Earl of Chatham

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The title Earl of Chatham, in the County of Kent, was created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1766 for William Pitt the Elder on his appointment as Lord Privy Seal, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Pitt, of Burton Pynsent in the County of Somerset. The 1st Earl's wife, the former Lady Hester Grenville, daughter of the 1st Countess Temple, had earlier been created Baroness Chatham, of Chatham in the County of Kent, also in the Peerage of Great Britain, in 1761, as at that stage her husband had wished to remain a member of the House of Commons. Their eldest son inherited the Earldom and Viscountcy in 1778 and the Barony in 1803. Upon his death all three titles became extinct.

The title Baron Chatham had been created before, in the Peerage of England, for the 2nd Duke of Argyll, as a subsidiary title of the Earldom of Greenwich. The Duke was later created Duke of Greenwich in the Peerage of Great Britain.