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Modern
Family History
On the 26th February
1602 Robert Burgh, 6th Lord Burgh of Gainsborough,
died, aged only about seven. With Robert died the
direct male line of the Burgh family.
Roberts father, Thomas,
5th Lord Burgh, had died tragically young, serving Queen
Elizabeth I as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Roberts death
left his three sisters as coheirs to the Burgh barony and
a seriously depleted estate. Much of the great
Northumberland and Yorkshire lands, including the old
family main residence at Gainsborough (now the Old Hall)
in Lincolnshire, had been sold off to raise funds.
It has been said that had Lord Thomas lived he
would have been made an Earl by the new King James I and
this would have saved the family fortune. But this was not
to be. The barony and the precious little that went with
it descended to the three girls, Elizabeth, Anne, Frances
and Katherine. It was Elizabeth Burghs marriage to a
distant relative, George Brooke, that eventually bought
the barony to the Leith family by a complicated path of
descent. The Burgh’s of Stowe, Lincolnshire, tried several
times to claim the Barony but their timing was poor and
ill judged. The Brookes who had inherited the Barony of
Cobham had tried to claim the Burgh lordship, being
married to the eldest daughter, but had fallen foul of the
new King James 1st having committed treason,
the king was in no mood for traitors and the Burgh’s of
Stowe were seen as relations of traitors. They tried again
before the English Civil War to no avail and the title
that was truly theirs, slipped out of sight forever as
there last male heir died leaving a daughter as his
legacy. A visit to Stowe Minster reveals the younger
branch of the families beautiful memorials and their use
of the Burgh maynfer or ‘Armoured Arm’ badge.
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By 1747 all the direct
descendants of the Burgh coheirs had died out and the title
remained seemingly forgotten until the Leith’s submitted a
detailed claim to Parliament in 1914. After lengthy debate it was
not untiland it was not until 1915 that Parliament eventually
found that Alexander Henry Leith was the senior coheir. The Leith family are of Scottish stock and
from the 1700's Leiths served the Crown across the world. Leiths
fought in the Army and RAF, the new Lord Burghs father was General
Robert Disney-Leith, who served in the Persian Gulf 1831 - 41,
Multan 1849 where he lost an arm, Indian mutiny 1857 - 58!
The
present Lord Burgh is Alexander Leith, born 16th
March 1958, educated at St.Catherines, Athens and St
Johns College, Cambridge. Lord
Burgh is married to Lady Emma and they have lots of
lively children! They live in the
South-West of England and visit the old Burgh estates
as often as they can.
We
are very proud to have the honour of Lord Alexander as
our Patron and are probably the only Living History
group with its real Lord involved, we are even
mentioned in Lord Burgh’s entry in Debretts!
Keep
checking our events for visits by Lord and Lady Burgh
– Trustee to the end!
Looking at the modern
Lord Burghs heraldic achievement we can see the later
Burgh family helmet crest of the falcon which had
originally been used by Thomas, 1st Lord Burgh as his
supporters on his garter stall plate. The Leith arms are
in the first and fourth quarters with the original Burgh
family arms in the second and third, with the Leith
mottoes :
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The modern Lord and Lady Burgh
TRUSTEE
TO THE END and
WITH
GODS HELP.
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The
Retinue Constitution includes provision for a patron to
the Society and we are very pleased to announce that
Alexander, Lord Burgh has become Society Patron.
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