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Duke of Bedford

Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 for Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of France. In 1433 he surrendered the title and it was re-granted to him. The title became extinct on his death in 1435. The third creation came in 1470 in favour of George Neville, nephew of Warwick the Kingmaker. He was deprived of the title by an act of Parliament[which?] in 1478. The fourth creation came in 1478 in favour of George, the third son of Edward IV. He died the following year at the age of two. The fifth creation came in 1485 in favour of Jasper Tudor, half-brother of Henry VI and uncle of Henry VII. He had already been created Earl of Pembroke in 1452. However, as he was a Lancastrian, his title was forfeited between 1461 and 1485 during the predominance of the House of York. He regained the earldom in 1485 when his nephew Henry VII came to the throne and was elevated to the dukedom the same year. He had no legitimate children and the titles became extinct on his death in 1495.

Dukedom of Bedford
Arms of the Duke of Bedford
Argent, a lion rampant gules on a chief sable three escallops of the first (Russell).[1]
Creation date11 May 1694
CreationSixth
Created byWilliam III and Mary II
PeeragePeerage of England
First holderWilliam Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford
Present holderAndrew Russell, 15th Duke
Heir apparentHenry Russell, Marquess of Tavistock
Remainder to1st Duke's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten
Subsidiary titlesMarquess of Tavistock
Earl of Bedford
Baron Russell
Baron Russell of Thornhaugh
Baron Howland
SeatWoburn Abbey

John Russell, a close adviser of Henry VIII and Edward VI, was granted the title of Earl of Bedford in 1551, and his descendant William, 5th Earl, was created Duke in 1694, following the Glorious Revolution. The Russell family currently holds the titles of Earl and Duke of Bedford.

The subsidiary titles of the Duke of Bedford, all in the Peerage of England, are Marquess of Tavistock (created 1694), Earl of Bedford (1550), Baron Russell, of Cheneys (1539), Baron Russell of Thornhaugh in the County of Northampton (1603), and Baron Howland, of Streatham in the County of Surrey (1695). The courtesy title of the Duke of Bedford's eldest son and heir is Marquess of Tavistock.

Estates and residences

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The family seat is Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. The private mausoleum and chapel of the Russell family and the dukes of Bedford is at St. Michael's Church in Chenies, Buckinghamshire (photo).[2] The family owns the Bedford Estate in central London.

London residences

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The London residence of the Earls of Bedford from the 1580s to the late 1600s was Bedford House, Strand.[3][4] During the 1700s the London residence of the family was Bedford House in Bloomsbury Square; previously known as Southampton House until 1734, the property and surrounding estates had been inherited by Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford from his mother, Rachel Russell, Lady Russell, daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton.[5][6] The house was not favoured by Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, who succeeded in 1786, and in 1800 the 5th Duke authorised the demolition of the family’s mansion in Bloomsbury Square.[5]

In 1823 his brother John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford leased a house on Campden Hill in Kensington for £5,250; initially a modest regency villa, the Duke employed Sir Jeffry Wyatville to enlarge the villa, which became known as Bedford Lodge. Following the significant extension of the house, it eventually attracted a higher valuation for rating purposes than Holland House. After the 6th Duke died in 1839, his widow continued to live at the property until her own death in 1853, after which the lease of Bedford Lodge was sold to George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll; the house was subsequently known as Argyll Lodge.[7]

By September 1840 Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford had leased No. 6 Belgrave Square; during his tenancy the house was sometimes referred to as Bedford House, Belgrave Square.[8][9][10] His wife Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford died at the house in July 1857.[11] Their only son William Russell, 8th Duke of Bedford succeeded his father as Duke in 1861, and died unmarried and childless in 1872. He in turn was succeeded by his cousin Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford, who had taken No. 81 Eaton Square as his London residence by April 1873.[12]

No. 81 Eaton Square continued to be the family’s London house until the death of the 9th Duke, who shot himself at the house in January 1891. His elder son died unexpectedly at his London home, No. 37 Chesham Place in 1893, and he was succeeded by his younger brother Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford. The 11th Duke and Duchess leased No. 15 Belgrave Square as their London residence from late 1893,[13] which they continued to occupy until c. 1936.[14] The house was the London address of their only child Hastings Russell, Marquess of Tavistock in March 1940,[15] who succeeded as 12th Duke of Bedford upon his father’s death in August that year.

After the 1940s the family no longer maintained a permanent London residence; although the 11th Duke had been one of the wealthiest peers in the British Isles, his estate was subject to heavy wartime death duties. The 11th Duke's personal estate was valued at £1,412,241 for probate, upon which £816,764 of death duties were levied. A further grant of probate in respect of settled lands was valued at £3,239,130 in December 1940, upon which over £2,000,000 in death duties were paid in the years following his death.[16] The 12th Duke was quoted in the Daily Mirror in February 1941 as stating that wartime taxation had reduced his income to one quarter of that which had been enjoyed by his father.[17] Following the death of the 12th Duke in 1953, his personal estate was valued at £802,252 gross, with a net value of £702,252 in November 1953, upon which £530,301 in death duties were levied. A further grant of probate with respect to settled land in which the Duke held a life interest was issued in December of the same year, with a valuation of £4,990,000.[18]

Duke of Bedford, first creation (1414)

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Other titles: Earl of Kendal (1414) and Earl of Richmond (1414)

Duke of Bedford, second creation (1433)

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Other titles: Earl of Kendal (1414) and Earl of Richmond (1414)

Duke of Bedford, third creation (1470)

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Other titles: Marquess of Montagu (1470) and Baron Montagu (1461)

Duke of Bedford, fourth creation (1478)

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Duke of Bedford, fifth creation (1485)

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Other titles: Earl of Pembroke (1452)

Duke of Bedford, sixth creation

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Earl of Bedford (1551)

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Other titles: Baron Russell (1539)
  • John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c. 1485–1555), a close advisor of Henry VIII, was later created Earl of Bedford, by then a close advisor of Henry's son Edward VI, was further honoured by him
  • Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford (1527–1585), son of the 1st Earl
    • Edward Russell, Lord Russell (1551–1572), eldest son of the 2nd Earl
    • John Russell, 3rd Baron Russell (c. 1553–1584), second son of the 2nd Earl, summoned to Parliament by writ of acceleration
    • Francis Russell, Lord Russell (c. 1554–1585), third son of the 2nd Earl
    • William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh (c. 1557–1613), fourth son of the 2nd Earl
  • Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford (1572–1627), son of Francis, Lord Russell
Other titles (4th Earl onwards): Baron Russell of Thornhaugh (1603)

Origins

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John Russell was born c. 1485 probably at Berwick-by-Swyre, Dorset, the son of Sir James Russell (d. Nov. 1505)[22] and his first wife Alice Wyse, daughter of Thomas Wyse of Sidenham, near Tavistock, Devon.[23] James's father was possibly Sir William Russell, but more likely his brother John Russell (d. pre-November, 1505) by his wife Alice Froxmere, daughter of John Froxmere of Droitwich, Worcestershire, because his coat of arms quarters Froxmere.[24] The elder John Russell was the son of Sir Henry Russell (d. 1463/4), and Elizabeth Herring, daughter of John Herring of Chaldon Herring. Henry, a great-grandfather of the 1st earl, was a substantial wine merchant and shipper, who represented Weymouth in the House of Commons four times.[25][26]

The Russell pedigree can only be traced back with certainty to Henry Russell's father, Sir Stephen Russell, the evidence being contained in a deed of April 1440[27] in which Henry Russell made over to his daughter Christina and her husband Walter Cheverell of Chauntemarle, a tenement in Dorchester to be held of himself and his heirs upon the rent of a red rose. In the deed, Henry referred to himself as son and heir of Sir Stephen Russell and of Alice, his wife.[28] This Alice appears to have been the heir general of the De la Tour family,[29] which had long owned Berwick-by-Swyre, and by whom therefore the manor was brought into the Russell family.

Both Sir Henry and Sir Stephen were referred to as Gascoigne as well as Russell, possibly due to their wine trade with France (see Gascoigne), as in a 1442 pardon under the Privy Seal referring to Henry Russell of Weymouth, merchant, alias Henry Gascoign, gentleman.[30] It was long believed in the noble Russell family, certainly by the 2nd Earl of Bedford, that the family was descended from the ancient family of Russell of Kingston Russell in Dorset, three miles north-east of Berwick, which descent was declared unproven by Gladys Scott Thomson in her Two Centuries of Family History, London, 1930, an exhaustive and scholarly work on the early pedigree of the Earls of Bedford.[31] (For a disambiguation of the Bedford Russells and the Russells of Kingston Russell, see Kingston Russell House.)

Duke of Bedford (1694)

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William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
Other titles: Marquess of Tavistock (1694), Baron Howland (1695), Earl of Bedford (1551), Baron Russell (1538) and Baron Russell of Thornhaugh (1603)

The heir apparent is the present holder's only son, Henry Robin Charles Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (b. 2005).

Line of succession (simplified)

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Family trees

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See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.131; The chief is present in the arms of the modern coat of arms of the London Borough of Camden, because the dukes of Bedford used to own land in the borough (see Bedford Estate)
  2. ↑ "HERALDRY of the BEDFORD CHAPEL CHENIES". www.middlesex-heraldry.org.uk. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Guerci, Manolo (2021). London's Golden Mile: The Great Houses of the Strand. Yale University Press. pp. 105, 108.
  4. ↑ Sheppard, F. H. W., ed. (1970). "Southampton Street and Tavistock Street Area: Bedford Ground". British History Online. Survey of London: Volume 36, Covent Garden. London: London County Council. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Bloomsbury Square". Historic England. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  6. ↑ "Bloomsbury's History & Heritage". The Bedford Estates. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  7. ↑ Sheppard, F. H. W., ed. (1973). "The Phillimore estate". British History Online. Survey of London: Volume 37, Northern Kensington. London. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "Bedford House, Belgrave Square". The Morning Post. 10 September 1840. p. 3. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ White, Jerry (2007). London in the 19th Century. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-7126-0030-9.
  10. ↑ "A Clever Thief - 6 Belgrave Square". Daily News. 14 September 1847. p. 3. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "The Duchess of Bedford". The Illustrated London News. 11 July 1857. p. 2. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Duke and Duchess of Bedford - Eaton Square". The Illustrated London News. 26 April 1873. p. 3. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Duchess of Bedford - 15 Belgrave Square". The Morning Post. 2 November 1893. p. 5. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Duke and Duchess of Bedford - 15 Belgrave Square". The Daily Telegraph. 9 June 1936. p. 17. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Lord Tavistock and Peace Inquiries". The Daily Telegraph. 4 March 1940. p. 6. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Duke of Bedford's Estate". The Western Times. 20 December 1940. p. 7. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Duke stops Vicar's £320". Daily Mirror. 5 February 1941. p. 2. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "Duke's Settled Estate £4,990,000". The Daily Telegraph. 12 December 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Cracroft – Extinct dukedoms of England Archived 17 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bedford, Earls and Dukes of" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  21. ↑ Burke's Peerage & Baronetage
  22. ↑ James died in Nov. 1505, shortly after his father John, both in 1505, according to Scott Thomson, p. 108; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 48, p. 278, gives James's date of death as between Dec. 1505 and Feb. 1506
  23. ↑ Scott Thomson, 1930, pp. 110–111
  24. ↑ Scott Thomson, 1930, pp. 102–3
  25. ↑ Scott Thomson, 1930, p. 36
  26. ↑ History of Parliament Online: Members (1422-1504), accessed 2 June 2018. The article on John Herring of Chaldon Herring shall be available through this link when it is published.
  27. ↑ Municipal Records of the Borough of Dorchester, ed. C. H. Mayo, Exeter: W. Pollard, 1908; no. 517.
  28. ↑ Scott Thomson, 1930, p. 37
  29. ↑ Scott Thomson, 1930, p. 39
  30. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Russell (family)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 861.
  31. ↑ The error is repeated in the Dictionary of National Biography
  32. ↑ Morris, Susan; Bosberry-Scott, Wendy; Belfield, Gervase, eds. (2019). "Bedford, Duke of". Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. Vol. 1 (150th ed.). London: Debrett's Ltd. pp. 511–515. ISBN 978-1-999767-0-5-1.
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