Earl of Home


Earl of Home is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1605 for Alexander Home of that Ilk, 6th Lord Home. The Earl of Home holds, among others, the subsidiary titles of Lord Home and Lord Dunglass in the Peerage of Scotland, and Baron Douglas, of Douglas in the County of Lanark, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Various Earls of Home have also claimed the title of Lord Hume of Berwick. The Earl is also Chief of the Name and Arms of Home and heir general to the House of Douglas. The title of Lord Dunglass is used as a courtesy title by the eldest son of the Earl.
The most famous recent holder of the title was the 14th Earl, Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, better known as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. After the unexpected resignation of Harold Macmillan, the 14th Earl was named prime minister by the monarch. For the first time in over sixty years, a sitting prime minister was a member of the House of Lords rather than of the House of Commons. Because he believed that it was impractical and unconventional to remain a member of the Lords, the Earl disclaimed his peerages on 23 October 1963 under the Peerage Act passed in the same year. He then contested the House of Commons seat of Kinross and Western Perthshire by standing in the 1963 Kinross and Western Perthshire by-election. The seat had been vacated by the death of the previous Member of Parliament, Gilmour Leburn. the titles are held by the 16th Earl, who succeeded in that year.
The family seats are The Hirsel near Coldstream, Berwickshire, and Castlemains near Douglas, South Lanarkshire. Former seats include Douglas Castle, Dunglass Castle, Tantallon Castle and Bothwell Castle.

Origins

The Earls of Home descend in the male line from Cospatric I, the Anglo-Danish Earl of Northumbria. His descendant William de Home, adopted the surname following his acquisition of the lands of Home in Berwickshire during the early 13th century, through his marriage to his second cousin Ada. William's arms featured the silver lion of Dunbar but with a green field instead of a red field, in reference to his lands of Greenlaw.

Lords Home (1473)

  • Alexander Home, 1st Lord Home
  • Alexander Home, 2nd Lord Home
  • Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home
  • George Home, 4th Lord Home
  • Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home
  • Alexander Home, 6th Lord Home

    Earls of Home (1605)

  • Alexander Home, 1st Earl of Home
  • James Home, 2nd Earl of Home
  • James Home, 3rd Earl of Home
  • Alexander Home, 4th Earl of Home
  • James Home, 5th Earl of Home
  • Charles Home, 6th Earl of Home
  • Alexander Home, 7th Earl of Home
  • William Home, 8th Earl of Home
  • Alexander Home, 9th Earl of Home
  • Alexander Home, 10th Earl of Home
  • Cospatrick Alexander Home, 11th Earl of Home
  • Charles Alexander Douglas-Home, 12th Earl of Home
  • Charles Cospatrick Archibald Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home
  • Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home
  • David Alexander Cospatrick Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home
  • Michael David Alexander Douglas-Home, 16th Earl of Home

    Present Earl

Michael David Alexander Douglas-Home, 16th Earl of Home, was born on 30 November 1987, the only son of the 15th Earl and his wife Jane Margaret Williams-Wynne. He has two older sisters, Lady Iona Katherine and Lady Mary Elizabeth, and was Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II from 1997 to 2000.
Styled as Lord Dunglass between 1995 and 2022, in 2017 he married Sally Antoinette Underhill, a daughter of Group Captain Gregory B. P. Underhill. On 22 August 2022 he succeeded to the peerages and to the estate of The Hirsel.
His son Leo Gregory Cospatrick born in 2024 is the heir apparent. The heir presumptive had been the present earl's second cousin, Alexander Sholto Douglas-Home, a great-grandson of the 13th earl.
  • 35px Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home
  • *35px Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel
  • **35px David Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home
  • ***35px Michael Douglas-Home, 16th Earl of Home
  • ****. Leo Gregory Cospatrick Douglas-Home, Lord Dunglass
  • *Hon. Henry Montagu Douglas-Home
  • **Cecil Robin Douglas-Home
  • ***. Alexander Sholto Douglas-Home
  • ****. Louis Robin Douglas-Home
  • **Charles Cospatrick Douglas-Home
  • ***. Tara John Douglas-Home
  • ****. Nicholas Charles Aernout Douglas-Home
  • ***. Luke Cospatrick Douglas-Home
There are further male descendants of the younger sons of the 13th Earl in the line of succession.

Arms

Works cited

  • Mosley, Charles.. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th edition
  • Charles Kidd & David Williamson, editors.. Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage. Macmillan, London