RECTOR BECOMES EARL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1927, Page 27

RECTOR BECOMES EARL.

TITLE THAT WAS DORMANT FOR 275 YEARS. TBAGIC COURTENAYS. By the death of his brother, Lord Devon, the Rev. the Hon. Henry Hugh Courtenay, Hector of Powderham, a little village near Exeter, becomes the 15th Earl of Devon. Parson earls are nothing new in the line of the Courtenays, who are described as possessing the bluest blood in England The predecessor of the late earl worked at rector after succeeding to the title, and, indeed, drew hie stipend. Charles Pepys Courtenay, the 14th earl, who died at Powderham Castle recently, was one of the least known members of the peerage. This was largely due to the insane extravagance of his ancestor, the 12th earl, who, twice a bankrupt, squandered the family fortunes and forced his successors to live* in very straitened circumstances. For many years they were compelled to rent out their ancestral houMM, Powderham Castle and Walreddoii Manor, near The late earl, before his succession, had only his £800 a year salary as a Board of Agriculture inspector to live on, while his grandiatner (whom he succeeded in 1904) was dependent on hia stipend as village rector. ° Fifty-seven years of age, the 14th «ari like hie successor, was unmarried. J*e lived very simply, and took no part a public life. During the South African war he served with the Somerset Light JMantry and then went back to his *•«* e Board of Agriculture. iitles had no attraction for him, and When his father, Lord Courtenay, died & g J lus g ra ndfather's lifetime, he aeciined to assume the title of "Lord," ond continued to style himself Mr. T? en £ y tUI Ms succession. ine Earldom of Devon has suffered. Sμ! 7 licissitudes,I icissitud es, especially in the 5«, *Mi 6th cent «™s, when bearers w tne title were beheaded and attainted Tnt ?v reg £ laritv hardly matched in any other English noble 'family. fhL 7-! i 8 xtinct > thanks to the axo, when » 6 T^ 3 d f mant from 1550 t0 1831 > 2 *(£s*** by a bilateral branch of SSSSYISS? 7 was allowed by