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From: "sarah" <>
Subject: [CUL] Magna Britannia - Nobility of the County lv-lviii
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 17:54:16 -0500


Nobility of the County.

lv
Title of Cumberland.

RANULPH DE MESCHINES[f], is by some, said to have been made Earl of
Cumberland by William the Conqueror; others say Earl of Carlisle. Henry,
Lord Clifford[g], was created Earl of Cumberland in 1525. The title became
extinct by the death of Henry, the fifth Earl, in 1643. The following year
King Charles created his cousin, Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland; the
title became extinct at his death, in 1682. Prince George of Denmark,
created Duke of Cumberland in 1689, died in 1708. Prince William Augustus,
son of King George II. was created Duke of Cumberland in 1723; dying without
issue in 1765, the title was revived in the person
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[f] Arms. – Or, a lion rampant, Gules.
[g] Arms. – Checky, Or, and Azure, a fesse, Gules.

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lvi

of Prince Henry Frederick, His present Majesty’s brother, who died without
issue in 1790. In 1799 Prince Ernest Augustus, His Majesty’s fifth son, was
created Duke of Cumberland, and still enjoys that title.

HOWARD, Duke of Norfolk. – The noble family of Howard first became
connected with this county by the marriage of Philip, Earl of Arundel, and
Lord William Howard, sons of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded in
1572, with Anne and Elizabeth, sisters and coheiresses of George, Lord
Dacre, Baron of Greystock and Gilsland, who died in 1569. On a partition of
the property the Earl of Arundel became possessed of Greystock, which
barony[f] has ever since been one of the titles of his noble descendants.
Henry Frederic, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1652, father of Thomas, Earl of
Arundel, who was restored to the title of Duke of Norfolk, settled the
Greystock estate on his fourth son, the Honourable Charles Howard. Upon the
death of Edward, Duke of Norfolk, without issue, in 1777, Charles Howard,
Esq. of Greystock, grandson of the above-mentioned Charles, succeeded to the
dukedom, and was father of Charles, the present duke, who occasionally
resides at the ancient castellated mansion of Greystock.
Arms: - Quarterly 1. Gules, on a bend, between six cross crosslets,
fitchee, Argent, an escutcheon Or, therein a demi-lion rampant, (pierced
through the mouth with an arrow,) within a double tressure,
flory-counter-flory, Gules, (being an augmentation granted in remembrance of
the victory over the Scots at Floddon Field). Howard. 2. G. three lions
passant-guardant in pale. O, a label of three points in chief Argent.
Brotherton. 3. Checky O. and Az. Warren. 4. G. a lion rampant

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[f] John de Greystock, whose ancestors had long possessed the barony of
Greystock, was summoned to parliament 23 Edward I. Ralph, the last Lord
Greystock, of this family, died in 1487; his grand-daughter and sole
heiress, Elizabeth Greystock, married Thomas, Lord Dacre.
Arms of Greystock: - Barry of six. Arg. and Azure; three chaplets, Or.
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lvii

Arg. armed and langued Az. Mowbray. Behind the whole, two marshals, staves
in saltire, O. enamelled at each end, Sab. having the King’s arms at the
upper, and those of Howard at the lower end, being the badge of the
hereditary office of Earl Marshal.
Crest: - On a chapeau G. turned up, Erm. a lion statant guardant O. (his
tail extended) gorged with a ducal coronet Arg.
Supporters: - On the dexter side a lion, and on the sinister a horse,
both Arg. the latter holding a slip of oak, fructed, Proper.

HOWARD, Earl of Carlisle. – Charles Howard, great great grandson of Lord
William, who, as before-mentioned, married one of the coheiresses of Lord
Dacre of Gilsland; after that title had lain dormant nearly a hundred
years[g], was in 1661 created Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and Earl of Carlisle.
The present Earl, Frederick Howard, is the fifth lineal possessor of these
honors, and proprietor of the barony of Gilsland, and of Naworth Castle, the
ancient baronial seat, in which he keeps a few rooms, fitted up for his
occasional residence.
Arms and crest: - The same as those of the Duke of Norfolk, with a mullet
for difference.
Supporters: - On the dexter side a lion Arg. with a mullet, on the
sinister a bull, G. armed, unguled, and ducally gorged and chained, Or.

WYNDHAM, Earl of Egremont. – Algernon Seymour, Duke of Somerset, having
inherited from his mother, the heiress of Percy, Earl of Northumberland, the
barony of Lucy, and the honours of Cockermouth and Egremont, in Cumberland,
was in 1749 created Baron Cockermouth of Cockermouth, and Earl of Egremont,
with remainder to his nephew Sir Charles Wyndham, Bart. of Orchard-Wyndham,
in the county of Somerset. The duke died in 1750, when Sir Charles Wyndham
became Earl of Egremont, and dying in 1763, was succeeded by his son George,
the second Earl, who
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[g] Ranulph de Dacre, who married the heiress of the barony of Gilsland,
was summoned to parliament 1 Edward II. After the heiress of Thomas, the
sixth Lord Dacre, had carried away the inheritance of great part of the
estate, and her husband, Sir Richard Fynes, had been declared Lord Dacre, 37
Henry VI. the male heirs continued to be summoned to parliament, and were
distinguished by the appellation of the Lords Dacre of the North. After the
death of George, Lord Dacre, the last male heir, in 1569, the title lay
dormant, till revived in the descendant in the female line, as
above-mentioned.
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lviii

possesses a considerable estate in this county, and the ancient castles of
Cockermouth and Egremont. The latter is wholly in ruins; in the former are
one or two rooms, occasionally occupied by its noble owner.
Arms: - Azure, a chevron between three lions’ heads, erased, Or.
Crest: - A lion’s head, erased, within a fetterlock, Or.
Supporters – On the dexter side a lion rampant, Azure, winged, Or; on the
sinister side, a griffin, Argent, gutté de Sang.

LOWTHER, Earl of Lonsdale. – The ancient family of Lowther, who, from a
remote period, had been seated at Lowther, in the adjoining county of
Westmorland, appear to have been first connected with this county in the
reign of Edward I. when Sir Hugh Lowther, the King’s Attorney General, was
possessed of the manor of Wythorp, and purchased Newton-Regny of Robert
Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells. There were mansions on both these
estates; Wythorp-hall was certainly for a considerable time one of the seats
of the Lowther family. From the time above-mentioned the Lowthers frequently
appear in the lists of sheriffs and knights of the shire. In the list of
gentry of the county returned by the commissioners in the 12th year of Henry
VI. we find four branches of this ancient family described as resident in
Cumberland; Sir Hugh Lowther, who was at the field of Agincourt with King
Henry V.; William Lowther[h], of Crookdake; John Lowther, of Allerby (in
Aspatria); and William Lowther, of Rose. These probably are all long ago
extinct, except that of Sir Hugh, who was then the head of the family. Sir
Christopher, the second son of his immediate descendant Sir John Lowther, of
Lowther, who died in 1637, settled at Whitehaven, and was created a baronet
in 1641. This branch became extinct by the death of Sir James, the fourth
baronet, in 1755, when the Whitehaven estate devolved under his will to Sir
James Lowther[i], who had before succeeded to the Lowther estate and a
baronet’s title on the death of Henry Viscount Lonsdale[k], in 1750. Sir
James Lowther was in 1784, created Baron Lowther,

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[h] Son probably of Sir William Lowther of Crookdake, who was sheriff of
Cumberland in the reign of Henry IV. Sir William was second son of Sir John,
(temp. Edward III.)
[i] Sir James Lowther was descended from Robert Lowther, of Meaburn, in
Westmorland, second surviving son of Sir John Lowther, who was created a
baronet in 1640.
[k] This Lord Lonsdale, by whose death the elder branch became extinct,
was son of Sir John Lowther, Bart. who had been created Viscount Lonsdale in
1696. His grand-father, Sir John Lowther, of Lowther, had been created a
Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1640.


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