Viscount Mersey, of

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Liverpool, Canning, Dingle, Liverpool, Dingle, and Edge Hill, Merseyside, Edge Hill ...

in the

County Palatine of Lancaster Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, is a title in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great B ...

. It was created in 1916 for the lawyer and politician John Bigham, 1st Baron Mersey. He had already been created Baron Mersey, of Toxteth in the County Palatine of Lancaster, in 1910, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. His son, the second Viscount, was a Deputy Speaker of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

and also served as Liberal Chief Whip in the House of Lords from 1944 to 1949. His son, the third Viscount, married Katherine Petty-Fitzmaurice, 12th Lady Nairne, the eldest daughter of

Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-Colonel Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, Distinguished Service Order, DSO, Royal Victorian Order, MVO (14 January 1872 – 5 March 1936), styled Earl of Kerry un ...

and 10th

Lord Nairne Lord Nairne is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created by Charles II for Sir Robert Nairne of Strathord in 1681, which since 1995 is held by the Viscount Mersey. History Sir Robert Nairne of Strathord (c. 1620–1683), a supporter of Charl ...

. They were both succeeded by their son, the fourth Viscount Mersey and thirteenth Lord Nairne. the titles are held by the latter's son, the fifth Viscount, who succeeded in 2006. The family seat is Bignor Park, near

Pulborough Pulborough is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north–south A29 ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

Viscounts Mersey (1916)

* John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey (1840–1929) * Charles Clive Bigham, 2nd Viscount Mersey (1872–1956) *Edward Clive Bigham, 3rd Viscount Mersey (1906–1979) * Richard Maurice Clive Bigham, 4th Viscount Mersey (1934–2006) * Edward John Hallam Bigham, 5th Viscount Mersey (b. 1966) The

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

(to the Mersey but not Nairne titles) is the present holder's cousin Charles Richard Petty Bigham (b. 1967).

Family tree

Works

Notes

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, *

External links