(moved from William Herbert, 18th Earl of Pembroke)
"Nuptial necessity"
edit"The title and the estate go to the eldest male heir, and since I have no children, brothers or uncles, I am sort of the last in line. Generally you try to have an heir and a spare, so there’s a bit of pressure to marry." (Lord Pembroke, speaking to Edward Lewine for the New York Times article, 2006)
..if he dies without an heir Wilton will pass to a cousin so far removed he doesn't even know his name.. (Lynn Barber, writing about the earl, for The Observer in summer 2005)
The descent listing heirs male only (daughters are not mentioned since they cannot inherit the earldoms):
Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1732/3) md three times. He had seven sons with his first wife Margaret, only daughter of Sir Robert Sawyer of Highclere who built the original house, later rebuilt by the 1st Earl of Carnarvon.
1. Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke (1693-1749/50) who inherited the earldoms of Pembroke and Montgomery in 1733. One of the "architect earls", he promoted the building of Westminster Bridge but had little impact on Wilton House itself or on national politics. He married Mary FitzWilliam, eldest daughter of Richard FitzWilliam, 5th Viscount FitzWilliam, through which marriage their grandson the 11th Earl inherited the FitzWilliam properties on the death of the 9th Viscount in 1833. They had an only son:
1.1. Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke (1734-1794), who married the 19 year-old Lady Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough and had an only legitimate son (he also had illegitimate children by other women)[1]:
1.1.1. George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke (1759-1827) married twice, 1stly in 1787 to his first cousin Elizabeth Beauclerk (d. 1793), daughter of Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana Spencer, by whom he had three sons (only the middle surviving as 12th Earl). He married 2ndly in 1808 to the Russian aristocrat Countess Catherine Romanovitch, a daughter of Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov of an Anglophile branch of an influential Rusisan dynasty. By his second marriage, he had one son:
1.1.1.1. Robert Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke (1791-1862), who had no legitimate children.[2] He never remarried after a disastrous and childless clandestine marriage in 1814 (annulled 1818) to Ottavia Spinelli (1779–1857), a rich Sicilian widow. He lived in Paris for the rest of his life, and Wilton House was administered by his younger half-brother
1.1.1.2. [2nd m] Rt. Hon. Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea cr. 1861 (1810 - August 1861) father of the two next earls and a notable British statesman. He was Secretary at War during the Crimean War (when his maternal relations were on the opposing side) and supported Florence Nightingale in her missions. He married 1846 Elizabeth Ash à Court-Repington(1822-1911), only dau. of Lt.-Gen. Charles Ash à Court-Repington and niece of William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury; they had four sons and three daughters born 1849 to 1859. The two elder sons succeeded as 13th and 14th Earls. Herbert also notably had an affair with (Caroline Norton in the 1840s before marrying.
1.1.1.2.1. George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke (1850-1895), who married 1874 Lady Gertrude Frances Chetwynd-Talbot (d. 1906), daughter of Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, but had no issue. The couple spent time at Mount Merrion in Dublin.
1.1.1.2.2. Sidney Herbert, 14th Earl of Pembroke (1853-1913) who married 1877 Lady Beatrix Louisa Lambton, a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Durham. They had issue.
1.1.1.2.2.1. Reginald Herbert, 15th Earl of Pembroke (1880-1960) who married in 1877 Lady Beatrice Eleanor Paget, sister of Charles Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey and granddaughter of Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey. They had three sons, of whom only the eldest married[3]:
1.1.1.2.2.1.1. Sidney Herbert, 16th Earl of Pembroke (1906-1969), who succeeded his father in 1960. He married in 1936 Lady Mary Dorothea Hope, daughter of John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, and had one son.
1.1.1.2.2.1.1.1. Henry Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke (1939-Oct 2003) who succeeded his father in 1969. In 1966, as Lord Herbert, he married Claire Rose Pelly, and had a son in 1978 before they divorced 1981 (after she ran off with a neighbour). He remarried 1988 Miranda Juliet Oram (b. 1962), a cousin of Earl Cairns but had no further sons. At his death, the only direct heir was his son now the 18th Earl, since the 17th Earl had no brothers, no uncles, and [4]
1.1.1.2.2.1.1.1.1. William Herbert, 18th Earl of Pembroke (b. 1978) succ f Oct 2003. He is still unmarried, at age 30, and thus his nearest heir presumptive in the earldom of Pembroke is the 8th Earl of Carnarvon (below). Wilton House would presumably go elsewhere.
2. [5th son] Major-Gen Hon William Herbert
2.1. Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Carnarvon (cr 1793) (1741-1811), who was created Lord Porchester in 1780 and so known until 1793. He married 1771 the well-connected Lady Elizabeth Alicia Maria Wyndham, daughter of Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, and had five sons.[5]. The eldest son:
2.1.1. Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon (1772-1833), who succeeded his father in 1811. He had two sons,[6] of whom the elder:
2.1.1.1. Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon (1800-1849), who succeeded his father in 1833. He married a Catholic, Henrietta Anna Howard (d. 1876), daughter of Lord Henry Thomas Howard-Molyneux-Howard and Elizabeth Long, on 4 August 1830; she was a cousin of Henry Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk. They had two sons. [7]
2.1.1.1.1. Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon (1831-1890), who succeeded his father in 1849. He married twice, and had issue one son (below) by his first wife Lady Evelyn Stanhope (d. 1875)[8] The 4th Earl is ancestor of all remaining heirs to the both earldoms, with the present 8th Earl, his two sons, his brother, his brother's son, and a descendant of the 4th Earl's second marriage (possibly not married), constituting six heirs in all.
2.1.1.1.1.1. George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (1866-1923) the archaeologist; he succeeded his father in 1890, and married a Rothschild heiress Almina Wombwell in 1895.[9]. They had one son:
2.1.1.1.1.1.1. Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon (1898-1987) who inherited the earldom in 1922, and had one son by his American-born first wife (md 1922, divorced 1936)[10]:
2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon(1924-2001), racing manager to the Queen 1969, who succeeded his father in 1987 (being the oldest earl at the time of succession, being then in his sixties). He had two sons by his American-born wife, granddaughter of the 8th Earl of Portsmouth and sister of former Senator Malcolm Wallop.
2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1. 8th Earl of Carnarvon (b. 10 Nov 1958); twice married, and has 2 legitimate sons. He is the heir presumptive to the earldoms of Pembroke and Montgomery, until the 18th Earl of Pembroke & Montgomery should marry and father a son within wedlock.[11] By his American-born first wife, he had one son, his heir apparent:
2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1. [1st m] George Kenneth Molyneux Herbert, Lord Porchester (born 13 October 1992), the heir apparent to the Earl of Carnarvon
- ^ The 10th Earl of Pembroke's illegitimate son Augustus Reebkomp, later Montgomery (1762-1797) Captain RN, left several descendants, but the male line died out 1842 with his only son who died without issue.
- ^ The 12th Earl of Pembroke had several illegitimate children, including sons, by his mistress whom he never married.
- ^ Upto 1978, the heir presumptive to the earldom was the Hon. David Herbert (1908-19__), uncle of the 17th Earl of Pembroke, and younger brother of the 16th Earl. The youngest son Hon. Anthony Herbert (1911-___) also died unmarried.
- ^ The late 17th Earl of Pembroke left a widow (his second wife), a son the new Earl, three daughters by the first marriage, and three daughters by the second marriage
- ^ One grandson of the 1st Earl was Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert (1831-1905), first Premier of Queensland who was most likely gay. He died unmarried. All younger lines descended from the four younger sons of the 1st Earl of Carnarvon died out by 1905.
- ^ The line of the younger son became extinct in 1870, when his elder and only surviving son was murdered in Greece by bandits.
- ^ The younger son Hon. Auberon Waugh was the ancestor of the Lords Lucas & Dingwall in the female line (the line became extinct in the male line in 1916).
- ^ By his first marriage, the 4th Earl of Carnarvon also had three daughters, of whom the eldest Winifred, Lady Burghclere was mother of a youngest daughter Hon. Evelyn Gardner, first wife of Evelyn Waugh and the second Lady Margaret married 2ndly Sir George Herbert Duckworth (d. 1934), half-brother of Virginia Woolf and became grandmother of landowner Anthony Duckworth-Chad (who married a first cousin of Diana, Princess of Wales). The 4th Earl married 2ndly 1878, a Catholic cousin Elizabeth Catharine Howard (d. 1929), daughter of Henry Howard of Greystoke Castle, Cumberland, and had further issue 2 sons. The elder son Auberon Herbert was father of Laura Herbert, second wife of Evelyn Waugh (previously married to her first half-cousin) and mother of Auberon Waugh.
- ^ The official profile doesn't mention Lady Carnarvon's likely Rothschild paternity
- ^ The 6th Earl of Carnarvon's family history, according to the family. His Daily Telegraph obituary by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd was far more colourful.
- ^ The Wikipedia entry for the present Earl of Carnarvon discloses a third son, born before his marriage. This hasn't been confirmed yet by reference to printed sources.