Hon James Robert Napier 1966-2025

[pyvery]

the hon James Robert Napier the heir of the 6 th baron died on 

3 rd January .

I know that he had a daughter but I am not sure if he also had a son from his second marriage.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Hi pyvery.

Do you have any more information about his death?  I couldn't find any obituaries.

DPB Online still lists him as the ha.  He is listed as "married and has living issue."  Nothing further.

thepeerage.com says he married Jacqueline Stephen, daughter of A. Stephen in 1992, but no issue of the marriage is shown.

Brooke

[Henry W]

https://wincollsoc.org/news/ow-obituaries/309/309-Old-Wykehamist-Obituaries-

James Robert Napier (G, 1979-83)
Died on 3 January, age 58.

My print edition copy of Debrett's records that Hon James Robert attended Winchester College, so this identification is correct.

I believe the heir is now Hon Andrew Percival NAPIER (born 1947), brother of the 6th Baron. There are no young heirs to this title with further heirs born 1953 and 1936.

[pyvery]

His second marriage was noted in an earlier post there was no issue from the first marriage

He went to WInchester College and his death is recorded by them 

I don’t know if an obituary notice was put into a national newspae

[Patricia Light]

 
The 2019 printed edition of DPB lists his 2nd marriage in 2013 to Katherine Barlow & a daughter Lyla was born in 2016

[Henry W]

See this post - it suggests, but does not confirm, the existence of a son of Hon James; if correct, this son is now heir apparent.

[Henry W]

See also the Kershaw hereditary peers list 1 July 2025

This lists the title as B 2014, indicating that the young heir is believed to be in remainder.  Will be interesting to see what Oliver Roost does on the Unterstein listing.  For my own listing I am retaining the title on the endangered list, with a note stating there may be an heir.

[pyvery]

Fromm family source I understand that the only issue from the second marriage was a daughter

[bx...@yahoo.com]

All eyes on DPB Online too, to see who they determine to be the ha or hp.

Brooke

[Richard R]

Just to name the possible apparent heir from Henry W's link to the earlier post as Harry Thomas NAPIER b 2014 reg Q3 Southampton. But please note I've just checked the GRO birth index and this is not listed as a birth on that index - or am I not searching correctly?

[Patricia Light]

I agree with you Richard, Lyla Hinemoa is reg Southampton 2016 - so don't know where Harry Thomas Napier came from

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Richard,

I searched the GRO index as well, and couldn't find him  either.  I thought it was just me, but reading that you couldn't find it either, just confirms my suspicions.  Unless maybe Harry was born in Scotland, or elsewhere?

Unless someone finds evidence to the contrary, it appears the baron's younger brother, the Hon. Andrew Perceval (b. 1947) is hp.  The only other male in the line of succession (on the DPB Online website) is the youngest brother, the Hon. Michael Elibank (b. 1953).

Brooke

[Henry W]

Agreed that there is nothing in the GRO that matches my original post from 2023.  I am a bit at a loss to explain this - I'm not in the habit of just making things up, always give an indication of the source (which would be the GRO given the context of a Southampton Q3 2014 birth), and tend to be very careful about posting a youngster's full name, usually only reserving this for heirs in line.  My only thought is that something has been removed from the GRO public search.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Henry, I was thinking they might have removed it as well, because I didn't think you made it up out of thin air.   

Would GRO be permitted to do that?

Brooke

[Richard R]

I'm not aware of any circumstances in which the GRO could retrospectively be changed to remove details of an individual's birth.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Henry, you mentioned that Stephen Kershaw's recent list mentioned that the heir was born 2014.

Maybe he has a separate source about this heir?

Brooke

[Henry W]

I agree that a removal from the underlying register is impossible.  I think a removal from the publicly searchable index is; I think an amendment to the search index to correct a mistake on the index is possible.

There were definitely changes to what could be seen on the Scotland's People website at one point (Independent 2023 article) and I wonder whether this can happen with the GRO.

Of course we should not rule out that somehow I misread between multiple searches that I was doing in the same time frame.  I would emphasise that I would not knowingly mislead the group, and usually include qualifiers if I am at all on the fence about something I've found.  I've done a few searches that I could have made a mistake on (searching for a death instead, searching for the parent's surnames reversed, etc), but not spotted something that I might have misconstrued.

[Richard R]

Thanks Henry. There's clearly an explaination for this somewhere but it definitely isn't to do with your abilities as a multiple poster to this group! I've often posted something with the deliberate intention that others should pick it up and make any additions, amends etc. The important thing is to get stuff out there so that we can all work on it.

[Patricia Light]

This title has now been updated and reflects Hon James's death but no heir indicated, obviously more work is required so we still await to see who DPB decides who is heir

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Hi Patricia.

Thanks for word of the update.

Apparently, DPB Online is as confused as we are!  :)

Brooke