AMERICAN PEERS

Evening Star, Issue 19128, 21 December 1925, Page 3

AMERICAN PEERS

INHERITORS OF ENGLISH TITLES FOUR ONLY OH RECORD When 0. H. Wallop, former member of the Wyoming Legislature and a naturalised American citizen, goes to England to become formally the eighth Earl of Portsmouth, Viscount Lymington, Baron Wallop, he will have ample precedent, for he is the fourth American to inherit a British title (states the New York ‘Times.’ In nearly all the previous instances the American Lord, on acquiring the title through the death of a relative, has said he would keep his American citizenship. The Wyoming carl said that, too. They have not always followed their intention, however. The “ American peers,” besides the Wyoming rancher, are the Earl of Camperdown, Lord Permoy, and Lord Fairfax. These are not the only foreigners who have taken a place in the British Peerage. Holland and Italy have both contributed to the House of Lords within recent years., the former giving Lord Rcay, chief of the Clan Maokay; Born in Holland, he was in the diplomatic service of that country, and was chamberlain to the Queen of the Netherlands, but after he took the British title which belonged to his family ho became Governor of Bombay and eventually Under-Secretary of State for India. The Italian instance was that of the Earl of Newburgh, wlio.se daughter, •ady Isabella, married Sir Esmc How- . -d, British Ambassador to the United States. Lord Newburgh, Scotch on his father’s side, Italian on his mother's, was horn Prince Charles Banclini, Duke of Mondragone, Marquis of Bandini and of Rustano, and besides being Viscount Kynnaird, he was Baron Livingstone. After his British naturalisation he continued to live in Rome. STL LI; A BOSTONIAN,

Of tlin Americans, one also resolutely kept. liis original address. When the Karl of Camperdown, fourth holder of a title created in 1831, succeeded his brother in 1918 the reference hooks continued to list his addre.ss as Commonwealth avenue, Boston, and ho continued to prefer being called George Haldane-Dnncan, a Bostonian, making a yearly trip to England. He was born in 1815. and in 1888 married Airs Blanchard, a daughter of John Hove, of Andover, Mass. He inherited an older title (1797) as well as the earldom, being Viscount and Baron Duncan. Albert. Kirby Fairfax, member of a Virginia family that went hack through six generations of American history, herame Baron Fairfax of (,'ameron in 1008 at the a.ge of thirtyseven. He. was the only American peer. Re was then a member of a Wall street firm, which he had represented in London. Some years before ho assumed the title ho took his place as a peer at the coronation of King Edward, yet he was then :m American citizen. This twelfth Baron Fairfax, holding a, title that dates from 1627, was the son of Dr John (lontoo Fairfax. who married a daughter of Colonel Edmund Kirby. United States of America. The Fairfax family is said to have furnished part, of the mi.se on scone to Thackeray for ‘The Virginians,’ and earlier than that Aliiton wrote of one of them, a great figure in iho English revolution, as one “ whose name in arms through Europe rings.” The fifth Fairfax peer had acquired by marriage a. 5,700,000 acre tract in Virginia; the sixth settled on it; the seventh sent his cousin to America in his place. Later members ol the family intermarried with the Washingtons and the Lees. FRANK WORK'S GRANDSONS. The ease of Baron Fcrmoy Is more recent than that of Fairfax. He was Edmund Maurice Burko-Rochc, one of the Burkc-Rochc twins, of New York. He assumed the barony in 1920. and in 1922 stood unsuccessfully for Parliament. His brother is Francis, younger by a few minutes. Their mother was the daughter of Frank Work, New York broker, who, in willing his millions, stipulated that the boys should change their name to his and keep the United States as their legal residence. The title, with 20.000 acres in County Limerick, came from their father, James Booth by Bnrkelloehe, who came to America in 1878, at the age of twenty-six. In 1890 Frances Work divorced Burke-Rocbe in Delaware. Some years later, in an election in Ireland, ho was assailed as a divorced man, but. he fought and won a libel suit on the ground that the American divorce lu»tf no standing on the other side of the Atlantic. American rulings, however, have taken a different view. The twins were working in railroad and banking offices, when the elder took the title. The asumption is not always easy, nor does it always carry a scat in the House of Lords. This last circumstance permits, it is said, retention of a foreign citizenship. The more routine of securing a title carries heavy expenses, the foes of procedure being high, and the fees also of such lawyers as arc qualified to appear. It may all run to several thousand pounds. in the case of Baron Fair-fax, his right was not contested. It was necessary, however, that he petition the House of Lords that his right to the title, honor, and dignity of Lord Fairfax of Cameron be*declared and established. The Committee on gravely con sidered the Fairfax family Bible and many witnesses; the Attorney-General and the Ford Advocate for Scotland (Fairfax of Cameron being a representative Scotch poor) expressed themselves as satisfied, and the Lord duel Justice pronounced the decision ol the committee. This, was only a recommendation to Hie King. The outcome in itself gave no seat in the Lords, as not all Scotch peers sit Scotland is represented by sixteen, sent by Scot land after election or through Jiqroditarv or ex-officio right. Baron Fairfax hold the title nine years before lie sat in the House of 1/ords, in 1917.^ In the latest instance the New Earl of Portsmouth lias said ho wants 1o keep American citizenship acquired in 1901. If he wishes to lake Ids seat in the House of Lords, however, he, must take the oath of allegiance to the King. When he first learned lhat lie, the "third son, had unexpectedly come into the title, he said that, as the situation had been explained to him, it would take him seven years to re-estab-lish his stains as a British subject. He declared ho wished to keep his American status, friendships, and holdings, but would not decide on details of his course until after spending some time in F ngland on a visit which he arranged to begin in November. He married' the daughter of S. W. Walker, oi Kentucky. His American-born heir married the daughter of IV. R. Post, of Rayport, L.I. , The list of American title-holders could he extended by the inclusion of lesser ranks. Among these instances is that of Gertrude Eliott. Americanborn, who married Johnson ForbesRobertson, the actor, who was made a knmht in 1913. Another ease is that of an Indiana man, who was a division superintendent for the Pennsylvania and later general superintendent of the Lone Island Hail road. Now he is Sir Henry IV- Thornton. K.8.E., who was knighted in 1919, before ho was called from English railroads, to which he had gone front the Long Island Railroad, to head the Canadian National Railways.