|
Duchess:
- Your Grace
- Her Grace
- Duchess !Never Lady Anything!
The Marquess of Clearwater
He is never Lord Henry Clearwater.
- Lord Clearwater
- Henry, Lord Clearwater.
- Friends would call him, Clearwater
- People of lower standing: my lord, your lordship
Earl, Viscount, Baron same as above
The wife of a peer takes his title. A Duke's wife is Duchess;
a Marquess's wife is a marchioness, but she is usually called
Lady Title. The wife of an earl is a countess , but she is usually
called Lady Title; the wife of a viscount is a viscountess and
is usually just called Lady Title. The wife of a baron is a baroness
but she is never called that except in a few archaic places. While
one can speak of the Countess of Jersey or The Marchioness of
Angelsey, one does not speak of the baroness Byron unless the
lady is a baroness in her own right such as Baroness Wentworth.
A peer's surname was his title. He was Devonshire and not Cavendish,
the family name. The children used the family name, he went by
the title. A peer's signature was his title .. Wellington,
Jersey, Rutland, Norwich. They did not use their surnames.
They generally did not introduce themselves as "John Johnson,
Earl of Marsh," but as "Marsh." He would sign dispatches, letters
and other things with just his title- Marsh. His wife would use
his title as a surname and sign as E. Melbourne , or Elizabeth
Melbourne. Lady Melbourne even sent a letter or two signed with
just a Melbourne as her husband did. I was told that this was
correct but most of the examples I have seen have the woman signing
with her first name or initial and the title.
Do not mix courtesy and peerage titles. If a man is a peer he
is never Lord First name anything.
While there are sometimes two men with similar or almost identical
titles, this does not happen within the same family. A father
and son would not both be Lord Spencer. Though one of the lesser
titles of the Duke of Wellington is that of Marquess of Wellington,
the heir uses the title of Marquess Douro.
Marquess, earl, viscount, baron are titles of peerage and also
courtesy titles. A Courtesy title is a title which one is granted
as a boon from anotheri.e. the father. This does not make the
holder a peer. A courtesy marquess can sit in the House of Commons.
A duke's eldest son and heir is often a marquess, though he can
also be an earl, viscount, or baron. The title given to the heir
is a lesser title of the peer, usually the next highest peerage
he holds. Some peers hold a dozen titles but only the oldest legitimate
son could inherit any and he was only given one as a courtesy
title. Sometimes, if the son of a duke was grown and married with
a son of his own, the duke would give the grandson a lesser title.
The duke's son would be a marquess and the grandson would be an
earl.
Only eldest sons or their eldest sons could bear courtesy titles.
Neither the cousin who is the heir, or the uncle who will succeed
if there is no son will have one of the courtesy titles. Such
a person would have whatever status and rank he received from
his own father or his own efforts.
The eldest son of an earl, marquess, and duke will usually have
a courtesy title of baron, viscount, or marquess and will be addressed
in the same manner as a peer. Though named lords, these men are
not peers.
No woman who has never been married and who is not a peeress
in her own right is ever Lady Surname or Lady Title.
Lady Jersey is either married, widowed, or divorced
from Lord Jersey. She is never the daughter of Lord Jersey.
The daughters of earls, marquesses, and dukes are Lady Agatha
Smith- that is Lady First name Surname. No unmarried woman who
does not have a peerage in her own right is ever lady surname
or Lady title.
The younger sons of Dukes and Marquesses are Lord First Name
Surname. Not Lord Surname. Their wives are Lady man's first name
family name. Not Lady Family name. The sons are Lord Randall Stuart.
Lord Granville Leveson Gower. Lord Peter Wimsey. The wife would
be Lady Randall Stuart, Lady Granville Leveson Gower, Lady Peter
Wimsey.
The daughters of Dukes, marquess and earls were called Lady First
name surname. These are never Lady Surname or Lady Title.
They are also never Miss Surname or Miss Title.
The Younger sons of earls and all the sons of viscounts and barons
are Mr. or, in reality, The Hon. Arthur Wellesley. In practical
every day speech, just Mr. Wellesley. As Armiger put it in the
1918 Titles: A Guide to the Right Use of British Titles and
Honours "It cannot be too firmly stated that the word "honourable"
is never used in speech." (Except when referring to " the honourable
member")The word honourable is only used in addressing envelopes
and in formal court announcements.
A plain Jane Smith never becomes Lady Jane by marriage. Miss
Brown the daughter of a baron does not become Lady Mary by marrying
an earl but becomes Lady Title.
The daughter of a peer who marries a peer becomes Lady Title.
If she is the daughter of an earl, viscount or baron and marries
the younger son of a duke or marquess, she becomes Lady Hisfirstname
Surname. If she is the daughter of a duke and marries the younger
son of a duke or marquess she may call her self Lady hisfirstname
Surname or her own Lady Firstname with his surname. This is because
they are of the same rank.
Frankly, in the interest of simplicity I would have the woman
take her husband's style.
The daughter of a Duke, marquess, or Earl who is entitled to
be Lady Mary surname who marries a baronet or a knight just changes
the surname.
While a man in the clergy is listed as the Rev. Mr. Jones, he
is not addressed as Reverend in England. He is Mr. Doctor, Vicar,
or Rector. One might address him as ˜"vicar" but not "reverend."
The Archbishops of York and Canterbury are members of the House
of Lords They are referred to as the Archbishop of Canterbury
or York and not by name in much the same way as the Duke of Devonshire
is called the Duke of Devonshire.
One difference is that the Archbishops sign papers in Latin .
They are addressed as Dukes in that all say "Your Grace."
My Lord Archbishop, or Your Grace on letters.
However, their wives are plain Mrs.Family Surname, unless the
archbishop or she have personal (called temporal) titles.
The children follow the rules for ordinary non titled persons.
All bishops are Lord Bishop though only twenty-four are among
the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords.
A bishop is addressed as Your lordship or My Lord. His precedence,
if one of the spiritual lords, is between barons and viscounts.
A wife is Mrs. Unless she or her husband also have a temporal
title. That is if she is the daughter of an Earl she will be Lady
Elizabeth her husband's family name.
One man was both an earl and a bishop and not worthy of either
position.
Arch deacons are addressed as Archdeacon or Sir. On letters they
are the Venerable.
A member of the clergy whether a rector or Vicar is addressed
as such without a name. With a name it is Mr. Surname. That is
one can say , "Vicar, when is the confirmation class," when speaking
to the man, but would not say he is Vicar Jones. He is the Revd,.
A.C. Jones on envelopes. One does not call a man Reverend as is
often done in the USA, but one addresses him in a letter as Reverend
Sir, or just sir.
In Jane Austen's works the doctors were clergymen. Dr. Grant
and such. The medical personnel were all called Mr. whether apothecaries,
physicians or surgeons.
People were more formal in the way they addressed each other.
We do not read of husbands and wives calling each other by their
first names in either letters, or novels.
The daughters of peers called their eldest brothers by his title
instead of by name even when writing to other siblings. Lady Sarah
Spencer called her eldest brother Althorp when writing to another
brother who was in the navy. The daughters of the Duke of Devonshire
called their brother Hartington or Hart instead of by his first
name. They referred to him by his title in all correspondence.
Men in the army and navy had were addressed first by the
military or naval rank and then by the title. Admiral Lord Collingwood,
or Colonel Lord Paget.
In an ordinary household, the oldest daughter was Miss Surname:
Miss Bennet. The oldest son is Mr. Bertram.
The second and other daughters were Miss First Name Surname :Miss
Elizabeth Bennet, Miss Lydia Bennet. The same was true of younger
brothers. Mr. Edmund Bertram had an older brother Tom who was
Mr. Bertram. If Miss Elizabeth Bennet was away from home, she
would be called Miss Bennet.
Any mail addressed to Miss Bennet would go to Jane, just as any
mail addressed to Mr. Bertram at Mansfield Park would go to Tom
Bertram and not Edmund.
While a younger sister could move up to be Miss Bennet when the
older one married, a younger brother did not become Mr. Bertram
unless his older brother died.
According
to Titles, a Guide to the right use of British Titles &
Honours, (London,1918) One never speaks of the Marquess or
the Earl but always of Lord So and So. One can call the duke ,
Duke or The Duke, but one doesn't usually call the others by their
ranks. Barons are never called such. "Although it would be
right to talk about '"the Duke, or Duchess of Middlesex"
and they would not, indeed, be referred to in any other way, nobody
"who knows" would talk about the "Marquess, or
Marchioness of Montgomeryshire," They would be called "Lord
and Lady Montgomeryshire."
Still less would they be referred to as "The Marquess or
the Marchioness." There would be occasions on which the full
title would be used, but it would never be done in intimate speech.
"The Marquess" and "the Earl;" are so very often used by popular
novelists, who love the Peerage better than they know its ways,
that it may be difficult to believe that they are showing ignorance
when they wish to show intimacy. It is only wrong,
of course, in that it is never done by people of title themselves,
or by those who mix with them. It is a shibboleth. Anyone who
spoke habitually of "the Marquis of Montgomeryshire"
or "The Countess of Malvern," instead of saying "Lord
Montgomeryshire" or "Lady Malvern." would show
plainly that he had small knowledge of the matters in which he
is now being instructed, and would be put down as an outsider,
just as much as if he were to speak of Lady John Smith as "Lady
Smith."'
 Titles
and Names
Speaking
to and of titled persons
|
