Earl Of Banbury
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Earl of Banbury was a title in the
Peerage of England The Peerage of England comprises all peerages created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. In that year, the Peerages of England and Scotland were replaced by one Peerage of Great Britain. There are five peerages in t ...
. It was created in 1626 for William Knollys. He had already been created Baron Knollys in 1603 and Viscount Wallingford in 1616, both in the Peerage of England. However, the paternity of his sons was challenged, leading to hundreds of years of dispute. In May 1804, King George III intended to confer the titles of Earl of Banbury, Viscount Wallingford and
Baron Reading Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
on the outgoing Prime Minister
Henry Addington Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, (30 May 175715 February 1844) was an English Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804. Addington is best known for obtaining the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, an ...
. However, Addington refused the honour and chose to remain in the Commons until 1805, when he joined Pitt's government as
Lord President of the Council The lord president of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the ...
with the lesser title of Viscount Sidmouth.


Peerage without right of summons

The first Earl of Banbury had two sons, Edward and Nicholas; however neither was mentioned in his will, prompting credible questions raised as to their paternity. In 1641, the law courts decided that Edward acceded to the Earldom. When Edward was killed in battle in June 1645, his brother Nicholas inherited the title. In the Convention Parliament of 1660, some objection was taken to the earl sitting in the House of Lords, and in 1661 he was not summoned to parliament; he had not succeeded in obtaining his writ of summons when he died on 14 March 1674. Nicholas's son Charles, the 4th earl, had not been summoned to parliament when in 1692 he killed Captain Philip Lawson in a duel. The House of Lords declared that he was not a peer and therefore not entitled to have his case heard by them, but the Court of King's Bench released him from his imprisonment on the ground that he was the Earl of Banbury rather than a commoner. Nevertheless, the House of Lords refused to move from its position, and Knollys had not received a writ of summons when he died in April 1740. His son Sir Charles Knollys, vicar of Burford, Oxfordshire, and his grandsons, Sir William Knollys and Sir Thomas Woods Knollys, were successively titular Earls of Banbury, but they took no steps to prove their title. Sir Thomas Woods Knollys' son General William Knollys, the titular eighth earl, laid claim to the title. He was forced to discontinue the use of the title in 1813, after the House of Lords passed a resolution rejecting his claim.


Earls of Banbury

* William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury (1547–1632) *Edward Knollys, 2nd Earl of Banbury (1627–1645) *
Nicholas Knowles, 3rd Earl of Banbury Nicholas Knowles, Knollis or Knollys, 3rd Earl of Banbury, (3 January 1631 - 14 March 1674) was an English nobleman who sat in the House of Lords but was excluded from the Long Parliament, thus precipitating the famous “Banbury Case” which re ...
(1631–1674) *Charles Knowles, 4th Earl of Banbury (1662–1740) *Charles Knollys, ''titular'' 5th Earl of Banbury (1703–1771) *William Knollys, ''titular'' 6th Earl of Banbury (1726–1776) *Thomas Woods Knollys, ''titular'' 7th Earl of Banbury (1727–1793) *William Knollys, ''titular'' 8th Earl of Banbury (1763-1834)


Line of succession

* '' William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury (1547–1632)'' ** ''Edward Knollys, 2nd Earl of Banbury (1627–1645)'' ** ''
Nicholas Knowles, 3rd Earl of Banbury Nicholas Knowles, Knollis or Knollys, 3rd Earl of Banbury, (3 January 1631 - 14 March 1674) was an English nobleman who sat in the House of Lords but was excluded from the Long Parliament, thus precipitating the famous “Banbury Case” which re ...
(1631–1674)'' *** ''Charles Knowles, 4th Earl of Banbury (1662–1740)'' ****'' Sir Charles Knowles, 1st Baronet (c.1704–1777)'' ***** Knowles Baronets **** ''Charles Knollys, ''titular'' 5th Earl of Banbury (1703–1771)'' ***** ''William Knollys, ''titular'' 6th Earl of Banbury (1726–1776)'' ***** ''William Knollys, ''titular'' 7th Earl of Banbury (1727–1793)'' ****** ''William Knollys, ''titular'' 8th Earl of Banbury (1763-1834)'' *******'' Sir William Knollys (1797–1883)'' ********''William Knollys (1833–1904)'' ******** '' Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys (1837–1924)'' ********* '' Edward Knollys, 2nd Viscount Knollys (1895–1966)'' **********
David Knollys, 3rd Viscount Knollys Viscount Knollys (), of Caversham in the County of Oxford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for the court official Francis Knollys, 1st Baron Knollys, Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1901 to 191 ...
(b. 1931) *********** (1) Hon. Patrick Knollys (b. 1962) ************ (2) Alexander Knollys (b. 2000) *********** (3) Hon. Christopher Knollys (b. 1964) ************ (4) Edmund Knollys (b. 2000) *********** (5) Hon. Michael Knollys (b. 1968)


See also

*
Viscount Knollys Viscount Knollys (), of Caversham in the County of Oxford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for the court official Francis Knollys, 1st Baron Knollys, Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1901 to 19 ...
* Knollys Baronets * Knowles Baronets * Viscount Sidmouth *
William Knollys (1694–1740) William Knollys (15 October 1694 – 6 June 1740), known as Viscount Wallingford, of St George's, Hanover Square, Westminster, was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1733 to 1740. Knollys was the eldest su ...


External links


Banbury Peerage Case (1811)

A treatise on the law of adulterine bastardy, with a report of the Banbury case, and of all other cases bearing upon the subject
- Nicholas Harris Nicolas - 1836


Notes


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banbury Extinct earldoms in the Peerage of England Earl 1626 establishments in England Noble titles created in 1626