Pierrepont, Charles, 1st Earl Manvers (1737 -1816)

Born Charles Medows, he was the second son of Philip Medows, deputy ranger of Richmond Park, by his marriage to Lady Frances Pierrepont, daughter of William, Earl of Kingston (1692–1713), who predeceased his father, Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-Upon-Hull. Thus the Dukedom and estates devolved on William's son, Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, who was Lady Frances's brother. The 2nd Duke, however, died childless in 1773, and left his estate at Thoresby to his wife, Elizabeth, the former wife of the Earl of Bristol. The duke's nephews challenged the will on the grounds of bigamy, and established that the marriage of the Duchess had indeed been bigamous, but this did not affect her inheritance. She retained the Pierrepont estates until her death, in August 1788, whereupon Charles Medows inherited the estates. At the same time Medows adopted the surname of Pierrepont. Educated at Oxford, Medows became a midshipman in the Royal Navy and was promoted to lieutenant on 7 August 1755. He became a commander on 5 April 1757 on the sloop HMS Renown, and later the same year was promoted to post-captain on the frigate HMS Shannon, and commanded her until April 1761. In 1769 he retired altogether from the Navy. He married Anne Orton, daughter of William Mills of Richmond, in 1774. They had five children. Under the patronage of the prime minister's protégé, Thomas Pelham Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Medows was returned as one of the Members of Parliament for Nottinghamshire in December 1778. He continued to sit in the Commons as a knight of the shire until he was ennobled in 1796. In Parliament, Medows (Pierrepont) supported the Duke of Portland, whose influence helped him to be raised to the peerage as Baron Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont in the County of Nottingham, and Viscount Newark, of Newark-on-Trent in the County of Nottingham, on 23 July 1796. On 1 April 1806 Viscount Newark was promoted to an earldom as Earl Manvers. He died in 1816 and was buried at Holme Pierrepont