Earl FitzWilliam

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Earl FitzWilliam is a title in the Peerages of Ireland and of Great Britain.

The FitzWilliam family claim descent from William the Conqueror. William FitzWilliam of Milton in Northamptonshire, grandson of Sir William FitzWilliam, Lord Deputy of Ireland, was created Baron FitzWilliam in the Peerage of Ireland in 1620.

In 1716 the 3rd Baron FitzWilliam was created Earl FitzWilliam, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Milton, in the Peerage of Ireland.

In 1742, the 3rd Earl was created Lord FitzWilliam, Baron of Milton in the County of Northampton, in the Peerage of Great Britain, and in 1746 was further created Earl FitzWilliam, of Norborough in the County of Northampton, and Viscount Milton, of Milton in the County of Northampton, both also in the Peerage of Great Britain.

All the peerages became extinct upon the death of the 10th Earl (the 8th Earl in the Peerage of Great Britain) in 1979.

The eldest son of the Earl FitzWilliam bore the courtesy title Viscount Milton.

The old family seat was the grand Wentworth Woodhouse, and Milton Hall, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. While Wentworth Woodhouse, which had come to the family through inheritance from the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham in 1782, was sold (while the 80,000+ acre estate including much of the town of Malton, North Yorkshire was retained) in the 1980's, Milton Hall and its considerable estate of over 50,000 acres together with valuable properties in Peterborough and the surrounding area continue by descent in the family.

Lady Mabel Fitzwilliam, a socialist politician and "an ardent pioneer in education and social welfare"^[1], was a granddaughter of the 6th Earl.

[edit] Barons FitzWilliam (1620)

William FitzWilliam, 1st Baron FitzWilliam (d.1644)
William FitzWilliam, 2nd Baron FitzWilliam (c.1609-1658)
William FitzWilliam, 3rd Baron FitzWilliam (1643-1719), created Earl FitzWilliam in 1716