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II BROWN.
EX PARTE BURRELL, ETC. [1781]

[146]LORD GREAT CHAMBERLAIN OF ENGLAND.

Ex parte Peter Burrell, and Priscilla Barbara Elizabeth, Baroness Willoughby of Eresby, his Wife, upon the claim of the said Lady Willoughby of Eresby, and of the said Peter Burrell, in her right, to the high office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and all dignities and liberties thereto belonging [25th May 1781].

[Mew's Dig. xi. 1371.]

[The office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England is hereditary; and where a person dies seised in fee of this office, leaving two sisters, the office belongs to both sisters, and they may execute it by deputy; but such deputy must be approved of by the King, and must not be of a degree inferior to a Knight.]

Sir William Jones, 96.

In the year 1625, Henry, then Earl of Oxford, was seised in fee of the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and died without issue; leaving Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, his heir general, being the son and heir of Mary, then late Baroness of Willoughby, who was the sister of Edward de Vere, the father of Earl Henry; and Robert de Vere, his heir male, and the person to whom the Earldom of Oxford was afterwards adjudged to belong, as heir male of the ancient and honourable house of Vere.

Upon the death of Earl Henry, Robert Lord Willoughby, and Robert de Vere, severally laid claim to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain; the former insisting, that Earl Henry was seised of this office in fee-simple, and that upon his decease without issue, the same descended to his heir general: and the latter grounding his pretensions upon a supposed entail of the office, upon the heirs male of the Oxford family, in the fourth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

About the same time William, then Earl of Derby, and the Lady Elizabeth, his wife, also laid claim to this office, and contended that their title, in any thing that ought to descend upon the heir general of Earl Henry, was preferable to that of Robert Lord Willoughby; and in the month of March 1625, these several claimants presented their petitions to his Majesty King Charles the First, who referred the same to the Lords then assembled in parliament, for their advice and opinion respecting the right and title of the said several competitors for this high office.

In consequence of this reference, the counsel of the several claimants were heard, and five of the judges having, by command of the House of Peers, delivered their opinion respecting the title of the several persons laying claim to this office, the [147] greater number of these judges concurred in opinion in favour of the Lord Willoughby; and after much debate and long consideration, the House of Peers, upon the 5th of April 1626, resolved, that the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England did belong to Robert, Lord Willoughby, as heir general to Earl Henry, who was last seised thereof; and reported their humble opinion and advice to his Majesty, that the said office might be declared to appertain to the Lord Willoughby and his heirs.

In consequence of this resolution and report, Robert Lord Willoughby was admitted to the office, and upon the 13th of April 1626, took his place in the House of Peers as Lord Great Chamberlain, above all the other Barons, according to the statute of precedency, passed in the thirty-first year of King Henry the Eighth.

In the year 1661, the then Earls of Oxford and Derby petitioned his Majesty King Charles the Second, to appoint the case concerning this high office to be re-heard by the Lords in Parliament; and these petitions being referred by his Majesty's order to the House of Peers, it was ordered upon the 25th of June 1661, that the Earl of Oxford's counsel should be heard at the bar, upon matter of error in the former proceedings of the House, concerning the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and at the same time it was resolved not to admit new matter.

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