ANCASTER COMPLETE PEERAGE 127 ANCASTER DUKEDOM. I. Robert Bertie, s. and h. ap. of Robert (Bertie), J 3rd Earl of Lindsey, by his 2nd wife, Elizabeth, da. of ' ^' Philip (Wharton), 4th Lord Wharton, was b. 20 Oct. 1660. M.P. for Boston 1685-87 and 1689-90, also el. for Preston 1689; Chanc. of the Duchy of Lane. 1689-97. On 27 Apr. 1690, he took his seat in the House of Lords, having been sum.^ 1;./)., on 19 Apr., in his father's Barony, as LORD WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY. On 8 May 1701, he sue. his father as Hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain, (") and also as EARL OF LINDSEY, and took his seat, as such Earl, on 28 May. Lord Lieut, of co. Lincoln 4 Apr. 1701-23. P.C. 19 June 1701, 18 Mar. 1702, and again 25 Nov. 1708 and i Oct. 17 14. On 21 Dec. 1706, he was cr. MARQUESS OF LINDSEY, with a spec. rem. as in the subsequent creation of the Dukedom of Ancaster. Having been one of the Lords Justices during the absence of George I in Hanover in 171 5, he was, on 26 July 17 ISC') ^r. DUKE OF ANCASTER AND KESTEVEN,C^) with a spec, rem., failing the heirs male of his body, to the heirs male of the bodies of his father and mother abovenamed. He m., istly, 30 July 1678, at Westm. Abbey, Mary, da. and sole h. of Sir Richard Wynn, 4th Bart, of Gwydyr, by Sarah, da. of Sir Thomas Middleton, ist Bart, of Chirk. She d. 20 Sep. 1689. He m., 2ndly, 6 July 1705, Albinia, ist da. of Major Gtn. William Farrington, of Chiselhurst, Kent, by Theodosia, sister and coh. of Sir Edward Betenson, Bart., and da. of Richard B., of Scadbury in Chislehurst afsd. He d. at his seat, Grimsthorpe, co. Lincoln, 26 July, and was bur. 16 Aug. 1723, aged 62, at Edenham, in chat co. M.I. (*) Will dat. 23 May 1719, pr., with 3 cods., i Apr. 1724. His widow, who, in her issue, became (1758) h. to her father, m. James Douglas. She d., aged 46, 29 July, and was bur. i Aug. 1745, in Chiselhurst Church, Kent. (■) See as to this great office vol. ii, Appendix D. C") By statute i Geo. I. it was enacted that, notwithstanding the statute of 3 1 Hen. VIII. (whereby the Great Chamberlain takes precedence of all Peers of his degree) this Dukedom should rank [only] according to the date of its patent. This unjust infringement of the existing law came, however, to an end (on the extinction of the peerage) in 1809 ' when the precedence of the office of Great Chamberlain fell again under the operation of the statute of 31 Hen. VIII.' (Sir C.G. Young's Order of Precedence, p. 21). C') For his arms see Lindsey, Earldom of. (*) According to Macky, in his Characters, c. 1704, he was "handsome in his person ; of a fair complexion, doth not trouble himself with affairs of state, but his brother [Peregrine Bertie] is Vice Chamberlain and a Privy Counseller, a fine gentle- man, has both wit and learning. " The brother's merit seems hardly sufficient to have gained the Earl two steps in the Peerage. Bishop Burnet's character of the Earl with Swift's remarks thereon in italics, is as follows. — " A fine gentleman, hath both wit and learning. / never observed a grain of either. "
