PEERAGES
Last updated 20/09/2017 (20 Jan 2024)
Date	Rank	Order	Name	Born	Died	Age
BASSET DE SAPCOTE
24 Dec 1264	B	1	Ralph Basset Summoned to Parliament as Baron Basset de Sapcote 24 Dec 1264		c 1282
c 1282		2	Simon Basset		c 1300
c 1300		3	Ralph Basset		1326
1326		4	Simon Basset		c 1360
c 1360 to     1378		5	Ralph Basset Peerage fell into abeyance on his death		1378
BASSET DE WELDON
6 Feb 1299	B	1	Richard Basset Summoned to Parliament as Baron Basset de Weldon 6 Feb 1299		c Jul 1314
c Jul 1314		2	Ralph Basset	27 Aug 1300	c Apr 1341
c Apr 1341		3	Ralph Basset	c 1325	after 1368
after 1368		4	Ralph Basset		6 Jun 1385
6 Jun 1385 to     Jan 1409		5	Richard Basset On his death the perage fell into abeyance		Jan 1409
BASSET OF STRATTON
30 Nov 1797	B	1	Francis Bassett, 1st Baron de Dunstanville Created Baron Basset of Stratton 30 Nov 1797 For details of the special remainder included in the creation of this peerage, see the note at the foot of this page MP for Penryn 1780‑1796	9 Aug 1757	14 Feb 1835	77
14 Feb 1835 to     22 Jan 1855		2	Frances Bassett Peerage extinct on her death	30 Apr 1781	22 Jan 1855	73
BATEMAN
12 Jul 1725	V[I]	1	William Bateman Created Baron Culmore and Viscount Bateman 12 Jul 1725 MP for Leominster 1721‑1722 and 1727‑1734	c 1695	Dec 1744
Dec 1744 to     2 Mar 1802		2	John Bateman MP for Orford 1746‑1747, Woodstock 1747‑1768 and Leominster 1768‑1784; Lord Lieutenant Hereford 1747‑1802; PC 1756 Peerage extinct on his death	Apr 1721	2 Mar 1802	80
30 Jan 1837	B	1	William Hanbury Bateman Created Baron Bateman 30 Jan 1837 MP for Northampton 1810‑1818; Lord Lieutenant Hereford 1841‑1845	24 Jun 1780	22 Jul 1845	65
22 Jul 1845		2	William Bateman Bateman-Hanbury Lord Lieutenant Hereford 1852‑1901	28 Jul 1826	30 Nov 1901	75
30 Nov 1901 to     4 Nov 1931		3	William Spencer Bateman-Hanbury Peerage extinct on his death	30 Sep 1856	4 Nov 1931	75
BATES
30 Jun 2008	B[L]		Michael Walton Bates Created Baron Bates for life 30 Jun 2008 MP for Langbaurgh 1992‑1997; Paymaster-General 1996‑1997; PC 2015	26 May 1961
BATH
6 Jan 1486 to     after 1486	E	1	Philibert de Chandee Created Earl of Bath 6 Jan 1486 Peerage presumed to have become extinct on his death		after 1486
9 Jul 1536	E	1	John Bourchier, 11th Lord Fitzwarine Created Earl of Bath 9 Jul 1536	c 1470	30 Apr 1539
30 Apr 1539		2	John Bourchier Lord Lieutenant Dorset, Devon and Cornwall	1499	10 Feb 1561	61
10 Feb 1561		3	William Bourchier Lord Lieutenant Devon 1587	before 1557	12 Jul 1623
12 Jul 1623		4	Edward Bourchier	Feb 1590	2 Mar 1637	47
2 Mar 1637 to     16 Aug 1654		5	Henry Bourchier Lord Privy Seal 1644 Peerage extinct on his death	c 1593	16 Aug 1654
20 Apr 1661	E	1	John Granville (formerly Grenville) Created Baron Granville, Viscount Granville of Lansdown and Earl of Bath 20 Apr 1661 Lord Lieutenant Cornwall 1660‑1696 and Devonshire 1670‑1675 and 1685‑1696; PC 1679	29 Aug 1628	22 Aug 1701	72
22 Aug 1701		2	Charles Granville He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Granville 16 Jul 1689 MP for Launceston 1680‑1681 and Cornwall 1685‑1689; Lord Lieutenant Cornwall and Devon 1691‑1693	31 Aug 1661	4 Sep 1701	40
4 Sep 1701 to     17 May 1711		3	William Henry Granville Peerage extinct on his death	30 Jan 1692	17 May 1711	19
14 Jul 1742 to     8 Jul 1764	E	1	William Pulteney Created Baron Hedon, Viscount Pulteney and Earl of Bath 14 Jul 1742 MP for Hedon 1705‑1734 and Middlesex 1734‑1742; Secretary at War 1714‑1717; Lord Lieutenant East Riding Yorkshire 1721‑1728 and Shropshire 1761‑1764; PC 1716 Peerage extinct on his death	29 Mar 1684	8 Jul 1764	80
26 Jul 1792 26 Oct 1803 to     14 Jul 1808	B E	1 1	Henrietta Laura Pulteney Created Baroness of Bath 26 Jul 1792 and Countess of Bath 26 Oct 1803 Peerage extinct on her death	26 Dec 1766	14 Jul 1808	41
18 Aug 1789	M	1	Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth Created Marquess of Bath 18 Aug 1789 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1765; Secretary of State 1768‑1770 and 1775‑1779; PC 1765; KG 1778	13 Sep 1734	19 Nov 1796	62
19 Nov 1796		2	Thomas Thynne MP for Weobly 1786‑1790 and Bath 1790‑1796; Lord Lieutenant Somerset 1819‑1837; KG 1823	25 Jan 1765	27 Mar 1837	72
27 Mar 1837		3	Henry Frederick Thynne MP for Weobly 1824‑1826 and 1828‑1832	22 May 1797	24 Jun 1837	40
24 Jun 1837		4	John Alexander Thynne Lord Lieutenant Wiltshire 1889‑1896	1 Mar 1831	20 Apr 1896	65
20 Apr 1896		5	Thomas Henry Thynne MP for Frome 1886‑1892 and 1895‑1896; Lord Lieutenant Somerset 1904‑1946; KG 1917; PC 1922	15 Jul 1862	9 Jun 1946	83
9 Jun 1946		6	Henry Frederick Thynne MP for Frome 1931‑1935	26 Jan 1905	30 Jun 1992	87
30 Jun 1992		7	Alexander George Thynne For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	6 May 1932	4 Apr 2020	88
4 Apr 2020		8	Ceawlin Henry Laszlo Thynne	6 Jun 1974
BATHURST
1 Jan 1712 27 Aug 1772	B E	1 1	Allen Bathurst Created Baron Bathurst 1 Jan 1712 and Earl Bathurst 27 Aug 1772 MP for Cirencester 1705‑1712; PC 1742	16 Nov 1684	16 Sep 1775	90
16 Sep 1775		2	Henry Bathurst Created Baron Apsley 24 Jan 1771 MP for Cirencester 1735‑1754; Lord Chancellor 1771‑1778; PC 1771	20 May 1714	6 Aug 1794	80
6 Aug 1794		3	Henry Bathurst MP for Cirencester 1783‑1794; Commissioner for India 1793‑1802; Master of the Mint 1804‑1806 and 1807‑1812; President of the Board of Trade 1807‑1812; Foreign Secretary 1809; Secretary of War and Colonies 1812‑1827; Lord President of the Council 1828‑1830; PC 1793; KG 1817	22 May 1762	27 Jul 1834	72
27 Jul 1834		4	Henry George Bathurst MP for Weobly 1812 and Cirencester 1812‑1834	24 Feb 1790	25 May 1866	76
25 May 1866		5	William Lennox Bathurst MP for Weobly 1812‑1816	14 Feb 1791	24 Feb 1878	87
24 Feb 1878		6	Allen Alexander Bathurst MP for Cirencester 1857‑1878	19 Oct 1832	2 Aug 1892	59
2 Aug 1892		7	Seymour Henry Bathurst	21 Jul 1864	21 Sep 1943	79
21 Sep 1943		8	Henry Allen John Bathurst	1 May 1927	16 Oct 2011	84
16 Oct 2011		9	Allen Christopher Bertram Bathurst	11 Mar 1961
BATTERSEA
5 Sep 1892 to     27 Nov 1907	B	1	Cyril Flower Created Baron Battersea 5 Sep 1892 MP for Brecknock 1880‑1885 and Luton 1885‑1892 Peerage extinct on his death	30 Aug 1843	27 Nov 1907	64
BAUER
10 Feb 1983 to     3 May 2002	B[L]		Peter Thomas Bauer Created Baron Bauer for life 10 Feb 1983 Peerage extinct on his death	6 Nov 1915	3 May 2002	86
BAVENT
8 Jan 1313 to     c 1335	B	1	Roger Bavent Summoned to Parliament as Lord Bavent 8 Jan 1313 he was attainted 1322 but restored 1327. Peerage extinct on his death		c 1335
BAYFORD
18 Jun 1929 to     24 Feb 1940	B	1	Sir Robert Arthur Sanders, 1st baronet Created Baron Bayford 18 Jun 1929 MP for Bridgwater 1910‑1923 and Wells 1924‑1929; Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries 1922‑1924; PC 1922 Peerage extinct on his death	20 Jun 1867	24 Feb 1940	72
BAYHAM
13 May 1786	V	1	Sir Charles Pratt, Baron Camden Created Viscount Bayham and Earl Camden 13 May 1786 See "Camden"	21 Mar 1714	18 Apr 1794	80
BAYNING OF FOXLEY
17 Mar 1674 to     Oct 1678	V[L]		Anne Murray Created Viscountess Bayning of Foxley for life 17 Mar 1674 Peerage extinct on her death	23 Apr 1619	Oct 1678	59
20 Oct 1797	B	1	Charles Townshend Created Baron Bayning 20 Oct 1797 MP for Great Yarmouth 1756‑1784 and 1790‑1796; Treasurer of the Navy 1783; PC 1777	27 Aug 1728	19 May 1810	81
19 May 1810		2	Charles Frederick Powlett MP for Truro 1808‑1810	26 Sep 1785	2 Aug 1823	37
2 Aug 1823 to     5 Aug 1866		3	Henry William Powlett Peerage extinct on his death	8 Jun 1797	5 Aug 1866	69
BAYNING OF HORKESLEY
27 Feb 1628	B	1	Sir Paul Bayning, 1st baronet Created Baron Bayning of Horkesley 27 Feb 1628 and Viscount Bayning of Sudbury 8 Mar 1628 See "Bayning of Sudbury" below	28 Apr 1588	29 Jul 1629	41
BAYNING OF SUDBURY
8 Mar 1628	V	1	Sir Paul Bayning, 1st baronet Created Baron Bayning of Horkesley 27 Feb 1628 and Viscount Bayning of Sudbury 8 Mar 1628	28 Apr 1588	29 Jul 1629	41
29 Jul 1629 to     11 Jun 1638		2	Paul Bayning Peerage extinct on his death	4 Mar 1616	11 Jun 1638	22
BEACONSFIELD
30 Nov 1868 to     15 Dec 1872	V	1	Mary Anne D'Israeli Created Viscountess Beaconsfield 30 Nov 1868 Peerage extinct on her death		15 Dec 1872
21 Aug 1876 to     19 Apr 1881	E	1	Benjamin D'Israeli Created Viscount Hughenden and Earl of Beaconsfield 21 Aug 1876 MP for Maidstone 1837‑1841, Shrewsbury 1841‑1847 and Buckinghamshire 1847‑1876; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1852, 1858‑1859 and 1866‑1868; Prime Minister 1868 and 1874‑1880; Lord Privy Seal 1876‑1878; PC 1852; KG 1878 Peerage extinct on his death	21 Dec 1804	19 Apr 1881	76
BEARSTED
15 Jun 1921 16 Jun 1925	B V	1 1	Sir Marcus Samuel, 1st baronet Created Baron Bearsted 15 Jun 1921 and Viscount Bearsted 16 Jun 1925 For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	5 Nov 1853	17 Jan 1927	73
17 Jan 1927		2	Walter Horace Samuel	13 Mar 1882	8 Nov 1948	66
8 Nov 1948		3	Marcus Richard Samuel	1 Jun 1909	15 Oct 1986	77
15 Oct 1986		4	Peter Montefiore Samuel	9 Dec 1911	9 Jun 1996	84
9 Jun 1996		5	Nicholas Alan Samuel	22 Jan 1950
BEATTY
27 Sep 1919	E	1	Sir David Beatty Created Baron Beatty, Viscount Borodale and Earl Beatty 27 Sep 1919 Admiral of the Fleet 1919; OM 1919; PC 1927	17 Jan 1871	11 Mar 1936	65
11 Mar 1936		2	David Field Beatty MP for Peckham 1931‑1936	22 Feb 1905	10 Jun 1972	67
10 Jun 1972		3	David Beatty	21 Nov 1946
BEAUCHAMP
26 Feb 1806 1 Dec 1815	B E	1 1	William Lygon Created Baron Beauchamp 26 Feb 1806, and Viscount Elmley and Earl Beauchamp 1 Dec 1815 MP for Worcestershire 1775‑1806	25 Jul 1747	21 Oct 1816	69
21 Oct 1816		2	William Beauchamp Lygon MP for Worcestershire 1806‑1816	1782	12 May 1823	40
12 May 1823		3	John Reginald Pindar Lygon	1784	22 Jan 1853	68
22 Jan 1853		4	Henry Beauchamp Lygon MP for Worcestershire 1816‑1831 and Worcestershire West 1832‑1853	5 Jan 1784	8 Sep 1863	79
8 Sep 1863		5	Henry Lygon MP for Worcestershire West 1853‑1863	13 Feb 1829	4 Mar 1866	37
4 Mar 1866		6	Frederick Lygon MP for Tewkesbury 1857‑1863 and Worcestershire West 1863‑1866; Lord Lieutenant Worcestershire 1876‑1891; PC 1874	10 Nov 1830	19 Feb 1891	60
19 Feb 1891		7	William Lygon Governor of New South Wales 1899‑1901; First Commissioner of Works 1910‑1914; Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1913‑1934; Lord President of the Council 1910 and 1914‑1915; Lord Lieutenant Gloucester 1911‑1931; PC 1906; KG 1914 For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	20 Feb 1872	15 Nov 1938	66
15 Nov 1938		8	William Lygon MP for Norfolk East 1929‑1938 Peerages extinct on his death	3 Jul 1903	3 Jan 1979	75
BEAUCHAMP DE SOMERSET
29 Dec 1299	B	1	John Beauchamp Summoned to Parliament as Lord Beauchamp de Somerset 29 Dec 1299	25 Jul 1274	c Nov 1336	62
c Nov 1336		2	John Beauchamp	c 1305	19 May 1343
19 May 1343 to     7 Oct 1361		3	John Beauchamp On his death peerage fell into abeyance For information on a claim made for co-heirship in 1924, see the note at the foot of this page	20 Jan 1330	7 Oct 1361	31
BEAUCHAMP DE WARWICK
25 Nov 1350 to     2 Dec 1360	B	1	John Beauchamp Summoned to Parliament as Lord Beauchamp de Warwick 25 Nov 1350 KG 1348 Peerage extinct on his death		2 Dec 1360
BEAUCHAMP OF BLETSOE
1 Jun 1363 to     3 Jan 1380	B	1	Roger Beauchamp Summoned to Parliament as Lord Beauchamp of Bletsoe 1 Jun 1363 Peerage extinct on his death		3 Jan 1380
BEAUCHAMP OF HACHE
5 Jun 1536 to     1552	V	1	Sir Edward Seymour Created Viscount Beauchamp of Hache 5 Jun 1536, Earl of Hertford 18 Oct 1537 and Duke of Somerset 16 Feb 1547 Peerage forfeited in 1552	c 1500	22 Jan 1552
13 Jan 1559	B	1	Edward Seymour Created Baron Beauchamp of Hache and Earl of Hertford 13 Jan 1559 See "Hertford"	12 Oct 1537	6 Apr 1621	83
Feb 1621			William Seymour He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Beauchamp in Feb 1621. He succeeded as Earl of Hertford 6 Apr 1621, was created Marquess of Hertford 3 Jun 1640 He was restored to the Dukedom of Somerset 13 Sep 1660	1588	24 Oct 1660	72
3 Aug 1750	V	1	Francis Seymour-Conway, 2nd Baron Conway Created Viscount Beauchamp of Hache and Earl of Hertford 3 Aug 1750 See "Hertford"	5 Jul 1718	14 Jun 1794	75
BEAUCHAMP OF KIDDERMINSTER
10 Oct 1387 to     12 May 1388	B	1	Sir John de Beauchamp Created Lord de Beauchamp, Baron of Kidderminster 10 Oct 1387 This was the first instance of a peerage creation by patent, as opposed to a writ of summons. He was attainted and executed when the peerage was forfeited	1319	12 May 1388	68
1398 to     1400		2	John de Beauchamp He obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1398. However the attainder was confirmed in 1400 when the peerage was again forfeited	1378	Sep 1420	42
BEAUCHAMP OF POWYK
2 May 1447	B	1	Sir John Beauchamp Created Baron Beauchamp of Powyk 2 May 1447 KG 1441		Apr 1475
Apr 1475 to     19 Jan 1503		2	Richard Beauchamp Peerage extinct on his death	1435	19 Jan 1503	67
BEAUFORT
2 Dec 1682	D	1	Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester Created Duke of Beaufort 2 Dec 1682 MP for Breconshire 1654‑1655 and Monmouthshire 1660‑1667; Lord Lieutenant Gloucester, Hereford and Monmouth 1660‑1689 and Glamorgan 1672‑1689; KG 1672; PC 1679	1629	21 Jan 1700	70
21 Jan 1699		2	Henry Somerset Lord Lieutenant Hampshire 1710‑1714 and Gloucester 1712‑1714; PC 1710; KG 1712	2 Apr 1684	24 May 1714	30
24 May 1714		3	Henry Scudamore	26 Mar 1707	24 Feb 1745	37
24 Feb 1745		4	Charles Noel Somerset MP for Monmouthshire 1731‑1734 and Monmouth 1734‑1745	12 Sep 1709	28 Oct 1756	47
28 Oct 1756		5	Henry Somerset The abeyance of the Barony of Botetourt was terminated in his favour in 1803 Lord Lieutenant Monmouth 1771‑1803, Brecknock 1787‑1803 and Leicester 1787-1799; KG 1786	16 Oct 1744	11 Oct 1803	58
11 Oct 1803		6	Henry Charles Somerset MP for Monmouth 1788‑1790, Bristol 1790‑1796 and Gloucestershire 1796‑1803; Lord Lieutenant Monmouth and Brecknockshire 1803‑1835 and Gloucester 1810‑1835; KG 1805	22 Dec 1766	23 Nov 1835	68
23 Nov 1835		7	Henry Somerset MP for Monmouth 1813‑1832 and Gloucestershire West 1835; KG 1842	5 Feb 1792	17 Nov 1853	61
17 Nov 1853		8	Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset MP for Gloucestershire East 1846‑1853; Lord Lieutenant Monmouth 1867‑1899; PC 1858; KG 1867	1 Feb 1824	30 Apr 1899	75
30 Apr 1899		9	Henry Adelbert Wellington FitzRoy Somerset	19 May 1847	27 Nov 1924	77
27 Nov 1924		10	Henry Hugh Arthur FitzRoy Somerset Lord Lieutenant Gloucester 1931‑1984; PC 1936; KG 1937 On his death the Barony of Botetourt fell into abeyance	4 Apr 1900	5 Feb 1984	83
5 Feb 1984		11	David Robert Somerset	23 Feb 1928	16 Aug 2017	89
16 Aug 2017		12	Henry John FitzRoy Somerset	22 May 1952
BEAULIEU
11 May 1762 8 Jul 1784 to     25 Nov 1802	B E	1 1	Sir Edward Hussey-Montagu Created Baron Beaulieu 11 May 1762 and Earl of Beaulieu 8 Jul 1784 MP for Tiverton 1758-1762 Peerages extinct on his death	1721	25 Nov 1802	81
BEAUMONT
4 Mar 1309	B	1	Henry Beaumont Summoned to Parliament as Lord Beaumont 4 Mar 1309		10 Mar 1340
10 Mar 1340		2	John Beaumont	1318	May 1342	23
May 1342		3	Henry Beaumont	1340	17 Jun 1369	28
17 Jun 1369		4	John Beaumont Warden of the Cinque Ports 1392; KG 1393	1361	9 Sep 1396	35
9 Sep 1396		5	Henry Beaumont	1380	Jun 1413	32
Jun 1413 12 Feb 1440	V	6 1	John Beaumont Created Viscount Beaumont 12 Feb 1440 (the first creation of a viscountcy) KG 1441	1409	19 Jul 1460	51
19 Jul 1460 to     19 Dec 1507		7 2	William Beaumont Attainted 1461 but restored 1470. Again attainted 1471 but again restored 1485. Viscountcy became extinct on his death, and the Barony fell into abeyance	23 Apr 1438	19 Dec 1507	69
14 Oct 1840		8	Miles Thomas Stapleton Summoned to Parliament as Lord Beaumont 14 Oct 1840 thus terminating the abeyance	4 Jun 1805	16 Aug 1854	49
16 Aug 1854		9	Henry Stapleton	11 Aug 1848	23 Jan 1892	43
23 Jan 1892 to     16 Sep 1895		10	Miles Stapleton On his death the peerage fell into abeyance For further information on the death of this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	7 Jul 1850	16 Sep 1895	45
1 Jun 1896		11	Mona Josephine Tempest Fitzalan-Howard Abeyance terminated in her favour 1 Jun 1896 For information on the termination of the abeyance, see the note at the foot of this page	1 Aug 1894	31 Aug 1971	77
31 Aug 1971		12	Miles Francis Fitzalan-Howard He succeeded as 4th Baron Howard of Glossop in 1972 and as 17th Duke of Norfolk in 1975 into which title this peerage then merged	21 Jul 1915	24 Jun 2002	86
BEAUMONT OF SWORDS
20 May 1622	V[I]	1	Sir Thomas Beaumont, 1st baronet Created Viscount Beaumont of Swords 20 May 1622		22 May 1625
22 May 1625		2	Sapcote Beaumont	10 May 1614	1658	44
1658 to     11 Jun 1702		3	Thomas Beaumont Peerage extinct on his death	10 Apr 1634	11 Jun 1702	68
BEAUMONT OF WHITLEY
6 Dec 1967 to     9 Apr 2008	B[L]		Timothy Wentworth Beaumont Created Baron Beaumont of Whitley for life 6 Dec 1967 Peerage extinct on his death	23 Nov 1928	9 Apr 2008	79
BEAUVALE
20 Apr 1839 to     29 Jan 1853	B	1	Frederick James Lamb Created Baron Beauvale 20 Apr 1839. He subsequently succeeded as 3rd Viscount Melbourne in 1848. Peerages extinct on his death	17 Apr 1782	29 Jan 1853	80
BEAVERBROOK
2 Jan 1917	B	1	Sir William Maxwell Aitken, 1st baronet Created Baron Beaverbrook 2 Jan 1917 MP for Ashton under Lyne 1910‑1916; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for Information 1918‑1919; Minister for Aircraft Production 1940‑1941; Minister of Supply 1941‑1942; Lord Privy Seal 1943‑1945; PC 1918	25 May 1879	9 Jun 1964	85
9 Jun 1964 to     12 Jun 1964		2	John William Maxwell Aitken MP for Holborn 1945‑1950 He disclaimed the peerage for life 12 Jun 1964	15 Feb 1910	30 Apr 1985	75
30 Apr 1985		3	Maxwell William Humphrey Aitken	29 Dec 1951
BECTIVE
24 Oct 1766	E[I]	1	Thomas Taylour, 1st Viscount Headfort Created Earl of Bective 24 Oct 1766 MP [I] for Kells 1747‑1760; KP 1783; PC [I] 1785	20 Oct 1724	14 Feb 1795	71
14 Dec 1795		2	Thomas Taylour He was created Marquess of Headfort 29 Dec 1800 into which title this peerage then merged	18 Nov 1757	24 Oct 1829	71
BEDFORD
1138 to     c 1142	E	1	Hugh de Bello Monte Created Earl of Bedford 1138 He appears to have been degraded from his peerage three or four years after creation		after 1142
11 May 1366 to     1377	E	1	Enguerrand de Couci Created Earl of Bedford 11 May 1366 On the accession to the throne of Richard II, he resigned the peerage to the Crown KG 1365	1340	18 Feb 1397	56
16 May 1414 to     14 Sep 1435	D	1	John Plantagenet Created Earl of Kendal and Duke of Bedford 16 May 1414, and Earl of Richmond 24 Nov 1414 Third son of Henry IV; KG c 1400 Peerage extinct on his death	20 Jun 1389	14 Sep 1435	46
5 Jan 1470 to     1477	D	1	George Nevill Created Duke of Bedford 5 Jan 1470 He was degraded from his peerage 1477	c 1457	4 May 1483
27 Oct 1485 to     21 Dec 1495	D	1	Jasper Tudor, 1st Earl of Pembroke Created Duke of Bedford 27 Oct 1485 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1486‑1494; KG 1459 Peerage extinct on his death	c 1430	21 Dec 1495
19 Jan 1550	E	1	John Russell, 1st Baron Russell Created Earl of Bedford 19 Jan 1550 MP for Buckinghamshire 1529‑1536; Lord Privy Seal 1543‑1547 and 1547‑1553; Lord Lieutenant Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset 1552; PC 1538; KG 1539	c 1485	14 Mar 1555
14 Mar 1555		2	Francis Russell MP for Buckinghamshire 1547‑1552 and Northumberland 1553. Lord Lieutenant Devon, Dorset and Cornwall; PC; KG 1564 He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Russell 1 Mar 1553	1527	28 Jul 1585	58
28 Jul 1585		3	Edward Russell	20 Oct 1574	3 May 1627	52
3 May 1627		4	Francis Russell, 2nd Baron Russell of Thornhaugh PC 1641	1593	9 May 1641	57
9 May 1641	D	5 1	William Russell Created Marquess of Tavistock and Duke of Bedford 11 May 1694, and Baron Howland of Streatham 13 Jun 1695 MP for Tavistock 1640; Lord Lieutenant Devon and Somerset 1642, Bedford and Cambridge 1689, and Middlesex 1692‑1700; KG 1672; PC 1689	1613	7 Sep 1700	87
7 Sep 1700		2	Wriothesley Russell Lord Lieutenant Bedford, Cambridge and Middlesex 1701‑1711; KG 1702	1 Nov 1680	26 May 1711	30
26 May 1711		3	Wriothesley Russell	25 May 1708	23 Oct 1732	24
23 Oct 1732		4	John Russell First Lord of the Admiralty 1744; Lord Lieutenant Bedford 1745‑1771; Secretary of State 1748‑1751; Lord Lieutenant Devon 1751‑1771; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1756‑1761; Lord Privy Seal 1761‑1763; Lord President of the Council 1763‑1765; PC 1744; KG 1749	30 Sep 1710	15 Jan 1771	60
14 Jan 1771		5	Francis Russell	23 Jul 1765	2 Mar 1802	36
2 Mar 1802		6	John Russell MP for Tavistock 1788‑1790 and 1790‑1802; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1806‑1807; PC 1806; KG 1830	6 Jul 1766	20 Oct 1839	73
20 Oct 1839		7	Francis Russell He was summoned to Parliament by a Writ of Acceleration as Baron Howland of Streatham 15 Jan 1833 MP for Peterborough 1809‑1812 and Bedfordshire 1812‑1832; Lord Lieutenant Bedford 1859‑1861; PC 1846; KG 1847	13 May 1788	14 May 1861	73
14 May 1861		8	William Russell MP for Tavistock 1830‑1831 and 1832‑1841	1 Jul 1809	27 May 1872	62
17 May 1872		9	Francis Charles Hastings Russell MP for Bedfordshire 1847‑1872; Lord Lieutenant Huntingdon 1884‑1891; KG 1880	16 Oct 1819	14 Jan 1891	71
14 Jan 1891		10	George William Francis Sackville Russell MP for Bedfordshire 1875‑1885	16 Apr 1852	22 Mar 1893	40
22 Mar 1893		11	Herbrand Arthur Russell Lord Lieutenant Middlesex 1898‑1926; KG 1902	19 Feb 1858	27 Aug 1940	82
27 Aug 1940		12	Hastings William Sackville Russell For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	21 Dec 1888	9 Oct 1953	64
9 Oct 1953		13	John Robert Russell	24 May 1917	25 Oct 2002	85
25 Oct 2002		14	Henry Robin Ian Russell	21 Jan 1940	13 Jun 2003	63
13 Jun 2003		15	Andrew Ian Henry Russell	30 Mar 1962
BEECHAM
20 Jul 2010	B[L]		Sir Jeremy Hugh Beecham Created Baron Beecham for life 20 Jul 2010	17 Nov 1944
			BEECHING
7 Jul 1965 to     23 Mar 1985	B[L]		Richard Beeching Created Baron Beeching for life 7 Jul 1965 Peerage extinct on his death	21 Apr 1913	23 Mar 1985	71
BEITH
19 Oct 2015	B[L]		Sir Alan James Beith Created Baron Beith for life 19 Oct 2015 MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed 1973‑2015; PC 1992	20 Apr 1943
BEKE
23 Jun 1295	B	1	John Beke Summoned to Parliament as Lord Beke 23 Jun 1295		1304
1304 to     1310		2	Walter Beke On his death the peerage fell into abeyance		1310
BELASYSE OF OSGODBY
1 Apr 1674 to     6 Mar 1713	B[L]		Susan Belasyse Created Baroness Belasyse for life 1 Apr 1674 Peerage extinct on her death		6 Mar 1713
BELASYSE OF WORLABY
27 Jan 1645	B	1	John Belasyse Created Baron Belasyse 27 Jan 1645 Lord Lieutenant East Riding of Yorkshire 1660‑1673; PC 1686	24 Jul 1614	10 Sep 1689	75
10 Sep 1689 to     26 Aug 1691		2	Henry Belasyse Peerage extinct on his death		26 Aug 1691
BELFAST
27 Jun 1791	E[I]	1	Arthur Chichester, 5th Earl of Donegall Created Earl of Belfast and Marquess of Donegall 27 Jun 1791 See "Donegall"	13 Jun 1739	5 Jan 1799	59
BELFIELD
16 Mar 1738 5 Oct 1751	B[I] V[I]	1 1	Robert Rochfort Created Baron Belfield 16 Mar 1738, Viscount Belfield 5 Oct 1751 and Earl of Belvidere 29 Nov 1756 See "Belvidere"	26 Mar 1708	Apr 1774	66
BELGRAVE
5 Jul 1784	V	1	Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Grosvenor Created Viscount Belgrave and Earl Grosvenor 5 Jul 1784 See "Grosvenor"	18 Jun 1731	5 Aug 1802	71
BELHAVEN
24 Jun 1633 to     14 Jan 1639	V[S]	1	Sir Robert Douglas Created Viscount of Belhaven 24 Jun 1633 Peerage extinct on his death	1573	14 Jan 1639	65
BELHAVEN AND STENTON
15 Dec 1647	B[S]	1	Sir John Hamilton, 2nd baronet Created Lord Belhaven and Stenton 15 Dec 1647		17 Jun 1679
17 Jun 1679		2	John Hamilton	5 Jul 1656	21 Jun 1708	52
21 Jun 1708		3	John Hamilton		27 Nov 1721
27 Nov 1721		4	John Hamilton		28 Aug 1764
28 Aug 1764		5	James Hamilton On his death the peerage became dormant		25 Jan 1777
[25 Jan 1777]		6	Robert Hamilton	3 May 1731	27 Mar 1784	52
[27 Mar 1784] 25 Apr 1799		7	William Hamilton Peerage decided in his favour 25 Apr 1799	13 Jan 1765	29 Oct 1814	49
29 Oct 1814		8	Robert Montgomery Hamilton Lord Lieutenant Lanarkshire 1863‑1868; KT 1861 Created Baron Hamilton of Wishaw 10 Sep 1831 (extinct on his death) On his death the peerage again became dormant	1793	22 Dec 1868	75
[22 Dec 1868] 2 Aug 1875		9	James Hamilton Peerage decided in his favour 2 Aug 1875 For further information regarding the two periods of dormancy, see the note at the foot of this page	29 Aug 1822	6 Sep 1893	71
6 Sep 1893		10	Alexander Charles Hamilton	3 Jul 1840	31 Oct 1920	80
31 Oct 1920		11	Robert Edward Archibald Hamilton-Udny	8 Apr 1871	26 Oct 1950	79
26 Oct 1950		12	Robert Alexander Benjamin Hamilton	16 Sep 1903	10 Jul 1961	57
10 Jul 1961		13	Robert Anthony Carmichael Hamilton	27 Feb 1927	2 Dec 2020	93
2 Dec 2020		14	Frederick Carmichael Arthur Hamilton	27 Sep 1953
BELL
31 Jul 1998 to     25 Aug 2019	B[L]		Sir Timothy John Leigh Bell Created Baron Bell for life 31 Jul 1998 Peerage extinct on his death	18 Oct 1941	25 Aug 2019	77
BELLAMONT
4 Sep 1767 to     20 Oct 1800	E[I]	1	Charles Coote, 5th Baron Coote of Coloony Created Earl of Bellamont 4 Sep 1767 MP [I] for Cavan County 1761‑1766; Lord Lieutenant Cavan 1780‑1800; PC [I] 1766 Peerage extinct on his death	6 Apr 1738	20 Oct 1800	62
BELLAMY
14 Jun 2022	B[L]		Sir Christopher William Bellamy Created Baron Bellamy for life 14 Jun 2022	25 Apr 1946
BELLEISLE
25 Aug 1768 to     1802	V[I]	1	Ralph Gore, 1st Baron Gore Created Viscount Belleisle 25 Aug 1768 and Earl of Ross 4 Jan 1772 See "Ross"	23 Nov 1725	1802	76
BELLENDEN
10 Jun 1661	B[S]	1	Sir William Bellenden Created Lord Bellenden 10 Jun 1661 He resigned the peerage in favour of -	c 1605	6 Sep 1671
14 Apr 1671		2	John Ker		Mar 1707
Mar 1707		3	John Bellenden	1685	16 Mar 1741	55
16 Mar 1741		4	Ker Bellenden	22 Oct 1725	13 Mar 1754	28
13 Mar 1754		5	John Ker Bellenden	22 Aug 1751	20 Oct 1796	45
20 Oct 1796		6	Robert Bellenden	7 Apr 1734	18 Oct 1797	63
18 Oct 1797 to     22 Oct 1805		7	William Bellenden On his death the peerage became either extinct or dormant	20 Oct 1728	22 Oct 1805	77
BELLEW
17 Jul 1848	B[I]	1	Sir Patrick Bellew, 7th baronet Created Baron Bellew 17 Jul 1848 MP for co. Louth 1831‑1832 and 1834‑1837; Lord Lieutenant Louth 1831‑1866; PC [I] 1838	29 Jan 1798	10 Dec 1866	68
10 Dec 1866		2	Edward Joseph Bellew	3 Jun 1830	28 Jul 1895	65
28 Jul 1895		3	Charles Bertram Bellew Lord Lieutenant Louth 1898‑1911	19 Apr 1855	15 Jul 1911	56
15 Jul 1911		4	George Leopold Bryan Bellew-Bryan	22 Jan 1857	15 Jun 1935	78
15 Jun 1935		5	Edward Henry Bellew	6 Feb 1889	8 Aug 1975	86
8 Aug 1975		6	Bryan Bertram Bellew	11 Jun 1890	7 Sep 1981	91
7 Sep 1981		7	James Bryan Bellew	5 Jan 1920	3 Aug 2010	90
3 Aug 2010		8	Bryan Edward Bellew	19 Mar 1943
BELLEW OF DULEEK
29 Oct 1686	B[I]	1	Sir John Bellew Created Baron Bellew of Duleek 29 Oct 1686		12 Jan 1693
12 Jan 1693		2	Walter Bellew		1694
1694		3	Richard Bellew MP for Steyning 1712	after 1664	22 Mar 1715
22 Mar 1715 to     18 Aug 1770		4	John Bellew Peerage extinct on his death	1702	18 Aug 1770	68
BELLINGHAM
5 Nov 2020	B[L]		Sir Henry Campbell Bellingham Created Baron Bellingham for life 5 Nov 2020 MP for Norfolk North West 1983‑1997 and 2001‑2019	29 Mar 1955
BELLOMONT
18 Jul 1645 to     20 Jun 1656	V[I]	1	Sir Henry Bard, 1st baronet Created Baron Bard of Dromboy and Viscount Bellomont 18 Jul 1645 Peerage extinct on his death	c 1616	20 Jun 1656
9 Dec 1680 to     5 Jan 1683	E[I]	1	Charles Henry Kirkhaven Created Baron Wotton 31 Aug 1650 and Earl of Bellomont 9 Dec 1680 Peerage extinct on his death		5 Jan 1683
2 Nov 1689	E[I]	1	Richard Coote, 2nd Baron Coote of Coloony Created Earl of Bellomont 2 Nov 1689 MP for Droitwich 1689‑1695; Governor of New York 1695	c 1655	5 Mar 1701
5 Mar 1701		2	Nanfan Coote	1681	14 Jun 1708	26
14 Jun 1708 to     10 Feb 1766		3	Richard Coote Peerage extinct on his death	1682	10 Feb 1766	83
BELLWIN
21 May 1979 to     11 Feb 2001	B[L]		Irwin Norman Bellow Created Baron Bellwin for life 21 May 1979 Peerage extinct on his death	7 Feb 1923	11 Feb 2001	78
BELMORE
6 Jan 1781 6 Dec 1789 20 Nov 1797	B[I] V[I] E[I]	1 1 1	Armar Lowry-Corry Created Baron Belmore 6 Jan 1781, Viscount Belmore 6 Dec 1789 and Earl of Belmore 20 Nov 1797 MP [I] for Tyrone County 1768‑1781	7 Apr 1740	2 Feb 1802	61
2 Feb 1802		2	Somerset Lowry-Corry MP [I] for Tyrone County 1798‑1800; MP for co. Tyrone 1801‑1802; Governor of Jamaica	11 Jul 1774	18 Apr 1841	66
18 Apr 1841		3	Armar Lowry-Corry MP for Fermanagh 1823‑1831	28 Dec 1801	17 Dec 1845	43
17 Dec 1845		4	Somerset Richard Lowry‑Corry Lord Lieutenant Tyrone 1892‑1913; Governor of New South Wales 1868‑1872; PC [I] 1867	9 Apr 1835	6 Apr 1913	77
6 Apr 1913		5	Armar Lowry-Corry	5 May 1870	12 Feb 1948	77
12 Feb 1948		6	Cecil Lowry-Corry	20 Mar 1873	2 Mar 1949	75
2 Mar 1949		7	Galbraith Armar Lowry‑Corry	14 Apr 1913	20 Jul 1960	47
20 Jul 1960		8	John Armar Lowry-Corry	4 Sep 1951
BELOFF
26 May 1981 to     22 Mar 1999	B[L]		Sir Max Beloff Created Baron Beloff for life 26 May 1981 Peerage extinct on his death	2 Jul 1913	22 Mar 1999	85
BELPER
29 Aug 1856	B	1	Edward Strutt Created Baron Belper 29 Aug 1856 MP for Derby 1830‑1848, Arundel 1851‑1852 and Nottingham 1852‑1856; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1852‑1854; Lord Lieutenant Nottinghamshire 1864‑1880; PC 1846.	26 Oct 1801	30 Jun 1880	78
30 Jun 1880		2	Henry Strutt MP for Derbyshire East 1868‑1874 and Berwick-upon-Tweed 1880; PC 1895 For information on the death of his eldest son and heir, see the note at the foot of this page	20 May 1840	26 Jul 1914	74
26 Jul 1914		3	Algernon Henry Strutt	6 May 1883	20 Mar 1956	72
20 Mar 1956		4	Alexander Ronald George Strutt	23 Apr 1912	23 Dec 1999	87
23 Dec 1999		5	Richard Henry Strutt	24 Oct 1941
BELSTEAD
27 Jan 1938	B	1	Sir Francis John Childs Ganzoni, 1st baronet Created Baron Belstead 27 Jan 1938 MP for Ipswich 1914‑1923 and 1924‑1938	19 Jan 1882	15 Aug 1958	76
15 Aug 1958 to     3 Dec 2005		2	John Julian Ganzoni Created Baron Ganzoni for life 17 Nov 1999 Lord Lieutenant Suffolk 1994‑2003; PC 1983 Peerages extinct on his death	30 Sep 1932	3 Dec 2005	73
BELVIDERE
29 Nov 1756	E[I]	1	Robert Rochfort Created Baron Belfield 16 Mar 1738, Viscount Belfield 5 Oct 1751 and Earl of Belvidere 29 Nov 1756 MP [I] for Westmeath County 1731‑1738; PC [I] 1749 For further information on this peer, see the note at the foot of this page	26 Mar 1708	Apr 1774	66
Apr 1774 to     12 May 1814		2	George Rochford MP [I] for Philipstown 1759‑1761 and Westmeath County 1761‑1775 Peerage extinct on his death	12 Oct 1738	12 May 1814	75
BENEDERALOCH
13 Aug 1677	B[S]	1	John Campbell, Earl of Caithness Created Lord Glenurchy, Benederaloch, Ormelie and Weick, Viscount of Tay & Paintland, and Earl of Breadalbane & Holland 13 Aug 1681 See "Breadalbane & Holland"	c 1635	28 Mar 1717
BENHALE
3 Apr 1360 to     after 1369	B	1	Sir Robert de Benhale Summoned to Parliament as Lord Benhale 3 Apr 1360 On his death the peerage probably became extinct		after 1369
BENJAMIN
26 Jun 2010	B[L]		Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin Created Baroness Benjamin for life 26 Jun 2010 OM 2022	23 Sep 1949
BENNETT
16 Jul 1941 to     27 Jun 1947	V	1	Richard Bedford Bennett Created Viscount Bennett 16 Jul 1941 Prime Minister of Canada 1930‑1935; PC 1930 Peerage extinct on his death	3 Jul 1870	27 Jun 1947	76
BENNETT OF EDGBASTON
1 Jul 1953 to     27 Sep 1957	B	1	Sir Peter Frederick Blaker Bennett Created Baron Bennett of Edgbaston 1 Jul 1953 MP for Edgbaston 1940‑1953 Peerage extinct on his death	16 Apr 1880	27 Sep 1957	77
BENNETT OF MANOR CASTLE
7 Oct 2019	B[L]		Natalie Louise Bennett Created Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle 7 Oct 2019	10 Feb 1966
BENSON
2 Feb 1981 to     5 Mar 1995	B[L]		Sir Henry Alexander Benson Created Baron Benson for life 2 Feb  1981 Peerage extinct on his death	2 Aug 1909	5 Mar 1995	85
BENYON
26 Jan 2021	B[L]		Richard Henry Ronald Benyon Created Baron Benyon 26 Jan 2021 MP for Newbury 2005‑2019; PC 2017	21 Oct 1960

	The special remainder to the Barony of Basset of Stratton
	From the London Gazette of 4 November 1797 (issue 14062, page 1051):-
	The King has been pleased to grant the Dignity of a Baron of the Kingdom of Great Britain unto the Right Honorable Francis Baron De Dunstanville, by the Name, Style and Title of Baron Basset, of Stratton in the County of Cornwall, with Remainder to Frances Basset, only Daughter of the said Francis Baron De Dunstanville, by Frances Susanna, Baroness De Dunstanville, his Wife, and the Heirs Male of the Body of the said Frances Basset lawfully begotten.
	Alexander George Thynne, 7th Marquess of Bath
	The 7th Marquess is known as "The Loins of Longleat" (the play on words deriving from Bath's advocacy of free love, involving 'wifelets', and the wild animals in the grounds of his stately home). He inherited the title in 1992 on the death of his father, a noted eccentric who had admired Hitler and who, with the assistance of circus proprietor, Jimmy Chipperfield, had built Longleat's famous safari park.
	After being educated at Eton and Oxford University and completing national service in the Life Guards, Bath travelled extensively in South America in a Jaguar and in the company of a Hungarian actress named Anna Gyarmathy (later to achieve some success in French films under the name Anna Gael). In 1966 he gained some notoriety by contracting what he called an 'anti-marriage' with a girl from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). However, the match was unsuccessful and she moved to Rome in 1968. In 1972, he married Anna Gyamarthy in order to legitimize the son and heir, Ceawlin, to whom she was about to give birth (Ceawlin was known by the courtesy title Viscount Weymouth and succeeded to the Marquessate on the death of his father on 4 Apr 2020).
	During this period, Bath was able to complete The Ages of History Mural, The Heaven and Hell Mural and the Kama Sutra Mural at Longleat. In the February 1974 general election he stood as the candidate of the Wessex Regionalist Party on a platform of Home Rule for the Wessex region.
	In 1987, Bath started work on his autobiography, Strictly Private, an expurgated version of which can be found on the Marquess's webpage at http://www.lordbath.co.uk/
	Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted
	Samuel was one of the co-founders of the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. The following biography is taken from the Australian monthly magazine Parade in its issue for November 1965:-
	By mid-1915 British Government officials, although the war was going against them, were tired of the sight, sound and handwriting of Marcus Samuel, a Jewish oil magnate, who pestered them with the claim that he could solve the Allied shortage of the explosive TNT. But stalling tactics had no effect upon the hard-headed millionaire. He bombarded the Government at every opportunity and, when he lost patience, offered the idea to the French. That was enough. A few weeks later the British saw reason and soldiers crouching in trenches cursing their artillery, till then starved of shells, heard an increasing tempo in the thunder of their guns. Britain was on her way to winning the war.
	The man who brought about this transformation, Marcus Samuel, later Viscount Bearsted, started work in a small fancy goods business in London and rose to command one of the greatest oil empires in the world. When the shortage of TNT brought Britain to the verge of defeat he bulldozed the Government into importing thousands of tons of Borneo oil and shipped a whole refinery across U-boat infested waters from Rotterdam to Bristol to extract the precious toluol, one of the main components of TNT.
	Marcus Samuel was born in humble Whitechapel in 1853, second son of a small Jewish trader. Samuel senior made and sold fancy goods including shell-covered boxes inscribed "A Present from Margate" and "A Souvenir of Yarmouth". The business prospered. The family could afford to send young Marcus to Brussels to complete his education. Meanwhile the boy's father began to import tea, jute, rice, shells and curios from the Orient.
	When he was 19 Marcus went to Japan to arrange supplies for the family business. On the way he heard that India was threatened by one of her periodical famines. He bought large stocks of rice on credit and had it shipped to India. The life saving rice arrived at the peak of the famine and the peak of the market. Young Samuel returned home with full knowledge of the vast opportunities opening in Japan. Japan had just come through a revolution. Her feudal system had been overthrown. The first railway was being built and the foundations of a national army and navy were being laid. From being a closed country, Japan was at last anxious for trade with the rest of the world.
	Marcus Samuel saw the vast opportunities. He sought some product with which to flood the Japanese and other eastern markets. He picked on kerosene, boosted by Americans at the time as a cheap "illuminant." When his father died in 1874 young Marcus decided to flood Japan with it. He went to Russia only to find an American oil company, backed by the Rockefellers, had grabbed major concessions. He also found that another company, started by the Swedish brothers Robert and Ludvig Nobel, was already sending kerosene overland to the east. Samuel visited the Nobel brothers. On the land-locked waters of the Caspian Sea, he saw a ship of revolutionary design the Nobels had built specially for the oil trade.
	Till then oil had been carried in wooden barrels or tanks stowed in ordinary trading ships. The new ship, the Zoroaster, was the prototype of the modern tanker. She carried lamp oil in cylindrical cisterns fitted into her holds. The engines were placed aft to minimise fire risk. The ship fascinated Samuel. He decided then that soon he would have one. Samuel's principal need was capital to fight the Rockefeller oil interests. This he obtained through the House of Rothschild, which also guaranteed the young live-wire a supply of kerosene from wells they controlled at the Black Sea port of Batum. All he needed now was a ship to get the kerosene to India, the Malay States, China and Japan.
	In May 1892 his first tanker (5000 tons) was launched. Marcus Samuel christened it Murex after a seashell his father once sold. Meanwhile Samuel had become an alderman of the City of London against the wishes of some members of the board who thought him "too poor and undistinguished".
	In succeeding years Samuel thrived. He acquired oil concessions in Borneo, and built a refinery at Balik Papan. He was knighted [1898] when he sent two of his ships to the rescue of HMS Victorious, which ran aground near Port Said. He was made Lord Mayor of London in 1902. His great Shell oil company, so named after the shells he and his father once sold, controlled supplies in the United States, Russia and the East Indies. The merger of the company with the Royal Dutch Group in 1907, to meet the threat of Russian competition, was hailed as a master stroke.
	Oil was booming under the impact of the motor car when war flared in 1914. Britain was unprepared. Her supplies of high explosives, particularly TNT, were dangerously low. Toluol, a component of TNT, could be extracted from oil and Borneo oil held the highest percentage of toluol, so Samuel offered the British Government all the toluol it wanted, only to be snubbed because Borneo was such a long way from the front. Samuel raged at the stupidity. He bombarded the Government in official letters and with personal interviews. Nothing would move them till the French, also desperate for explosives, jumped at his offer. Diehards then complained there were not enough tankers to bring the oil they needed, anyhow. Samuel, now backed by Lord Fisher, dynamic First Sea Lord, defeated them and made up for the disastrous loss of tankers at sea by sending it also in the double bottoms or ballast tanks of ordinary steamers.
	The Blimps then pointed out they had no way of refining it, but Samuel had the answer to that too. Within hours workers were dismantling a Royal Dutch-Shell refinery in Rotterdam. They loaded it into a mystery ship which ran the gauntlet of the U-boat infested North Sea to the Port of London. Hundreds more men were waiting to unload the cargo of retorts and pipes on to lighters, which were towed to Brentford, where a long string of railway trucks waited. The dismantled refinery was loaded again, and the line was cleared all the way to Bristol, where foundations had already been poured and cranes stood ready. Six weeks later the first drop of toluol passed through the refinery that once stood in Rotterdam. And soon afterwards British soldiers in Belgium heard the barrage step up and knew the shell famine was over.
	In his war memoirs Lord Fisher wrote of Samuel: "Where should we have been in this war but for this prime mover? Oil is one of the things that won us the war". In 1921 Marcus Samuel was created a baron. He was the owner of Mote Park at Maidstone, with a 600-acre deer park, and had one of the finest libraries in England, many pictures by famous artists and valuable antique furniture. He paid a colossal sum for the Berkeley estate of 20 acres in the heart of Mayfair. Honoured by many nations, he was created a viscount by King George V in 1925. He took the name of Viscount Bearsted.
	Theoretically he had retired from active business and spent much of his time fishing and reading. But it was a brave man in the massive Samuel oil empire who would make a big decision without first consulting the ageing man at Maidstone. On January 16, 1927, Marcus Samuel's wife died. They had lived happily together for 45 years. He could not believe she had gone. Their separation did not last long. Less than 24 hours after her death, Marcus Samuel died. They were buried together in the Jewish cemetery at Willesden. Samuel had disposed of much of his wealth in charity before he died. When his will was read he still had more than £4,000,000.
	The claim to the co-heirship of the barony of Beauchamp de Somerset made in 1924
	An attempt was made in 1924 by an alleged descendant of the Lords Beauchamp de Somerset to have himself declared a co-heir to the peerage. The hearing of this matter was reported in The Manchester Guardian of 30 July 1924:-
	The Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords decided yesterday to report against the petition of Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne, of Muntham Court, Worthing, to be declared a co-heir to the barony of Beauchamp de Somerset in the peerage of England. The petition was heard on July 9, when the decision was reserved.
	Lord Atkinson, as Senior Law Lord on the Committee, read the opinion of the Committee. He said that in this case no patent was given in evidence and no statute referred to conferring upon the ancestors through whom the petitioner claimed, or any of them, a barony or other peerage descendible to his heirs general. Writs of summons directed to some of those ancestors to attend Parliament were proved, but no proof was adduced to show that any of them - at least at the crucial periods - sat in the House of Peers as a member of it in the sense conveyed by that expression.
	The earliest ancestor of the petitioner mentioned in this connection was John Beauchamp of Hache, who was summoned in 1283 to attend an alleged Parliament at Shrewsbury for the trial of David of Wales [i.e. Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last independent ruler of Wales, and the first prominent person in history to be hanged, drawn and quartered]. Whatever might have been the true character of those proceedings, they certainly did not amount to a trial of one peer of the realm by other peers of the realm.
	Having regard to the nature of that assembly and the absence of all proof that the petitioner's ancestor took part in its proceedings in fact as a peer, the Committee thought the mere attendance in obedience to the writ served upon the petitioner's ancestor was not sufficient to enable them to infer that it was intended by the Sovereign thereby to create him a peer or that he was thereby created a peer. [This reasoning does not appear to have invalidated the creations of the baronies of Mowbray and Segrave, both of which date from this Parliament.]
	In the year 1300 [1299] a writ was directed to John de Beauchamp (28 Edward I), summoning him to a Parliament to be held at Lincoln. The question whether he attended this Parliament raised the question raised in the Fauconberg peerage [in 1903], namely, whether a letter sent by the Barons of England to the Pope Boniface the Eighth amounted, under the circumstances in which it was sent, to a proceeding in the Parliament of Lincoln. After the battle of Falkirk had been fought in the war between Scotland and England [22 July 1298], Scotland was for the time being in a condition of subjection to England. The Scots appealed to this Pope in the fifth year of pontificate, 1299, and he framed a Bull directed to King Edward, in which, after contesting the claim of the King to the crown of Scotland, he concluded by asserting that he himself, the Pope, was the liege lord of Scotland. [The Bull is dated 27 June 1299, and is known as "Scimus, Fili ("We know, my son").]
	The transmission of this Bull to England was greatly delayed. It was held in reserve for some time by the Archbishop of Canterbury [Robert Winchelsey], to whom it was directed. Ultimately he presented it to the King. This caused great commotion. The King at once summoned a Parliament to meet at Lincoln. The writs of summons did not, as did the writs issued in the case of Shrewsbury [in 1283], state what was the subject to be considered, but having regard to the nature of the proceedings which took place at the meeting, there could be little doubt that what was to be considered was the claim put forward by the Pope in his Bull.
	A letter was drawn up, addressed to the Pope, embodying a strong assertion of the rights of the King of England and a repudiation of the claims of the Pope. One of the seals attached to the letter was undoubtedly that of John de Beauchamp. The Committee were of opinion that the Assembly at Lincoln was not so duly and legally constituted as a Parliament, that the composition, adoption, signature and sealing of the letter addressed to the Pope was a proceeding properly so-called in Parliament, and that the service upon John Beauchamp de Somerset of a writ of summons to attend it, plus his subsequent attendance, his participation in the adoption of the letter and his sealing of it, did not afford sufficient evidence that he was then created or had become a peer of the realm.
	On the motion of Lord Atkinson, the Committee passed the following resolution:- "That in the opinion of the Committee the evidence produced by the petitioner, Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne, is insufficient to prove that any of his ancestors ever sat in Parliament as Baron Beauchamp".
	William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp
	Beauchamp was Governor of New South Wales between 1899 and 1901. The following biography, which limits itself to that period, appeared in the December 1963 issue of the Australian monthly magazine Parade:-
	A motley crowd converged on Sydney's Government House one night in 1899. Some sported ancient dress suits bursting at the seams. Others were decked in odd coats and trousers that fitted where they touched. A few struck a novel note with tailcoats and nondescript tweed trousers, or white waistcoats and anything else they happened to fancy. They were Sydney's Bohemians, attending a reception at the special invitation of His Excellency Earl Beauchamp, Governor of New South Wales.
	Every artist, writer, poet and musician in the city had received a blue-tinted card requesting the pleasure of his company. White invitation cards had been issued to the local aristocracy, who were due to arrive later. No matter how the visitors were clad, the Governor welcomed them as old friends. Thus by the time the white­ticket contingent showed up they found the reception rooms filled with the oddest collection of guests ever seen In Government House. Since there was plenty to eat and drink the Bohemians enjoyed themselves greatly, although the socialites were not so pleased with the company they were forced to keep. Because of the colour of the tickets the function became historic as the "Seidlitz powder" levee. [Seidlitz powder is a mild cathartic.] But it was only one of many things which made Governor Beauchamp the most talked-of man in NSW and his brief regime a singular one.
	This intriguing slice of vice-regal history began in December 1898 when the Secretary of State for the Colonies [Joseph Chamberlain] astonished British official circles by appointing Beauchamp Governor of New South Wales. A bachelor and the youngest man ever nominated for such a post, Lord Beauchamp was so little known that few people outside the English Midlands had ever heard of him. Australians were completely in the dark. When they discovered he pronounced his name "Beecham," erroneous reports spread that he was associated with a brand of pills. Sydneysiders, however, gathered that he was a young man of exceptional capacity, with a glittering political future ahead of him. Socialites were reassured to hear that he was the best-looking member of the House of Lords and one of the most eligible bachelors in England.
	Few Australian governors have had better intentions than Beauchamp. Fewer still have started so badly and made so many blunders. Appointed for five years, he was glad to leave at the end of 18 months. He never recovered the prestige he so ignominiously lost. His promising career virtually began and ended in Sydney.
	William Lygon, Viscount Elmley and 7th Earl Beauchamp, was born in Malvern, Worcestershire and inherited his title at the age of 19 while an Oxford undergraduate. At the university he distinguished himself by his powers of oratory and his interest in education, literature, art and classical music. He was a serious-minded young man with an unusually democratic outlook and the frivolities of the Gay 'Nineties had no appeal to him. Resolved to devote his life to the public welfare he began by becoming mayor of the city of Worcester at the age of 22.
	His abrupt elevation from a provincial mayoralty to the post of Queen's representative in so important a dominion as NSW became the talk of London clubs and drawing-rooms. Veteran administrators who had spent their lives in such remote outposts as Sierra Leone, St Helena and the Falkland Islands resented his appointment to a post worth £7,000 a year with allowances. Expressing grave doubts about the wisdom of Chamberlain's choice, the London Times pointed out that his youth scarcely fitted him to preside over a colony where political enthusiasm was notoriously liable to become overheated. Other newspapers referred to him as the "boy governor". One cartoonist depicted him as an urchin in short pants being carried ashore by George Reid, then Premier of NSW.
	The sensation caused by Beauchamp's appointment even reached the United States, where no Australian governor had made the front page before. The New York Times described Beauchamp as a "unique character in English politics who had walked out of his Mayfair mansion to spread light and culture in the London slums". The newspaper's imaginative report went on to say that his Lordship had fallen in love with his mother's maid and had sent her to France to be educated. Considering this was carrying democracy too far, the outraged dowager had appealed to Queen Victoria to send her son to the colonies immediately, the paper claimed. Her Majesty obligingly had a word with the Colonial Secretary, who dispatched the lovesick peer to the wilds of NSW. Although the story was wrong, it gained considerable credence, especially among the young women.
	Beauchamp's home county gave him a series of encouraging but tactless farewells. Worcestershire nobles all expatiated on the good fortune which had befallen NSW, but their ideas of the country were a century out of date. They still referred to it as a penal settlement, and jokingly sympathised with his Lordship for having to open his administrative career in a thieves' kitchen. The Rev Septimus Marsh, of Worcester, said that he looked forward to the time Lord Beauchamp would return on a ticket-of-leave and assured the nobleman that if he behaved himself at Botany Bay, England would be glad to have him back.
	Although the speeches were made in jest, the remarks were cabled to Australia and aroused great indignation amongst Sydneysiders. Even before he reached NSW the new Governor would not have topped a popularity poll and his very first action put him into deeper disfavour. At that time Albany [in Western Australia] was the first port of call for mail steamers from Europe. When his ship, the Himalaya, dropped anchor in King George's Sound she was boarded by a party of reporters seeking an interview. Instead of meeting them the ill-advised Beauchamp deputed his dapper secretary to distribute copies of a written statement. The new Governor's sentiments were elegantly expressed, but, under the impression he was paying Sydney a compliment, he quoted several lines from a Rudyard Kipling poem. In these verses, Kipling referred to Sydney as a town which had succeeded in living down its "birthstains". By the time Beauchamp reached NSW Sydneysiders had dubbed their new viceroy "Birthstains Beauchamp". It stuck until it was superseded by even less respectful nicknames.
	His Excellency made his official entry into Sydney on May 18, 1899. While a 17-gun salute boomed from the flagship of the Australian squadron, HMS Royal Arthur, Beauchamp landed at Sydney Cove. He was welcomed by the Lieutenant­Governor, Chief Justice Sir Frederick Darley, and the plump and monocled Premier, George Houston Reid. Headed by the bands of the Sydney Lancers and the NSW Horse Artillery, a procession was formed. But the Earl and the Premier had a very mixed reception on their progress round the city to Government House. Wherever women predominated, the handsome young peer was greeted with tremendous applause. But when the equipage passed groups of men there were more catcalls than hoorays. A case-hardened politician, Reid told the Governor that the jeers and groans were merely Sydney's characteristic way of hailing the first minister. Despite this assurance Beauchamp looked relieved when the gates of Government House closed behind him.
	He was so eager to do his job that he would soon have lived down his reference to birthstains had it not been for his capacity for saying the wrong thing in the frankest manner. Told that his youth and bachelor status excited considerable interest in top social circles, his Excellency countered by publicly announcing that he had no intention of marrying while in Australia. After that gaffe, which was construed into an insult by aspiring socialites, a newspaper dubbed him "Billy Bigchump".
	The governor immediately lived up to this new title by becoming embroiled with the French consul. At that time the civilised world was agitated by the notorious case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French military officer consigned to Devil's Island on a charge of treason. Like many other people, Beauchamp correctly believed Dreyfus had been framed. He was naive enough to say so in a public speech at Cobar. Everyone applauded when he made scathing references to French justice and congratulated his audience on living under the British flag. The French consul took exception to this statement by Queen Victoria's official representative and reported the matter to his government. As a result Beauchamp was severely reprimanded by the Colonial Office and ordered to call on the consul and apologise. The "Cobar Incident" settled "Billy Bigchump's" chances of becoming the first Governor-General of the Australian Commonwealth.
	His friendship with the poet Victor Daley [1858-1905] and Sydney's other turn-of-the-century Bohemians led to the famous "Seidlitz powder" levee, which did not enhance his popularity in orthodox circles. Little more successful was his bizarre attempt to bridge religious differences by giving a dinner for clergymen of every conceivable denomination from Anglican prelates to Jewish rabbis and Mormon missionaries. To his Excellency's surprise they did not mix well. In the country he showed at his best. A good judge of dogs and horses, he enjoyed wandering about country shows and finishing the day at a bush dance in a kerosene-lit hall.
	It became a standing joke in the city that his Excellency must have come to Australia on a travelling scholarship. The anti-Beauchampites were given fresh ammunition when the Governor's carriage knocked down a little girl on her way to Redfern station. Beauchamp was at Moss Vale [75 miles from Sydney] at the time but that made no difference to his opponents. They said this was merely another example of the way English aristocrats behaved in the colonies. "The Blunders of Beauchamp" became a standing heading in one Sydney newspaper.
	At length, after having served 18 months of his five-year term, Beauchamp resigned. He left before the end of 1900 after collecting the balance of his second year's salary. One outspoken parliamentarian remarked that it was worth £3500 to get rid of him.
	Although Beauchamp never received another vice-regal appointment, he was a member of a number of administrations between 1905 and 1915. He was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1913 and was leader of the Liberal peers in the House of Lords between 1924 and 1931. While it was an open secret that Beauchamp was homosexual, or, given that he married and fathered seven children, that he was bisexual, no action was taken against him by his political opponents until 1931, when he was "outed" by his brother-in-law, the 2nd Duke of Westminster. The story of such "outing" was told by Simon Blow in the London Sunday Telegraph of 19 November 1989:-
	The death last Monday of Countess Beauchamp, at the age of 94, has ended a direct link with the English Upper class's greatest homosexual scandal of this century. She married Lord Elmley, heir to the 7th Earl Beauchamp. And that 7th Earl was hounded from this country by his own brother-in-law, Bendor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, on charges of indecency with his footmen.
	But why on earth should the Duke of Westminster have wished to make public his brother-in-law's activities and thereby bring about the breakup of his own sister's family? Bendor Westminster had his own unpleasant reasons.
	First, he had resented Lord Beauchamp's producing two sons. He himself, though on his third marriage had no heir. Second, Lord Beauchamp held numerous distinguished posts. He was a Privy Councillor. At the age of 27, he was sent by the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, to govern New South Wales. Later he became a Liberal politician, reaching Cabinet rank as Lord President of the Council. In that capacity, he was the only minister present at Buckingham Palace at the special Privy Council held by George V formally to declare war on Germany after the Prime Minister and the Cabinet had taken their decision. In 1924 he became Liberal leader in the Lords, and in 1929 Chancellor of London University. At the time of the scandal he was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
	Bendor was merely the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire [not correct - he had relinquished this post in 1920]. The cut of envy was deep, which [was] why he exposed his brother-in-law's homosexual acts.
	Bendor had an unbalanced hatred of homosexuality. And the world in which he was brought up was highly charged sexually. He had been sent to a finishing school in France, run by a homosexual Count who had sexually assaulted him. Horrified, Bendor sent for his step-father, George Wyndham, Chief Secretary for Ireland in a Conservative cabinet at the beginning of the century [1900‑1905], to rescue him. Wyndham was widely considered the handsomest man in England, but also the vainest. In 1913, while his mistress, Lady Plymouth, one of the aristocratic group known as "the Souls", waited for him at the Hotel Loti in Paris, he died in a nearby brothel. (The venue of the death was concealed from her.)
	In deciding to ruin his brother-in-law, Bendor failed to put in the balance his own frequent seductions of 15-year-old girls, and the £20,000 he had to pay the family of one these girls to hush them (my source for that is the Westminster family papers). Despite his own moral failings, Bendor nonetheless went about his work of destroying someone else for what he saw as moral turpitude. He was bigoted and simple-minded.
	Bendor decided to go to the King. After all, Beauchamp had carried the Sword of State at George V's coronation, and was a Knight of the Garter. Around 1930, Bendor was received at Buckingham Palace, where he informed the King of his brother-in-law's behaviour with male servants. Yet it is significant that, according to the social code of the time, Bendor could meet the monarch only in private. This was because he was a divorced man and as such was not himself permitted to attend Court. It was at this meeting George V made his sadly limited comment: "Good God, I thought men like that shot themselves."
	Under no circumstances, the King considered, must a scandal of this nature surround the Court, and Beauchamp was an important courtier. But Beauchamp was married. His wife was the former Lady Lettice Grosvenor. It turned out that she had no idea what homosexuality was, nor of her husband's indulgence in it. When told by her brother, Westminster, that her husband was a "bugger", the word so mystified her that she thought her husband had become "a bugler". It is said that, when diagrams were drawn for her to show what happened, she had an immediate nervous breakdown.
	Bendor incited his sister to divorce her husband on grounds of homosexuality. He arranged for evidence to be collected from Beauchamp's servants. He asked his nieces to testify in court against their father if necessary. They refused. He succeeded in persuading his sister to institute divorce proceedings. Since she was suffering from a breakdown, it is unlikely that she realised what she was consenting to. But Sir Patrick Hastings, one of the two leading advocates of the day, was retained by Bendor on his sister's behalf. Beauchamp said he would fight. He retained the other leading advocate, Sir Norman Birkett.
	So far the public knew nothing. The case never got into the newspapers. That it never did was the result of the personal intervention of the King. The King realised that, if the case went forward, Beauchamp as a peer had the ancient right to trial by his peers in the Lords - not just by the law lords, but by all the peers. And he might well exercise that right. The King decided that at all costs the affair must not become public.
	He told the Home Secretary that Beauchamp must surrender all posts and leave the country, and he gave the reason why. So, unless Beauchamp left the country quickly, the Home Secretary would have to tell the police, and Beauchamp would have been arrested. The King deputed a trio of Beauchamp's social equals to call on him.
	So, in the summer of 1931, Beauchamp was visited by the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Buckmaster, Lord Chesterfield, a fashionable Tory, and Lord Crewe, the Liberal elder statesman. They advised him to leave the country at once or meet his fate in the criminal courts. "They would never do that to me," he in effect told them. But a few stern words convinced [him]. That evening, he signed a deed promising to leave England and never return. All "society" - though not the wider public - knew the reason. He went in disgrace, deserted by former friends, except for Stanley Baldwin, who stood by him. Without ever seeing him again, his broken wife died in 1936.
	Yet what, one asks, of Beauchamp's own personality? How could a man in his position have allowed this to happen? The answer is that he had let his behaviour become thoroughly indiscreet. He was throwing open homosexual parties at Madresfield Court - his country seat in Worcestershire. He was equally open at his London house in Belgrave Square. When interviewing footmen he would pass his hands over their buttocks, making a hissing noise similar to those made by stable lads when rubbing down horses. If the young man was pleasant, "He'll do well. Very nice indeed" would be the Earl's comment. One day a heterosexual servant, finding the drawing room door in Belgrave Square locked, peeped through the keyhole to see Earl Beauchamp and his doctor sexually engaged on the sofa.
	The writer, diarist and minor politician, Harold Nicolson, used privately to tell the story of how, after dinner at Madresfield, he was asked by an astonished fellow guest: "Did I hear Beauchamp?" "Nonsense," replied Nicolson, "he said 'shut the door'."
	There is no knowledge of any homosexuality prior to Beauchamp's marriage in 1902. Far from it. He had fathered six children between 1902 and 1912. Born in 1872, Beauchamp, therefore, quite possibly did not practise his latent homosexuality until around the age of 45. He needed to cover a lot of lost ground. That would account for his increasing indiscretion. And, like many a public man, he was blind to the obvious danger. Like Oscar Wilde's, Beauchamp's audacious behaviour could only be the precursor to a dramatic fall - brought about this time not by a Marquess, but by a Duke.
	The exiled Beauchamp wandered the world. He was often in Italy. In Rome he would stay in the house of the eccentric, talented and homosexual Lord Berners, the author of a once-renowned joke in the days when grand people announced their movements in the Court Circular in The Times. ("Lord Berners has recently left the Isle of Man for the Isle of Lesbos".)
	Beauchamp, particularly when safe in Italy, let his sexual appetites run free. To the visiting heterosexual Sir Richard Sykes, then a fast young thing, Beauchamp suddenly announced one day at the Lido in Venice: "Sykes, will you please lower your costume?" The startled young baronet fled.
	At home English Society continued to vilify Beauchamp for what is now commonly known as "a sexual preference". When, in July 1936, he landed at Dover to attend his wife's funeral, he was turned back by representatives of the Home Office. A month later, when his second son Hugh died in an accident, he was allowed in for the funeral - but grudgingly. It was made clear that England was no longer his home. After that, he never saw Madresfield again. While Bendor Westminster, believing he had rid society of a foul pervert, delighted in referring to his brother-in-law as "my bugger-in-law".
	The family from which Beauchamp came - the Lygons - have become glamorised through Evelyn Waugh's modelling of characters on them in Brideshead Revisited. Lord Beauchamp was the model for Lord Marchmain, and Hugh - the son who died early - was a model for Lord Sebastian Flyte. There was in the end no divorce between Lord and Lady Beauchamp, but the daughters took the side of their father and the sons sided with their mother. And so, to preserve British respectability, English society and the Court had quietly smashed a family into pieces.
	In 1937 a new king was on the throne. The Home Office had lifted its objection to Beauchamp's returning. He was told that he could come back to the country which had once laden him with offices and honours. He would see the beautiful house of Madresfield again. But first he set out on a trip around the world. In New York, in 1938, he died aged 66. The scandal had worn him out. The brother-in-law who in effect killed him lived on and died in England in 1953 while married to his fourth wife.
	Miles Stapleton, 10th Lord Beaumont
	The following (in places somewhat gruesome) account of the death of the 10th Lord Beaumont is taken from the Leeds Mercury of 17 September 1895:-
	The tenantry on the Carlton Towers estate, near Selby [in Yorkshire], have lost a kindly landlord by the lamentable shooting accident which took place yesterday, almost within sight of the Towers.
	Lord Beaumont, the tenth Peer of that name, and the son of the eighth bearer of the title, succeeded to the Peerage within a comparatively recent period. He was married about two years ago to the daughter of the late Sir Charles Tempest, of Broughton Hall, Skipton, and the rejoicings on the estate were particularly animated, because of the fact that for some years previously the Towers had been practically untenanted, with the exception of a brief period during which the deceased Earl's [sic] immediate predecessor, having married the daughter of Mr Wootton Isaacs, M.P., made the Towers his residence. It was only last week that Lord Beauchamp took farewell of his old regiment, the 20th Hussars, on their embarkation at Portsmouth for India, he having previously relinquished the post of Colonel.
	As to how the lamentable accident occurred one can only rely on what may be inferred from the position in which his Lordship's body was found. Our representative had an interview with a workman who was near the spot where the accident took place, and from what he stated it appears that his Lordship yesterday morning saw the head gamekeeper, and expressed to him his intention of going out partridge shooting, at the same time requesting the man to provide him with a retriever dog. This done, Lord Beaumont told the keeper that he should not require his services, and went out alone. He was not again seen alive. About noon, Mr James Hensley, a local farmer, was walking past Carlton Grange, some three-quarters of a mile away from the Towers, when his attention was attracted by a man clinging to a gate. He went up to the gate, and was horrified to find that it was the body of Lord Beaumont, and that life was quite extinct. The terrible nature of the injuries, which were noticeable some yards away, made this beyond doubt. As he afterwards described it, the top of the deceased's head was blown completely off, and one eye had also been cut away by the shot. The position of the deceased and that of his gun made it easy to infer how the sad occurrence came about. His Lordship's left foot was fixed in the angle between one of the bars and the diagonal bar which runs from one corner to the other of the gate. It was clear that he had been in the act of crossing into the adjoining turnip field when he met his death. He had stepped onto the gate with his left foot, and had put his right foot over to the other side, when he found his left inextricable, and had then, in order to free himself, drawn his right foot back again. In doing so he had forgotten the dangerous position in which he had left his gun. The gun, a double-barrelled one, with the trigger drawn, had been reared, muzzle upwards, against the gate, and, thinking he was replacing his foot on one of the bars, he alighted instead on the trigger. The contents of one of the barrels, a charge of small shot, were at once discharged, and they lodged in his brain.
	The dreadful character of the accident is evident from the fact that portions of the brains were found at fifteen yards' distance from the scene. Mr Hensley at once proceeded to the Towers for assistance, and it is one of the most pathetic incidents in this tragic story that the faithful retriever, which had accompanied his Lordship, refused to move from his master's side, moreover would not, until forcibly driven away, allow any one to approach him. The body, remarkable to relate, was allowed to remain in the position in which it was found for fully two hours, there being an indisposition on the part of the men about to interfere until a policeman had arrived. Afterwards the body was conveyed to the Towers.
	At the subsequent inquest, the jury's verdict was one of accidental death, in accordance with the medical evidence.
	Mona, Baroness Beaumont in her own right (11th in line)
	Following the death of Miles Stapleton, 10th Lord Beaumont, the title fell into abeyance, since he left no sons and two daughters (one of whom was born posthumously). The abeyance did not, however, last for a long period, since, less than 9 months later, the following notice appeared in the London Gazette of 2 June 1896 (issue 26745, page 3245):-
	The Queen has been pleased, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date the 1st June, 1896, to declare that Mona Josephine Tempest Stapleton (commonly called the Honourable Mona Josephine Tempest Stapleton), the elder of the two daughters and coheirs of Miles Stapleton, last Baron Beaumont, is and shall be Baroness Beaumont: and to give, grant, and confirm the said Barony of Beaumont to the said Mona Josephine Tempest Stapleton: to have and to hold said barony, together with all the rights, privileges, pre-eminences, immunities, and advantages, and the place and precedence due and belonging thereto, to her and to the heirs of her body lawfully begotten and to be begotten, in as full and ample a manner as the said Miles Stapleton, Baron Beaumont, or any of his ancestors Barons Beaumont, held and enjoyed the same.
	Hastings William Sackville Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford
	During World War II, Bedford was accused of being a Fascist. In 1939 he became Chairman of the British People's Party, the membership of which was primarily made up of ex-members of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. It is said that Bedford was placed on the list of those to be interned in the event of a German invasion. After the war, however, he seems to have done an about-face and converted to socialism. In 1952 the Duke spoke in the House of Lords in defence of Dr Hewlett Johnson (known as the 'Red Dean' of Canterbury), who was an apologist for the Soviet Union. Bedford suggested to his fellow peers that 'if every man in the country went to work for ten seconds a day he would produce the country's total requirements'. Alternatively, the country could abolish money and return to the barter system. Not surprisingly, neither suggestion was adopted.
	Bedford was a respected naturalist and ornithologist. He inherited these interests from his father, with whom he was on poor terms. The 11th Duke became a recluse after World War I, where he devoted himself to the study of rare animals and birds. Possibly due to his son's pacifism, the 11th Duke quarrelled with his son and they did not speak, or communicate in any way, for 20 years. The 13th Duke did not know of his grandfather's existence, or that he was the eventual heir to the dukedom, until he was 16, when a servant accidentally let the information slip.
	The 12th Duke developed a strain of homing budgerigars and wrote a piece in Country Life on the subject, illustrated by a photograph of himself surrounded by 3,000 birds. Birds eventually caused his death: he shot himself when aiming at a hawk that was threatening one of his budgerigars. According to Nancy Mitford in her book The English Aristocracy he also kept a pet spider to which he would regularly feed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
	For further reading on the 12th Duke, and on the Dukes of Bedford in general, see A Silver-Plated Spoon by John, (13th) Duke of Bedford (World Books, London 1959 and Doubleday, New York 1959). This book includes a photograph of the 12th Duke with the caption "This is my father, the twelfth Duke (1888-1953), the loneliest man I ever knew, incapable of giving or receiving love, utterly self-centred and opinionated. He loved birds, animals, peace, monetary reform, the Park, and religion. He also had a wife and three children".
	James Hamilton, 9th Lord Belhaven and Stenton
	This peerage has twice become dormant, in 1777 and again in 1868. In both cases, the rightful heir did not assume the title until he had successfully petitioned the House of Lords. The 7th Lord Belhaven and Stenton became entitled to the peerage in 1784, but did not assume the title until 1799, when the House of Lords decided that he was so entitled. Similarly, the 9th Lord Belhaven and Stenton became entitled to the peerage in December 1868, but he did not assume the title until August 1875, after the House of Lords determined that he was the rightful heir. The following article, which appeared in The Glasgow Herald on 17 June 1875, discusses the history of this peerage:-
	The claim of Mr. James Hamilton to this peerage having lately come before the House of Lords, and being likely to demand their Lordships' attention soon again, it may interest our readers if we trace the title from its creation in 1647 to the death of its last possessor; and we shall find it a rather complicated matter all through, as it still seems to be.
	The first Lord Belhaven and Stenton was Sir John Hamilton of Broomhill. The Hamiltons of Broomhill were a branch of the ducal house, sprung from them while they were as yet only Lords Hamilton, but accounts vary considerably as to the point at which they branched off from the main stem, and also as to whether they were legitimate, or legitimated. Be these things as they may, the Sir John Hamilton of whom we speak was the fifth in regular descent and the sixth in succession from the first Hamilton of Broomhill, who was a son of the Lord Hamilton (of Cadzow).
	Sir John, who was a Royalist, and a favourite of King Charles I, was raised to the peerage as Lord Belhaven and Stenton on the 18th December 1647. We presume that the patent limited the succession to heirs male lawful of the body. Perhaps, however, it extended the limitation to heirs female. But in neither of these events could the peerage have descended as he ultimately wished it to descend. John, 1st Lord Belhaven, had, only, three daughters. The eldest was Lady Baillie of Lamington; and could she have succeeded the title would have gone into the Baillie family. The youngest was the Viscountess Kingston; while the second daughter (Anne) was the wife of Sir Robert Hamilton, of Silvertounhill (a cadet of his own family); and their only child, Margaret, was married (in Lord Belhaven's lifetime) to Sir John Hamilton of Biel. Desirous, no doubt, that the title should be perpetuated in the Hamilton name and family (for Biel was his cousin and Silvertounhill his kinsman), and, if possible, among his own descendants, Lord Belhaven resigned his estate and honours into the King's hands, and obtained from King Charles II a new patent and charter, in 1675, in favour, after his own decease, of his cousin, Sir John Hamilton of Biel, the husband of his granddaughter. Had it not been for this new patent the title of Belhaven and Stenton would have been extinct two centuries ago [i.e. on the death ofthe 1st Lord in 1679].
	As it was, it was now to leave the family of Broomhill and to go (through Silvertounhill) to Hamilton of Biel. John, first Lord Belhaven and Stenton, married Margaret, (natural) daughter of James, second Marquess of Hamilton, and died anno 1679, when he was succeeded by his grandson-in-law and cousin, Sir John Hamilton of Biel, as second Lord Belhaven and Stenton. This nobleman was the son of Sir Robert Hamilton of Pressmanan (of the family of Udston, a branch of Cadzow), a Judge or Senator of the College of Justice, with the title of Lord Pressmanan. He does not appear to have been at first loyal to the family of the Sovereign, who granted the Peerage, or of his son who granted the extended patent by which alone he succeeded to it, for he did all he could in favour of the Prince of Orange. He violently opposed the Union, however, and was committed to the Tower as a supposed adherent of the Chevalier St George, while his biographer states that posterity "celebrate his name with honour as a patriot as well as an orator". Dying in 1708, he was succeeded by his elder son John, third Lord Belhaven and Stenton (representative peer, and Lord of the Bedchamber to George II when Prince of Wales), who, after fighting at Sheriffmuir, was appointed Governor of Barbadoes in 1721, but was unfortunately drowned at sea at the beginning of his voyage thither. Lady Belhaven, his wife, was the daughter of Andrew Bruce, a merchant in Edinburgh (of the family of Earlshall), and their eldest son, John, succeeded as fourth Lord Belhaven and Stenton, who was General of the Mint, etc., and who, dying unmarried in 1764, was succeeded by his brother James, fifth Lord Belhaven and Stenton, the last Lord of the Biel family, and the last Lord Belhaven, whose residence was at Biel. James Lord Belhaven died unmarried in 1777, when the peerage became DORMANT.
	Before tracing the subsequent course of the title, we may pause for a moment to see what became of the Biel and other estates in Haddingtonshire of the family. But first let us observe two apparent discrepancies in the accounts of this branch. In Burke's Extinct Baronetage we find it stated Sir James Hamilton of Broomhill was created a baronet in 1635. We find no corroboration of this in any other account of the family. [Notwithstanding, he was created a baronet as stated.] Again [Sir Robert] Douglas states that Anne, daughter of the first Lord Belhaven, and her husband, Sir Robert Hamilton of Silvertounhill, had only one child, Margaret, whose husband, Sir John Hamilton of Biel, became second Lord Belhaven, as we have seen; while Burke states that they had several children, or at least one other child, a son, who succeeded as second baronet of Silvertounhill, and was ancestor of the present baronet of that title. When the peculiar settlement of the Belhaven title is considered, it is somewhat difficult to reconcile these two statements, or rather to recognise the latter as accurate.
	The second Lord Belhaven having executed an entail in 1701, confirmed by the last Lord in 1765, by which the husbands of heirs female were excluded from inheriting the Belhaven property (Biel, etc.), and the male descendants of the second Lord's father having failed, the very valuable estates of the family devolved upon Mrs Mary Hamilton Nisbet, of Pentcaitland (co. Haddington), who was served heir in 1783. In 1799 Miss Hamilton Nisbet of Dirleton and Biel, the heir of the family, married Thomas, 7th Earl of Elgin. By this marriage, Lord Elgin had a son (Lord Bruce, who died unmarried) and three daughters, of whom the second was the late Lady Matilda Maxwell of Pollok, and the youngest the wife of Mr Grant of Kilgraston (brother of Sir Hope Grant and Sir Francis Grant); while the eldest, who eventually inherited the Dirleton estates, married Mr Robert Adam Dundas of Bloxholm, county Lincoln. Mr Dundas (now Mr Christopher-Nisbet-Hamilton) is a member of one of the branches of the great house of Dundas, being the elder son of the late Mr Philip Dundas, Governor of Prince of Wales Island, who was fourth son of Robert Dundas of Arniston, elder brother of the first Viscount Melville. He first changed his name to "Christopher", in compliance with the will of George Manners, Esq, of Bloxholm, in Lincolnshire, to whose estates he succeeded; and subsequently, in 1855, assumed the additional surnames of Nisbet-Hamilton on his wife's accession to the Haddingtonshire estates of her mother's family. Mr Christopher-Nisbet-Hamilton is a member of the Faculty of Advocates, a Privy Councillor, and was formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He is described in address books as residing at Biel House. In the list of owners of lands and heritages in Scotland, lately published, the trustees of the late William Hamilton Nisbet of Biel are entered as owning 2321 acres, of the annual value of £4003. This is, of course, only one of the estates of the family. So much for Biel, the residence of the earlier Lords Belhaven. We must now return to the title of Belhaven, and see how it came to the family of Hamilton of Wishaw. When the first Lord obtained the new patent which extended the limitation to his grandson-in-law, the second Lord, the said patent was in favour of heirs male of the latter. The heirs male of his body terminated on the death of the fifth Lord, as we have seen; but as the descent of the title was not limited to the heirs male of his body, the nearest heir male became Lord Belhaven at once. Who was the nearest heir male became a matter of dispute, which was not finally settled till 1799, the title being unused (at least by those who the right to it) for 22 years.
	Not only had the heirs male of the body of the second Lord failed, but the whole male descendants of his father (Lord Pressmanan) had failed; and more, the whole male descendants of James Hamilton of Barncleuth (from whom the second Lord had sprung) had also failed. It was therefore necessary to go further back to find the line of the heir male who was now entitled to succeed to the Belhaven title, and he is traced as follows: - The first Hamilton of Coltness, the first Hamilton of Barncleuth (ancestor of the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th Lords Belhaven), and the first Hamilton of Wishaw, were the sons of John Hamilton of Udston. All the male Barncleuths having failed, the collateral heir male must be found either in Coltness or in Wishaw. One would naturally think that the family of Coltness being the eldest branch, would succeed; but it is not so, for by the law of descent in Scotland it is settled that in the case of three brothers, should the middle brother fail, the younger, and not the elder, is entitled to succeed as heir male. Under this rule Robert Hamilton of Wishaw, in the county of Lanark, became de jure sixth Lord Belhaven and Stenton in the county of Haddington, but he died before the question was settled, and never assumed the title; indeed, during his lifetime, Captain William Hamilton, of the 44th Regiment, lineal descendant and heir male of John Hamilton of Coltness (the eldest of the three brothers above alluded to) assumed the title, and afterwards actually voted [in the election of Scottish Representative Peers] as Lord Belhaven.
	Mr. Robert Hamilton of Wishaw (sixth Lord Belhaven), died in 1784, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, who in 1799 had his claim confirmed, and became seventh Lord. William, Lord Belhaven, married a daughter of Macdonald of Clanranald, and dying in 1814, was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert Montgomery Hamilton, eighth Lord Belhaven and Stenton, who in 1831 was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the style and title of his own branch of the family - viz., Lord Hamilton of Wishaw. Lord Belhaven and Hamilton, who was Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire, had no family, and on his death in 1868 the barony of Belhaven and Stenton became again dormant, while the title of Hamilton of Wishaw became extinct.
	As on the former occasion, there is undoubtedly a Lord Belhaven at present. The point to be settled is "who is the nearest heir male?" and the gentleman who can prove himself to be so will be entitled to succeed. The claim which lately came before the House of Lords is that of Mr James Hamilton, who claims descent from the Hamiltons of Stevenson, an undoubted branch (only a few generations back) of the Wishaw family; and if Mr Hamilton establishes his claim he will succeed to the Belhaven peerage as the heir male of the Hamiltons of Wishaw, so that the title will still remain in the Wishaw branch.
	Although the Hamiltons of Wishaw are not descended from the Lord Belhaven of the first, or the Lord Belhaven of the second patents, they well sustained the honours of the family and of the peerage, and advanced the "Belhaven" interest to greater honours than had been borne by any their predecessors since the Union - the Lord Lieutenancy of the principal county in Scotland, and the British peerage with its seat in the House of Lords, being distinctions not attained by the other and older branches. It will also be observed that the late Lord's title of Lord Hamilton ennobled the family of Wishaw independently of their possession of the Belhaven title. Suppose some "claimant" had arisen and succeeded in establishing his claim to the latter title, the late Lord would still have been Lord Hamilton of Wishaw. Two volumes are before us as we write, which carry us back to the times of which we have spoken. One is Sir Robert Douglas' Peerage, at the time of the publication of which the fourth Lord Belhaven was alive, and the chief seats of the family then were (as described therein), "at Biel, near Dunbar, in East-Lothian, and Pressmanan, in the same county". The other is Hamilton of Wishaw's account of Lanark and Renfrewshires, written early in the last century; and we doubt not that the worthy gentleman who wrote it had but little idea that before the end of the century his descendants would inherit a title long connected with so different a part of the country.
	The Belhaven family have always been Hamiltons by name, for there were none of the changes of or additions to surname which are now so common, especially when a title leaves the original family and goes to another; and it may not be uninteresting to notice how thoroughly "Hamilton" they were, through numerous marriages with other families of the name. Let us take the descent of the first and second Lords:- John Hamilton of Broomhill married a daughter of Hamilton of Torrance; the next married a daughter of Hamilton of Dalserf, the next, a daughter of Hamilton of Udston; the next, a daughter of Hamilton of Kilbrachmont, in Fife; the next, daughter of Hamilton of Udston; and the next, who was the first Lord Belhaven (fourth in descent from the first named), a daughter of the Marquess of Hamilton. His daughter married Sir Robert Hamilton of Silvertounhill; and their daughter married Sir John Hamilton of Biel, who became second Lord Belhaven. So it is nothing but a record of Hamiltons.
	In concluding this sketch of the Belhaven barony we may again point out that it has been in three families - Broomhill, Biel, and Wishaw, all Hamiltons and all kindred, but quite distinct; that the Wishaw branch acquired a new title of their own, which is now extinct; and that if the present claimant succeeds it will be because he is a branch of the family of Hamilton of Wishaw, to whose title in the British Peerage, he cannot, however, succeed, as it expired with the late Lord Belhaven. It will also be remembered that there was one spurious "Lord Belhaven" who voted under that title, and that the village of Belhaven had given the title of Viscount in earlier days to a Douglas of the family of Mains.
	The House of Lords, on 2 August 1875, resolved that James Hamilton had proved his claim to the peerage.
	William Strutt, eldest son of Henry Strutt, 2nd Baron Belper (8 Feb 1875‑5 Oct 1898)
	William Strutt was the eldest son and heir of the 2nd Baron Belper. He drowned in his bath in St Louis while on a visit to America. The following report is taken from the Leicester Chronicle of 8 October 1898:-
	The Hon. William Strutt, elder son of Lord Belper, was found dead on Wednesday in his bath at the Hotel St Louis, at which he was stopping. The body was completely covered by water. Mr Strutt was last seen alive on Monday. He was born in 1875, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1896.
	A "New York Herald" despatch from St Louis says that the Hon William Strutt, when found, was lying headforemost in three feet of water, and decomposition had set in. It was at first supposed that he had committed suicide. Mr Strutt's aunt, Lady Dunmore, says, however, that her nephew was subject to fainting fits, and that he probably swooned, and fell into the bath, and was drowned. Mr Strutt went to America about six weeks ago, with his aunt and her two daughters, on a visit to friends there. He went to St Louis ten days ago. Mr Strutt, according to the "Herald", was 25 years old [sic], and of very amiable character. He was last seen alive on Monday, and it is believed that his body had been in the bath since the afternoon of that day.
	Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvidere
	For the sake of simplicity, I have referred to this peer as 'Belvidere' throughout, notwithstanding that his title was Baron Belfield between 1738 and 1751, and then Viscount Belfield between 1751 and 1756.
	After his first wife had died of smallpox, Belvidere married Mary, the 16-year-old daughter of Viscount Molesworth. At first, Belvidere's rages so frightened Mary that she escaped at night to her father's house, only to be sent back by her father (by all accounts as big a brute as her husband) in the morning. She settled down eventually and produced several children.
	Around 1743, Belvidere, while visiting London, was sent anonymously an exchange of love letters between his wife and his brother, Arthur Rochfort. When confronted, Lady Belvidere admitted everything, including the fact Belvidere's youngest son was in fact his nephew. Belvidere sought the advice of Lord Molesworth, who suggested that his daughter be transported to the West Indies as a vagabond, but Belvidere's choice of punishment proved to be even harsher - he imprisoned his wife in the family home for the next 30 years. She was allowed servants, to whom she could give orders, but they were not allowed to speak to her. She could walk in the grounds, preceded by a footman who rang a bell to keep everyone away, but she was forbidden to leave the estate. After being confined for 12 years, she managed to escape to her father's house in Dublin. Her father refused to admit her, and the next day she was sent back to Belvidere's house to resume her imprisonment.
	Her lover, Arthur Rochfort, having heard that Belvidere had threatened to shoot him, escaped to Yorkshire and then to France. Returning to Ireland 15 years later, he assumed that his brother would ignore him, but Belvidere immediately had him arrested and charged with £20,000 damages for criminal conversation. When Arthur couldn't pay, Belvidere had him thrown into debtors' prison, where he died.
	While Mary remained imprisoned in the family home, her husband was living in luxury at his new villa six miles away. Here he quarrelled with another of his brothers, George, who had established his home within sight of Belvidere's villa. So offended by this action was Belvidere that he decided to block out the view by building a sham ruin between the two properties. At huge expense, he imported a number of Italian artists to design and build a ruined abbey, complete with Gothic windows, to stand between his house and his brother's.
	When Belvidere died in 1774, Mary was at last released from her captivity, but her mind was gone. She apparently took to wandering the house and talking to portraits, as if they were real people, in a voice which had shrunk to a shrill whisper. She died shortly after her release.

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