Earl of Bathurst

Earl Bathurst, of Bathurst in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain.

The medieval English word was Botehurst, thought to date at least from 13th century. Bote is the origination of Battle, although the family may have settled there post-dating the Conquest. This translated as 'a wood in a wood' which may in contradistinction have meant a clearing. The name of Apsley adopted by the family derived from Thakenham, near Pulborough in east Sussex, which may have referred to apse - lea or a 'church in a meadow'. The Bathurst estates were at Cirencester Park and Paulspury, Northamptonshire, which Bathursts inherited before the park was laid out in the Cotswolds.

The title was created in 1772 for Allen Bathurst, 1st Baron Bathurst. He was a politician and an opponent of Sir Robert Walpole. He was also known for his wit and learning, for his connections with poets and scholars of his time, and the famous landscape garden he created at his seat, Cirencester House, in Gloucestershire. Sixty years before being created an Earl, in 1712, he had been elevated to the Peerage of Great Britain as Baron Bathurst, of Battlesden in the County of Bedford. Bathurst was the son of Sir Benjamin Bathurst, Cofferer of the Household and Governor of the British East India Company, by his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley. He married his cousin Catherine Apsley, daughter of his maternal uncle Sir Peter Apsley, in 1704.

He was succeeded by his second but eldest surviving son, the second Earl. He was a prominent lawyer and politician. In 1771, four years before the death of his father, he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain in his own right as Baron Apsley, in the County of Sussex. He then served as Lord High Chancellor until 1778 and later held office as Lord President of the Council. Bathurst constructed Apsley House in London, which later became the seat of the Dukes of Wellington. His eldest son Henry, the third Earl, was a noted politician. He served as President of the Board of Trade, as Foreign Secretary, as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies and as Lord President of the Council. He gave his name to Bathurst, the capital of The Gambia, now called Banjul, and also the Australian town of Bathurst, the first inland city in the country.

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