Diane H. Morris

Why Isn’t Mr. Darcy a Lord?

Diane Morris | Thursday, September 10th, 2015 | Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice | 8 Comments

The most frequently asked question that brings visitors to my blog is this: Why isn’t Mr. Darcy a Lord? In Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy is a gentleman and a Derbyshire landowner with a beautiful estate (Pemberley). He has a handsome annual income of £10,000—an income worthy of a duke or earl. It seems like he ought to be a Lord and, yet, he isn’t. Why isn’t Mr. Darcy titled Fitzwilliam Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy or 1st Viscount Ashbourne or some such? My previous research showed that because he is not a peer, Mr. Darcy would have been classified as gentry, which made him a second-class citizen, along with baronets and knights, in England’s 1811 census. Why, with all his land and income, is he not Lord Darcy?

A Peer Is a Titled Noble

The United Kingdom peerage is a system of nobility that stretches back more than 1,000 years. Peers were summoned to Parliament, thus forming the House of Lords. Eventually it happened that once a peer was summoned to Parliament, he would be summoned for the rest of his life, and his son would in turn be summoned. In this way the hereditary peer became established. The peerage consists of five ranks, with Duke ranking the highest, followed by Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. The corresponding female ranks are Duchess, Marchioness, Countess, Viscountess and Baroness. (Baronets and knights are not peers.)

A Noble Title Recognizes Service

A peerage dignity is created for a man (or occasionally a woman) in recognition of service to the Crown or country.¹ For example, in Mr. Darcy’s day Richard Pepper Arden (1744-1804) was a British barrister and politician. In May 1801 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas; that same month he was created Baron Alvanley of Alvanley in the County of Chester.

Charles Grey (1729-1807) was a British general who served in the Seven Years’ War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War. He returned to England in 1794, retired from military life in 1799 and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Grey of Howick in the County of Northumberland. In 1806 he was created Earl Grey and Viscount Howick.

Sir John Mitford (1748-1830) was an English lawyer, politician, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1801 and 1802 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1802 and 1806. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Redesdale of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland in 1802.

Gerard Lake (1744-1808) was a British general who served as Commander-in-Chief of the military in British India. For his military ability and valor he was created Baron Lake of Delhi and Laswary and of Aston Clinton in the County of Buckingham in 1804. He was created Viscount Lake in 1807.

Reasons Why Mr. Darcy Is Not a Lord

Thus, a person, usually male, was elevated to the peerage after performing some valuable service for the Crown. Here are several reasons why Mr. Darcy is not a Lord, despite his wealth and landownership:

1. Mr. Darcy’s father was not a peer. If he had been a peer—say, the 1st Baron Darcy—then on his death his only son, Fitzwilliam, would have succeeded to the title and become the 2nd Baron Darcy. Since there is no indication in Pride and Prejudice that young Mr. Darcy is a peer, it would seem that his father did not serve in Parliament, the military, or the law. For this reason he was never in a position to be recognized for service to his King or country, was not elevated to the peerage, and had no title to pass on to his son.
2. The Darcy family’s wealth might have been derived from trade, particularly from the mining of lead, coal, gypsum or limestone or from the manufacture of goods made from wool, silk, cotton or linen—all prosperous industries in Mr. Darcy’s day.² Being in trade was a sufficient reason to be excluded from the peerage. King George III and his son, George IV, tightly controlled the growth of the peerage, such that no dukes, with the exceptions of Wellington and Buckingham, were made outside the royal family during this time. Indeed, it is said that George III stipulated that “no individual actively engaged in trade, however respectable his fortune, could be admitted to the British peerage.”³ The exception was Robert Smith, a banker and friend of Prime Minister Pitt, who was made Lord Carrington. Never fear, even if it was not acceptable to ennoble a man in trade, there was nothing wrong in marrying an heiress from the wealthy commercial class.
3. Mr. Darcy is 28 years old at the end of Pride and Prejudice—most likely too young to have served his country in any meaningful way. My brief examination of the creation of peerages in the early 19th century found that most men were elevated to the peerage when they were in their 50s or 60s. Henry Wellesley, for example, was a British diplomat and politician; he was 55 when created Baron Cowley in 1828. Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, a British landowner and politician, was 57 when ennobled Baron Skelmersdale in 1828. William Draper Best was a British politician and judge; he was 61 when raised to the peerage as Baron Wynford. One man—George James Welbore Agar-Ellis—was a youthful 34 when created Baron Dover in 1831. Perhaps it’s worth noting that he was the only son of a viscount, but he could claim his own accomplishments: he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society in 1816, when he was only 19 years old, and won a seat in Parliament when he was 21. He was briefly the First Commissioner of Woods and Forests under Lord Grey between 1830 and 1831, which likely earned him the desired service for elevation to the peerage. (And he was handsome, too!)

Mr. Darcy Might Be Ennobled One Day

If we agree that Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the mid-1790s—specifically, 1796 to 1797, as indicated by John Halperin⁴—and given that Mr. Darcy was 28 years old at the end of the novel, then we can calculate that he was born in the late 1760s. Let’s say he was born in 1768, which made him 28 in 1796. If most peerages were created for persons in their 50s or 60s, then he might be elevated to the peerage in the 1820s or early 1830s—provided he had done something of value for the Crown. Perhaps by the 1820s he will have served as a diplomat, as occurs in Elizabeth Aston’s novel Mr. Darcy’s Daughters, or as a politician, either of which activity might bring the recognition that earns him a noble title. He’s only 28 in Pride and Prejudice. There’s plenty of time for him to make a name for himself.

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Sources:
¹David Beamish deserves a medal for organizing a compilation of United Kingdom peerage creations from 1801 to 2015. Thanks, David!
²The Reverend Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons. Magna Britannia: being a Concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain, Vol. V, Derbyshire. (London, 1817.)
³A. Aspinall. English Historical Documents, 1783-1832. London: Routledge, 1959, p. 187.
⁴John Halperin. The Life of Jane Austen. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984, p. 66.

Tags: class, peerage, Regency era