Talk:Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex

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[edit] 1st Earl of Essex - Capel or Capell?

(conversation moved here from Wikipedia:Reference desk)

While working through TB's misspelled links list, I came across some links to the (non-existent) article Arthur_Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, with the suggestion that perhaps they should point to our article Arthur Capel, 1st Earl of Essex. Fair enough, simple misspelling. But a bit more research reveals that the situation might be more complicated. Our article (with the spelling "Capel") is from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, so might presumably be expected to be right. However, I found this page which spells his name "Capell", citing their source as "Cokayne, G.E.; Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed.. 13 volumes in 14. 1910-1959. Reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000."

How can we figure out which is right? —Stormie 03:39, Jun 4, 2004 (UTC)

The name shifts back and forth from Capel to Capell. Strict orthography is a modern thing, and not something the Earls of Essex were much concerned with, as they wouldn't use a surname after becoming earl. CP list the Earls of the 1661 creation as:

1. Arthur (Capell)
2. Algernon (Capell)
3. William (Capell)
4. William Anne Holles (Capel)
5. George (Capel-Coningsby)
6. Arthur Algernon (Capel, afterwards Capell)
7. George Devereux de Vere (Capell, formerly Capel), etc.
   - Nunh-huh 03:54, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)

P.S. I hope we have an account of the death of the 1st Earl in the Tower of London.... Lord Ailesbury wrote: "The Earl asked very coldly for a razor to cut his nails, and being accustomed so to do gave no manner of suspicion. He went into a small closet," where his servant afterward found him "dead and wallowing in blood"... the assumption being that the reason he "cutt his own throat with a knife" was because of his knowledge of the Rye House Plot.

My suggestion would be to create it with the Capell spelling and create a redirect to if from the Capel spelling. - Nunh-huh 03:54, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, you're a champ! I will do that. Sadly, we only have a fairly dry Britannica 1911 account of the 1st Earl's death. —Stormie 05:51, Jun 4, 2004 (UTC)