Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/354

 336 DEVON XXVIII. 1788 19. William (Courtenay), Viscount CouRTENAY OF confirmed Powderham, and de jure Earl of Devon,(') only s. 1 83 1, and h., b. 30 July, and bap. 30 Aug. 1768, at Powder- ham. On 14 May 1831 he was declared EARL OF DEVON (*") by the House of Lords, under the rem. in the creation of that Earldom, 3 Sep. 1553, to the grantee '^^ and his heirs male-" he being indeed collaterally h. male to the grantee, inasmuch as his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's grandfather (all of them unconscious of their right to such dignity). Sir William Courtenay (who d. 1557), was very distant cousin and h. male of the grantee of 1553, whose ancestor in the seventh degree was this Sir William's grandfather's grandfather's grand- father's grandfather. The Earl d. unm., at Paris, in the Place Venddme, 26 May, and was bur. 12 June 1835, at Powderham, aged nearly 67, when the Viscountcy of Courtenay of Powderham became extinct. Will pr. June 1835.0 XXIX. 1835. 20. William (Courtenay), Earl of Devon,('') 3rd cousin and h. male, being s. and h. of Henry Reginald Courtenay, Bishop of Exeter (i 797-1 803), by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas (Howard), 2nd Earl of Effingham, which Henry Reginald was 2nd but 1st surv. s. of another Henry Reginald C, who was next br. to William, I St Viscount Courtenay, de jure{') 26th Earl of Devon. He was b. 19 June 1777, in Lower Grosvenor Str., Midx.; ed. atWestm. school; matric. at Oxford (Ch. Ch.) June 1794, B.A. 1798, M.A. 1 80 1 ; Barrister (Line. Inn) 1 799; Patentee of the Subpoena office. Court of Chancery before 1 800-52 ;('*) (') See Note in text of p. 332. C") Tiie person in whose favour this astonishing decision was made was, according to the well-known T. C. Banks (in his letter on the Devon case to Lord Chancellor Brougham), one " who ought to think himself happy that his titles and estates have not been forfeited, or himself paid the debt to the law like the Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury " [beheaded 1541], one against whom a bill being found, " never ventured to put the question of guilt to a trial," but remained skulking abroad, afraid to venture on taking his seat in Pari.; his motto, " Uhi lapsus ? quid fed ?" putting " a question which its owner avoids to leave to a tribunal of his country to answer." The person who in reality was the moving spirit was William Courtenay, then Clerk Assistant of the Parliament, who, after the claimant's death in 1835, sue. him as Earl of Devon. Lord Brougham appears to have taken an active part in obtaining the decision. Lord Campbell (in his Life of Brougham) says, "I have often rallied Brougham upon his creating William Courtenay, Earl of Devon. He says [sic"] he consulted Lord Ch. Justice Tenterden. But Tenterden knew nothing of Peerage Law, and must have come to a contrary conclusion if he had heard the question properly argued." G.E.C. There are many references to him in William Beckford's Correspondence, as also in Sir H. Bate Dudley's Vortigern and Rowena, 1 796, vol. i, p. 78. V.G. (') See last paragraph of tabular pedigree, p. 335. (d) "William Courtenay" held the office 1779-1815, and 1815-1835, and the Earl of Devon held it 1836-52. If all these are the same person, he was appointed before he was aged 2. V.G.