Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans

Murray de Vere Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans, FCA (born 19 January 1939), styled Earl of Burford from 1964 until 1988, is a British peer of the Realm.

Family

The only child (by his first wife) and eldest son of Charles Beauclerk, 13th Duke of St Albans, the 14th Duke descends from King Charles II and Nell Gwyn by their illegitimate son, Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans.

Murray St Albans is also a descendant of King Edward I and Edward III of England through Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. He is also the senior representative of the De Vere family by descent from Aubrey de Vere I, Chief Tenant of William the Conqueror.

Career

Beauclerk attended Tonbridge School in Kent, before qualifying as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1962.^[1]

Since 1989, he has served as Governor-General of the Royal Stuart Society,^[2] and is also a Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman of the Drapers' Company.

Marriages and issue

Murray Beauclerk married Rosemary Frances Scoones on 31 January 1963;^[3] they had two children:

• Lady Emma Caroline de Vere Beauclerk (born 22 July 1963)
• Charles Beauclerk, Earl of Burford (born 22 February 1965)

They divorced in 1974, and Lady Burford married secondly in 1975,^[4] divorcing in 2000, Paul Pellew, 10th Viscount Exmouth and 9th marqués de Olías (born Estoril, 8 October 1940).^[5]

Lord Burford married secondly Cynthia Theresa Mary Howard on 29 August 1974; the Duke and Duchess of St Albans were divorced in 2001. Her Grace was born on 23 March 1929 and died 12 May 2002.^[6][7]

The Duke married his third and current wife, Gillian Anita Northam, on 14 December 2002 in London.^[8]

See also

• Hereditary Grand Falconer

Ancestry

Arms

Arms of Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans

Coronet A Duke's coronet Crest On a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Lion statant guardant Or crowned with a ducal coronet per pale Argent and of the First and gorged with a Collar of the Last thereon three Roses also Argent barbed and seeded Proper Escutcheon Grand quarterly, 1st and 4th grand quarters: the Royal Arms of Charles II, viz quarterly: 1st and 4th, France and England quarterly; 2nd, Scotland; 3rd, Ireland; the whole debruised by a Baton sinister Gules charged with three Roses Argent barbed and seeded Proper (Beauclerk); 2nd and 3rd grand quarters: quarterly Gules and Or in the first quarter a Mullet Argent (De Vere) Supporters Dexter: an Antelope Argent armed and unguled Or; Sinister: a Greyhound Argent, each gorged with a Collar as in the Crest Motto Auspicium Melioris Aevi (A pledge of better times)

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Duke of St Albans
• The House of Nell Gwyn: Fortunes of the Beauclerk Family, Donald Adamson (William Kimber, Ldn 1974)

Dukes in the peerages of Britain and Ireland* Royal dukes Cornwall & Rothesay Gloucester Kent Edinburgh York Cambridge Others Norfolk Somerset Richmond, Lennox & Gordon Hamilton & Brandon Buccleuch & Queensberry Grafton Beaufort St Albans Bedford Devonshire Argyll Marlborough Rutland Atholl Montrose Roxburghe Manchester Northumberland Leinster Wellington Sutherland Abercorn Westminster Fife * Current title holders, listed by date of creation, from earliest to most recent