Lord Sherard, Baron of Leitrim, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland in 1627. The third holder of the barony would also be named Baron Harborough (1714), Viscount Sherard (1718), and Earl of Harborough (1719), with the viscountcy ending with the death of its original holder in 1732, but the other titles persisting in the family until 1859. The Sherard barony became dormant in 1931 with the death of the last known male-line family member.
The Sherard family descended from Geoffrey Sherard, of Stapleford, Leicestershire, High Sheriff of Rutland in 1468, 1480 and 1484. His son Thomas Sherard was High Sheriff of Rutland in circa 1495 and circa 1506, while in the next generation George Sherard was High Sheriff of Rutland in circa 1567. It was the grandson of this last, Sir William Sherard, of Stapleford, Leicestershire, who was elevated to the peerage in 1627. His eldest son, Bennet Sherard, who would succeed him as the 2nd Baron, sat as Member of Parliament for Leicestershire and served as Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, while a younger son, Philip Sherard, sat as Member of Parliament for Rutland. [1]
Bennet Sherard, 3rd Baron Sherard, succeeded his father the 2nd Baron, representing both Leicestershire and Rutland in Parliament and served as Lord Lieutenant of Rutland. In 1714 he was created Baron Harborough, of Harborough in the County of Leicester, with remainder to his first cousin once removed, Philip Sherard (son of Bennet Sherard, in turn son of the 1st Baron's younger son, Philip Sherard, MP). In 1718 he was made Viscount Sherard, of Stapleford in the County of Leicester, with normal remainder to the heirs male of his body, and was further honoured in 1719 when he was made Earl of Harborough, with similar remainder as for the barony of Harborough. All three titles were in the Peerage of Great Britain. Lord Harborough was childless and the viscountcy consequently became extinct on his death in 1732. He was succeeded in the other titles by his aforementioned cousin. [1]
Philip Sherard, 2nd Earl and Baron Harborough, and 4th Baron Sherard, had previously represented Rutland in Parliament and also served as Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland. Two of his sons, Bennet, the 3rd Earl, and Robert, the 4th, also succeeded in turn to the Sherard barony, while a younger son, Philip(died 1790), was a Lieutenant-General in the British Army. Robert was succeeded by his son Philip and grandson Robert Sherard, the 6th and last Earl of Harborough, and 8th Baron Sherard. [1]
Robert was the father of three illegitimate sons by the actress and opera singer Emma Sarah Love Calcraft Kennedy (1801-1881) wife to Captain Granby Hales Calcraft (1802-1856). These included artist Edward Sherard Calcraft Kennedy (1833-1900) and Reverend Bennet Sherard Calcraft Kennedy, who was husband to William Wordsworth's granddaughter Jane and father of author and journalist Robert Harborough Sherard the first biographer of Oscar Wilde. Although marrying Mary Eliza Temple (1818-) in 1843 he died without legitimate issue and the Earldom and Harborough barony went extinct. [1]
The right to the Sherard barony is thought to have passed to a distant cousin, descended from the third son of the 1st Baron, though the heirs of that line never attempted to sit and thus the priority of their claim was never recorded or tested before the House of Lords prior to being rendered moot by the extinction of the male line in 1931. [2]
The cousin, Philip Castel Sherard, 9th Baron, died childless, and was succeeded in turn by the sons of his brother, Reverend Simon Haughton Sherard: Castel Sherard, 10th Baron, who was a Commander in the Royal Navy dying in 1902, and Philip Halton Sherard, 11th Baron Sherard, who died childless in 1924. The succession then fell to a second cousin, Robert Castel Sherard, a descendant of the 9th Baron's grandfather, and when the latter died childless in 1931, the title became dormant. [2]
Earl of Cardigan is a title in the Peerage of England, currently held by the Marquesses of Ailesbury, and used as a courtesy title by the heir apparent to that Marquessate, currently David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan, son of the 8th Marquess. The Brudenell family descends from Sir Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from 1520 to 1530. His great-grandson, Sir Thomas Brudenell, was created a Baronet in the Baronetage of England, styled "of Deene in the County of Northampton", on 29 June 1611. On 26 February 1628, he was raised to the Peerage of England as Baron Brudenell, of Stanton Wyvill in the County of Leicester, and on 20 April 1661 he was further honoured when he was made Earl of Cardigan, also in the Peerage of England. On his death, the titles passed to his son, Robert, the 2nd Earl, and on the 2nd Earl's death to his grandson, George, the 3rd Earl, the 2nd Earl's only son, Francis, Lord Brudenell, having predeceased his father.
The ancient position of Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland was abolished on 31 March 1974.
Lord Sherard Manners was an English nobleman and Member of Parliament.
Sir Thomas Cave, 7th Baronet was a British politician.
Stapleford Park is a Grade I listed country house in Stapleford, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England, which is now used as a hotel. It was originally the seat of the Sherard and Tamblyn families, later the Earls of Harborough and, from 1894, of the Gretton family, who would become the Barons Gretton.
Bennet Sherard, 1st Earl of Harborough was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
Bennet Sherard may refer to:
Philip Sherard, 2nd Earl of Harborough, of Whissendine, Rutland, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1710 and later succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Harborough.
Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden was an English politician. He was Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, Custos Rotulorum of Rutland and the Member of Parliament for Rutland.
The Earldom of Harborough was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1719 for Bennet Sherard, who had previously been made Baron Harborough (1714) and Viscount Sherard, with the viscountcy ending with the death of its original holder in 1732, but the other titles, created with special remainders to the grantee's cousin, persisted until 1859.
The Hon. Philip Sherard was an English soldier, landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1685.
John Noel, of North Luffenham, Rutland was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1711 and 1718.
The Reverend Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough was a British clergyman who inherited the earldom of Harborough.
Bennet Sherard of Whissendine JP DL was an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament for Rutland.
Bennet Sherard, 2nd Baron Sherard DL was a British politician and Irish peer. An influential landowner in Leicestershire and Rutland, he was returned to Parliament by the former county from 1679 through 1695, although his Parliamentary activity was minimal. He entered Parliament as a supporter of the Exclusion Bill, and was one of the Whigs purged from county offices in 1688 over James' policy of religious tolerance. He supported James' overthrow in the Glorious Revolution, and was appointed Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Rutland, offices he held until his death in 1700.
Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of Harborough, styled Lord Sherard from 1797 to 1799, was a British peer.
William Sherard, 1st Baron Sherard of Leitrim was an English official who was created Baron Sherard in the peerage of Ireland by King Charles I in 1627.
Bennet Sherard, 3rd Earl of Harborough, styled Lord Sherard from 1732 to 1750, was a British aristocrat who inherited the earldom of Harborough.
Lucy Manners, Duchess of Rutland, was a British heiress who married John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland.
Philip Sherard, 5th Earl of Harborough, styled Lord Sherard from 1770 to 1799, was a British peer and politician.