of Robert III of Scotland
He succeeded to the throne of Scotland as James I when the peerage merged with the Crown
Jul 1394 21 Feb 1437 42

16 Oct 1430
to    
21 Feb 1437
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of James I of Scotland
He succeeded to the throne of Scotland as James II when the peerage merged with the Crown
16 Oct 1430 3 Aug 1460 29

20 Jul 1451
to    
3 Aug 1460
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of James II of Scotland
He succeeded to the throne of Scotland as James III when the peerage merged with the Crown
20 Jul 1451 11 Jun 1488 36

17 Mar 1473
to    
11 Jun 1488
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of James III of Scotland
He succeeded to the throne of Scotland as James IV when the peerage merged with the Crown
17 Mar 1473 9 Sep 1513 40

21 Feb 1507
to    
27 Feb 1508
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of James IV of Scotland
On his death the peerage reverted to the Crown
21 Feb 1507 27 Feb 1508 1

20 Oct 1509
to    
14 Jul 1510
D[S] 1 Arthur Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
Second son of James IV of Scotland
On his death the peerage reverted to the Crown
20 Oct 1509 14 Jul 1510 -

15 Apr 1512
to    
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
Third son of James IV of Scotland
He succeeded to the throne of Scotland as James V when the peerage merged with the Crown
10 Apr 1512 14 Dec 1542 30

22 May 1540
to    
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of James V of Scotland
On his death the peerage reverted to the Crown
22 May 1540 1541 1

19 Jun 1566
to    
24 Jul 1567
D[S] 1 James Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of Queen Mary of Scotland
He succeeded to the throne of Scotland as James VI when the peerage merged with the Crown
19 Jun 1566 27 Mar 1625 58

19 Feb 1594
to    
D[S] Henry Frederick Stewart
Became Duke of Rothesay at birth
First son of James VI of Scotland
On his death the peerage reverted to the Crown
19 Feb 1594 6 Nov 1612 18
Since 1612 the Dukedom of Rothesay has followed the Dukedom of Cornwall
ROTHSCHILD
29 Jun 1885 B 1 Sir Nathan Meyer Rothschild, 2nd baronet
Created Baron Rothschild 29 Jun 1885
MP for Aylesbury 1865‑1885; Lord Lieutenant Buckingham 1889‑1915; PC 1902
8 Nov 1840 31 Mar 1915 74
31 Mar 1915 2 Lionel Walter Rothschild
MP for Aylesbury 1899‑1910
8 Feb 1868 27 Aug 1937 69
27 Aug 1937 3 Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild 31 Oct 1910 20 Mar 1990 79
20 Mar 1990 4 (Nathaniel Charles) Jacob Rothschild
OM 2002
29 Apr 1936 25 Feb 2024 87
25 Feb 2024 5 Nathaniel Philip Victor James Rothschild 12 Jul 1971
ROUNDWAY
30 Jun 1916 B 1 Charles Edward Hungerford Atholl Colston
Created Baron Roundway 30 Jun 1916
MP for Thornbury 1892‑1906
16 May 1854 17 Jun 1925 71
17 Jun 1925
to    
29 Mar 1944
2 Edward Murray Colston
Peerage extinct on his death
31 Dec 1880 29 Mar 1944 63
ROUS
14 Jun 1796 B 1 John Rous
Created Baron Rous 14 Jun 1796, and Viscount Dunwich and Earl of Stradbroke 18 Jul 1821
See "Stradbroke"
30 May 1750 27 Aug 1827 77
ROWALLAN
27 Jun 1911 B 1 Archibald Cameron Corbett
Created Baron Rowallan 27 Jun 1911
MP for Tradeston 1885‑1911
23 May 1856 19 Mar 1933 76
19 Mar 1933 2 Thomas Godfrey Polson Corbett
Governor of Tasmania 1959‑1963; KT 1957
19 Dec 1895 30 Nov 1977 81
30 Nov 1977 3 Arthur Cameron Corbett 17 Dec 1919 24 Jun 1993 73
24 Jun 1993 4 John Polson Cameron Corbett 8 Mar 1947
ROWE-BEDDOE
15 Jun 2006
to    
15 Nov 2023
B[L] Sir David Sydney Rowe‑Beddoe
Created Baron Rowe-Beddoe for life 15 Jun 2006
Peerage extinct on his death
19 Dec 1937 15 Nov 2023 85
ROWLANDS
28 Jun 2004 B[L] Edward Rowlands
Created Baron Rowlands for life 28 Jun 2004
MP for Cardiff North 1966‑1970, Merthyr Tydfil 1972‑1983 and Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney 1983‑2001
23 Jan 1940
ROWLEY
27 May 1966
to    
28 Aug 1968
B[L] Arthur Henderson
Created Baron Rowley for life 27 May 1966
MP for Cardiff South 1923‑1924 and 1929‑1931, Kingswinford 1935‑1950 and Rowley Regis & Tipton 1950‑1966; Secretary of State for Air 1947‑1951; PC 1947
Peerage extinct on his death
27 Aug 1893 28 Aug 1968 75
ROWTON
6 May 1880
to    
9 Nov 1903
B 1 Montagu William Lowry‑Corry
Created Baron Rowton 6 May 1880
PC 1900
Peerage extinct on his death
8 Oct 1838 9 Nov 1903 65
ROXBURGHE
29 Dec 1599
18 Sep 1616
B[S]
E[S]
1
1
Sir Robert Ker
Created Lord Roxburghe 29 Dec 1599 and Lord Ker of Cessfurd & Cavertoun and Earl of Roxburghe 18 Sep 1616
Lord Privy Seal [S] 1637‑1649
c 1570 18 Jan 1650
18 Jan 1650 2 William Ker 2 Jul 1675
2 Jul 1675 3 Robert Ker
For information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of the page containing details of the Dick baronetcy
c 1658 6 May 1682
6 May 1682 4 Robert Ker c 1677 13 Jul 1696
13 Jul 1696
25 Apr 1707
 
D[S]
5
1
John Ker
Created Lord Ker of Cessfurd & Cavertoun, Viscount of Broxmouth, Earl of Kelso, Marquess of Bowmont & Cessfurd and Duke of Roxburghe 25 Apr 1707
Secretary of State for Scotland 1716‑1725; PC 1709; KG 1722
c 1680 24 Feb 1741
24 Feb 1741 2 Robert Ker
Created Baron Ker and Earl Ker of Wakefield 24 May 1722
c 1709 23 Aug 1755
23 Aug 1755 3 John Ker
Lord Lieutenant Roxburghe 1794‑1804; KT 1768; PC 1796; KG 1801
23 Apr 1740 19 Mar 1804 63
19 Mar 1804
to    
22 Oct 1805
4 William Bellenden-Ker
On his death the peerage became dormant
20 Oct 1728 22 Oct 1805 77
11 May 1812 5 Sir James Innes-Ker, 6th baronet 10 Jan 1736 19 Jul 1823 87
19 Jul 1823 6 James Henry Robert Innes‑Ker
Created Earl Innes 11 Aug 1837
Lord Lieutenant Berwick 1873‑1879; KT 1840
12 Jul 1816 23 Apr 1879 62
23 Apr 1879 7 James Henry Robert Innes‑Ker
MP for Roxburghshire 1870‑1874; Lord Lieutenant Roxburghe 1884‑1892
5 Sep 1839 23 Oct 1892 53
23 Oct 1892 8 Henry John Innes‑Ker
Lord Lieutenant Roxburghe 1918‑1932; KT 1902
25 Jul 1876 29 Sep 1932 56
29 Sep 1932 9 George Victor Robert John Innes‑Ker 7 Sep 1913 26 Sep 1974 61
26 Sep 1974 10 Guy David Innes‑Ker 18 Nov 1954 29 Aug 2019 64
29 Aug 2019 11 Charles Robert George Innes‑Ker 18 Feb 1891
ROYALL OF BLAISDON
25 Jun 2004 B[L] Janet Anne Royall
Created Baroness Royall of Blaisdon for life 25 Jun 2004
Lord President of the Council 2008‑2009; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2009‑2010; PC 2008
20 Aug 1955
ROYDEN
28 Jan 1944
to    
6 Nov 1950
B 1 Sir Thomas Royden, 2nd baronet
Created Baron Royden 28 Jan 1944
MP for Bootle 1918‑1922; CH 1919
Peerage extinct on his death
22 May 1871 6 Nov 1950 79
ROYLE
25 Aug 1964
to    
30 Sep 1975
B[L] Charles Royle
Created Baron Royle for life 25 Aug 1964
MP for Salford West 1945‑1964
Peerage extinct on his death
23 Jan 1896 30 Sep 1975 79
ROYSTON
2 Apr 1754 V 1 Philip Yorke, 1st Baron Hardwicke
Created Viscount Royston and Earl of Hardwicke 2 Apr 1754
See "Hardwicke"
1 Dec 1690 6 Mar 1764 73
RUFFSIDE
14 Dec 1951
to    
5 May 1958
V 1 Douglas Clifton Brown
Created Viscount Ruffside 14 Dec 1951
MP for Hexham 1918‑1923 and 1924‑1951; Speaker of the House of Commons 1943‑1951; PC 1941
Peerage extinct on his death
16 Aug 1879 5 May 1958 78
RUGBY
15 Jan 1947 B 1 Sir John Loader Maffey
Created Baron Rugby 15 Jan 1947
Governor General of the Sudan 1926‑1934
1 Jul 1877 20 Apr 1969 91
20 Apr 1969 2 Alan Loader Maffey 16 Apr 1913 12 Jan 1990 76
12 Jan 1990 3 Robert Charles Maffey 4 May 1951
RUGLEN
14 Apr 1697 E[S] 1 Lord John Hamilton
Created Lord Hillhouse, Viscount Riccartoun and Earl of Ruglen 14 Apr 1697
He subsequently [1739] succeeded as 3rd Earl of Selkirk
26 Jan 1665 3 Dec 1744 79
3 Dec 1744 2 Anne Douglas 5 Apr 1698 21 Apr 1748 50
21 Apr 1748
to    
23 Dec 1810
3 William Douglas, later [1778] 4th Duke of Queensberry
Peerage extinct on his death
16 Dec 1724 23 Dec 1810 86
RUNCIE
1 Feb 1991
to    
11 Jul 2000
B[L] Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie
Created Baron Runcie for life 1 Feb 1991
Archbishop of Canterbury 1980‑1991; PC 1980
Peerage extinct on his death
2 Oct 1921 11 Jul 2000 78
RUNCIMAN
17 Jan 1933 B 1 Sir Walter Runciman, 1st baronet
Created Baron Runciman 17 Jan 1933
MP for Hartlepool 1914‑1918
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
6 Jul 1847 13 Aug 1937 90
17 Jan 1933
10 Jun 1937
 
V
2
1
Walter Runciman
Created Viscount Runciman of Doxford 10 Jun 1937
MP for Oldham 1899‑1900, Dewsbury 1902‑1918, Swansea West 1924‑1929 and St. Ives 1929‑1937; Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1907‑1908; President of the Board of Education 1908‑1911; President of the Board of Agriculture 1911‑1914; President of the Board of Trade 1914‑1916 and 1931‑1937; Lord President of the Council 1938‑1939; PC 1908
19 Nov 1870 14 Nov 1949 78
14 Nov 1949 2 Walter Leslie Runciman 26 Aug 1900 1 Sep 1989 89
1 Sep 1989 3 Walter Garrison [Garry] Runciman 10 Nov 1934 20 Dec 2020 86
20 Dec 2020 4 David Walter Runciman 1 Mar 1967
RUNCORN
20 Apr 1964
to    
20 Jan 1968
B[L] Dennis Forwood Vosper
Created Baron Runcorn for life 20 Apr 1964
MP for Runcorn 1950‑1964; Minister of Health 1957; Minister of State, Home Office 1960‑1961; PC 1957
Peerage extinct on his death
2 Jan 1916 20 Jan 1968 52
RUSHCLIFFE
24 Jan 1935
to    
18 Nov 1949
B 1 Sir Henry Bucknall Betterton, 1st baronet
Created Baron Rushcliffe 24 Jan 1935
MP for Rushcliffe 1918‑1934; Minister of Labour 1931‑1934; PC 1931
Peerage extinct on his death
15 Aug 1872 18 Nov 1949 77
RUSHOLME
1 Dec 1945
to    
18 Aug 1977
B 1 Robert Alexander Palmer
Created Baron Rusholme 1 Dec 1945
Peerage extinct on his death
29 Nov 1890 18 Aug 1977 86
RUSSBOROUGH
5 May 1756
8 Sep 1760
B[I]
V[I]
1
1
Joseph Leeson
Created Baron of Russborough 5 May 1756, Viscount Russborough 8 Sep 1760 and Earl of Milltown 10 May 1763
See "Milltown"
11 Mar 1701 2 Oct 1783 82
RUSSELL
9 Mar 1539 B 1 John Russell
Created Baron Russell 9 Mar 1539 and Earl of Bedford 19 Jan 1550
See "Bedford"
c 1485 14 Mar 1555

1 Mar 1553 Francis Russell
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Russell 1 Mar 1553
He succeeded as 2nd Earl of Bedford in 1555
1527 28 Jul 1585 58

Jan 1581 John Russell
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Russell in Jan 1581
He was the son and heir apparent of the 2nd Earl of Bedford, but died before his father
1584

30 Jul 1861 E 1 John Russell
Created Viscount Amberley and Earl Russell 30 Jul 1861
MP for Tavistock 1813‑1820 and 1830‑1831, Huntingdonshire 1820‑1826, Bandon 1826‑1830, Devonshire 1831‑1832, Devon South 1832‑1835, Stroud 1835‑1841 and London 1841‑1861; Home Secretary 1834‑1835; Colonial Secretary 1839‑1841 and 1855; Prime Minister 1846‑1852 and 1865‑1866; Foreign Secretary 1852‑1853 and 1859‑1865; Lord President of the Council 1854‑1855; PC 1830; KG 1862
18 Aug 1792 28 May 1878 85
28 May 1878 2 John Francis Stanley Russell
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
12 Aug 1865 3 Mar 1931 65
3 Mar 1931 3 Bertrand Arthur William Russell
Nobel Prize for Literature 1950; OM 1949
18 May 1872 2 Feb 1970 97
2 Feb 1970 4 John Conrad Russell
For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
16 Nov 1921 16 Dec 1987 66
16 Dec 1987 5 Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell
[Elected hereditary peer 1999‑2004]
15 Apr 1937 14 Oct 2004 67
14 Oct 2004 6 Nicholas Lyulph Russell 12 Sep 1968 17 Aug 2014 45
17 Aug 2014 7 John Francis Russell
[Elected hereditary peer 2023-]
19 Nov 1971
RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN
7 May 1894
to    
10 Aug 1900
B[L] Sir Charles Russell
Created Baron Russell of Killowen for life 7 May 1894
MP for Dundalk 1880‑1885 and Hackney South 1885‑1894; Attorney General 1886 and 1892‑1894; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1894; Lord Chief Justice 1894‑1900; PC 1894
Peerage extinct on his death
For information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page
10 Nov 1832 10 Aug 1900 67

18 Nov 1929
to    
20 Dec 1946
B[L] Francis Xavier Joseph Russell
Created Baron Russell of Killowen for life 18 Nov 1929
Lord Justice of Appeal 1928‑1929; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1929‑1946; PC 1928
Peerage extinct on his death
2 Jul 1867 20 Dec 1946 79

30 Sep 1975
to    
23 Jun 1986
B[L] Sir Charles Ritchie Russell
Created Baron Russell of Killowen for life 30 Sep 1975
Lord Justice of Appeal 1962‑1975; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1975‑1982; PC 1962
Peerage extinct on his death
12 Jan 1908 23 Jun 1986 78
RUSSELL OF LIVERPOOL
9 Oct 1919 B 1 Sir Edward Richard Russell
Created Baron Russell of Liverpool 9 Oct 1919
MP for Bridgeton 1885‑1887
9 Aug 1834 20 Feb 1920 85
20 Feb 1920 2 Edward Frederick Langley Russell 10 Apr 1895 8 Apr 1981 85
8 Apr 1981 3 Simon Gordon Jared Russell
[Elected hereditary peer 2014-]
30 Aug 1952
RUSSELL OF THORNHAUGH
21 Jul 1603 B 1 Sir William Russell
Created Baron Russell of Thornhaugh 21 Jul 1603
Lord Deputy of Ireland 1594‑1597
c 1558 9 Aug 1613
9 Aug 1613 2 Francis Russell
He succeeded to the Earldom of Bedford in 1627 with which title this peerage then merged and so remains
1593 9 May 1641 57
RUSSELL-JOHNSTON
21 Jul 1997
to    
27 Jul 2008
B[L] Sir (David) Russell Russell-Johnston
Created Baron Russell-Johnston for life 21 Jul 1997
MP for Inverness 1964‑1983 and Inverness, Nairn & Lochaber 1983‑1997; MEP 1973‑1975 and 1976‑1979
Peerage extinct on his death
28 Jul 1932 27 Jul 2008 75
RUTHERFORD
10 Jan 1661 B[S] 1 Andrew Rutherford
Created Lord Rutherford 10 Jan 1661 and Earl of Teviot 2 Feb 1663
4 May 1664
4 May 1664 2 Thomas Rutherford 16 Apr 1668
16 Apr 1668 3 Archibald Rutherford 11 Mar 1685
11 Mar 1685
to    
1724
4 Robert Rutherford
On his death the peerage became dormant
1724
RUTHERFORD OF NELSON
22 Jan 1931
to    
19 Oct 1937
B 1 Sir Ernest Rutherford
Created Baron Rutherford of Nelson 22 Jan 1931
President of the Royal Society 1925‑1930; Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1908; OM 1925
Peerage extinct on his death
30 Aug 1871 19 Oct 1937 66
RUTHVEN
29 Jan 1488 B[S] 1 Sir William Ruthven
Created Lord Ruthven 29 Jan 1488
1528
1528 2 William Ruthven 1552
1552 3 Patrick Ruthven c 1520 13 Jun 1566
13 Jun 1566
to    
28 May 1584
4 William Ruthven, later [1581] 1st Earl of Gowrie
He was attainted and the peerages forfeited
c 1545 28 May 1584
1586 5 James Ruthven
Restored to the peerage 1586
25 Sep 1575 1588 12
1588
to    
5 Aug 1600
6 John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie
He was attainted and the peerages forfeited
c 1576 5 Aug 1600

Jan 1651 B[S] 1 Sir Thomas Ruthven
Created Lord Ruthven Jan 1651
6 May 1673
6 May 1673 2 David Ruthven Apr 1701
Apr 1701 3 Jean Ruthven Apr 1722
Apr 1722 4 Isobel Ruthven Jun 1732
Jun 1732 5 James Ruthven 3 Jul 1783
3 Jul 1783 6 James Ruthven 16 Dec 1733 27 Dec 1789 56
27 Dec 1789 7 James Ruthven 17 Oct 1777 27 Jul 1853 75
27 Jul 1853 8 Mary Elizabeth Thornton Hore‑Ruthven c 1784 13 Feb 1864
13 Feb 1864 9 Walter James Hore‑Ruthven
Created Baron Ruthven of Gowrie 28 Oct 1919
14 Jun 1838 28 Feb 1921 82
28 Feb 1921 10 Walter Patrick Hore‑Ruthven 6 Jun 1870 16 Apr 1956 85
16 Apr 1956 11 Bridget Helen Monckton 27 Jul 1896 17 Apr 1982 85
17 Apr 1982 12 Charles James Ruthven Howard
He had previously succeeded as 12th Earl of Carlisle in 1963 with which title this peerage then merged and still remains so
21 Feb 1923 28 Nov 1994 71
RUTHVEN OF CANBERRA
8 Jan 1945 V 1 Alexander Gore Arkwright Hore‑Ruthven VC, 1st Baron Gowrie of Canberra
Created Viscount Ruthven of Canberra and Earl of Gowrie 8 Jan 1945
See "Gowrie"
6 Jul 1872 2 May 1955 82
RUTHVEN OF ETTRICK
1639
to    
2 Feb 1651
B[S] 1 Patrick Ruthven
Created Baron Ruthven of Ettrick 1639, Earl of Forth 27 Mar 1642 and Earl of Brentford 27 May 1644
Peerages extinct on his death
2 Feb 1651
RUTHVEN OF GOWRIE
28 Oct 1919 B 1 Walter James Hore‑Ruthven, 9th Lord Ruthven
Created Baron Ruthven of Gowrie 28 Oct 1919
14 Jun 1838 28 Feb 1921 82
28 Feb 1921 2 Walter Patrick Hore‑Ruthven, 10th Lord Ruthven 6 Jun 1870 16 Apr 1956 85
16 Apr 1956 3 (Alexander Patrick) Greysteil Ruthven
He had previously (1955) succeeded as the 2nd Earl of Gowrie, with which title the barony remains merged
26 Nov 1939 24 Sep 2021 81
RUTLAND
25 Feb 1390
to    
1 Aug 1402
E 1 Edward Plantagenet
Created Earl of Rutland 25 Feb 1390
The Earldom was only valid during the lifetime of his father and thus became extinct on his father's death
1373 25 Oct 1415 42

18 Jun 1525 E 1 Thomas Manners, 13th Lord de Ros
Created Earl of Rutland 18 Jun 1525
KG 1525
by 1492 20 Sep 1543
20 Sep 1543 2 Henry Manners
Lord Lieutenant Nottingham 1552 and Rutland 1559; KG 1559
23 Sep 1526 17 Sep 1563 37
17 Sep 1563 3 Edward Manners
Lord Lieutenant Lincoln 1585; KG 1584
12 Jul 1548 14 Apr 1587 38
14 Apr 1587 4 John Manners by 1552 24 Feb 1588
24 Feb 1588 5 Roger Manners
Lord Lieutenant Lincoln 1603‑1612
6 Oct 1576 26 Jun 1612 35
26 Jun 1612 6 Francis Manners
Lord Lieutenant Lincoln 1612; KG 1616
For further information on the deaths of this peer's two sons, see the note at the foot of this page
1578 17 Dec 1632 54
17 Dec 1632 7 George Manners
MP for Grantham 1604‑1611 and 1624‑1626; Lord Lieutenant Derbyshire
c 1580 29 Mar 1641
29 Mar 1641 8 John Manners
Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1667‑1677
10 Jun 1604 29 Sep 1679 75
29 Sep 1679
29 Mar 1703
 
D
9
1
John Manners
Summoned to Parliament as Lord Manners de Haddon 30 Apr 1679. Created Marquess of Granby and Duke of Rutland 29 Mar 1703
MP for Leicestershire 1661‑1679; Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1677‑1687, 1689‑1703 and 1706‑1711
29 May 1638 10 Jan 1711 72
10 Jan 1711 2 John Manners
MP for Derbyshire 1701, Leicestershire 1701‑1702 and 1710‑1711 and Grantham 1705‑1711; Lord Lieutenant Rutland 1712‑1715 and Leicester 1714‑1721; KG 1714
18 Sep 1676 22 Feb 1721 44
22 Feb 1721 3 John Manners
MP for Rutland 1719‑1721; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1727‑1736; Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1721‑1779; KG 1722; PC 1727
21 Oct 1696 29 May 1779 82
29 May 1779 4 Charles Manners
MP for Cambridge University 1774‑1779; Lord Privy Seal 1783‑1784; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1784‑1787; Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1779‑1787; KG 1782; PC 1783
15 Mar 1754 24 Oct 1787 33
24 Oct 1787 5 John Henry Manners
Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1799‑1857; KG 1803
4 Jan 1778 20 Jan 1857 79
20 Jan 1857 6 Charles Cecil John Manners
MP for Stamford 1837‑1852 and Leicestershire North 1852‑1857; Lord Lieutenant Lincoln 1852‑1857 and Leicester 1857‑1888; KG 1867
16 May 1815 4 Mar 1888 72
4 Mar 1888 7 John James Robert Manners
Created Baron Roos of Belvoir 17 Jun 1896
MP for Newark 1841‑1847, Colchester 1850‑1857, Leicestershire North 1857‑1885 and Melton 1885‑1888; Chief Commissioner of Works 1852, 1858‑1859 and 1868; Postmaster General 1874‑1880 and 1885‑1886; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1886‑1892; PC 1852; KG 1891
13 Dec 1818 4 Aug 1906 87
4 Aug 1906 8 Henry John Brinsley Manners
MP for Melton 1888‑1895; Lord Lieutenant Leicester 1900‑1925; KG 1918
He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Manners of Haddon 6 Jun 1896
16 Apr 1852 8 May 1925 73
8 May 1925 9 John Henry Montagu Manners 21 Sep 1886 22 Apr 1940 53
22 Apr 1940 10 Charles John Robert Manners 28 May 1919 3 Jan 1999 79
3 Jan 1999 11 David Charles Robert Manners 8 May 1959
RYDER OF EATON HASTINGS
15 Jul 1975
to    
12 May 2003
B[L] Sir Sydney Thomas Franklin Ryder
Created Baron Ryder of Eaton Hastings for life 15 Jul 1975
Peerage extinct on his death
16 Sep 1916 12 May 2003 86
RYDER OF WARSAW
31 Jan 1979
to    
2 Nov 2000
B[L] Margaret Susan Cheshire
Created Baroness Ryder of Warsaw for life 31 Jan 1979
Peerage extinct on her death
3 Jul 1924 2 Nov 2000 76
RYDER OF WENSUM
22 Nov 1997 B[L] Richard Andrew Ryder
Created Baron Ryder of Wensum for life 22 Nov 1997
MP for Norfolk Mid 1983‑1997; Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1989‑1990; Paymaster General 1990; Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip 1990‑1995; PC 1990
4 Feb 1949
 

The special remainder to the Earldom of Rosslyn
From the London Gazette of 14 April 1801 (issue 15355, page 406):-
The King has been pleased to grant the Dignity of an Earl of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to the Right Honorable Alexander Lord Loughborough and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, by the Name, Style, and Title of Earl of Rosslyn, in the County of Mid Lothian, with Remainder to the Heirs Male, lawfully begotten, of the Body of Lady Janet Erskine, deceased, Sister to the said Alexander Lord Loughborough, and Widow of Sir Henry Erskine of Alva, Baronet.
Francis Edward Scudamore St. Clair‑Erskine, styled Baron Loughborough, eldest son of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn (16 Nov 1892‑4 Aug 1929)
Lord Loughborough died from injuries sustained in a fall, as reported in the Manchester Guardian of 5 August 1929:-
Lord Loughborough, eldest son of the Earl of Rosslyn, died in London yesterday morning. Lord Loughborough, who was 36, had been staying with friends at a house in Holland Street West, and early yesterday morning was found lying unconscious in the back garden, in his night clothes, having fallen from the fourth floor of the house where his bedroom was.
The police and an ambulance were called, and he was taken to the nearest hospital. The Earl of Rosslyn, who was at Horsham, was summoned, and reached his son's bedside before the end.
The body is lying at St. Mary Abbott's Hospital, Kensington, pending an inquest.
Miss Violet Macdonald, one of the family living at the house where the tragedy occurred, said that Lord Loughborough was a friend of long standing. "He often visited us," she said. "Last night he came with a mutual friend, a doctor. They had had dinner, and Lord Loughborough was to spend the week-end with us. We sat down to have a game of cards and played 'rummy'. Our party, in addition to Lord Loughborough and the doctor, included my aunt and a lady from South Africa who is visiting her.
"We played until about eleven o'clock, when the doctor left, and when we went upstairs Lord Loughborough was shown the room in which he was to sleep. It was my mother's room. She is now in the Highlands. He said he did not want to have it because he felt sure he was putting us to some inconvenience. We assured him that he was not, but he still persisted that he ought not to take that room. Eventually we fixed up another room for him, and then we all went to bed."
Lord Loughborough had not appeared to be very well, and later their doctor friend returned.
"Shortly afterwards came the discovery of the tragedy," continued Miss Macdonald. "The doctor heard a groan. My aunt and her friend went out into the back, and there found Lord Loughborough lying on the crazy paving beneath the window of his room. His room was on the fourth floor, and he had fallen quite thirty feet. We immediately sent for the police and an ambulance, and he was taken to hospital. Apparently there he regained consciousness for a little before he died.
"It was a terrible shock to us, for he has been such a charming fellow, and we all liked him immensely. He brought several bags with him as he was going to stay the week-end, and I believe he was going on to stay somewhere else after he left us."
Miss Macdonald's aunt said: "It is a most distressing thing. We were very fond of Lord Loughborough. About ten o'clock he used the phone to ring someone at Eastbourne, and he seemed a little upset when he came back. After the doctor had heard groaning and we went out into the back we saw Lord Loughborough lying on the crazy pavement. He was still moaning slightly, and his leg was fractured in two places."
At the subsequent inquest Lord Loughborough was found to have committed suicide while he was of temporarily unsound mind.
The special remainder to the Barony of Rossmore created in 1796
From the London Gazette of 25 October 1796 (issue 13944, page 1017):-
His Majesty's Royal Letter being received, granting the Dignity of a Baron of this Kingdom [i.e. Ireland] to the Right Honorable Robert Cuninghame, General in His Majesty's Forces, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, by the Name, Stile and Title of Lord Rossmore, of Monaghan, with Remainders respectively to Henry Alexander Nathaniel Jones, Esq; William Warner Westenra, Esq; and Henry Westenra, Esq; Grandsons of Mary Lady Blayney, deceased. Letters Patent are preparing to be passed under the Great Seal of this Kingdom accordingly.
Robert Cuninghame, 1st Baron Rossmore
Cuninghame was an army officer who rose to the rank of General and was Commander-in-Chief in Ireland between 1793 and 1796. In recognition of his services, he was created Baron Rossmore in 1796. Because he had no children, the title was granted a special remainder to his wife's nephews [see previous note]. Cuninghame's death was both sudden and unexpected.
One of his neighbours was Sir Jonah Barrington, who is best remembered for his book Personal Sketches of his Own Times (3 vols, 1827‑1832) which contain vivid portraits of a number of his contemporaries. These books also contain the following passages:-
This intimacy at Mount Kennedy [Rossmore's house] gave rise to an occurrence the most extraordinary and inexplicable of my whole existence … We [Barrington and his wife] retired to our chamber about twelve, and towards two in the morning I was awakened by a sound of a very extraordinary nature. I listened; it occurred first at short intervals, it resembled neither a voice nor an instrument, it was softer than any voice, and wilder than any music, and seemed to float in the air … At length I awakened Lady Barrington, who heard it as well as myself … We now went to a large window in our bedroom which looked directly upon a small garden underneath; the sound seemed to ascend from a grass-plot immediately below our window. Lady Barrington requested that I call up her maid … The sounds lasted for more than half an hour. At last a deep, throbbing sigh seemed to issue from the spot, and was shortly succeeded by a sharp but low cry, thrice repeated, of "Rossmore - Rossmore - Rossmore!" … The maid fled in terror … about a minute after, the sound died gradually away until all was silent.
About seven the ensuing morning a strong rap at my chamber door awakened me … I went to the door, when my faithful servant, Lawler, exclaimed on the other side, 'O Lord, sir!' 'What is the matter?' Said I hurriedly. 'O sir!, Lord Rossmore's footman was running past the door in great haste and he told me that my lord had gone to bed in perfect health, but that about half-after two this morning his own man, hearing a noise … went to him and found him in the agonies of death …
Barrington then realised that the triple repetition of Rossmore's name had coincided with the very moment of Rossmore's death.
Derrick Warner William Westenra, 5th Baron Rossmore
Lord Rossmore's recollections were published in 1912 under the title Things I Can Tell. The following [edited] review of these recollections appeared in the Hobart Mercury on 24 October 1912:-
A sheaf of good stories are always worth passing on. The following were gleaned in the smoking-room of Lord Rossmore, a genial Irish peer, who was just published his "Recollections", or, rather, some of his recollections, under the title "Things I Can Tell". The whole book leaves one wondering as to the things Lord Rossmore cannot tell. It may be that they are reserved for a future volume. Lord Rossmore was a friend of the late King Edward [VII]. Since boyhood he has moved in what are known as the best circles. If there is little that is edifying in his book, there is much that is amusing, and little that is harmful. I give a few specimens of its observation and its humour as typical of the best type of British sportsman.
Lord Rossmore tells an amusing Bacchanalian story dating from the time when he was a magistrate at Monaghan, and therefore, may be true.
An old offender was asked - 'You here again?' 'Yes, your honour.' 'What's brought you here?' 'Two policemen, your honour.' 'Come, come, I know that - drunk again, I suppose?' 'Yes, your honour, both of them.'
Irish stories naturally predominate in "Things I Can Tell". Here is one which has a topical interest in these days of accident insurance. It concerns a certain Lady Pilkington. A friend called upon her ladyship, accompanied by a poodle. Going out, the ladies chanced to meet an old beggar woman, whose appearance so annoyed the dog that it promptly bit the mendicant, whose howls and lamentations terrified kind-hearted Lady Pilkington. "Here, my poor woman, here's ten shillings for you," she said nervously tendering the coin.
The old woman grabbed it, and then fell on her knees in the middle of the road, and started praying for all she was worth, regardless of mud or motors.
"All people say the lower orders are irreligious and ungrateful," soliloquised her ladyship, who was quite touched by the exhibition.
At last the supplications became more and more vehement and curiosity prompted the donor to inquire what special blessings were being invoked. "What are you praying for?" said she. The old vagrant stopped and looked at her sympathetic inquirer. "Sure an' I'm askin' the blessed saints to persuade the crathur to bite me on the other leg," she said.
Another dog story was told by Consuela, Duchess of Manchester. It relates to the days when Pasteur was in the height of his fame, and everyone who was bitten by a dog went post haste to Paris for immediate inoculation.
"A young American girl burst into the hotel room one day waving a letter in tremendous excitement and shouting - Hooray, hooray, ain't it glorious!" "What on earth's the matter?" asked everybody. "What's glorious?" "I'm just real happy," she cried, doing a dance around the room. "Here's Poppa been bitten by a mad dog, and we're off to Paris in the morning."
Lord Rossmore tells the following good story of Sir John Ashley [presumably a misprint for Sir John Astley (1828‑1894), a well-known devotee of the Turf]: "I knew the Mate (Sir John Ashley) very well, and I remember how he used to tell a story about having his watch stolen at Epsom. Sir John had a curious habit of speaking about himself as 'Ashley', and he blended the third person singular with the first person in the most unusual way. This is how he used to narrate what happened: - 'Ashley went to the Derby, and I'm blessed if Ashley's ticker wasn't stolen from him. As it had been given me, and I prized it, I went to the head pick-pocket, with whom I was acquainted, and said 'See here, they've taken Ashley's ticker.' The man blushed. 'Good Lord, you don't mean it, Sir John?' he stammered. 'Will you have the goodness to just wait 'ere? I'll be back in a jiffy.' He was back in three minutes with Ashley's ticker, which he handed over, saying, most humbly, as he did so, 'I 'ope, Sir John, you'll accept the apologies of the 'ole fraternity; it was quite a mistake, and it was done by a noo beginner."
The Rothes peerage
The Leslie family traces its ancestry back to the 11th century when Bartolf or Berthold, a Hungarian nobleman, accompanied Margaret, the intended wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland, in her travels to Scotland. Malcolm III (who had the sobriquet Canmore, meaning "big-head" or "long-neck") is traditionally associated with the defeat of Macbeth in Shakespeare's play. Margaret was canonised by the Church in 1250.
Bartolf appears to have won great favour from Malcolm III, marrying the King's sister, Beatrix and being granted extensive lands, particularly around Lesslyn in Aberdeenshire, from whence the family took its name. Bartolf was also Chamberlain to Queen Margaret, and it is said that on one occasion, it being his duty to carry the Queen on his own horse whenever she travelled, they were crossing a swollen stream when the horse stumbled, and the Queen nearly fell off. She saved herself by grabbing hold of Bartolf's buckle, asking "gin the buckle bide?" ("will the buckle hold?"). Bartolf implored her to "grip fast". After this incident, Bartolf had two extra buckles added to his belt. The three buckles have ever since been incorporated into the family's coat of arms, which also contains the motto "Grip fast".
The 7th Earl was a great favourite of King Charles II, who created him first (and only) Duke of Rothes in 1680. When the Duke died the following year, Charles II decreed that since the Duke had died in the service of his King, he should be buried with all the ceremony befitting the death of a monarch. Accordingly, the Duke's body was transported, with great ceremony, from Edinburgh to Fife, at a huge cost. King Charles forgot to pay the bill, and died before it could be collected from him, and his successor, James II, refused to honour the debt. As a result, the family was forced to mortgage the estates and spent the next 200 years in paying off the debt.
The Earldom can descend through the female line, with the result that there have been five Countesses of Rothes in their own right.
One of these Countesses was Henrietta Anne Leslie, 14th in line. While a young girl, she fell in love with George Gwyther, an illiterate gardener employed by her father on his estates. They married secretly in 1806, when she was only 16, and the marriage remained secret until she succeeded to her father's titles eleven years later. Her husband changed his surname to Leslie so as to retain the ancient family name.
Another Countess (although not in her own right) deserves notice. She was Noel Dyer‑Edwardes, who married the 19th Earl of Rothes in 1900. In April 1912, the Countess was aboard the ill-fated Titanic on its maiden voyage, and after the liner had struck the iceberg, she acquitted herself admirably. According to a report in the New York Times of 20 April 1912:-
One able bodied seaman who shipped aboard the Titanic when she left Southampton is tired and a little listless and subdued from the things he lived through last Monday, but his eyes light up and his speech becomes animated when you ask him what part the women played in the trying hours after the Titanic sank.
"There was a woman in my boat as was a woman," he said yesterday, straitening her honor. "She was the Countess of Rothes, and let me tell you about her. I was one of those who were ordered to man the boats, and my place was in No. 8. There were thirty five of us in that boat, mostly women, but there were some men along.
"I was in command, but I had to row, and I wanted someone at the tiller. And I saw the way she was carrying herself, and I heard the quiet, determined way she spoke to the others, and I knew she was more of a man than any we had on board. And I put her in command. I put her at the tiller, and she was at the tiller when the Carpathia came along five hours later."
The Earls of Rothes also hold an unusual hereditary prerogative, in that they hold the right to remove the sovereign's boots on his return from any state function or ceremony which takes place in Scotland.
Walter Runciman, 1st Baron Runciman
The following biography of Lord Runciman appeared in the September 1965 issue of the Australian monthly magazine Parade:-
One foggy day in March 1865, the collier-brig Blake lay becalmed in the North Sea. Usually employed on the east coast of England, her master seldom ventured out of sight of land. This trip, however, she was bound for Rotterdam and the skipper had no idea how to get there. At that time, before the Education Act of 1870, illiteracy was common in England and many coastal captains could scarcely write their own names. When the captain of the Blake admitted he did not know where they were, nor in which direction Rotterdam might lie, the mate suggested that the chart might help. Although by no means optimistic, the skipper ordered the 17-year-old apprentice, Walter Runciman, to bring all the charts he could find. When the lad rummaged out a ragged chart of the North Sea which obviously hadn't been consulted for years, the shipmaster became panic-stricken. "There'll be no Rotterdam for us this trip," he proclaimed in despairing tones. "The bloody rats have eaten Holland."
Luckily for the Blake, young Runciman, who was studying navigation in his brief moments of leisure, owned a cheap atlas. With its aid, the advice of the cook who had been to Rotterdam before, and the captain's combination of experience and instinct, the collier reached her destination. But the incident, typical of much North Sea navigation a century ago, stuck in Runciman's mind and reinforced his resolution to learn all he could about his trade. It was unlikely that he would ever command a ship, but if he did, at least he would know where he was going. His prospects of advancement were so bleak that his mother, who hated the sea, had warned him that he would either be drowned or finish up in a home for distressed sailors as many of her relatives had done. But Walter Runciman was indestructible. Nearly 80 adventurous years later he was still afloat - but in his own luxurious private yacht.
Among the last of the great independent shipping magnates, he was one of the few who had climbed every rung of the ladder by their own efforts. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1847, Runciman was the son of a schooner captain whose wife had persuaded him to take a coastguard's shore job at Cresswell on the coast of Northumberland. His most vivid childhood memories were of tremendous storms in the North Sea and of lifeboats putting out to take people from ships rolling themselves to pieces in the surf. Although every winter brought such disasters they had little effect on the youth of the district, where a man who had not been to sea was scarcely regarded as a man at all.
On his twelfth birthday Runciman left home, trudged along the shore to the port of Blyth and shipped as cabin boy on the collier-barque Harperley, whose captain was proud of the nickname "Hellfire Jack". Runciman's mother had told him it was better to be a Russian serf than a sailor, but the young sailor soon discovered that she had understated the case. Entering or leaving port, his place was in the main chains heaving the lead and chanting the soundings. In port he cooked for the captain and mate, and put up with the consequences if he took too much skin off the potatoes. It was his job to scull the captain ashore and wait for him, all night if necessary, while Hellfire Jack spent a convivial evening in some waterside tavern.
Other work being slack he was sent aloft to tar the stays, a hazardous and acrobatic feat for a boy of 12. It involved climbing down a rope while holding a tarpot and brush. If he spilled tar on the deck it meant a rope's-ending from Hellfire Jack. If he fell, the penalty was death. Arduous in fair weather, the life was almost intolerable during the northern winter when sails and rigging were stiff with ice and the spray that blew inboard froze on the men's clothing.
The Harperley was mainly employed freighting coal to Scandinavian countries. From the North Sea came an abrupt transition to the tropics when the Harperley was chartered to take coal to East Africa and bring back a cargo of guano from the uninhabited Kuria Muria Islands, off the Arabian Coast [25 miles off the south-east coast of Oman]. No labour being available, the crew had to load the ship, shovelling the guano into baskets and manhandling it on board. It took more than a month to fill the holds, by which time heat, dust, bad water, worse food and incessant toil had put most of the men on the sick list. But Hellfire Jack regarded no man as ill while he could stand up. Dosing them with lime juice and Epsom salts, he carried on.
Long before the ship returned to England, Runciman had had enough of the Harperley and her captain. The climax came when Hellfire Jack knocked him down and blackened both his eyes. Regarding this as a signal to leave, the boy deserted, laid low for a while and joined the brig Maid Of Athens. She, too, was a collier, but her master, Captain Davison, though not particularly competent, was at least goodhearted. One night during heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay the brig sprang a leak. Leaving the anxious mate in charge on deck, Davison went down to investigate. "Slip down behind him, boy," said the mate to Runciman. "If the old man keeps on swearing we'll be all right. But if he starts to pray we're done for." Fortunately the captain's language merely became stronger than usual and the Maid of Athens survived.
Despite everything, Runciman regarded the sea as his vocation and had no desire to give it up for life ashore. Rated an AB at 18, he began studying for a master's certificate, a seemingly hopeless task for a boy with practically no education. When he was 20 he spent a month cramming with a tutor in London. Finally, after passing the examination, he got a berth as second mate, on the West India-bound ship Isabella. Formerly a notoriously violent man with a flow of profanity which startled even his crew, the captain of the Isabella had been converted by his own steward and swung so far to the opposite extreme that he held revival services on board. Declaring that he had found salvation, he urged all his men to do the same.
A master mariner at the age of 22, Runciman soon won renown as one of the most able skippers on the high seas. Many of the sailors of his time refused to admit that the days of sail were drawing to an end but to Runciman the signs were clear. In 1877 he said farewell to windjammers and became captain of the 1750 ton steam freighter Coanwood. In 1885, when Runciman was still only 38, his doctor gave him bad tidings. According to the medico, his constitution had been undermined by 26 years at sea. But if he came ashore and took things easy he might hope for a few more years of life. Up to a point Runciman followed his advice. He came ashore, but instead of throwing up his hands, he put all his savings into a 1200-ton steamer, the Dudley, which had been lying in the Tyne River for several years. A composite vessel, she was equipped with both sails and engines. At once Runciman dispensed with the sails and refitted her with more efficient engines.
The Dudley's first venture nearly proved ruinous. Securing a cargo for Russia, Runciman dispatched her to Archangel. The next thing he heard was that she had run down a Russian ship and was being detained by the authorities pending the payment of compensation. Scraping together all the money he could raise, he sent it to the British vice-consul at Archangel, who pocketed it and was never heard of again. After drawn-out negotiations conducted through the British Foreign Office, the Dudley was eventually released, but it was a long time before she earned what the vice-consul had made off with.
Undeterred by this setback, Runciman battled on. When the trade slump of the late 1880s reduced the price of ships, he bought several cheaply and established the South Shields Steamship Company. He improved conditions for his crews to such a degree that one embittered competitor asserted that he should be thrown into the sea with a fire bar tied to his neck before he ruined the business. Although many thought Runciman was headed straight for bankruptcy, he prospered. When the South Shields line expanded into the Moor Company, the former cabin boy owned 25 steamers, most of them built to his specifications.
The loyalty of Runciman's officers and crews astonished other shipowners, but he could be firm enough when necessary. One such occasion was when a captain bound for South America returned in record time with his cargo still under hatches. He explained that he had a vision in which he was warned that if he proceeded any further he would lose the ship. Runciman thought this was carrying superstition to preposterous lengths. "I had a vision too, captain," he said. "What's more, it's come true. In my vision, I saw you on the beach with all your dunnage and that's just where you're going to be."
By 1914 Runciman, as chairman of both the Moor and the Anchor Lines, controlled more than 140 ships trading to all parts of the world. Reversing the normal order of things he followed his son into the House of Commons long after the younger Runciman had become a cabinet minister. But there was nothing orthodox about Runciman. He had gone to sea at the age of 12, became a famous yachtsman when he was 75 and crowned everything by joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve when he was 89.
One of the last magnates of the Victorian era and one of the most genial, he was raised to the peerage shortly before he died in 1937. The veteran saw an immense panorama of maritime history during his 90 years. Born before the first clipper took the water, he lived long enough to be a guest at the launching of the 81,000-ton Queen Mary.
John Francis Stanley Russell, 2nd Earl Russell
Russell was tried in the House of Lords on a charge of bigamy on 18 July 1901. The indictment read that Russell had married, on 6 February 1890, Mabel Edith Scott, and, while still married to her, he married on 15 April 1900, at the Riverside Hotel in Reno, Nevada, Molly Cooke, otherwise known as Molly Somerville. Russell pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in Holloway.
This was, however, not the first time that Russell had experienced marital difficulties. Within less than four months, he and Mabel had separated, and in less than a year Mabel filed an action for judicial separation on the grounds of alleged cruelty. The particulars of the action contained veiled accusations to the effect that Earl Russell had been guilty of immoral conduct with a Mr. >Herbert Roberts, the head mathematical master at Bath College. It was, however, proved that no such immoral conduct had taken place, Russell and Roberts were completely exonerated and Mabel's petition was denied.
After her defeat, Mabel went to live with her mother, Lady Maria Selina Scott, widow of Sir Claude Scott, 4th baronet [1821]. The divorce proceedings were no sooner over than there appeared in a disreputable publication called The Hawk an account of an interview with Mabel which repeated the accusation of immoral conduct. In 1894, Mabel, who had sought the separation order in 1891, now filed a petition for restitution of conjugal rights, but Russell counter-petitioned claiming that "he was entitled to a judicial separation from his wife who had made such baseless and terrible charges against him - charges made, defeated, withdrawn, apologized for but, as soon as the trial was over, repeated in a newspaper."
In the meantime, Lady Scott embarked upon a campaign to dig up any dirt she could find on Earl Russell, hiring detectives to do so. Three men were discovered who at one time were in Russell's employment and who signed false statements regarding Russell's behaviour. These statements were then circulated by Lady Scott.
In January 1897, Lady Scott and her two remaining co-defendants (the other had died in the meantime) were found guilty of publishing false, malicious and defamatory libels against Earl Russell. Each defendant was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment.
Earl Russell was finally divorced from Mabel Scott in 1901. He subsequently married twice more, both marriages ending in divorce.
John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell
Russell received his early education at his parents' experimental school in Hampshire where there were no compulsory lessons and where the children were encouraged to express themselves, often to the point of rudeness.
He worked briefly for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, but after the failure of his marriage to Susan Lindsay (daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay), he became a recluse. He occupied himself by writing and crocheting, including a pair of trousers which he crocheted out of string; 'It took a long time because I didn't have a pattern. I had to keep trying them on.'
Russell's real claim to fame was, however, his remarkable speeches in the House of Lords, specially one classic speech made in 1978, in a debate on the victims of crime. He began by proposing that the police should be disbanded and replaced by the Salvation Army, who should give lawbreakers cups of tea. All prisons should be abolished as 'kindness and helping people is better than punishing them'. When there were rumblings of dissent from his fellow peers, he asked them; 'What are you? Soulless robots? The police ought to be totally prevented from ever molesting young people at all or ever putting them in gaols and raping them or putting them into brothels or sending them out to serve other people sexually against their wills.'
He was by now getting warmed up. He continued, 'Working is wrong, being in any case the curse visited by God upon Adam … upper classes are right and should be restored to vogue … everybody should become a leisured aristocrat.' Some of his fellow peers were no doubt confused when he asserted that 'aristocrats are Marxist. The Lord Chancellor holds the Order of Lenin. The fulfilment of industrial life is Tonga and the South Sea Islands and not the satanic mills at all. Shops ought to supply goods without payment so that all motive for stealing vanishes.'
On Women's Liberation he said that 'Women's Lib would be realised by girls being given a house of their own at the age of twelve, with three-quarters of the wealth of the State being given to the girls in houses of their own to support them; so that marriage would be abolished and a girl could have as many husbands as she liked'. As for Men's Lib; 'The men should receive the remaining quarter of the national wealth and can, if they like, live in communal huts'.
Russell then pointed out that 'Mr Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter are really the same person. What makes it abundantly clear is the saying of "little Audrey" who laughed and laughed because she knew that only God could make a tree.'
While on the subject of religion, 'there should be revolutions throughout Latin America, in accordance with the wish of His Holiness the Pope. Since the so-called Protestants who govern Britain are spiritless papal bum-boys, if they cannot take charge of themselves and find the spirit, the confidence and power to remove British arms and all Protestants from Ulster, they should find the said confidence and power to remove them … All soldiers and police throughout the Northern Hemisphere should disappear. They and their functions are no longer necessary and are out of date.'
He also advocated that 'naked bathing on beaches or in rivers ought to be universal. Is it not better to defend the city before it is fallen? Better than to arrive too late and defend only what would have been, if it had not already gone.'
In summing up, Russell said 'These points are the chief requirements for the future of the human race. They should be realised briskly and with discipline. Since the police and bourgeois bosses are and have been anti-aristocratical, the House of Lords is indisputably Marxist and inherits the banner of the Red Army of the Soviet Union.'
Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen (creation of 1894)
The following biography of Lord Russell of Killowen appeared in the Australian monthly magazine Parade in its issue for December 1954:-
There was uproar in the Irish village of Killowen. To add to the menace of starvation in a year of famine, a fence was being built round land long regarded as the village common. Too poor to pay for justice, an angry deputation of villagers stalked off to get the advice of young Charlie Russell, a local lad articled to a solicitor and counted right smart at the law. With the air of a High Court Judge, Charlie delivered his verdict. The fence was illegal, he said, and he stumped back to the village to help knock it down.
Thus began, in 1849, the notable career of an Irish lad who became one of England's most distinguished Lord Chief Justices - who at the Bar and on the Bench, in the Commons and the Lords, was destined to play a leading part in most of the great judicial causes of the next fifty years. Appropriately enough, upon his elevation to the peerage he chose as his title that of "Baron Russell of Killowen".
The Russells were an old Catholic family, originally Anglo-Normans, who had settled in Northern Ireland in the 12th century. Arthur Russell, Lord Russell's father, was a sea captain. As a young man he had fallen in love with a Margaret Mullan, the daughter of a Belfast merchant, but had had to give way to a rival. However, on the rival's death he had renewed his suit, this time successfully, and they were married in 1825, when he bought a brewery and settled down at Newry, in County Down, where Charles Russell was born on November 10, 1832.
He had three elder sisters and a younger brother, all of whom entered the Church. His mother, a handsome, clever and strong-willed woman, brought up her ten children (there were also five from her first marriage) with Spartan discipline and saved them from being spoiled by their indulgent father. For a time the family was affluent enough to have a country home overlooking the village of Killowen; but the father died, the family returned to Newry, and Charles was put, at 17, to earning a living and was articled to his step-brother, a solicitor in Newry. Three years later, and shortly after his playing Solomon in the affair at Killowen, he transferred his articles to a solicitor in Belfast, where he was encouraged, after qualifying in 1854, to set up practice for himself as a solicitor by a Dr. Mulholland, whose wife was an old friend of his mother and whose daughter Ellen became his sweetheart.
It was a troublous period when strife between the Orange and the Green waxed fierce. Young Russell had already become known for his interest in the nationalist Young Ireland movement and it was natural that his first clients would be Catholics involved in court proceedings following fracases with Orangemen. These cases brought him plenty of notoriety, but little monetary return, as most of his clients could not afford to pay fees. As a way of earning a living his Belfast practice was not a success. This, coupled with the thrill he found in the courtroom, compared with the monotony of office routine, turned his thoughts to the Bar. He resolved to seek admission as a barrister, and enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, and two years later went to London to enter Lincoln's Inn.
In 1858, when he passed his last examination, he returned to Ulster, married Ellen, and brought her to London, where they set up in a small house in Earl's Court. He had himself assigned to the northern circuit, and his uncle, Dr. Russell, president of Maynooth College, gave him introductions to some wealthy Irish merchants and a leading solicitor in Liverpool. This gave him a start - and a start was all he needed.
He was handicapped by a temper which he was not always able to control, and, curiously enough, by a lack of fluency. But he made up for these defects by remarkable strength of personality. He was a big, well-built young man with a strong, striking face and a rich voice which never quite lost its native brogue. From his first appearance in the Passage Court - on whose procedure he published a book which became an authority - he did not look back, and for ten years his earnings averaged £3000 a year. In 1872, after two unsuccessful applications, he "took silk", and immediately entered the front rank of Q.C.s.
Although his name was one to conjure with in Liverpool he was as yet unknown in London. But a judicial appointment left a gap in the small elite group who were the "leaders" of the Bar, and London's solicitors were looking for a new giant. In Russell they found him. By sheer determination he forged ahead, overtaking one rival after another, and for the next 20 years the history of the common-law Bar was the history of Charles Russell. He was in practically every case of any magnitude. From 1872 to 1882 he earned £10,000 a year, for the next decade £16,000 a year and in 1893, the year before his translation to the Bench, his fees book showed an income of £32,000.
He was as painstaking in the smallest matters as in the most important. "I am a fool," he often told friends, "to knock myself out over a twopenny-halfpenny dispute," but immediately he would again be wearing himself out over some trivial brief. From a lad he had taken a keen interest in politics, and in Liverpool he had published a pamphlet on the Irish workhouses. It resulted in several major reforms, and won him considerable support among the Irish liberals, In 1880 he entered the Commons as a Liberal member for the Irish borough of Dundalk, which he had already contested twice unsuccessfully [in 1868 and 1874]. He was offered a judgeship, but declined it, his ambition being, he told friends, to become the first Catholic Attorney-General since the Reformation. This ambition he achieved in 1886 in Gladstone's cabinet, being awarded a knighthood at the same time.
In the same year he figured in the famous case of Lord Campbell's suit for a divorce citing the Duke of Marlborough as a co-respondent. Russell, for Lady Campbell, cross-petitioned. Both petitions were dismissed, but for Russell the case was a personal triumph. In the 1885 elections he had transferred to a Liverpool constituency [not correct - he transferred to Hackney South, a London constituency]. That election gave Parnell, the Home Rule leader, virtual control of the House. Russell had not been an advocate of a separate Irish Parliament, believing that Home Rule should come gradually through land reform and a grant of local government - "from the bottom rather than the top".
He now swung behind Parnell, both in and out of Parliament, and stumped the country vigorously campaigning for the cause of Home Rule. The bill was defeated, and the Liberals were routed in the ensuing elections; but Russell retained his seat. The next year a commission was appointed to enquire into allegations against Parnell and his party [made] by The Times. Russell, who held a retainer for the Times, returned it and appeared as leading counsel for Parnell. By brilliant and relentless cross-examination he forced an admission from The Times' main witness that an alleged letter of Parnell's, on which they had relied, was a forgery. The commission found on some points for and on some against the Irish members, but on the main issues Russell scored victories. His masterly summing-up speech is of historic interest as a survey of the Irish problem from the viewpoint of an Irish Liberal.
In 1889 he was engaged in another cause celebre, the murder trial of Mrs. Maybrick. Assured of her innocence, Russell took her conviction to heart and with typical persistence he did not cease until her [his - she lived on until 1941] death 10 years later to try to prove that there had been a miscarriage of justice.
Gladstone meanwhile had marked him out for the Chancellorship, the one office in England, apart from the Crown, which was - and still is ­ closed to Catholics. Gladstone tried to have the law altered but failed. [This situation continued until 1974, although, given that the Lord Chancellor has a number of ecclesiastical functions and, as a Catholic would therefore be conflicted when making decisions relating to the Church of England, it remains the law that if a Catholic is appointed as Lord Chancellor, his ecclesiastical functions may be temporarily transferred to the Prime Minister or another minister.] However, in May, 1894, there was a vacancy as a Lord of Appeal and Russell was appointed, being also given a life barony as Lord Russell of Killowen. A month later, on the death of Lord Coleridge, he was made Lord Chief Justice.
He was one of the notable exceptions to the supposed rule that great advocates seldom make good judges. He was at his greatest on the Bench. Painstaking and tolerant, though the old Russell impatience sometimes broke out, he bent his powerful intellect in a determined effort to unravel the truth. He was no respecter of persons, and junior counsel were given the same considerate attention as veteran Q.C.s. He was popular with the Bar, and lawyers vied to have their actions tried by him. He made a strong bid to introduce a sadly lacking system of co-ordinated legal education.
In 1896 he presided over the famous Jameson Raid Trial. A force led by Jameson had raided the South African Republic, been captured and handed over to British authorities and charged with invading a friendly state in violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act. It was a test of the Chief Justice's resolve that justice, however unpopular, must be done, and of his sense of public duty. After his summing up the jury returned the only verdict possible on the evidence: Guilty. In the same year he was invited to deliver the annual address to the American Bar Association on the subject of "International Arbitration". In 1899 he sat as one of the arbitrators in a dispute between England and Venezuela.
In August, 1900, when on the Northern Circuit, he was suddenly taken ill. What was thought to have been a successful operation was performed, but at 3 a.m., on the following morning, August 10, he died. His death came as a surprise to the nation, for at the age of 67 he was as mentally and physically active as at any time in his career. His life had been one of intense action. Outside his public life and his strenuous work on Bench and Bar he had devoted himself to the interests of his large family. One major activity in his later years was a campaign to rid commercial life of the prevalent corruption, and he was responsible for the eventual introduction of legislation making illegal the acceptance of secret commissions.
Sir Charles was the first of three successive generations of English legal giants, each of whom was raised to the peerage as Lord Russell of Killowen. His son, Francis Xavier Joseph Russell, was created Lord Russell of Killowen in 1929 when he was made a Lord of Appeal. In turn, his son Charles Ritchie Russell, was also created a peer as Lord Russell of Killowen when he was appointed a Lord of Appeal in 1975.
The deaths of the two sons of Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland
In Burke's Peerage, under the entry for Francis Manners, the 6th Earl of Rutland, the reader will see that the Earl had two sons, both of whom 'died an infant from alleged witchcraft'. The following account is taken from Anecdotes of the Aristocracy by J. Bernard Burke (Henry Colburn, London, 1849)
In the church of Bottisford is the sepochal chapel of the Rutland family; and among the stately tombs is that of Francis Manners, Earl of Rutland, his Countess, and their two sons, Henry and Francis, which attracts more than ordinary attention, from the story attached to it in the church books. We give the extract …
"When the Rt. Hon. Sir Francis Manners succeeded his brother, Roger, in the Earldom of Rutland [in 1612], and took possession of Belvoir [pronounced 'Beaver'] Castle, and of the estates belonging to the earldom, he took such honourable measures in the courses of his life, that he neither discharged servants, nor denied the access of the poor; but making strangers welcome, did all the good offices of a noble lord, by which he got the love and good will of the country, his noble Countess being of the same noble disposition. So that Belvoir Castle was a continual place of entertainment, especially to neighbours, where Joan Flower and her daughter were not only relieved at the first, but Joan was also admitted char-woman, and her daughter Margaret as a continual dweller in the castle, looking to the poultry abroad, and in the wash-house at home; and thus they continued until found guilty of some misdemeanour, which was discovered to the lady. The first complaint against Joan Flower, the mother, was, that she was a monstrous malicious woman, full of oaths, curses, and irreligious imprecations, and, as far as appeared, a plain atheist; as for Margaret, she was frequently accused of going from the castle and carrying provisions away in unreasonable quantities, and returning in such unseasonable hours, that they could not but conjecture at some mischief amongst them; and that their extraordinary expenses tended both to rob their lady, and served also to maintain some debauched and idle company which frequented Joan Flower's house. In some time, the Countess misliking her (Joan's) daughter, Margaret, and discovering some indecencies in her life, and the neglect of her business, discharged her from lying any more in the castle, yet gave her forty shillings, a bolster, and a mattress of wool, commanding her to go home. But at last these wretched women became so malicious and revengeful, that the Earl's family were sensible of their wicked dispositions; for, first, his eldest son Henry, Lord Ross, was taken sick after a strange manner, and in a little time died; and after Francis, Lord Ross, was severely tortured and tormented by them with a strange sickness, which caused his death. Also, and presently after, the Lady Catherine [the two boys' step-sister and later Baroness de Ros in her own right and Duchess of Buckingham] was set upon by their devilish practices, and very frequently in danger of her life, in strange and unusual fits, and, as they confessed, both the Earl and his Countess were so bewitched, that they should have no more children. In a little time after, they were apprehended and carried into Lincoln gaol, after due examination before sufficient justices and discreet magistrates. Joan Flower, before her conviction, called for bread and butter, and wished it might never go through her [i.e. that she would choke on it], if she were guilty of the matter she was accused of; and, upon mumbling of it in her mouth, she never spake more, but fell down, and died as she was carried to Lincoln Gaol, being extremely tormented both in soul and body and was buried at Ancaster."
The examination of Margaret Flower, the 22nd of January, 1618.
"She confessed that about four years since, her mother sent her for the right hand glove of Henry Lord Ross, and afterwards her mother bid her go again to the castle of Belvoir, and bring down the other glove, or some other thing of Henry Lord Ross; and when she asked her for what, her mother answered, To hurt my Lord Ross. Upon which she brought down the glove, and gave it to her mother, who stroked Rutterkin, her cat (the Imp) with it, after it was dipped in hot water, and, so, pricked it often; after which Henry Lord Ross fell sick, and soon after died. She further said, that, finding a glove about two or three years since of Francis Lord Ross, she gave it to her mother, who put it into hot water, and afterwards took it out, and rubbed it on Rutterkin (the Imp), and bid him go upwards, and afterwards buried it the yard, and said 'a mischief light on him, but he will mend again'. She further confessed that her mother and her[self] and her sister agreed together to bewitch the Earl and his lady, that they might have no more children, and being asked the cause of this malice and ill-will, she said, that about four years since, the Countess, taking a dislike to her, gave her forty shillings, a bolster, and a mattress, and bid her be at home, and come no more to dwell at the castle; which she not only took ill, but grudged it in her heart very much, swearing to be revenged upon her; on which her mother took wool out of the mattress, and a pair of gloves which were given her by Mr. Vovason, and put them into warm water, mingling them with some blood, and stirring it together; then she took them out of the water, and rubbed them on the belly of Rutterkin, saying 'the lord and lady would have children, but it would be long first'. She further confessed, that by her mother's command, she brought to her a piece of a handkerchief of the Lady Catherine, the Earl's daughter, and her mother put it into hot water, and then, taking it out, rubbed it upon Rutterkin, bidding him 'fly and go;' whereupon Rutterkin whined and cried 'Mew' upon which the said Rutterkin had no more power of the Lady Catherine to hurt her.
"Margaret Flower, and Phillis [in some sources, Philippa] Flower, the daughters of Jane Flower, were executed [by being burnt at the stake] at Lincoln, for witchcraft, March 12, 1618.
"Whoever reads this history should consider the ignorance and dark superstition of those times; but certainly these women were vile, abandoned wretches, to pretend to do such wicked things.
"'Seek ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor wizards, nor unto witches that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God?' - Isaiah viii 19."