Earldom of Aylesford | |
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Creation date | 1714 |
Created by | George I |
Peerage | Peerage of Great Britain |
First holder | Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford |
Present holder | Charles Finch-Knightley, 12th Earl of Aylesford |
Heir apparent | James Daniel Finch-Knightley, Lord Guernsey |
Remainder to | heirs male |
Subsidiary titles | Baron Guernsey |
Seat(s) | Packington Hall |
Motto | Aperto vivere voto ("To live in open faith") |
Earl of Aylesford, in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1714 for the lawyer and politician Heneage Finch, 1st Baron Guernsey. He had already been created Baron Guernsey in the Peerage of England in 1703. Finch was the younger son of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham and the great-grandson of Elizabeth Heneage, 1st Countess of Winchilsea. Lord Aylesford's eldest son, the second Earl, represented Maidstone and Surrey in Parliament. In 1712, he married Mary Fisher, daughter of Sir Clement Fisher, 3rd Baronet. Through this marriage Packington Hall in Warwickshire came into the Finch family. Their son, the third Earl, sat as a Member of Parliament for Leicestershire and Maidstone. His eldest son, the fourth Earl, represented Castle Rising and Maidstone in the House of Commons, and after entering the House of Lords on his father's death, served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1783 to 1804 and as Lord Steward of the Household from 1804 to 1812.
His second but eldest surviving son, the fifth Earl, was a Tory Member of Parliament for Weobly. His son, the sixth Earl, represented South Warwickshire in Parliament as a Conservative. His grandson, the tenth Earl, assumed by Royal licence his grandmother's maiden surname of Knightley in addition to that of Finch. His son, the eleventh Earl, served as Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands. As of 2015 [update] , the titles are held by the latter's son, who succeeded in 2008.
The Hon. Charles Finch, younger son of the third Earl, was Member of Parliament for Maidstone. His son Charles Griffith-Wynne (who assumed the surname of Griffith-Wynne in lieu of his patronymic), was Member of Parliament for Caernarvonshire. His son Charles Wynne sat as Member of Parliament for Caernarvon.
The family seat is Packington Hall, near Meriden, Warwickshire.
Heneage Charles Finch-Knightley, 12th Earl of Aylesford (born 27 March 1947) is the son of the 11th Earl and his wife Margaret Rosemary Tyer. Styled as Lord Guernsey from 1958, he was educated at Oundle School and Trinity College, Cambridge. [4] He is also now known as Charles Aylesford.
In 1986, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands and in 1990 was promoted to Vice-Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands, [4] from which post he retired in 2015. [5]
On 19 February 2008 he succeeded his father as Earl of Aylesford and Baron Guernsey. [5]
In 1971 Lord Guernsey, as he then was, married Penelope Anstice Crawley, daughter of Kenneth Arnold Gibbs Crawley and a niece of Aidan Crawley, and they had four daughters and one son: [4] [6]
In 1997 Lord Guernsey and his family were living at Packington Hall, Meriden. [4]
Earl of Winchilsea is a title in the Peerage of England. It has been held by the Finch-Hatton family of Kent, and united with the title of Earl of Nottingham under a single holder since 1729.
Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea was an English peer and diplomat who served as the English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1660 to 1669.
Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford, PC, KC was an English lawyer and statesman.
George Legge, 3rd Earl of Dartmouth KG, PC, FRS, styled Viscount Lewisham until 1801, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1778 to 1784.
Offchurch Bury is a manor house one mile north-west of the centre of the village of Offchurch, Warwickshire, England. It is supposed to represent the site of a palace of the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia (d.796), after which Offchurch is named, "bury" being a corruption of "burh" meaning a fortified place. William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) stated concerning the manor of Offchurch:
William Walter Legge, 5th Earl of Dartmouth, styled Viscount Lewisham until 1853, was a British peer and Conservative politician.
Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford, PC, FRS, FSA, styled Lord Guernsey between 1757 and 1777, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1772 to 1777 when he succeeded to a peerage. He was also a landscape artist.
Heneage Finch, 5th Earl of Aylesford was a British peer, the eldest son of Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford.
William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot, known as Sir William Bagot, 6th Baronet, from 1768 to 1780, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1754 to 1780. He was then raised to the peerage as Baron Bagot.
Packington Hall is a 17th-century mansion situated at Great Packington, near Meriden, Warwickshire, England the seat of the Earl of Aylesford. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Charles James Murray was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat.
William Courtenay, 1st Viscount Courtenay, also de jure 7th Earl of Devon, was a British peer. He was the son of William Courtenay, 6th Earl of Devon and 2nd Baronet Courtenay, and Lady Anne Bertie.
Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford DL, styled Lord Guernsey until 1859, was a British peer and politician.
Heneage Finch, 2nd Earl of Aylesford (1683–1757) was a British peer and member of the House of Lords, styled Lord Guernsey from 1714 to 1719.
Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, styled Lord Guernsey between 1719 and 1757, was a British peer and politician.
The Honourable John Finch, of Wornedale in Borden, Kent, was an English lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1740.
Hon. Charles Finch was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1775 to 1780.
Charles Ian Finch-Knightley, 11th Earl of Aylesford,, styled Lord Guernsey between 1940 and 1958, was a British peer.
Louisa Finch, Countess of Aylesford was an English naturalist and botanical illustrator who made studies and paintings of the plants, algae, and fungi from the Warwickshire area.
Heneage Finch, also known as Joseph Heneage Finch (1849-1885), 7th Earl of Aylesford, was a British aristocrat, a Member of the House of Lords and friend of Edward the Prince of Wales. Finch enjoyed many outdoor pursuits, and in his social circle was nicknamed "Sporting Joe."