Mother of multiple peers question

[bx...@yahoo.com]

The recent engagement of the heir to the 10th Viscount Exmouth prompted this question.

The Viscount's son and ha is the Hon. Edward, whose mother is Rosemary Scoones.  She is also, through her first marriage to the now 14th Duke of St. Albans, the mother of his son and ha, the Hon. Charles.

This means, in due course, she will be the mother of both the Duke of St. Albans and Viscount Exmouth.

Of the top of my head, I can recall this happening with Anne Messel, who was both the mother of the 1st Earl of Snowdon and the current (7th) Earl of Rosse.

Does anyone have any other examples of this happening within the hereditary peerage only?

Thanks.

Brooke

[dpth...@gmail.com]

Famously one of the Gunning sisters was mother of two Dukes of Hamilton and Brandon as well as mother of two Dukes of Argyll.

[dpth...@gmail.com]

An interesting commentary by Horace Walpole on the creation of the Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll as an English Baroness:

"Singular was the fortune of the Duchess of Argyll. She and her sister the celebrated Lady Coventry were Irish girls (Gunning) of no fortune, and scarce gentlewomen but by their mother. They had been designed for the stage. The wonderful beauty of their faces and persons had captivated the Earl of Coventry and Duke Hamilton. The younger had preserved the fairest reputation; and on Duke Hamilton's death she was sought in marriage by the Duke of Bridgewater, but preferred the Duke of Argyll and became mother of both those formerly great and contending houses; and now by the favour of the Queen, to whom she was lady of the bedchamber, and with whom she had been so ill two years before as to have thought of quitting her place, became from an Irish girl the source of new honour to the proud House of Hamilton. That Duke and the Duke of Queensberry had English Dukedoms, but had been excluded from seats in Parliament, though the latter had enjoyed his. This Barony seemed to allow that rejection, though neither had ever condescended to be of the sixteen, and was hard on Queensberry, though of little consequence, as he was past seventy and had no children. Yet there was something childishly contradictory in this new Barony to that of Lord Mountstewart, conferred at the same moment. His mother, Lady Bute, had been created a Baroness at the beginning of the reign, that it might descend to him; yet some lawyers having started a doubt, whether, if his father should die before his mother, Lord Mountstewart, then a Scotch peer, could inherit, an English peerage was prepared for Duke Hamilton, who was already a Scotch peer -- so little consistence was there in the acts of the Court."  

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Paul, thanks, very interesting.

Just our of curiosity, what time frame are we talking about ?

Brooke.

[dpth...@gmail.com]

she married Hamilton in 1752 and Argyll in 1759 (though he was plain "Mister Campbell" in 1759, becoming Marquess of Lorne in 1761 and Duke only in 1770).

[Peter FitzGerald]

This is excessive pedantry on my part, but he was "Colonel Campbell", rather than "Mr Campbell", and then became "General Campbell" later that year.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Thanks, Paul.

Brooke

[pyvery]

In recent times I think that there are two cases

1) Pamela Warburton 1915-2010 was the mother of the 4th Earl of Selborne and the current 5th Baron Newton

2) Pamela Shuttleworth was the mother of the current 6th Earl of Stradbroke and the 18th Baron Zouche who died in 2022.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Thanks for these additions, pyvery.

Brooke

[Eleanor Doughty]

Another is the current Countess De La Warr, who is mother to the future 5th Marquess of Linlithgow and the future 12th Earl De La Warr 

[malcolm davies]

Another to add to the list is Lady Astor of Hever. She was born Lady Violet Eliot-Murray-Kynynmound daughter of the 4th Earl of Minto. She married firstly Lord Charles Mercer Nairn Petty-Fitzmaurice and was by him the mother of the 8th Marquess of Lansdowne and a daughter Margaret who married into the Middletons of Chirk in North Wales. After he was killed in action,she married John Jacob Astor,1st Lord Astor of Hever and was the mother of Gavin,2nd Lord Astor of Hever and two other sons.

[Richard R]

An obvious addition is Hon Anne HILL 1742-1831 d of 1^st Viscount DUNGANNON d 1771 and wife of 1^st Earl of MORNINGTON 1735-81 and was mother of (among others):

1. Richard WELLESLEY 1760-1842 who succ his f 1781 as 2^nd Earl of MORNINGTON and was cr 1797 1^st & only Baron WELLESLEY OF WELLESLEY, and cr 1799 1^st & only Marquess WELLESLEY OF NORRAGH.

2. William WELLESLEY-POLE 1763-1845 cr 1^st Baron MARYBOROUGH 1821 & succ his bro as 3^rd Earl of MORNINGTON in 1842.

3. Arthur WELLESLEY 1769-1852 cr successively 1^st Baron DOURO OF WELLESLEY & 1^st Viscount WELLESLEY &c (1809), 1^st Earl of WELLINGTON (Feb 1812), 1^st Marquess of WELLINGTON (Oct 1812) & 1^st Duke of WELLINGTON &c (1814)

4. Henry WELLESLEY 1773-1847 cr 1828 the 1^st Baron COWLEY OF WELLESLEY who was f of 1^st Earl COWLEY 1804-84

Also of interest is the following note from the Complete Peerage vol 2 p264 sub Boyle of Kinalmeaky

"The four eldest [surv.] sons of the [1^st] Earl of Cork [by his 2^nd w Catherine Fenton d 1643] are said to have been popularly distinguished, as

(1) Richard the Rich  afterwards 2nd Earl of Cork [I] cr. in 1664, Earl of Burlington;

(2) Lewis the Valiant (cr. in 1628, Viscount Boyle of Kinalmeaky [I];

(3) Roger the Wise, (cr. in 1628, Baron Boyle of Broghill [I], and in 1660, Earl of Orrery [I]; and

(4) Francis the Just, (cr. in 1660, Viscount Shannon [I]....

 The only parallel cases are

 (A) that of Sir William Bourchier, Count of Eu [by his w (her 3^rd h) Anne [see note below] d of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester], all of whose sons, to the number of 4, were peers of the realm and sat together in ParI., i.e.

(I) Henry, Count of Eu, cr. Earl of Essex 1461,

(2) Thomas, Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury,

(3) Sir William Bourchier, K.G., sum. to ParI. as Lord FitzWarine,

(4) Sir John Bourchier, K.G., sum. to ParI. as Lord Berners...

Note: Anne’s 2^nd husband was the 5^th Earl of Stafford by whom she had a son the 7^th Earl of STAFFORD who was cr 1444 1^st Duke of BUCKINGHAM, which brings to five the tally of sons who were members of the House of Lords.

(B) That of the 1st Earl of Mornington [I] [see above]

[C] That of Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland [by his 2^nd w (her 2^nd h) Joan Beaufort d of John of Gaunt, see note below], no less than 13 of his relatives sitting together in the House of Lords from 1450 to 1455, i.e., 4 of his sons-in-law, 4 of his grandsons, and 5 of his sons, the latter being

(I) Richard, Earl of Salisbury,

(2) George, Lord Latimer,

(3) William, Lord Fauconberg,

(4) Edward, Lord Abergavenny,

(5) Robert, Bishop of Durham.” 

Note: Joan Beaufort's 1st h was the Baron Botelier of Wem and had two daus, co-heirs of their father.

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Thank you, Eleanor, malcolm and Richard!

Brooke

[S. S.]

Elizabeth (b ca 1720; d 29 June 1792) was eldest daughter of Henry Drax MP, of Ellerton Abbey, Yorks (b ca 1693; d 24 May 1755). She married firstly on 7 May 1744, Augustus Berkeley, 4th Earl of Berkeley, and had an elder son, Frederick Augustus Berkeley, 5th Earl of Berkeley. She married secondly on 2 January 1757, Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent [I], by whom she had a daughter, Lady Mary Elizabeth, 1st Baroness Nugent [I], who subsequently married George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, and was thus mother of the 2nd Marquess of Buckingham and 2nd Baron Nugent (her second son by him inherited her peerage by special remainder). 

S.S.

[Henry W]

Hon Eleanor EGERTON (1770 - 1846), dau of 1st (and last) Baron GREY DE WILTON [created 1st Earl of WILTON 1801], m 1794 Viscount BELGRAVE (later 2nd Earl of GROSVENOR, and created 1st Marquess of WESTMINSTER 1831).  With him she had issue:

2nd Marquess of WESTMINSTER (1795 - 1869), succeeded his father

2nd Earl of WILTON (1799 - 1882), succeeded his maternal grandfather according to special remainder.
1st Baron EBURY (1801 - 1893), created 1857

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Thank you, S.S. and Henry.

The Wilton connection with the Westminster title (the Marquessate, not the dukedom) is apparent today, as it is the 8th Earl of Wilton who is the heir presumptive to the Duke of Westminster's marquessate.

It appears, with the announcement today of the Duke 's marriage a little less than a year from now, the earliest we might see an heir to the dukedom is spring 2025.

Brooke