Robert Edward de Vere Capell, 10th Earl of Essex (13 January 1920 – 5 June 2005) was

Earl of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

from 1981, but was only recognized as such in 1989. He was then a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

until the slimming down of the house in 1999.

Early life

Robert Capell was born in 1920, the son of Arthur de Vere Capell and his wife Alice Currie.

Peerage

His father died when he was three, and he spent some time in an orphanage, where he was bewildered when the head told him he would be the Earl of Essex one day. Many years later, he received a newspaper clipping from a friend saying that the heir to the Earls of Essex might be an American, Bladen Horace Capell. This led Capell to correspond with distant and formerly unknown relations. Eventually, he was able to prove that his great-grandfather Algernon Capell had been the elder brother of Bladen Capell's great-great-grandfather, Adolphus Capell.The Earl of Essex
(obituary) ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 18 June 2005, accessed 26 September 2022 When the 9th Earl died in 1981, Robert Capell was a grocer in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. It took him eight years to prove his right to take his seat in the

, which he did in 1989. However, this right came to an end with the reforms of the

House of Lords Act 1999 The House of Lords Act 1999 (c. 34) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords ...

. Essex is not recorded in ''

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...

'' as having ever spoken in parliament.

Personal life

In 1942, Capell married Doris Margaret Tomlinson, a daughter of George Frederick Tomlinson. They had one child: * Frederick Paul de Vere Capell (b. 1944), later the 11th Earl of Essex. He died in 2005 and was succeeded as Earl of Essex by his son Paul Capell, described by ''

'' as an "ever so humble" schoolteacher.Nigel Bunyan, Ben Fenton
New Earl of Essex is ever so humble
''

'', 17 June 2005, telegraph.co.uk, accessed 26 September 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Essex, Robert Capell, 10th Earl of 1920 births 2005 deaths 20th-century British people 21st-century British people

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

20th-century English nobility