The Eliot Family and the Viscounty of Erth Barton

Præcedentibus Insta

“Press Close Upon Those in the Lead”

Peerage: Viscount of Erth Barton (currently the 7th Viscount Erth Barton)

Established: 1758

Subsidiary Title: Baron Sconner (as of 1830)

Defunct Title: Baron Eliot (defunct 1830)

Seat of Power: Sconner House

Location: Plymouth, Cornwall

1st Viscount Erth Barton- 1758-1764

In 1732, Baron Edward John Fergus-Eliot, then the Member of Parliament for County Erth Barton, was made Receiver-General for the Duchy of Cornwall. He was granted a peerage under the Duke of Cornwall, making him the First Viscount of Erth Barton in 1758. He purchased and began to refurbish Lynher Place outside of the village of Eliot Quay. He wouldn’t see the manor’s restoration, however, as the 1st Viscount passed from some kind of malady of the stomach in 1764 at age 65. His eldest son, Montague Eliot, became the 2nd Viscount of Erth Barton in 1764.

2nd Viscount Erth Barton- 1764-1792

Montague Eliot had been raised to the peerage as Baron Eliot when his father had gained the Peerage of Viscount of Erth Barton. He gained the title from his father with special dispensation that his brother, William and William’s sons would inherit the title on his passing; Montague was childless from a Mumps infection. He passed the title of Baron Eliot to his brother upon his accession.

Montague Eliot completed the renovations to Lynher House sometime in 1796 and lived there for much of the rest of his life. Unlike his brother William, Montague was shy and retiring, preferring gardening and books to political offices and London’s distractions. He was an amateur architect.

3rd Viscount Erth Barton- 1792-1799

William Eliot, Baron Eliot and MP for Erth Barton, ascended to the title of Viscount on the death of his brother. He took up his role in the House of Lords and passed the Baron Eliot title to his son Frederick. William Eliot was only seldom in Eliot Quay and Cornwall: he preferred the pleasures and distractions of London. He left Lynher House mostly to his son and their family.

The family’s fortunes were sagging somewhat under William’s spending tendencies and the renovations to Lynher House. William married the daughter of a shipping magnate member of the Gentry. William and Frederick often clashed: Frederick was much like his Uncle- a retiring sort, bookish, preferring country family life. Frederick hated his father’s infidelity.

William died in his sixth decade from a hunting accident and Frederick ascended to the title.

4th Viscount Erth Barton- 1799-1823

With their fortunes swelled by the influx of new money, Frederick and his wife began to turn their wealth to bettering Eliot Quay. They improved on some canals and established some river trade. Frederick always had to contend with his wife’s father, a grasping and ambitious man who Frederick found very tiresome. In his older years, Lynher House was lost in a fire and, distraught, Frederick spiritually faded.

Frederick’s younger brother and a sister emigrated to India with their respective spouses and children (both were industrial magnates or military gentry). Yet Frederick never ventured to see them in India and held strong (somewhat unpopular) opinions about the British presence there. Frederick and his son Edward disagreed strongly about Edward’s role in the military there.

5th Viscount Erth Barton- 1823-1857

Frederick’s middle child was his heir, named Edward Frederick George Eliot. Edward was a military man- part of the 3rd Bengal Lancers. Colonel Edward Eliot had a long tenure as Viscount, yet much of his time as Viscount was in absentia. Instead his wife Margaret ran the day to day operations with her cousin, Benjamin Sprouse.

Edward made Baron Eliot defunct and the new title of Baron Sconner created which he granted to his son Edward.

By the 1850’s a sizable number of the extended Eliot family held interests in India, in the Madras and Bengal Presidencies. The Indian Mutinies in 1857-58 had a polarizing effect on the family and its finances.

The Fifth Viscount of Erth Barton was killed by shrapnel fire during the Crimean War. It took a month for the family back in England to receive the news and then contact Edward Granville Eliot, who was in India at the time. In all the peerage had no official Viscount for nearly five months.

6th Viscount Erth Barton - 1858-1865

With the unexpected death of the 5th Viscount Edward Eliot, his youngest son Edward Granville Eliot took on the mantle of the Viscounty. He had two children: the oldest was Granville.

Like his father, Edward died early and left his wife widowed and children fatherless. The title of Viscount passed to his child, Granville, but his mother acted as Regent until he came of age.

7th Viscount Erth Barton- 1865-Present

Granville Eliot acceded to the peerage at a very young age and with it came a certain rancor toward military life. His mother was his Regent until he came of age at eighteen.