Baron Arlington
barony in the Peerage of England
Baron Arlington is a title in the Peerage of England which was created, on 14 March 1665, for Sir Henry Bennet, younger brother of John Bennet, 1st Baron Ossulston. In 1672, he was made Earl of Arlington and Viscount Thetford, and was regranted the title of Baron Arlington, with a special remainder allowing it to pass to both male and female descendants, rather than only heirs male, as was customary with most peerages. Its territorial designation is the birthplace of its first holder Harlington, London, which was also known as Arlington.
The 11th Baroness Arlington was the last woman to take her seat in the House of Lords under the provisions of the Peerage Act 1963. She became a member of the Lords on 27 May 1999 and remained in the House until 11 November 1999, when the House of Lords Act 1999 took effect.
Co-descent with the dukedom of Grafton
The first Earl of Arlington died, as anticipated, without male heirs so the titles went to his daughter Isabella. At age five, Isabella was engaged to Henry FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of Charles II of England and his mistress Barbara Villiers. Henry would be created Duke of Grafton in 1679. Their son Charles inherited the Arlington and Grafton substantive titles.
The two titles continued united until the death of the 9th Duke in a high-speed racecar accident in 1936.
The public source identifies “Baron Arlington” as barony in the Peerage of England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Baron, Arlington and barony.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baron Arlington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.