Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 2.djvu/60

 BUCKHTJIIST. 59 XII. lSG-i. 1. Elizabeth, Countess De La Warr, wife of"l ~ George John (SacKWLls West), 5fch Earl De La Warr (who d. 23 ' Feb, 1869) was, on 27 April 1864, cr. BARONESS BUCKHURST OF BUCK- HURST, CO. .Sussex, for life, with rem. of the title of BARON BUCKHURST OF BUCKHURST, <jo. Sussex, to Reginald William Sackville-West, her second surV, s. and the heirs male of his body, with rem. to her 3rd, 4th, and 5th surv. sons, by her said husband, in like manner respectively. With a proviso that if any person taking under these letters patent " shall succeed to the Earldom of De La Warr, and there shall upon, or at any time after, the occurrence of such an event be any younger son or any heir male of the body of any such other son, then and so often as the same shall happen the succession to the Honors and dignities thereby created shall devolve upon the son of the said Elizabeth, Countess De La Warr, or the heir who would next be entitled to succeed to the said dignity of Baron Huckhurst, if the person so succeeding to the Earldom of DeL.i Wartv/ai dead without issue male." The patentee of this extraordinary^) creation was the only child that left issue of John Frederick (Salkville), 3rd Duke OK Dorset, Sec, and 9th Baron Buckhurst. She was b. 11 Aug. 1795; m. (as above) 21 June 1813, and d. a widow 9 Jany. 1870, in Upper Grosveuor-street. XIII 1S70. B. Reginald WmtBson (SAOKWULS-Wmr, afterwards Salkville), Baron Buckhurst, 2d surv. s. and, according to the s/>fc. lira. heir. Took his seat in the House of Lords under the title of Baron Buckhurst. On 23 April 1S73 he sue. his eldest br. as Earl De La Warr, &c., with which Peerage this Barony, in spite of the remarkable Proviso (in the patent of its creation above quoted) to the contrary, remains united. ( b ) S o I i < >sJ ( a ) It was not, however, absolutely unique, for there exists one other creation con- taining a proviso of a similar nature, Viz., the Earldom of Cromartie, tve, granted (three yeius previously) 21 Oct. 1861 to Anne, Duchess of Sutherland, but the de- volution of this Earldom has not been similarly tested. They have been appositely called " the two jumping Peerages," the intention having apparently been to create a Peerage that would jump from one person (in bis life tune) to another, according as certain contingencies arose. ('') The Barony of Buckhurst was claimed, together with Knole Tark, in Sevenoaks, Kent, and other Sackville estates, by the Hon. Mortimer Sackville-West, the next br. to Earl Reginald. As to the estates he was successful, the deed, which arranged for their so shifting, being upheld ; as to the Peerage, however, as might have been expected, he failed, but (for consolation) was cr. Baron Sackville of Knole, co. Kent, 2 Oct 1876, with a spec, rem., failing the heirs male of his body, to his two younger brothers (the only persona to whom the contingency of inheriting the Barony of Buckhurst could arise) in like manner. The following suggestions arise from the remarkable muddle caused by the over-clever contingent remainders attempted as to this dignity. 1. Whether, under the patent of 1864, any descendant of Reginald (now) Earl De La Warr can inherit ; for at his death, " the heir male of his body " will " succeed to the Earldom of De La Warr " and be consequently disintitled. 2. Whether, inasmuch, as the said Reginald received his writ for the said Barony and sat therein, he must not have possessed a Peerage having a rem. to the heirs (or it least to some issue) of his Wy,j and if sucl) was the case, whether the said Barony would not devolve on such his descendant. 3. Whether, notwithstanding such sitting therein, the Barony will not, on the death, There are some few cases of a grantee sitting in a peerage conferred with a rem. to certain specified issue, e.g. that of the Hon. Thomas Villiers, who was a: Baron Hyde, in 1756, with rem. to the heirs male of his body by Charlotte, his then wife (heiress of the Hyde family) with a final rem. to the heirs male of her body ; that of the Marquess of Londonderry [I.] who was it., in 1823, Earl Vane with rem. to the heirs male of Ms body by his then wife Frances Anne, heiress of the Vane family, <fce. In tho case of the Dukedom of Somerset cr. 1517, tho' the younger son was preferred to the elder, the final rem. was to the beira male of the body of the grantee generally.