Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain; the union created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
Theobalds House
Theobalds House, located in what is now Cedars Park in the parish of Cheshunt in the English county of Hertfordshire, was a significant stately home and royal palace of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Set in extensive parkland, it was a residence of statesmen Lord Burghley and his son, both leading royal advisers. James I enjoyed staying so much he acquired it from the Cecil family, further extending house and park, it was a notable example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, but was demolished as a result of the English Civil War. A new mansion was built in the Georgian era further to the West: house and park were acquired and the house extended by millionaire brewers the Meux family. For a time London's Temple Bar stood in the park, they are now a conference venue known as Theobalds Park. The manor was called Cullynges Tongs, since 1440, Thebaudes and Theobalds; the original manor house was surrounded by a moat. In 1563, it was bought by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, senior councillor of Queen Elizabeth I.
Lord Burghley commissioned a grand new house, built between 1564 and 1585. Burghley's intention in building the mansion was to demonstrate his dominant status at the Royal Court, to provide a palace fine enough to accommodate the Queen on her visits; the formal gardens of the house were modelled after the Château de Fontainebleau in France, the English botanist, John Gerard, acting as their superintendent. The Queen visited eight times, between 1572 and 1596; the location was ideal in that it lay just off the main road north from London to Ware, a 2.5 hour horse trot journey from London, thus an ideal stop at the end of the first day of a royal tour. Lord Burghley's younger son, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, inherited the house, after the Queen's death in 1603, arranged for the new king, James I, to stay on his way from Scotland to London, receive homage from the Privy Council. In 1606, Cecil again entertained King James and his brother-in-law, King Christian IV of Denmark, at Theobalds.
Both monarchs were notoriously heavy drinkers, according to some of those present, the occasion was an orgy of drunkenness, as few English or Danish courtiers had their rulers' capacity to hold their drink: an attempt to put on a masque of Solomon and Sheba descended into a farce, as most of the players were too inebriated to remember their lines, or to stand up. In 1607, King James I acquired Theobalds in exchange for Hatfield Palace in Hertfordshire, it became the King's favourite country residence. He died there on 27 March 1625. After the execution in 1649 of his son, King Charles I, Theobalds was listed, amongst other royal properties, for demolition and disposal by the Commonwealth; this was achieved speedily, by the end of 1650, the house was demolished. After the Restoration, the estate was granted to George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, but reverted to the Crown after the death of the 2nd Duke of Albemarle, who left no heir, it was given by King William III to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland and descended in that family until sold in 1762 by 3rd Duke of Portland to George Prescott, a merchant and MP.
Prescott built a Georgian style mansion known as The Cedars about a mile to the west of the original palace. The new house passed from the Prescott family to the Meux family of Meux's Brewery fame in about 1820, they made extensive alterations and added extensions during the nineteenth century; these included a remodelled entrance based on Sir Christopher Wren's Temple Bar, dismantled and stored in a yard at Farringdon Road. In 1888, it caught the eye of the eccentric Lady Meux. Lady Val Meux entertained in the gateway's upper chamber; when Sir Hedworth Lambton, the commander of the Naval Brigade at Ladysmith, returned to England, he called on Lady Meux at Theobalds to recount his adventures. She was so taken with him that she made him the chief beneficiary of her will, on condition that he change his surname to Meux; when she died on 20 December 1910, he willingly changed his name by Royal Warrant, inherited the Hertfordshire estate and a substantial interest in the Meux Brewery. In 1921 part of the park, the site of the demolished Elizabethan mansion, was given to the town of Cheshunt by Meux and a public park, The Cedars, created.
After his death in 1929, the house was a hotel for some years. During World War II, the house was used by the Royal Artillery and by the Metropolitan Police as a riding school. Renamed to Theobalds House, in 1955 it became a secondary school and after 1969, an adult education centre. In the 1990s it was refurbished for use as a commercial conference centre and converted to its current status as the Theobalds Park Hotel in the De Vere Venues chain; the Temple Bar had remained in the hands of the trustees of the Meux family estate and despite its status as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, had lapsed into decay. After a long campaign, it was decided to return it to the City in 2001; the arch was again dismantled, was reconstructed on a site next to St Paul’s Cathedral. The project was completed in November 2004, a commemorative plaque was placed in Theobalds Park. De Vere Theobalds Estate
George Jamesone
George Jamesone was Scotland's first eminent portrait-painter. He was born in Aberdeen, where Andrew Jamesone, was a stonemason. Jamesone attended the grammar school near his home on Schoolhill and is thought to have gone on to further education at Marischal College. Legend has it; this is, yet to be proven as his name does not appear to be noted on the Guild registers of the town. Since Rubens was exempt from registering pupils, the absence of Jamesone's name does not mean that the painter did not study there. Jamesone did complete an apprenticeship under the supervision of his uncle, John Anderson, a popular decorative painter in Edinburgh at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Jamesone finished this training in 1618, he is not recorded as being in Aberdeen again until 1620. If the Scotsman had gone to Antwerp, it would have had to have been between the years of 1618 to 1620. Whilst in Aberdeen, Jamesone made a name for himself painting portraits of local academics and scholars from the city's two feuding colleges: King's and Marischal.
In 1633, when Charles I made his grand royal visit to Edinburgh, Jamesone rose from local to national fame. For this occasion the painter was asked to decorate a elaborate triumphal arch with the portraits of all the past kings of Scotland, he was given the honour of painting the portrait of Charles himself. It has been said that the king was so pleased with the result that he gave Jamesone a ring off his own finger as a reward. After hearing of the King's approval, many of the Scottish gentry desired to be painted by the now reputable George Jamesone. One of his finest examples is that of Mary Erskine, on display at the National Gallery of Scotland. Jamesone had studios in Aberdeen and in Edinburgh. Having two bases allowed him to meet the demands of hundreds of patrons from the north to the south of the country. Jamesone was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in the centre of the city; the grave is illegible but lies on the east wall of the original churchyard. Jamesone's pupil, John Michael Wright went on to be a important portrait painter in seventeenth century British art.
Although Jamesone had several children with his young Aberdonian wife Isabella Tosche, only one lived to adulthood. This was his youngest daughter Mary. Mary Jamesone excelled in the craft of needlework. Four examples of her dexterity, four scenes from the Old Testament and Apocrypha, can be seen to this day in St. Nicholas Kirk in Aberdeen. Attribution Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Jameson, George". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press. Works in the National Galleries of Scotland
Haltoun House
Haltoun House, or Hatton House, was a Scottish baronial mansion set in a park, with extensive estates in the vicinity of Ratho, in the west of Edinburgh City Council area, Scotland. It was in Midlothian, it was extensively photographed by Country Life in September 1911; the earliest known proprietor, John de Haltoun, parted with it by sale on 26 July 1377 when King Robert II confirmed it and all its pertinents upon a court favourite, Alan de Lawedre of Whitslaid, Berwickshire. Alan and his first wife, daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Lochawe, had been confirmed in the adjoining lands of Norton. George de Lawedre of Haltoun, Provost of Edinburgh, Alan's second son by his second wife, was put in fee of Haltoun in 1393, adopted Arms with differences from The Bass family, he left only daughters as co-heirs. His brother, Sir Alexander Lauder, Knt. became the ancestor of the Haltoun cadet branch. J. Stewart Smith lists the Haltoun lairds and states that the "first laird of Haltoun was Sir George de Lawedre who married a sister of Lord Douglas", being Helen, daughter of Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas,'The Grim'.
Sir Alexander's great-grandson, another Sir George Lauder of Haltoun, fell at the Battle of Flodden with two of his brothers, James Lauder of Norton, Sir Alexander Lauder of Blyth The Haltoun/Hatton estates remained in the Lauder family until the last Laird, Richard Lauder of Haltoun, settled them upon his younger daughter. Richard Lauder was a Justice of the Peace, was Member of Parliament for Edinburghshire in 1621, in 1647 and 1648 was on the Committees of War for Edinburgh, he was Commissioner of Excise in 1661. His wife, Mary Lauder, Lady Haltoun, had been born Mary Scot. Richard died in November 1675 in Holyrood Abbey and was interred in Ratho Church on the 29th, his portrait, by John Scougal, hangs in Thirlestane Castle. His second daughter, Elizabeth married, in 1652, Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale and carried Haltoun to him. Haltoun was much closer to Edinburgh than Thirlestane Castle, with the loss of Lethington the Maitlands made Haltoun House their principal residence until 1792 when the 8th Earl of Lauderdale sold the estate for £84,000 to Miss Henrietta Scott of Scotstarvet, who married William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland.
The estate was 2,000 acres of excellent land, the revenue at the time: £3000 per annum. Her trustees sold the estate in 1797 to James Gibson of Ingleston, afterwards Sir James Gibson-Craig, 1st Baronet of Riccarton, he broke up the estate into lots, of which that including Haltoun House and 500 acres was bought by the Reverend Thomas Randall. He sold Haltoun House to the Earl of Morton in 1870, whose son Lord Aberdour sold it to James McKelvie in 1898. In 1915 it was sold to chairman of the London and North Eastern Railway company; the first Lauders built a massive Pele Tower at Haltoun before 1400, which Hannan refers to as "an L-shaped castle with walls of a uniform thickness of about 10 feet." Sir William Lauder of Haltoun was the Earl of Douglas. In 1452 he was the King's personal messenger, sent to escort Douglas to Stirling Castle on a Royal promise of absolute safety, whereupon the Earl was murdered by the King. Haltoun Tower was subsequently besieged by the Douglas followers and during that siege Sir William Lauder was killed.
The tower and battlements were subsequently restored to good condition by the King, at Exchequer expense. The castle became the nucleus of the subsequent greater country house, built onto and around it. On the east face of the south-east angle tower was a sundial with the monogram "C. M. E. L" for Charles Maitland & his wife Elizabeth Lauder, the monogram being divided by the date 1664, the year in which Maitland commenced dramatic new extensions to the old castle, his son John added the east front in a Renaissance style in 1696 and 1704. It was restored in 1859 and in 1870 the windows were altered; the interiors were entered through a small entrance hall, panelled in oak brought from Letheringham Abbey, into the main hall, 50 feet by 20, panelled with a magnificent finely-made Jacobean plaster ceiling. Other rooms included a morning room, situated between the dining room. On the first floor the saloon and drawing rooms were fitted out with Memel pine panelling used in Scottish country houses at the time.'Lord Jeffrey's study' in the tower, was a nine-sided decorative room, with much gilt.
The centre of the ceiling was a painting of a man flying away with a clothed female - a classical motif. Haltoun House was approached by an original avenue, half a mile long, abutted by tall elms and beeches, lime trees, hollies and rhododendrons; the principal entrance was at the east through massive gate pillars. In 1952 the house caught fire, was demolished in 1955, during a period when many other country houses suffered a similar fate. All that remains are the terraces along the south side of the house with a two-story pavilion at each end; the grounds support rare habitats for greater-crested newts, tree moles and land puffins. A number of structures survive on the estate; the East Avenue Gates, the South Gateway and the South Terrace Wall with pavilions and bath-house are all category A listed buildings while the Garden Temple is Category B listed. The surviving garden, together with these buildings, is included in Historic Environment Scotland's Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes.
The Douglas Book, by William Douglas, CB. LL. D. vol.1, p. 472, vol.2, p. 609, Edinburgh
Armagh
Armagh is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All Ireland for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. In ancient times, nearby Navan Fort was a pagan ceremonial site and one of the great royal capitals of Gaelic Ireland. Today, Armagh is home to two cathedrals and the Armagh Observatory, is known for its Georgian architecture. Although classed as a medium-sized town, Armagh was given city status in 1994 and Lord Mayoralty status in 2012, both by Queen Elizabeth II, it had a population of 14,749 people in the 2011 Census, making it the least-populated city in Ireland and the fifth smallest in the United Kingdom. Eamhain Mhacha, at the western edge of Armagh, is believed to have been an ancient pagan ritual or ceremonial site. According to Irish mythology it was one of the great royal sites of Gaelic Ireland and the capital of Ulster.
It appears to have been abandoned after the 1st century. In the 3rd century, a ditch and bank was dug around the top of Cathedral Hill, the heart of what is now Armagh, its circular shape matches the modern street layout. Evidence suggests that it was the successor to Navan. Like Navan, it too was named after the goddess Macha – Ard Mhacha means "Macha's height"; this name was anglicised as Ardmagh, which became Armagh. After Christianity spread to Ireland, the pagan sanctuary was converted into a Christian one, Armagh became the site of an important church and monastery. According to tradition, Saint Patrick founded his main church there in the year 457, it became the "ecclesiastical capital" of Ireland. Saint Patrick was said to have decreed. According to the Annals of the Four Masters: Ard Mhacha was founded by Saint Patrick, it having been granted to him by Daire, son of Finnchadh, son of Eoghan, son of Niallan. Twelve men were appointed by him for building the town, he ordered them, in the first place, to erect an archbishop's city there, a church for monks, for nuns, for the other orders in general, for he perceived that it would be the head and chief of the churches of Ireland in general.
In 839 and 869, the monastery in Armagh was raided by Vikings. As with similar raids, their goal was to acquire valuables such as silver, which could be found in churches and monasteries; the Book of Armagh came from the monastery. It is a 9th-century Irish manuscript now held by Trinity College Library in Dublin, it contains some of the oldest surviving specimens of Old Irish. Brian Boru is believed to be buried in the graveyard of the St. Patrick's Church of Ireland cathedral. After having conquered the island during the 990s, he became High King of Ireland in 1002, until his death in 1014. In 1189, John de Courcy, a Norman knight who had invaded Ulster in 1177, plundered Armagh. Armagh has been an educational centre since the time of Saint Patrick, thus it has been referred to as "the city of saints and scholars"; the educational tradition continued with the foundation of the Royal School in 1608, St Patrick's College in 1834 and the Armagh Observatory in 1790. The Observatory was part of Archbishop Lord Rokeby's plan to have a university in the city.
This ambition was fulfilled, albeit in the 1990s when Queen's University of Belfast opened an outreach centre in the former hospital building. Three brothers from Armagh died at the Battle of the Somme during World War I. None of the three has a known grave and all are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. A fourth brother was wounded in the same attack. On 14 January 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, a Royal Irish Constabulary sergeant was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army in Armagh, he was attacked with a grenade as he walked along Market Street and died of his wounds. On 4 September 1921, republican leaders Michael Collins and Eoin O'Duffy addressed a large meeting in Armagh, attended by up to 10,000 people. During the Troubles in Armagh, the violence was substantial enough for the city to be referred to by some as "Murder Mile". Over the span of 20 years, 24 individuals were killed in 13 different incidents. Armagh City and District Council was a single district council until 2015 when it merged with Banbridge District Council and Craigavon Borough Council under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Armagh and Craigavon District Council known as the ABC council.
In the Armagh and Craigavon District Council election, 2014, a total of two Sinn Fein, two SDLP, one DUP and one UUP councillors were elected from Armagh electoral area. In 2018 the Lord Mayor of the ABC council was Julie Flaherty and the Deputy Lord Mayor was Paul Duffy. Armagh is part of the Armagh. In the 2017 elections, the following were elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly: Megan Fearon, Cathal Boylan, Conor Murphy, Justin McNulty of the SDLP and William Irwin of the DUP. Together with part of the district of Newry and Mourne, it forms the Newry & Armagh constituency for elections to the Westminster Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly; the Member of Parliament is Mickey Brady of Sinn Féin. He won the seat in the United Kingdom general election, 2015; as the seat of the Primate of All Ireland, Armagh was regarded as a city, recognisably had the status by 1226. It claimed the title by prescription.
Earl of Gosford
Earl of Gosford is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for 2nd Viscount Gosford; the Acheson family descends from the Scottish statesman Sir Archibald Acheson, 1st Baronet of Edinburgh, who settled in Markethill, County Armagh. He served as Solicitor General for Scotland, as a Senator of Justice, as an Extraordinary Lord of Session as'Lord Glencairn', as Secretary of State for Scotland. In 1628 he was created a baronet in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, with remainder to his heirs male whatsoever, he was succeeded by his son from the 2nd Baronet. He married but died without male issue at a early age and was succeeded by his half-brother, the 3rd Baronet, who settled in Ireland and was High Sheriff for cos. Armagh and Tyrone, his son, the 4th Baronet, represented County Armagh in the Irish House of Commons. On his death the title passed to the fifth Baronet, he sat as Member of the Irish Parliament for Mullingar. His son, the sixth Baronet, represented Dublin University and Enniskillen in the Irish House of Commons.
In 1776 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Gosford, of Market Hill in the County of Armagh, in 1785 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Gosford, of Market Hill in the County of Armagh in the Peerage of Ireland. He was succeeded by the second Viscount, he sat in the Irish Parliament as the representative for Old Leighlin from 1783 to 1790. In 1806 he was created Earl of Gosford in the Peerage of Ireland. Since heirs apparent to the earldom have traditionally used the invented courtesy title of Viscount Acheson, his son, the second Earl, sat on the Whig benches in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1811 to 1849 and served under Lord Melbourne as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in 1834 and 1835. Between 1835 and 1838 he was Governor General of British North America. Lord Gosford married daughter of Robert Sparrow of Worlingham Hall in Suffolk. In 1835 he was created Baron Worlingham, of Beccles in the County of Suffolk, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him and his descendants an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
He was succeeded by the third Earl. He represented County Armagh in the House of Commons from 1831 to 1847; the latter year, two years before he succeeded his father in the earldom, he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom in his own right as Baron Acheson, of Clancairny in the County of Armagh. His son, the fourth Earl, served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Armagh and was a Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales and Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, he was succeeded by the fifth Earl. He was a Colonel in the Coldstream Guards and fought in the Second Boer War and in the First World War, his eldest son, the sixth Earl, sat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords and served under Harold Macmillan as a Lord-in-waiting from 1958 to 1959. As of 2014 the titles are held by his only son, the seventh Earl, who succeeded in 1966; the family seat was Gosford Castle, near County Armagh. Sir Archibald Acheson, 1st Baronet Sir Patrick Acheson, 2nd Baronet Sir George Acheson, 3rd Baronet Sir Nicholas Acheson, 4th Baronet Sir Arthur Acheson, 5th Baronet Sir Archibald Acheson, 6th Baronet Archibald Acheson, 1st Viscount Gosford Arthur Acheson, 2nd Viscount Gosford Arthur Acheson, 1st Earl of Gosford Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford Archibald Acheson, 3rd Earl of Gosford Archibald Acheson, 4th Earl of Gosford Archibald Charles Montagu Brabazon Acheson, 5th Earl of Gosford Archibald Alexander John Stanley Acheson, 6th Earl of Gosford Charles David Alexander John Sparrow Acheson, 7th Earl of Gosford.
The heir presumptive is the present holder's first cousin Nicholas Hope Carter Acheson. The heir presumptive's heir apparent is his son Eric James Patrick Acheson. Peerage of Britain and Ireland by date Peerage of Great Britain Peerage of the United Kingdom Cokayne, George E.. Gibbs, Vicary, ed; the complete peerage of England, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extinct, or dormant. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press. Pp. 54–55. Kidd, Charles. "Earl of Gosford". Debrett's Baronetage. New York: St Martin's Press. Mosley, Charles, ed.. "Earl of Gosford". Burke's Baronetage. London:Cassells. 2 vols. Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles David Alexander John Sparrow Acheson, 7th Earl of Gosford http://www.thepeerage.com/ http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersG2.htm