Reading the Regency

Barons

When King Richard II made John Beauchamp de Holt Baron Kidderminster in 1387, he created the first baron by letters patent. After 1440 letters patent became the common method of creating a new barony, with many letters patent specifying descent through "heirs male of the body", although some were created specifying heirs general, which could descend through the male or female line.

A baron's title could come from a place name, a family surname, or a combination of these. The titles based on a place name are styled: "Baron...(placename)". The family did not have to live in, or have any connection to, the location, but it was often the name of a county, town or even a village where they held property. One example of this was Baron Grantley, whose family came from Grantley in Yorkshire.

Some baronies were not territorial but were family surnames. These were styled "Baron... (title)", such as the poet George Gordon Byron, known to all as Lord Byron.

A third type of barony combined surname with placename. These were slightly less common during the Regency period, but were particularly useful if a barony already existed under a common surname, or they wished to include a territorial element to their title. The Barons Sheffield of Roscommon (created 1783) might have wished to differentiate themselves from the earlier Barons Sheffield of Butterwike, whose title had become extinct in 1735.

Order of Precedence

By the Regency period, barons ranked at the bottom of the peerage, below all viscounts. They also had their own "order of precedence" within their own rank. Their place in the order was decided based on when the earliest barony was created, and what part of the country it came from. Although some of the baronies were ancient, there were no written records of those barons being summoned to Parliament, so precedent only takes into consideration the earliest recorded barons.

At the top of the list were all the earliest recorded barons created in England before the Act of Union in 1707, in order of creation. The oldest surviving barony (not including subsidiary titles of other ranks) is the Baron de Roos, who can trace his title back to 1264, and he is currently considered the Premier Baron of England.

However, during the Regency period the barony of Roos was in abeyance until 1806, after which the title was held by Charlotte Fitzgerald-de Ros, 21st Baroness de Ros until her death in 1831. Because women peers could not sit in the House of Lords, the Premiere Baron of England, sitting in the House of Lords between 1795 and 1820, was the 18th Baron Clinton.

Below them were the Lordships of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland, before the Act of Union, in order of creation. After that came those barons who had been created in England and Scotland after 1707, and then the barons of Ireland.

Beneath all those were the sixty-six barons created after the Union with Ireland in 1801-the barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

At the end of the Regency period, the most recently created barony was that given to the Baron Colchester in 1817, after fifteen years as the Speaker of the House of Commons.

In 1818 there were a total of 193 barons, not including the many baronies held as subsidiary titles by those of higher rank. Eighteen of these were held by women peeresses in their own right.

Homage Fees

Although an elevation might have been an honour granted by the king, there were fees involved for receiving or succeeding to a barony.

A newly created baron would pay £150 for the privilege of becoming a baron. When he was introduced to the House of Lords he would pay a further £9, which would have covered the cost of the ceremony and the paperwork involved. All subsequent heirs would also pay for their introduction into the House of Lords.