Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled Caernarfon, having been Anglicised to Carnarvon or Caernarvon. The traditional Welsh spelling is itself a modified form of the original name of antiquity, Caer-yn-Arfon, meaning fortification opposite the island of Mona (now called Ynys Môn, or Anglesey in English).
History The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1628 in favour of Robert Dormer, 2nd Baron Dormer of Wyng. For more information on this creation, which became extinct in 1709, see the Baron Dormer.
The second creation was in 1714 in the Peerage of Great Britain for James Brydges, 9th Baron Chandos. In 1719 he was further honoured when he was made Marquess of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos. For more information on this creation, which became extinct in 1789, see the Duke of Chandos.
The third creation was in 1793 in the Peerage of Great Britain for Henry Herbert, 1st Baron Porchester. The precise form of this creation was Earl of the Town and County of Carnarvon, in the Principality of Wales, although in practice only the style of Earl of Carnarvon is used. He had previously represented Wilton in the House of Commons and had already in 1780 been created Baron Porchester, of High Clere in the County of Southampton (also in the Peerage of Great Britain). Herbert was the son of Major-General the Hon. William Herbert, fifth son of Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke. He was succeeded by his eldest son Henry George Herbert, the second Earl, who sat as Whig Member of Parliament for Cricklade.
His eldest son Henry John George Herbert, the third Earl, briefly represented Wootton Bassett in Parliament as a Tory before he succeeded his father in the earldom. His eldest son Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, the fourth Earl, was a prominent Conservative politician and served as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was succeeded by his only son from his first marriage, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who is noted for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun along with Howard Carter.
, the titles are held by the fifth earl's great-grandson, the eighth Earl, who succeeded in 2001.
Several other members of this branch of the Herbert family may be mentioned. The Very Reverend the Hon. William Herbert, third son of the first Earl, was a clergyman and noted botanist. His son Henry William Herbert was a novelist and writer on sport. Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1871 to 1892, was the son of the Hon. Algernon Herbert, fifth son of the first Earl.
The Hon. Auberon Herbert, second son of the third Earl, was a writer, theorist, and philosopher, and also represented Nottingham in the House of Commons. He married Lady Florence Amabel Cowper, daughter of George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper and his wife Lady Anne Florence de Grey Cowper, 7th Baroness Lucas of Crudwell. In 1905, their only son Auberon Herbert succeeded his uncle as ninth Baron Lucas of Crudwell (see this title for further history of this branch of the family).
The Hon. Aubrey Herbert, second son of the fourth Earl, was Member of Parliament for South Somerset and for Yeovil. His son Auberon Herbert was an expert on Eastern Europe. His daughter Laura Herbert was the second wife of the novelist Evelyn Waugh and mother of the journalist Auberon Waugh.
Estates and residences Country seat The family seat of the Herbert Earls of Carnarvon is Highclere Castle in Hampshire, which was the filming location for the UK television series Downton Abbey. The traditional burial place of the Herbert Earls of Carnarvon is the Carnarvon Mausoleum, located in the park at Highclere Castle; some other family members are buried in the Herbert Mausoleum at the Church of All Saints, Burghclere.
Estates In the 1883 edition of John Bateman's The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon was listed as the owner of 35,583 acres in England, which yielded a combined annual income of £37,211. His landholdings included 13,247 acres in Nottinghamshire, 12,800 acres in Somerset, 9,340 acres in Hampshire, 120 acres in Derbyshire, 68 acres in Devon, and eight acres in Wiltshire. On the 4th Earl's death in 1890, his will settled much of his English real estate in trust for the benefit of his successors, with the stated object of maintaining the earldom and the position associated with it.
The 4th Earl’s substantial Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire landholdings had been inherited by his first wife, Lady Evelyn Stanhope, daughter of George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield; her brother and only sibling George Stanhope, 7th Earl of Chesterfield had died childless in December 1871, and she had inherited much of his estate. In 1874 Lady Carnarvon executed a resettlement of the Chesterfield family estates; she died in 1875, after which her inheritance devolved upon her son George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon.
Highclere Castle and Estate
Highclere Castle in Hampshire has been the principal seat of the Earls of Carnarvon since the title was granted to Henry Herbert, 1st Baron Porchester in 1793.
Highclere Castle and its estate was purchased in 1679 by Sir Robert Sawyer; following his death in 1692, the estate was inherited by his only surviving child Margaret Sawyer, who had married Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke in 1684. Margaret’s second son The Hon. Robert Herbert inherited the Highclere Estate from his mother; he died childless in 1769, and bequeathed the Highclere Estate to his nephew Henry Herbert MP, who was later enobled as Baron Porchester in 1780, and raised to the Earldom of Carnarvon in 1793. The house was substantially remodelled for Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon by Charles Barry during the 1840s.
By 1883, the 4th Earl’s Hampshire estates comprised 9,340 acres and yielded an estimated annual income of £6,500. The estate itself was supported by income from the family's wider landed portfolio; by the 1920s the family’s Nottinghamshire estates (which had been inherited by George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon upon his father’s death in 1890) had become a key source of income. Lord Carnarvon’s Shelford estate was generating over £10,000 annually in rents by 1919, which had increased to £16,675 by 1924; much of this income was derived from a colliery on the Shelford estate, situated near Gedling.
Following the death of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1923, his only son Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon inherited a life interest in the Highclere estate, although his inheritance was subject to substantial mortgages and an Inheritance Tax bill amounting to over £500,000. At the time of the 5th Earl’s death, the Highclere estate was held under an Entail, although the 6th Earl disentailed the estate on 5 May 1923.
In August 1925, the Carnarvon Estates Company was incorporated, with all but one of its shares held by the Earl. The Earl transferred his life interest in the 6,500-acre Bingham estate in Nottinghamshire, as well as the fee simple of the Highclere estate. In consideration for the transfer of Highclere, he received 85,455 fully paid £1 shares in the Carnarvon Estates Company; he also transferred the Highclere home-farm stock and implements in consideration for a further 4,000 shares. The company assumed the outstanding mortgages and leased Highclere Castle and its grounds back to him on a 21-year lease. The lease also comprised three cottages, Milford Lake House and Siddown Warren Stud Farm (which later became known as the Highclere Stud), amounting to 524 acres in total, for which the Earl paid a half-yearly rent of £573.
The company thereafter began disposing of peripheral portions of the estate. In 1926, approximately 1,021 acres on its eastern side, including several plots suitable for building development, were sold. The disposal realised £22,756 after costs, which was applied towards an outstanding mortgage of £24,205. The company subsequently continued to sell land on the periphery of the estate during the 1930s; in March 1930, Crux Easton Farm was sold for £5,000; in June, Penwood Farm, comprising 61 acres, was sold to its tenant for £900. Great Pen Wood, comprising 198 acres, was sold for £3,850, and the Carnarvon Arms Hotel was sold for £3,250.
In January 1932, amid the continuing economic depression, the company resolved to reduce expenditure across all departments of the estate. Management and miscellaneous expenses were reduced, staffing had already been curtailed, and expenditure on charitable donations and subscriptions was substantially cut. From 1934, the company began distributing its entire annual profits to the 6th Earl as dividends, paying him £2,549 in 1934, £3,137 in 1935 and £3,965 in 1936. By 1936, the acreage of the Highclere estate had been reduced by approximately 45 per cent, while its annual operating loss had fallen from more than £8,000 in 1929 to approximately £4,000 in 1935.
The corporate structure of the Highclere estate also became the subject of litigation concerning the 6th Earl's liability for super-tax during the 1930s.
Following the Earl's divorce from his first wife, Catherine, her settlement provided her with an annuity of £3,000 for life secured upon the Highclere estates. In her 2013 biography of Catherine, Lady Catherine and the Real Downton Abbey, Fiona Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon (second wife of the current Earl, George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon) asserts that the encumbrance of the Highclere Estate with the 1936 divorce settlement later restricted the 6th Earl's ability to dispose of further substantial estate land, helping to preserve the inheritance of the couple’s son, Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon.
The Highclere estate remains in the possession of the Earls of Carnarvon, and presently comprises approximately 5,000 acres, including around 2,000 acres of arable land, 1,200 acres of parkland and 1,800 acres of woodland and land associated with Highclere Stud.
Bingham Estate, Nottinghamshire During the late 19th and early 20th century, the 4th and 5th Earls owned substantial estates in Nottinghamshire, which the 4th Earl’s first wife Evelyn had inherited from her brother George Stanhope, 7th Earl of Chesterfield in 1871. In 1883, the Earl’s landholdings in Nottinghamshire comprised 13,247 acres, which yielded an annual income of £23,825.
In 1919, the 5th Earl and his son Henry Herbert, Lord Porchester disentailed and resettled the trust which held the Bingham Estate. Subject to a £1,000 annual jointure for the 5th Earl’s wife Almina Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon, the 5th Earl held a life interest, followed by a life interest for the future 6th Earl, followed by the latter's sons successively in tail male. Following the 5th Earl's death in 1923, the 6th Earl therefore became tenant for life. On 10 August 1925 the 6th Earl transferred his life interest in the Bingham Estate to the Carnarvon Estates Company in consideration for 150,000 fully-paid £1 shares.
In September 1925, the 6th Earl sold the 6,500-acre Bingham estate in Nottinghamshire to the Commissioner of Crown Lands; the estate included the villages of Shelford and Saxondale, and part of the township of Bingham; however, under the terms of the 1919 resettlement his interest in the proceeds of the sale was limited to a life-tenancy.
Bretby Hall