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Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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DUKE OF, an English title borne by the well-known Lincolnshire family of Bertie from 1715 to 1809. Robert Bertie (1660-1723), son and heir of Robert, third earl of Lindsey (d. 1701), who succeeded his father as lord great chamberlain of England, was created marquess of Lindsey in 1706, being made duke of Ancaster and Kesteven in July 1715. His eldest surviving son, Peregrine (1686-1742), who had been a member of parliament for Lincolnshire from 1708 to 1714, succeeded to the dukedom and also to the lordlieutenancy of Lincolnshire, which had been held by his father. His son and successor, Peregrine (1714-1778), who was also lord great chamberlain and lord-lieutenant of Lincolnshire, attained the rank of general in the British army. The fourth duke was Robert (1756-1779), son of the third duke, who died in July 1779, when his barony of Willoughby de Eresby and the hereditary office of lord great chamberlain fell into abeyance until 1780. The dukedom, however, and other honours came to his uncle Brownlow (1729-1809), on whose death in February 1809 the dukedom of Ancaster and Kesteven became extinct; but the earldom of Lindsey descended to a distant kinsman, Albemarle Bertie (1744-1818). After a second period of abeyance the barony of Willoughby de Eresby was revived in 1871 in favour of Clementina Elizabeth (d. 1888), a descendant of the Berties, who was the widow of Gilbert John Heathcote, 1st Baron Aveland (d. 1867). Her son and successor, Gilbert Henry Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (b. 1830), 23rd Baron Willoughby de Eresby, and joint hereditary lord great chamberlain, was created earl of Ancaster in 1898.