Earl of Lucan

Earl of Lucan is a title which has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland for related families.

In 1691, Patrick Sarsfield, who had been one of James VII & II's senior Irish commanders during his battles in Ireland with William of Orange for the English, Scottish and Irish thrones (see Glorious Revolution), was created Earl of Lucan, Viscount of Tully and Baron Rosberry. Sarsfield's son James Sarsfield died without an heir in 1719 and the title became extinct.

Patrick Sarsfield's great-nephew, Charles Bingham, had the title re-created in 1795. Since this was a re-created title, despite the family connection, Charles Bingham was called the 1st Earl of Lucan of the "second creation".

The subsidiary titles associated with the Earldom are: Baron Lucan, of Castlebar in the County of Mayo (created 1776), and Baron Bingham, of Melcombe Bingham in the County of Dorset (1934). The first is in the Peerage of Ireland, the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and therefore allowed Earls of Lucan to sit in the House of Lords after the practice of electing representative peers from Ireland ceased. The Earl of Lucan also has a Baronetcy (of Castlebar, Co Mayo) created in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia (7 June 1634).

The title became notorious when the George, 3rd Earl, as cavalry commander in the Crimean War, was one of the men involved in the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade.

Its notoriety was renewed after the disappearance in 1974 of the 7th Earl. In June 1975, in his absence, a coroner's jury found that he had murdered his children's nanny, Sandra Rivett. There have been no confirmed sightings of the 7th Earl since his disappearance, and he was declared legally dead for purposes of probate in October 1999. This was, nonetheless, insufficient to enable his son George, Lord Bingham to succeed to the titles. A death certificate for the 7th Earl was issued in February 2016 under the Presumption of Death Act 2013, and Lord Bingham's claim to the Earldom was formally accepted by the House of Lords on 7 June 2016.

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Wikipedia