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Dukedom of St Albans
Arms of Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans: Grand quarterly, 1st and 4th grand quarters: the Royal Arms of Charles II, viz. quarterly: 1st and 4th, France and England quarterly; 2nd, Scotland; 3rd, Ireland; the whole debruised by a baton sinister gules charged with three roses argent barbed and seeded proper (Lennox[1]); 2nd and 3rd grand quarters: quarterly gules and or, in the first quarter a mullet argent (De Vere). (Arms of the 2nd Duke onwards)
Auspicium melioris aevi (Latin for 'A pledge of better times')[2]
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The subsidiary titles of the Duke are Earl of Burford, in the County of Oxford (1676), Baron Heddington, in the same (1676) and Baron Vere, of Hanworth in the County of Middlesex (1750). The Earldom and the Barony of Heddington are in the Peerage of England, and the Barony of Vere is in the Peerage of Great Britain. The dukes hold the hereditary title of Grand Falconer of England, and until the end of the 18th century they were Hereditary Registrars of the Court of Chancery.[3]
By tradition, the Earldom and Vere barony are used as courtesy titles by the duke's heir apparent and his heir apparent respectively.
Until the 20th century, the country seats of the dukes of St Albans included Bestwood Lodge in Nottinghamshire, which was given to the 1st Duke's mother, the celebrated actress and mistress to Charles IINell Gwyn. The 10th Duke made it his principal residence, but in 1939 the 12th Duke sold it. It is now a hotel.[4][5] Another seat was Upper Gatton Park in Surrey.[6] The 12th Duke also inherited Newtown Anner House (near Clonmel, County Tipperary), which continued to be a family seat in the 1940s until it was sold in the mid-20th century. Today the house is privately owned and not open to the public.[7]
The 13th and present dukes have not inherited landed estates or country houses.
The accepted pronunciation of Beauclerk is reflected in frequent early renderings Beauclaire: /ˈboʊklɛər,boʊˈklɛər/.[8][9]
Arms of the 1st Duke of St Albans
Other titles: Earl of Burford, in the county of Oxford, and Baron Heddington, in the county of Oxford (1676)
On a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Lion statant guardant Or crowned with a ducal coronet per pale Argent and of the First and gorged with a Collar of the Last thereon three Roses also Argent barbed and seeded Proper
Escutcheon
Grand quarterly, 1st and 4th grand quarters: the Royal Arms of Charles II, viz quarterly: 1st and 4th, France and England quarterly; 2nd, Scotland; 3rd, Ireland; the whole debruised by a Baton sinister Gules charged with three Roses Argent barbed and seeded Proper (Beauclerk); 2nd and 3rd grand quarters: quarterly Gules and Or in the first quarter a Mullet Argent (De Vere)
Supporters
Dexter: an Antelope Argent armed and unguled Or; Sinister: a Greyhound Argent, each gorged with a Collar as in the Crest
Motto
Auspicium melioris aevi (Latin for 'A pledge of better times')
The Scottish Earldom of Lennox had merged into the crown on the accession of King James VI and I, whose father Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley was the heir presumptive to that earldom, the king was thus at liberty to re-award the Lennox arms, or versions of them, as he pleased
Hardy, Thomas Duffus (1843). A Catalogue of Lords Chancellors, Keepers of the Great Seal, Masters of the Rolls, and Principal Officers of the High Court of Chancery. London: Henry Butterworth. p.119.
Vere Beauclerk, 1st Baron Vere (1699–1781)
