By O. Poidett Scrope, Esq., M.P. 



53 



Wiltshire was revived half a century after the execution of the first 

 Earl, viz. in 1449, by Henry VI. in favor of Sir James Butler, 

 of the house of Ormond, and again, after his execution and at- 

 tainder, in 1461, was in 1470 conferred by Edward IV. upon a 

 Stafford ; again, upon the extinction of that line, by Henry VIII. 

 upon another Stafford in 1509, afterwards by the same monarch 

 upon his father-in-law Sir Thomas Butler ; and ultimately was 

 revived for the fifth time, by Edward VI. in the person of Sir 

 "William Paulett, ancestor of the present Earl of Wiltshire and 

 Marquis of Winchester. 



These five several distinct successive creations of this same title, 

 since the death of Sir W. Scrope, in favor of as many different 

 families, coupled with the fact already mentioned that no claim of 

 inherited right to the Earldom had ever been mooted by any of 

 the "male heirs " of the original grantee up to the present time, 

 would seem to warrant the presumption that the title was really 

 forfeited by attainder in 1399. 



But since no lapse of time, nor suspension of exercise, nor a new 

 creation or any number of creations of a title identical in name, 

 is understood to bar the rightful inheritance of a Peerage, Mr. 

 Simon Thomas Scrope of Danby-on-Yore, in the County of York, 

 who represents in the direct male line, in the eighteenth genera- 

 tion, the Sir Roger Scrope above mentioned, next brother, and 

 therefore heir, of the first grantee Sir William Scrope, has under 

 competent advice formally laid his claim before the House of Peers 

 to the Earldom of Wiltes, and trusts to establish the negative of 

 the above assumption as to its forfeiture by attainder in 1399. 



" The claimant having presented a Petition to her Majesty, 

 praying her Majesty to be pleased to cause a Writ of Summons to 

 be directed to him by the Title and Dignity aforesaid, Her Majesty 

 was pleased to refer the said Petition with the Attorney-general's 

 Report thereon to the House of Peers on the 7th day of June 1859, 

 who on the same day referred it to the Committee of Privileges 

 to consider and report." 1 



1 Case of Simon T. Scrope, of Danby on Yore in the county of York, Esquire, 

 claiming to be Earl of Wiltes. 



