Wikipedia:WikiProject Peerage and Baronetage

This WikiProject primarily aims to standardise pages about peerages and baronetcies in the United Kingdom and Ireland (including the former states of England, Scotland, and Great Britain), and their holders.

Peerage

Pages on peerages

A page about a particular title (such as Duke of Norfolk or Earl of Derby) may include the following information:

• The history of the title and associated titles
• The remainder (i.e., the rule for inheritance of the title)
• A list of the holders of the titles and of the associated titles.

Titles should only share articles when one is totally connected to the other: no one has ever been Marquess of Tavistock without being Duke of Bedford, for instance, so information on the former title should be in the latter's article, but there should be separate articles on, for instance, Earl of Arundel and Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Cardigan and Marquess of Ailesbury, Earl of Bedford and Duke of Bedford. If titles share an article, the article should be at the highest title, except when the lesser title is the one currently extant: Duke of Bolton, for instance, should redirect to Marquess of Winchester, since the latter is extant.

The history should note the creation or creations of the titles in question, and should also indicate if the circumstances under which any peerage of a previous creation ended: forfeiture, extinction, etc. The article should note the subsidiary titles, and any courtesy titles used.

The list could be formatted as follows, with Earl of Anyplace a title associated with Duke of Somewhere, the article being at "Duke of Somewhere":

Earls of Anyplace; First creation (1700)

• A B C D, 1st Earl of Anyplace (d. 1725)
• A B C D, 2nd Earl of Anyplace (1675–1750)

Earls of Anyplace; Second creation (1800)

• A B C D, 1st Earl of Anyplace (1750–1825)
• A B C D, 2nd Earl of Anyplace (1775–1850)
• A B C D, 3rd Earl of Anyplace (1800–1875) (created Duke of Somewhere in 1860)

Dukes of Somewhere (1860)

• A B C D, 1st Duke of Somewhere (1800–1875)
• A B C D, 2nd Duke of Somewhere (1825–1900)
• A B C D, 3rd Duke of Somewhere (1900–1999)

The years listed next to the titles are the years of creation and extinction etc. (if applicable), while the remaining are birth and death dates.

Use: c. for circa; b. for born; d. for died; and Second creation, etc, to indicate more than one creation of the same title.

After the list, the current heirs should be listed, in this format:

Heir Apparent: A B C D, Marquess of Elsewhere (b. 1930)

Lord Elsewhere's Heir Apparent: A B C D, Earl of Anywhere (b. 1960)

Pages on peers

Location

A peer's article should be at "Name, (Ordinal) Rank (of) Title (for example, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk; William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw; Charlie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton), except in cases where the title is never (or hardly ever) used. This normally applies in two situations:

• when the title holder did not use the peerage (Bertrand Russell, not "Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell"; Richard Needham, not "Richard Needham, 6th Earl of Kilmorey")
• when the pre-ennoblement name of a peer is exclusively used in normal usage, often when the peerage was a retirement honour (Clement Attlee, not "Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee"; P. D. James, not "P. D. James, Baroness James of Holland Park")

In both cases, the peerage can be used when necessary for disambiguation, and should always be preferred over parenthetical disambiguation (Douglas Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, not "Douglas Hogg (politician)" or similar).

Notes:

• "Marquess" should always be used, never "Marquis", for the British rank.
• The ordinal "1st" is used for hereditary peers even when a title became extinct on the death of its first holder.
• Wives of peers, when the title is used in the article name (the same rules apply as for substantive peers as to whether it should be), should have their married surnames.
• Wives of barons (both hereditary and life) should be termed "Baroness" in the article title. Example: Margaret Russell, Baroness Ampthill.
• When individuals inherited or were created peers but are best known to history by a courtesy title, use that. Examples: Frederick North, Lord North (not "Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford"), Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (not "Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry").
• When a peer holds one or more other peerages of the same rank as his most senior peerage, use only the most senior peerage in the title. Example: Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, not "Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and 1st Duke of Lennox" or "Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox".
• Single peerages with multiple parts should be used in full. Example: Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, not "Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore".
• Articles on Royal peers who are/were princes should be at "Prince Name, Rank of Title" (i.e. no ordinal). Examples: Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
• Articles on Royal peers who were not princes (i.e. those before the 16th century) should have ordinals and should use the territorial "surname" usually taken from a place of birth. Examples: Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge.

Content

Articles on peers should start with the peer's full name and highest title(s) in bold, followed by linked authorised post-nominal letters, separated from the name and each other by commas, and then the dates of birth and death in brackets as usual. For example, the article on Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, should start:

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (c. 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was...

As the code shows, each set of post-nominal letters links to the appropriate article:

'''Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington''', [[Order of the Garter|KG]], [[Order of the Bath|GCB]], [[Royal Guelphic Order|GCH]], [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|PC]], [[Royal Society|FRS]] (c. 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was...

If a peer bore courtesy titles before succeeding, these should be mentioned at the beginning, after the dates of birth and death. For example, the article on a fictional peer might begin:

John Henry William Smith, 6th Marquess of Somewhere, KG, PC (born 22nd March 1932), styled Viscount Anywhere until 1954 and Earl of Elsewhere between 1954 and 1983, is...

The styles a peer held over the course of his life should be contained in a "Styles" section of the article. For example, with the fictional peer above:

• Viscount Anywhere (1932–1954)
• Earl of Elsewhere (1954–1983)
• The Most Hon. The Marquess of Somewhere (1983–1989)
• The Most Hon. The Marquess of Somewhere, PC (1989–1998)
• The Most Hon. The Marquess of Somewhere, KG, PC (1998–)

Notes:

• Honorific prefixes should not be used. For Royal peers and peeresses their styles should be contained in a style box template (see Template:Infobox hrhstyles).
• "Sir" is not used before the name of a peer who is also a knight or a baronet.
• The post-nominal abbreviation "Bt" for "Baronet" should not be used with peers.
• Only post-nominals authorised (or at the time for historic articles) by the relevant authorities should be used e.g The Crown ( generally in Monarchies) or State.
• Titles and prefixes issuing from sources other than the Crown and the Church (for example, "Dr" and "Professor") should not be used with peers.
• As in the article title, wives of Barons should be termed "Baroness" in the opening.
• The highest title should always be used at the beginning of the article, even if a lesser one is used in the article title.
• Unlike in the article title, when a peer holds one or more other peerages of the same rank as his most senior peerage, they should all be used in the opening, with a connecting "and" if appropriate ("7th Earl of X and 5th Earl of Y", or "7th Earl of X, 5th Earl of Y and 2nd Earl Z").
• Peers who are Privy Counsellors should have the post-nominal "PC" (linked to Privy Council of the United Kingdom) placed after their name and title.

Succession

Succession to peerages should be shown by succession boxes, which are created by the appropriate templates (see Template:S-start and Template:Succession box). All peerages with different predecessors or successors should have individual boxes, as should those held at different dates. For example:

Titles should be listed in descending order of seniority (in contrast to succession boxes for offices, which are listed in ascending chronological order).

Succession boxes for offices, when these are held by peers, should refer to them by title, masking a link to the actual article. The style used is "The Earl of Somewhere", "The Lord Elsewhere", etc. In cases where this is ambiguous, where offices have been held successively by successive holder of the same title, the numeral should be added:

For more specific examples, see Template talk:Succession box. See also the guidelines on succession boxes here, which also include examples for peers.

In text

In familial references (when stating who someone's father, mother, brother, etc. was), and in non-contemporaneous references (i.e. references to time periods different to that of the narrative), peers should be referred to as, for example, "the 7th Marquess of Salisbury" (henceforth "the full form"). In other situations, peers should usually be referred to simply as, for instance, "Lord Salisbury" (henceforth "the short form"), both when mentioned in other articles and in their own articles, unless it is important that their exact rank or numeral is stated, in which case the full form should be used (i.e. both the rank and the numeral). Dukes are "the 12th Duke of Devonshire" in their full form and "the [[Peregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire|Duke of Devonshire]]" otherwise. Second and subsequent reference should be to "Lord Salisbury" or "Salisbury" ("the Duke" or "Devonshire" for Dukes). Their wives have the same form of reference, save that ordinals are obviously omitted and the usage of the title alone should not be used: "Lady Salisbury" or "the Duchess".

Notes:

• Peers below the rank of Duke should not be referred to by their rank alone: "the Marquess said...", "the Earl went...", etc., should never be used.
• Male life peers should be referred to as "the Lord Title" in full form, not "the Baron Title".
• Peers whose titles are in the form "X of Y" should always be referred to by the full title, if a title is used, but use of the X alone, without a preceding "Lord" or "Lady", is fine. Example: the Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare should be called "Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare" or "Archer", but never "Lord Archer".
• Peers whose titles are in the form "X and Y" are referred to at second mention by the X alone, e.g. the 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is "Lord Strathmore" at second mention.
• Life peeresses should be referred to as "the Baroness Title" in full form, but simply "Lady Title" in running text.

In lists

Peers should appear in lists either in the form used in the article title (substituting a different peerage if appropriate for the time period in question) or by their correct style (see Forms of Address in the United Kingdom). Usual practice is to use the full form for historical lists (e.g. lists of incumbents of a particular office) and the correct style for contemporary lists (e.g. lists of current Privy Counsellors or members of the House of Lords), but usage is by no means consistent, and the form considered most appropriate for a particular list should be used (more graphical lists tend to use the correct style for aesthetic reasons).

Baronetage

Articles on baronetcies

Articles on baronetcies should be sorted by surname, i.e. all baronetcies held by people with a particular surname should share an article, regardless of whether they are actually related. The article should be at "Surname baronets", e.g. Mount baronets. They should have a very similar format to articles on peerages (and, indeed, if a noble family held a baronetcy before a peerage, it should be included as if a previous peerage). The article should thus be in the following format:

Smith baronets, of London (1750–)

• Sir John Smith, 1st Baronet (1700–1775)
• Sir Henry Arthur Smith, 2nd Baronet (1725–1800)
• Sir Robert Henry Alexander Smith, 3rd Baronet (1750–1825) (created Baron Smith in 1815)

Barons Smith (1815–)

• Robert Henry Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Smith (1750–1825)

etc.

Articles on baronets

Location

Further information: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (royalty and nobility)

Baronets should generally be at their simple name; for example, Robert Peel. When necessary for disambiguation (as is often necessary, as these families tend to reuse names), the baronetcy can be included in the article title in the form "Sir Forename Surname, Ordinal Baronet"; for example, Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet and Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet. (The 3rd Baronet, Ferdinand Mount, would not be at "Sir Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet" even if he used the title, as it is not necessary for disambiguation.) The baronetcy alone should not be used for disambiguation without the preceding "Sir": "John Smith" or "Sir John Smith, 17th Baronet" are fine, but "John Smith, 17th Baronet" should not be used.

Content

Articles should start with the name and "Ordinal Baronet" in bold, followed as with other people by post-nominal letters. For example:

Sir John Henry Smith, 5th Baronet, VC, MC (1 January 1900 – 31 December 1970) was a British war hero...

References

Baronets, as with knights, should be referred to as "Sir John Smith", and afterwards as "Sir John" or "Smith". Again as with knights, the "Sir" should be included in the link, even if not in the article title; e.g. [[John Smith|Sir John Smith]]. The numeral and "Baronet" should normally not be included in text (e.g. [[Sir John Smith, 7th Baronet|Sir John Smith]]), except when making familial references or when confusion might otherwise arise.

Succession

As with peers, boxes should be used. They should be formatted like this:

The code look like this:

{{s-start}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Smith baronets|Baronet]]<br />'''(of London)|years='''1800–1850}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Sir John Smith, 2nd Baronet|John Smith]]}}
{{s-end}}

To do list

• Enlist further Wikipedians
• Create a WikiPolicy about the format of the Baronetcy pages and an example. And decide the standard format for Baronetcy pages where the baronetcy is merged into a peerage.
  • Done.Wikipedia:WikiProject_Peerage

Currently working on:

• Upload everybody on the dormant list and all extant baronetcies
  • almost done! All that remains is to:
    • Compare the List of extant Baronetcies with the List of baronetcies (of NS, etc.) and add missing baronetcies to the latter.
    • Check each dormant baronetcy is not shown as extant on the complete List of baronetcies
• Improve Kennedy baronets

Then

• Check each Rayment baronetcy is on the relevant list
• Assess the quality of the unassessed articles (FA, GA, A, B, Start, Stub)
• Assess the priority of the articles (top, high, mid, low) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chart
• Eliminate the "Unassessed importance" articles in the statistics at the foot of this page.
• Check each page goes to a live hyperlink (i.e., create a page for each baronetcy)
• change references [:http://www.leighrayment.com/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page] to Leigh Rayment's list of baronets using as necessary Special:Linksearch: [1].
• Check each baronetcy and baronet talk page has a WPBiography|baronets-work-group=yes template
• Add to each baronets page a description of the relevant coat of arms.
• Add to Wikimedia Commons a request for an image of the arms.
• Check each baronet's page has a S-reg baronet's box
• 54 new peers were created on November 19, 2010 so we need to update all those articles and quite likely create some new ones for people who didn't already have one. full list here. (Underway, but re changing article titles, see talk page discussion.)

About our lists and the tables below

The List of extant baronetcies is a list of every current or extant baronetcy, including currently unproven ones. They used to be in separate pages for each kind (NS, UK, etc.), but now are all on one page, with separate tables for each kind. The tables themselves (on the List of extant baronetcies) are ordered strictly by precedence, i.e., the official number in the first column, which is based on the full date of creation.

Note to editors: If we have a number wrongly, please correct it.

The "List of baronetcies of . . ." lists are meant to become a complete list of every baronetcy that has ever existed, including not only the current/extant baronetcies, but also all extinct baronetcies and currently unproven and dormant baronetcies.

The two sets of lists therefore are not exactly reflexive; rather, the extant lists are a subset of the Complete lists, and sorted by date.

Double barrelled names and mergers with other titles

Where there is a double barrelled name, eg Harbord-Hamond a page should be created called Harbord-Hamond baronets. That page should have [[Category:Baronetcies]] on it, even if it redirects to another name - as Harbord-Hamond redirects to Baron Suffield (but might have redirected to Hamond). It is intended that all family surnames should be listed in [[Category:Baronetcies]].

For alphabetizing, please use the last name listed, e.g., Home-Purves-Hume-Campbell should be in lists at Campbell. This policy is up for discussion on the project's discussion page.

Useful pages

The following are some categories that may be placed on any Wikipedia article relating to baronets. When using, remember to remove the first semi-colon.

Categories

• Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia
• Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of England
• Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Ireland
• Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
• Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom

Lists

• List of extant baronetcies
• List of baronetcies in the baronetage of Nova Scotia - extinct and extant
• List of baronetcies in the baronetage of England - extinct and extant
• List of baronetcies in the baronetage of Ireland - extinct and extant
• List of baronetcies in the baronetage of Great Britain - extinct and extant
• List of baronetcies in the baronetage of the United Kingdom - extinct and extant

Stubs

• {{baronet-stub}}

Notability

There is no consensus that nobility infers automatic notability, and a previous proposal to establish this has failed.

Sources of information

Books

• The Complete Peerage by G. E. Cokayne and others, 1910-1954; including Vol. XIV (1994) which is entirely genealogical.
• C J Parry: Index of Baronetage Creations, 1967
• Debrett's

Online sources

• Roll of the Peerage: Summary PDF from college-of-arms.gov.uk
• Official Roll of the Standing Council of the Baronetage (Baronetage.org)
• BurkesPeerage.com (online subscriptions available)

Archived books

• William Betham: The Baronetage of England, or, The History of the English Baronets, 1801
• John Burke: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage
• Burke's: Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry 1847 A to L
• Burke's: A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain 1863
• Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley: A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage of England, Ireland and Scotland, 1831
• G. E. Cokayne The Complete Baronetage (1905 edition)
• Debrett's: Extant Baronetage of England
• Debrett's: Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage
• James Balfour Paul: The Scots Peerage (nine volumes, 1904–1914)
• Henry Rumsey Forster: The Pocket Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland
• William Miller: New Baronetage of England
• Thomas Wotton: The English Baronetcy, 5 vols, 1741

Article statistics

Index · Statistics · Log

Biography (peerage) articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	NA	???	Total
FA	2	24	8	23			57
A				2			2
GA	2	7	14	74		2	99
B	8	21	79	217		237	562
C	2	18	108	456		818	1,402
Start	2	12	181	2,365		5,353	7,913
Stub		1	84	1,528	4	5,959	7,576
List	1	2	4	43		137	187
Category					1,964		1,964
Disambig					24		24
File					14		14
Project					1		1
Redirect	1		10	58	413		482
Template					43		43
NA				1	2		3
Other					2		2
Assessed	18	85	488	4,767	2,467	12,506	20,331
Total	18	85	488	4,767	2,467	12,506	20,331
WikiWork factors (?)		ω = 92,515			Ω = 5.25

Userboxes

• {{User peer}}