button to main menu  Gents Mag 1830 part 1 p.500
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Gentleman's Magazine 1830 part 1 p.500
abroad at an advanced age, without issue male.
In the second year of the reign of James the First, Edmond Nevill (whose name is recorded on the monument above-menntioned) the lineal descendant of George Nevill, fifth son of Ralph, first Earl of Westmoreland, who was created to that dignity by letters patent in 1397, and next heir male of Charles the last Earl, having assumed the title of Earl of Westmoreland, notwithstanding the attainder, was summoned to appear at Witehall, before the Lords Commissioners for executing the office of Earl Marshall, which he answered on the 3d of March, 1605, by his attorney, who prayed for time. It appears that the case was afterwards, by the command of the king, propounded to the judges, who decided against the claim, on the ground that the attainder had caused all the honours to be forfeited to the Crown as an estate of inheritance.* To the untoward circumstances attending his suit, he may be supposed to allude, in the following rhyming epitaph on his tomb:

"From princely, and from honourable blood,
By true succession was my high descent;
Malignant crosses oft opposed my good,
And adverse chance my state did circumvent."†
Edmond Nevill, although entitled to the Earldom of Westmoreland (barring the attainder), as representative of the eldest male line of his family, the assumption by him of the title of Latimer was surely erroneous, the ancient Baronies of Latimer having long before passed by females into other families according to the law of descent of Baronies in fee, by which the females of each generation are preferred to the males of the preceeding generation. The Barony of Latimer, constituted by writ of summons of the 28th Edw. I. 1299, though it has not been taken out, is vested in the present Lord Willoughby de Broke, by the marriage of his ancestor, Sir Thomas Willoughby, with the sister and sole heir of John Nevill, the fifth Baron, who died in 1430.
The Barony of Latimer, by writ of the 10th of Henry VI. 1430, upon the death of John Nevill, fourth Baron, in 1577 (who was great-great-grandson of George Nevill, first Baron, fifth son of Ralph, first Earl of Westmorland, from whom Edmond Nevill deduced his descent), fell into abeyance between his four daughters; and the present Duke of Northumberland, by the marriage of his ancestor, Henry Percy, eighth Earl of Northumberland, with Katharine Nevill, is the representative of the eldest of the four coheirs of that honour. It would appear rather that Edmond Nevill should have styled
* A copy of Edmond Nevill's claim, which is a curious document, may be found in the Lansdowne MSS. 254, p.376. See Mr. Nicolas's Synopsis of the Peerage of England, a work of great labour and research, and one of the most valuable "Helps to History" which has appeared for many years. May I venture to hope that Mr. Nicolas will undertake a similar elucidation of the Peerage of Scotland and Ireland. (The latter, we have some time since announced, is promised by the best authority, Sir William Betham, the present Ulster King at Arms. - EDIT.)
† Edmoond Nevill might, probably, feel the disallowal of his ancestral honours the more acutely, from the circumstance of the Earldom of Northumberland being vested, in his day, in the family of Percy, notwithstanding the attainder in 1571 of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, on account of his participation with Charles Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, in the rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, mentioned above. The Earldom of Northumberland and other dignoities, were by Letters Patent conferred (the ancient Earldom was under forfeiture) on Thomas Percy, in 1577, and in default of heirs male, with remainder to his brother Henry, and the heirs male of his body. The said Thomas Earl of Northumberland, was attainted of high treason in 1571, and had he left issue male, so long as such issue male existed, these dignities would have been forfeited; but on the extinction of the issue male of his body, the remainder would immediately take effect; as, however, he died without issue male, the dignities instantly devolved on his brother, in consequence of the limitations of the Patent. (Vide Nicolas.)
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