Baron de Ros - Descent

Descent

The title was originally held by the de Ros family until the death of the eleventh Baron in 1508, when it was inherited by his nephew, Sir George Manners. His son, Thomas, inherited the barony and was later created Earl of Rutland. The barony and earldom remained united until the death of the third Earl, Edward Manners. The barony was then inherited by his only daughter, Elizabeth, while the earldom passed to a male heir, his younger brother. Upon the death of Elizabeth's only son, William Cecil, the title returned to the Manners family, being inherited by the sixth Earl of Rutland.

Again, upon the sixth Earl's death, the barony and earldom were separated (the earldom being inherited by a distant cousin, the great-nephew of the 2nd earl), as the barony was inherited by the Earl's daughter Katherine, who had married George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Katherine's son George inherited both the barony and the dukedom, but upon his death the dukedom became extinct and the barony went into abeyance.

The barony had been in abeyance for over a century when Charlotte Boyle Walsingham (who was later to marry Lord Henry FitzGerald, a son of the 4th Duke of Leinster) petitioned King George III to terminate the abeyance in her favour in 1790. (She was the daughter of Robert Boyle-Walsingham by his wife Charlotte, daughter of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams by his wife Frances, daughter of Thomas Coningsby, 1st Earl Coningsby by his wife Frances, daughter of Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham, son of William Willoughby, 3rd Baron Willoughby of Parham by his wife Frances, daughter of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland who was younger brother of the 15th Baron de Ros.) The King referred the matter to the House of Lords, which recommended that the barony remain in abeyance. However, in 1806, the Prince Regent terminated the abeyance in her favour on the recommendation of his Prime Minister. Charlotte and her heirs then took the additional surname of "de Ros" after "FitzGerald".

The title eventually went into abeyance again upon the death of Mary Dawson (née Fitzgerald-de Ros), the 25th Baroness, in 1939. The abeyance was terminated in favour of her eldest daughter, Una Ross (née Dawson) in 1943, and again went into abeyance upon her death in 1956. Two years later, the barony was called out of abeyance again for Una Ross's granddaughter, Georgiana Maxwell (née Ross). Upon Georgiana Maxwell's death, it was inherited by Peter Maxwell, the first man to hold the title in over three-quarters of a century.