Baron Southampton, of Southampton in the County of Hampshire, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain

Peerage of Great Britain

The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain after the Act of Union 1707 but before the Act of Union 1800...

. It was created in 1780 for the soldier and politician Charles FitzRoy

Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton

Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton was a British statesman and soldier.The second son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy and a grandson of the 2nd Duke of Grafton, FitzRoy joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an ensign in 1752...

. He was the third son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy, second son of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton KG PC was an Irish and English politician.He was born the only child of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton and Isabella Bennet, 2nd Countess of Arlington...

, while Prime Minister Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton was his elder brother. Lord Southampton was also the great-great-grandson (through an illegitimate line) of King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 by his mistress Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland

Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland

Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland was an English courtesan and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of England, by whom she had five children, all of which were acknowledged and subsequently ennobled...

. The Southampton title had previously been created for Charles FitzRoy

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland

Charles Palmer, later FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, 1st Duke of Southampton, Chief Butler of England , styled Baron Limerick before 1670 and Earl of Southampton between 1670 and 1675, was the eldest son of Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine and the illegitimate son of King...

, eldest natural son of Charles II and the Duchess of Cleveland and the elder brother of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton

Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton

Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton KG was the illegitimate son of King Charles II by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine....

, but had become extinct in 1774 on the death of his son William FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland and 2nd Duke of Southampton

William FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland

William FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland was an English nobleman, styled Earl of Chichester until 1730....

, six years before the creation of the barony of Southampton.

The first Baron Southampton's grandson, the third Baron, notably served as Lord-Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1867 to 1872. Lord Southampton was succeeded by his eldest son, the fourth Baron. He held the title for 86 years and 144 days, the second longest time anyone has held a peerage (the only person to have held a title longer was Charles St Clair, 13th Lord Sinclair, who held this Scottish Lordship for 87 years and 104 days). His son, the fifth Baron, disclaimed

Peerage Act 1963

The Peerage Act 1963 is the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that permitted peeresses in their own right and all Scottish hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, and which allows newly inherited hereditary peerages to be "disclaimed".-Background:The Act resulted largely from the...

 the title on 16 March 1964. On his death in 1989 the title passed to his son, the sixth and present Baron. As a descendant of the second Duke of Grafton he is also in remainder to this peerage and its subsidiary titles.

Two other members of this branch of the FitzRoy family also gained distinction. The Hon. Henry FitzRoy

Henry Fitzroy (statesman)

Henry FitzRoy was a British politician of the mid-nineteenth century.-Background:FitzRoy was second son of Lieutenant-General George FitzRoy, 2nd Baron Southampton, by his second wife Frances Isabella, daughter of Lord Robert Seymour...

, second son of the second Baron, was a politician. The Hon. Edward FitzRoy

Edward FitzRoy

Captain Edward Algernon FitzRoy, DL was a British Conservative politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1928 until his death.FitzRoy was the second son of the 3rd Baron Southampton...

, second son of the third Baron, served as Speaker of the House of Commons

Speaker of the British House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 from 1928 until his death in 1943. In 1943 his widow was created Viscountess Daventry

Viscount Daventry

Viscount Daventry, of Daventry in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 6 May 1943 for Muriel FitzRoy , in honour of her late husband, the Hon. Edward FitzRoy, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1928 until his death in 1943...

 in his honour.

Barons Southampton (1780)

• Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton
  Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton
  Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton was a British statesman and soldier.The second son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy and a grandson of the 2nd Duke of Grafton, FitzRoy joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an ensign in 1752...
  
   (1737–1797)
• George Ferdinand FitzRoy, 2nd Baron Southampton (1761–1810)
• Charles FitzRoy, 3rd Baron Southampton
  Charles FitzRoy, 3rd Baron Southampton
  Charles FitzRoy, 3rd Baron Southampton was a British peer.The son of George FitzRoy, 2nd Baron Southampton, he succeeded his father in 1810. On 23 February 1826, he married Harriet Stanhope, granddaughter of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington; they had no children...
  
   (1804–1872)
• Charles Henry FitzRoy, 4th Baron Southampton (1867–1958)
• Charles FitzRoy, 5th Baron Southampton (1904–1989) (disclaimed 1964)
• Charles James FitzRoy, 6th Baron Southampton (b. 1928)

The heir apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....

 is the present holder's son the Hon. Edward Charles FitzRoy. He was born 8 July 1955, educated at Gresham's School

Gresham's School

Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...

 and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, married in 1978 Rachel Caroline Vincent Millett, and has one son and three daughters: Fiona Joan Margaret (b. 1979), Sarah Barbara Sibell (b. 1981), Charles Edward Millett (b. 1983), and Julia Rachel Caroline (b. 1984).