Baron Burgh (; ; or ; ) is a title that has been created twice in the
Peerage of England.
The first creation was for
William de Burgh
William de Burgh (; ; ; la, de Burgo; c.1160–winter 1205/06) was the founder of the House of Burgh (later surnamed Burke or Bourke) in Ireland and elder brother of Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent and Geoffrey de Burgh, Bishop of Ely.
...
in 1327, who was later
Earl of Ulster
The title of Earl of Ulster has been created six times in the Peerage of Ireland and twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since 1928, the title has been held by the Duke of Gloucester and is used as a courtesy title by the Duke's elde ...
, and both these titles later merged with the Crown in 1461.
The second, and still existing, peerage is of uncertain date. No Burgh sat in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster ...
before 1529; the grandfather of that Lord Burgh had been summoned to the House in 1487, but did not sit; whether this was sufficient to create a
barony by writ
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of September 2022, there are 807 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons (disregarding subsidi ...
is debatable. This Barony was in
abeyance
Abeyance (from the Old French ''abeance'' meaning "gaping") is a state of expectancy in respect of property, titles or office, when the right to them is not vested in any one person, but awaits the appearance or determination of the true owner. ...
for over three hundred years; when it was called out of abeyance, in 1916, it was accorded precedence as of 1487.
History
First creation, 1327
William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster was summoned to the English Parliament in 1327 and 1328, by writs addressed ''Willelmo de Burgh'', which, by modern law, would create a Barony of Burgh (; ).
He was also summoned in 1331 as ''Comes de Ulton' '' (that is, Earl of Ulster) for a Parliament discussing Irish affairs.
Insofar as these created English peerages, they later merged in the Crown when his descendant,
Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in Englan ...
, acceded to the throne in 1461.
Second creation, 1487 and 1529
Sir
Thomas Burgh of Gainsborough
Sir Thomas Burgh (; (pronounced: ''Borough''; c.1431 – 18 March 1496), KG was an English gentleman.
In records, the peerage, and genealogy books he is shown as being created 1st Lord Burgh, of Gainsborough on 1 September 1487. He was sev ...
(; ), a distinguished Yorkist, was summoned to the Parliament of 1487 under
Henry VII of England
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, ...
; there is no evidence that he attended. Some three weeks later, Henry VII signed a warrant ordering a writ to be issued for him, since the King intended to raise him to the pre-eminence of Barony, but no second writ was issued, nor was a patent. He was issued writs, but did not attend Parliament, for the rest of his life, until 1496; official documents call him a knight, not a peer.
His son, Sir
Edward Burgh was never summoned to the House of Lords, although he was elected to the House of Commons in his father's lifetime. In 1510, he was found a lunatic, being "distracted of memorie." His wife was
Anne Cobham, by modern doctrine
Baroness Cobham of Sterborough.
In the third generation, Sir Thomas Burgh, Sir Edward's son, was summoned to the first Parliament after his father's death, and admitted on 2 December 1529. In the sixteenth century, this was treated as a new creation; Thomas, Baron Burgh, yielded precedence to the Barons
Hussey,
Windsor,
Wentworth, all created 1 and 2 December 1529.
By modern law, the events of 1487 would not normally constitute a creation, for the elder Sir Thomas never sat as a peer; nevertheless, in 1916, the revived peerage was given precedence as of 1487. Sources vary, therefore, in calling the younger Sir Thomas 1st or 3rd Baron Burgh; this article calls him 1st, ''de jure'' 3rd.
Abeyance
The most prominent of the Lords Burgh,
Thomas Burgh, 3rd Baron Burgh
Thomas Burgh, 3rd Baron Burgh Knight of the Garter, KGCharles Mosley, editor, ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage'', 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 58 ...
, grandson of the baron of 1529, was
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland. The plural form is ...
; when he died in 1597, he left four daughters, all of whom married and had children, and an infant son. When his son died at the age of eight, the barony of Burgh (according to modern law) went into
abeyance
Abeyance (from the Old French ''abeance'' meaning "gaping") is a state of expectancy in respect of property, titles or office, when the right to them is not vested in any one person, but awaits the appearance or determination of the true owner. ...
between the daughters. By this, each daughter had a quarter share of the barony, which she transmitted to her heir; none of them holds the barony unless
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differen ...
decides which of the four co-heirs is to have it; in this case it was not decided until 1916. (The first exercise of this power was in 1604, two years after the death of the young Baron, in the case of
Baron le Despencer
Baron le Despencer is a title that has been created several times by writ in the Peerage of England.
Creation
Sir Hugh le Despenser I was a large landowner in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland. He was appointed High S ...
.)
The eldest daughter of the Lord Deputy, Elizabeth, had married
George Brooke, who was executed and attainted in 1603, for his part in the
Bye Plot
The Bye Plot of 1603 was a conspiracy, by Roman Catholic priests and Puritans aiming at tolerance for their respective denominations, to kidnap the new English King, James I of England. It is referred to as the "bye" plot, because at the time it ...
against
King James I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...
; he was heir to
Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham
Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham KG (22 November 1564 – 24 January 1618 (Old Style)/3 February 1618 (New Style), lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was an English peer who was implicated in the Main Plot against the rule of James I of Englan ...
, who was also attainted for his part in the
Main Plot
The Main Plot was an alleged conspiracy of July 1603 by English courtiers to remove King James I from the English throne and to replace him with his cousin Lady Arbella Stuart. The plot was supposedly led by Lord Cobham and funded by the Spanish ...
. None of this affected Elizabeth Brooke's rights, and the abeyance was eventually resolved in favour one of her descendants; but her family was not welcomed by King James or his son: William Brooke, her son, was restored in blood in 1610, but not to the Barony of Cobham; he did not request the Barony of Burgh.
The second daughter, Anne, married Sir
Drew Drury; the third daughter married
Francis Coppinger, whose descendant has changed his name to de Burgh; the fourth daughter Katherine married
Thomas Knyvett
Sir Thomas Knyvett (also Knevitt or Knivet or Knevet), of Buckenham, Norfolk (c. 1485 – 10 August 1512) was a young English nobleman who was a close associate of King Henry VIII shortly after that monarch came to the throne. According to Hal ...
, who was also (by modern law)
Baron Berners
Baron Berners is a hereditary peerage, barony created by writ in the Peerage of England.
From creation to first abeyance (1455–1693)
The barony was created in 1455 for Sir John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, John Bourchier, youngest son of Wi ...
.
The inheritance of the Barony of Cobham and Elizabeth Brooke's quarter of the Barony of Burgh is discussed under
Baron Cobham
The title Baron Cobham has been created numerous times in the Peerage of England; often multiple creations have been extant simultaneously, especially in the fourteenth century.
The earliest creation was in 1313 for Henry de Cobham, 1st Bar ...
; this is not the Barony of Cobham of
Sterborough
Starborough Castle, known historically as Sterborough Castle, is a Neo-Gothic garden house of dressed sandstone near the eastern boundary of Surrey, built in 1754 by Sir James Burrow. It occupies the north-eastern portion of an artificial isla ...
held by Edward Burgh's wife, above, although the families are related.
Inheritance and revival
By the late eighteenth century, Elizabeth Brooke's inheritance was again united in Sir William Boothby, 4th Baronet; when he died in 1787, the quarter of the Barony of Burgh, and the heirship to Cobham, passed to his only sister, Mrs. Mary Disney.
She had six daughters, three of whom had children.
Barons Burgh, First Creation (1327)
*
William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, 1st Baron Burgh.
''de jure'' Barons Burgh, Second Creation (1487–1529)

*
Thomas Burgh, ''de jure'' 1st Baron Burgh (1431- 1496)
*
Edward Burgh, ''de jure'' 2nd Baron Burgh (1464-1528)
Barons Burgh, Second Creation (1529)
*
Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh
Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh also spelt ''Borough'', KG (; ; pronounced: ''Borough''; c. 1488 – 28 February 1550), 1st Baron Borough of Gainsborough, also ''de jure'' 5th Baron Strabolgi and 7th Baron Cobham of Sterborough, was an English ...
(1488-1550), by the decision of 1916 3rd Baron.
*
William Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh or 4th Baron(1522–1584).
*
Thomas Burgh, 3rd Baron Burgh
Thomas Burgh, 3rd Baron Burgh Knight of the Garter, KGCharles Mosley, editor, ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage'', 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 58 ...
or 5th Baron (1558–1597). Ambassador to Scotland, Lord Deputy in Ireland.
*
Robert Burgh, 4th Baron Burgh or 6th baron (1594–1602).
:By modern law, title abeyant 1602
Barons Burgh, Second Creation (1529; Revived 1916)
*
Alexander Henry Leith, 5th Baron Burgh
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
(1866–1926) (abeyance terminated 1916) married secondly Phyllis (1892-1972) (daughter of Mark Henry George Goldie), with whom son, 6th baron.
*
Alexander Leigh Henry Leith, 6th Baron Burgh (1906–1959)
*
Alexander Peter Willoughby Leith, 7th Baron Burgh (1935–2001)
*
Alexander Gregory Disney Leith, 8th Baron Burgh (b. 1958)
The
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
is the present holder's son
Alexander James Strachan Leith (b. 1986).
See also
*
Baron Strabolgi
Baron Strabolgi (pronounced "Strabogie") is a title in the Peerage of England supposedly created in 1318 for Scottish lord David of Strathbogie, 10th Earl of Atholl. Despite lack of evidence supporting its existence, it was called out of abeyan ...
*
Baron Cobham (1313 creation)
Re-enactment
Sir Thomas Lord Burgh K.G.'s Retinue (1460–1496)''Historical Interpretation and Living History from the Wars of the Roses''
City of Lincoln Waites''The Mayor of Lincoln's Own Band of Musick''
References
Attribution
*
*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgh
1327 establishments in England
Baronies in the Peerage of England
Noble titles created in 1327
Noble titles created in 1529