Earls of Durham

Earl of Durham is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1833 for the prominent Whig politician and colonial official John Lambton, 1st Baron Durham. Known as "Radical Jack", he played a leading role in the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832. As Governor General of British North America he was the author of the famous Report on the Affairs of British North America, known in Canada as the Durham Report. Lambton had already been created Baron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham, in 1828, and was created Viscount Lambton at the same time as he was raised to the earldom. These titles are also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, the second Earl. He served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham from 1854 to 1879. On his death the titles passed to his eldest twin son, the third Earl. He was Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham from 1884 to 1928 and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1909. He died childless and was succeeded by his younger twin brother, the fourth Earl. He represented South Durham and South East Durham in the House of Commons. His grandson, the sixth Earl, was a Conservative politician. He disclaimed his peerages shortly after succeeding his father in 1970, but continued improperly to style himself Viscount Lambton. As of 2009 the titles are held by his only son, the seventh Earl, who succeeded in 2006. Before succeeding in the earldom he styled himself Lord Durham to avoid confusion with his father.

Several other members of the Lambton family have also gained distinction. Both the first Earl's father, William Henry Lambton (1764–1797), and grandfather General John Lambton (1710–1794), as well as his great-uncle Henry Lambton (1697–1761), represented the City of Durham in Parliament. The Hon. Sir Hedworth Lambton (1856–1929) (who assumed the surname of Meux in lieu of Lambton), third son of the second Earl, was an Admiral of the Fleet. The Hon. Charles Lambton (1857–1949), fourth son of the second Earl, was a Brigadier-General in the Army. The Hon. George Lambton (1860–1945), fifth son of the second Earl, was a thoroughbred racehorse trainer who trained two Epsom Derby winners. The Hon. Sir William Lambton (1863–1936), sixth son of the second Earl, was a Major-General in the Army.

The ancestral seats of the Lambton family are Lambton Castle, and Fenton near Wooler, Northumberland.

Earls of Durham:

• • John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792–1840)

  • George Frederick d'Arcy Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham (1828–1879)

  • John George Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham (1855–1928)

  • Frederick William Lambton, 4th Earl of Durham (1855–1929)

  • John Frederick Lambton, 5th Earl of Durham (1884–1970)

  • John Roderick Geoffrey Francis Edward Lambton, Viscount Lambton (1920–1941)

  • Antony Claud Frederick Lambton, 6th Earl of Durham (1922–2006) (disclaimed 1970)

  • Edward Richard Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham (b. 1961)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Frederick Lambton, Viscount Lambton (b. 1985).

John George Lambton

1st Earl of Durham GCB, PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in history texts simply as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor General and high commissioner of British North America.

Above: John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham, artist Thomas Phillips 1820

Durham was born in London, the son of William Henry Lambton, and Lady Anne Barbara Frances, daughter of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey. The Lambton family fortune was derived largely from mining on lands surrounding Lambton Castle. Other properties in County Durham included Dinsdale Park and Low Dinsdale Manor. He was educated at Eton and served in the 10th Hussars between 1809 and 1811.

Durham was first elected to Parliament for County Durham in the general election of 1812, a seat he held until 1828, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham. When his father-in-law Lord Grey (see below) became prime minister in 1830, Durham was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Privy Seal. In this capacity he helped draft the Reform Bill of 1832. Lord Durham resigned from cabinet in 1833. Later the same year he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Lambton and Earl of Durham.

Between 1835 he served as Ambassador to Russia. While in Russia he was invested a Knight of the Order of Alexander Nevsky, of the Order of St. Andrew and of the Order of St. Anna. In 1837 he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

Lord Durham was sent to The Canadas in 1837 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Lower Canada Rebellion of Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Upper Canada Rebellion of William Lyon Mackenzie, which had both occurred earlier that year. His detailed and famous Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) recommended a modified form of responsible government and a legislative union of Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces.

Lord Durham has been lauded in English Canadian history for his recommendation to introduce responsible government. This was implemented and by 1848 Canada was a functioning democracy, as it has been ever since. He is less well considered for his idea of merging Upper and Lower Canada into one colony, since this was proposed with the express end of trying to encourage the extinction of the French language and culture through intermingling with the lesser English population. Although in the end the policy of assimilation failed during the Union (1840-1867) and after, in practice, the Act of Union prevented the granting of responsible government to the French Canadian people (as a majority in Lower Canada).

As soon as 1842, Lord Durham's intended policy of assimilation faced setbacks, as Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine's party in the House managed to force de facto re-establishment of French as a language of Parliament. Once responsible government was achieved (1848), French Canadians in Canada East succeeded by voting as a bloc in ensuring that they were powerfully represented in any cabinet, especially as the politics of Canada West was highly factional. The resulting deadlock between Canada East and West led to a movement for federal rather than unitary government, which resulted in the creation of confederation, a federal state of Canada, incorporating New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in 1867.

Lord Durham was twice married. He married as his first wife Lady Harriet, daughter of George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, in 1812. They had three daughters, who all pre-deceased him. After Lady Harriet's death in July 1815 he married secondly Lady Louisa, daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, in 1816. They had two sons and three daughters. Lord Durham died at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in July 1840, aged 48, and was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son, George. The Countess of Durham only survived her husband by a year and died in November 1841.

George Frederick D'Arcy Lambton

2nd Earl of Durham (5 September 1828 – 27 November 1879), known as Viscount Lambton from 1831 to 1845 and was a British peer.

Durham was the eldest surviving son of John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, and his second wife Lady Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. He served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham from 1854 to 1879. Lord Durham married Lady Beatrix Frances Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, on 23 May 1854. They had thirteen children:

• • John George Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham (19 June 1855 – 18 September 1928)

  • Frederick William Lambton, 4th Earl of Durham (19 June 1855 – 31 January 1929)

  • Adm. Hon. Sir Hedworth Lambton (later Meux), (5 July 1856 – 20 September 1929) Admiral of the Fleet, married 18 April 1910 Hon. Mildred Cecilia Harriet, Dowager Viscountess Chelsea, daughter of Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington. They had no issue.

  • Hon. Charles Lambton (3 November 1857 – 5 December 1949), married Lavinia Marion Garforth and had issue.

  • Lady Beatrix Louisa Lambton (1859 – 12 March 1944), married Sidney Herbert, 14th Earl of Pembroke and had issue.

  • Hon. George Lambton (23 December 1860 – 23 July 1945), married Cicely Margaret Horner and had issue.

  • Lady Katherine Frances Lambton (5 September 1862 – 6 December 1952), married George Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds and had issue.

  • Maj.-Gen. Hon. Sir William Lambton (4 December 1863 – 11 October 1936), married (as her 2nd husband) 22 April 1921 Lady Katherine de Vere Somerset, née Beauclerk, daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans. They had no issue.

  • Hon. Claud Lambton (4 January 1865 – 15 February 1945), married Lettice Wormald and had issue.

  • Cmdr. D'Arcy Lambton (3 June 1866 – 30 December 1954), married Florence Ethel Sproule and had issue.

  • Lady Eleanor Lambton (1868 – 24 April 1959), married Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood.

  • Lady Anne Lambton (1869 – 24 February 1922)

  • Hon. Francis Lambton (18 January 1871 – 31 October 1914)

The Countess of Durham died in January 1871, aged 35, and just three days after the birth of her youngest child. Lord Durham died in November 1879, aged 51, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest twin son John.

John George Lambton

3rd Earl of Durham KG, GCVO, PC (19 June 1855 – 18 September 1928), known as Viscount Lambton until 1879, was a British peer.

Above: John George Lambton, artist (attributed to) Ralph Hedley, 1899

Durham was the eldest twin son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham, and his wife Lady Beatrix Frances, daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn. His grandfathers were the famous statesman and colonial administrator, John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, and Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. Durham served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham from 1884 to 1928 and also bore the Queen Consort's Ivory Road with Dove at the Coronation of King George V in 1911 and was Lord High Steward to George V during his visit to India from 1911 to 1912. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1909 and admitted to the Privy Council in 1911. From 1919 to 1928 he served as chancellor of the University of Durham.

Lord Durham married Ethel Elizabeth Louisa, daughter of Henry Beilby William Milner, in 1882. The marriage was childless, and Lady Durham was committed to a mental institution for most of her adult life. Lord Durham produced a child, John R. H. Rudge (b. 1892), out of wedlock with the dancer Letty Lind but could not marry her because his wife's illness prevented a divorce. He and Lind were together for many years until her death in 1923. He died in September 1928, aged 73, and was succeeded in the earldom by his younger twin brother, Frederick. Lady Durham died in 1931.

Frederick William Lambton

4th Earl of Durham (19 June 1855 – 31 January 1929) was a British peer, a Liberal (and later Liberal Unionist) politician, and the son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham.

He married Beatrix Bulteel (c. 1863 – 27 April 1937), on 26 May 1879). They had six children:

• • Lady Violet Lambton (b. 3 July 1880), married John Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere and had issue.

  • Lady Lilian Lambton (8 December 1881 – 26 September 1966), married Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home and had issue.

  • John Frederick Lambton, 5th Earl of Durham (7 October 1884 – 4 February 1970)

  • Hon. Geoffrey Lambton (13 September 1887 – 1 September 1914), married Dorothy Leyland and had issue.

  • Hon. Claud Lambton (b. 3 December 1888), married Olive Eleanor Lockwood and had issue.

  • Lady Joan Katherine Lambton (21 September 1893 – 1967), married Hugh Joicey, 3rd Baron Joicey and had issue.

He was elected at the 1880 general election as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for South Durham, 384 and held that seat until the constituency was abolished for the 1885 general election. He did not stand in 1885, but having joined the Liberal unionists in 1885 he unsuccessfully contested Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1886, Sunderland in 1886, and a by-election in South East Durham in February 1898.

He was returned to the House of Commons after a fifteen-years absence at the 1900 general election, when he defeated Joseph Richardson, the Liberal winner of the 1898 by-election. Lambton was re-elected unopposed in 1906, but lost the seat by a wide margin to a Liberal candidate in January 1910.

John Lambton

(1884-1970) was the 5th Earl of Durham. He is best remembered for the donation of Penshaw Monument to the National Trust. John Lambton married Hermione Bullough, daughter and sole heir of George Bullough, 1st Baronet Bullough.

Antony Claud Frederick Lambton

(10 July 1922 – 30 December 2006), briefly 6th Earl of Durham, styled before 1970 as Viscount Lambton, and widely known as "Lord Lambton", was a Conservative Member of Parliament and a cousin of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the former Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. Lambton resigned from Parliament and ministerial office in 1973.

Lambton grew up on the family estates centered on Lambton Castle, actually living at the nearby Biddick Hall. He was educated at Harrow School and served for a period in the Hampshire Regiment during the Second World War, before being invalided out. He then did war work in a Wallsend factory. Lambton married Belinda (Bindy) Blew-Jones (1921–2003) in 1942. They had five daughters including Lucinda (the writer and architectural commentator) and Anne (an actress), and one son, Ned (who fought Berwick-upon-Tweed for the Referendum Party at the 1997 General Election).

Lambton first stood for Parliament at the 1945 general election in the safe Labour seat of Chester-le-Street, then Bishop Auckland in 1950. He was elected to Durham City Council and to Durham County Council in 1947, serving for two years. He was elected Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1951 where he served until 1973.

Lambton was made a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (RAF) in 1970. He succeeded to the Earldom of Durham upon his father's death on 4 February 1970 but disclaimed it on 23 February to continue as an MP and Government Minister. He nonetheless insisted on being addressed as "Lord Lambton", the form of address appropriate to his former courtesy title, though a ruling of the Committee for Privileges said that he should not do so in the House of Commons since he had renounced his peerage. Contradictory rulings from two speakers, Horace King and Selwyn Lloyd, then left the point unresolved.

In 1973, Lambton's liaisons with prostitutes were revealed in the Sunday tabloid The News of the World. The husband of one of the prostitutes, Norma Levy, had secretly taken photographs of Lambton in bed with Ms. Levy and had attempted to sell the photographs to Fleet Street tabloids. As well, a police search of Lambton's home found a small amount of cannabis. On 22 May, Lambton resigned from both his office and Parliament, which caused a by-election for his seat which was won by Alan Beith for the Liberal Party. Shortly after, the name Jellicoe emerged in connection to a rendezvous for one of Norma's girls at a Somers Town mansion block which had been named Jellicoe House, after the earl's kinsman Basil Jellicoe (1899-1935), the housing reformer and priest from Magdalen College (Oxford). There was a confusion and Lord Jellicoe, the Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords, admitted 'casual affairs' with prostitutes from a Mayfair escort agency but denied knowing Norma Levy.

A security inquiry on the prostitution scandal concluded that there had been "nothing in (Lambton's) conduct to suggest that the risk of indiscretions on these occasions was other than negligible." Lambton stated that he had never taken his red state boxes of government documents with him when he visited Norma Levy. The security inquiry was held due to fears that the prostitution scandal may have involved an actual or potential breach of national security (as had occurred in the Profumo scandal in the 1960s).

When MI5 officer Charles Elwell interviewed Lambton, Lambton first claimed that the pressure of his job as a minister was what drove him to procure the prostitutes. Later, Lambton stated that his sense of "the futility of the job" and lack of demanding tasks as a junior minister were reasons he went to prostitutes. Finally, Lambton claimed that his judgment was faulty when he went to the prostitutes due to his obsession with the battle over the use of an aristocratic title that had been used by his father; Lambton claimed that he sought to soothe this obsession by engaging in frantic activities such as gardening and debauchery.

Following the scandal, Lambton retired, separated from his wife and bought Villa Cetinale a 17th century villa in Tuscany, where he lived with Claire Ward, née Baring, daughter of the cricketer Giles Baring. He never divorced his wife Bindy, who died in 2003. Despite renouncing his titles, he continued to use his former courtesy title Viscount Lambton, although, since it was now a title that had passed by courtesy to his eldest son, it was argued by Sir Anthony Wagner and others, that this was incorrect. Lambton died in his Italian home on 30 December 2006.

Titles from birth

• • The Hon. Antony Lambton (10 July 1922 – 31 January 1929)

  • Viscount Lambton (31 January 1929 – 25 October 1951)

  • Viscount Lambton, MP (25 October 1951 – 4 February 1970)

  • The Rt Hon. The Earl of Durham (4 February 1970 – 23 February 1970)

  • Antony Lambton, MP * (23 February 1970 – 8 November 1973)

  • Antony Lambton * (8 November 1973 – 30 December 2006)

* After disclaiming his titles in 1970, Lambton preferred the style "Lord Lambton"

Edward Lambton

7th Earl of Durham (born 19 October 1961) is a British musician and a former member of the now defunct band, 'The Frozen Turkeys'. He is better known as Ned Lambton.

He was born in 1961, the youngest child and only son of Antony, Viscount Lambton, eldest son of the 5th Earl of Durham. As part of the annual Houghton Feast, a bonfire was lit at the top of Penshaw Hill (formerly part of the Lambton Estate and adjacent to Herrington Country Park) to mark his birth; he was later baptised by Maurice Harland, the Bishop of Durham, in the church of St Barnabas Burnmoor.

Upon his grandfather's death on 4 February 1970, Lambton's father succeeded as Earl of Durham but disclaimed that title on 23 February that same year. During this short period, Lambton was known by the courtesy title Viscount Lambton, but afterwards used the title Lord Durham to avoid confusion with his father, who improperly continued to style himself Viscount Lambton. He succeeded his father as 7th Earl of Durham in 2006.

Durham stood for the Referendum Party in his father's former constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed in the 1997 general election, gaining 3.4% of the vote.

Durham has been married three times and divorced two times:

In 1983 he married Christabel Mary McEwen, a daughter of Roderick McEwen (younger son of Sir John McEwen, 1st Baronet) and Romana von Hofmannsthal. They had one child:

• • Frederick Lambton, Viscount Lambton, born 23 Feb 1985

Lord Durham and McEwen divorced in 1995. She has since married the musician Jools Holland.

On 19 October 1995, he married Catherine FitzGerald, daughter of Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin and Olda Ann Willes. Their marriage did not produce any children and they divorced in 2002. Catherine is now married to actor Dominic West.

In January 2011, Durham married 28-year-old ex-model and socialite Marina Hanbury, a daughter of Tim Hanbury, a website designer, and his fashion designer wife, Emma. One of her ancestors founded the Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co brewery. Her sister Rose had briefly dated Lord Lambton, the earl's son, and is now married to David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley.