Charles Kerr, 2nd Earl of Ancram (6 August 1624 – September 1690) was a Scottish peer and a member of the English House of Commons.[1][2]
Biography
editCharles was born on 6 August 1624 at Richmond, Surrey to Anne daughter of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby and the second wife of Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram.[3][4] Through his mother, he was a 3 times-great grandson of Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, thereby making him a direct descendant of Henry VII. Until he inherited his father's title after the death of his father in December 1654 he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Carr.[5][3]
Kerr had a long career in the English House of Commons. He was able to continue to sit in that house after he was ennobled, the fact that Earl of Ancram was a Scottish title was no impediment to sitting in the English House of Commons representing an English or Welsh constituency. Kerr was the Member of Parliament (MP) for St. Michaels in Cornwall between March 1647 and December 1648 in the Long Parliament,[3] Robert Holborne, a Royalist, was disabled from sitting for St. Michaels and gave the seat to Kerr, who was the constituency's MP until he was excluded in Pride's Purge.[6] Between July 1660 and December 1660 Kerr sat in the Convention Parliament representing Thirsk. After the Restoration In the Cavalier Parliament (from 1661 to 1681) he represented Wigan and again in the Oxford Parliament (from 1661 and 1681). The last Parliament in which he sat, still for Wigan, was the Loyal Parliament the first parliament of the reign of James II (from 1685 to 1687).[3]
On his death, sometime between 1 September 1690 and 11 September 1690, the earldom devolved upon Robert Kerr, (afterwards Marquess of Lothian), the eldest son of Kerr's elder half brother William Kerr, 3rd Earl of Lothian.[3]
Family
editAncram married Frances who was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Catherine, Queen Consort to King Charles II.[7] They had daughter, Anne.
Notes
edit- ^ Also known as Charles Carr, 2nd Earl of Ancram.
- ^ Lodge (1847), p. 305
- ^ a b c d e "Charles Kerr, 2nd Earl of Ancrame". The Peerage. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ Lodge (1850),p. 299
- ^ Lord Carr or Lord Kerr
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ Court satires of the Restoration – Page 59
References
edit- Anderson, William (1867). The Scottish nation: or. The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland, Volume 2, A. Fullarton, 1867
- Lodge, Edmund (1847). The genealogy of the existing British peerage: with sketches of the family histories of the nobility, Saunders and Otley, 1847
- Lodge, Edmund (1850).Portraits of illustrious personages of Great Britain: With biographical and historical memoirs of their lives and actions, Volume 5, H.G. Bohn, 1850