Baron Hylton

Baron Hylton is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation^[a] came in the Peerage of England 1295 when Robert Hylton was summoned to the Model Parliament as Lord Hylton by writ. His son, Alexander, was called to Parliament in 1332 and 1335, but no further summons were sent for his descendants. Therefore, the title has only been held de jure after the death of the second baron.^[1] Indeed, the last baron was Member of Parliament for Carlisle after "inheriting" the title, due to this anomaly. Despite this, the creation is deemed to have fallen into abeyance on the death of the eighteenth baron without male heirs in 1746.

The second creation came in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1866 when the soldier and Conservative politician, Sir William Jolliffe, 1st Baronet, was made Baron Hylton of Hylton, Sunderland in the County Palatine of Durham and of Petersfield in the County of Southampton. He had already been created a Baronet, of Merstham in the County of Surrey, in 1821. He was the grandson of William Jolliffe (for many years Member of Parliament for Petersfield), and a co-heir of the original barony of Hylton through his grandmother Eleanor (the wife of William Jolliffe), daughter of Anne Hylton, sister of the eighteenth Baron of the 1295 creation.

Lord Hylton was succeeded by his second son, the second Baron. He notably represented Wells in the House of Commons as a Conservative. His son, the third Baron, also represented Wells in Parliament as a Conservative and after entering the House of Lords notably served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1918 to 1924.^[2] His son, the fourth Baron, was Lord Lieutenant of Somerset from 1949 to 1964. As of 2017^[update] the titles are held by the latter's eldest son, the fifth Baron. He is one of the ninety elected hereditary peers who remained in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act of 1999. Lord Hylton sat as a cross-bencher until retiring in July 2023.

The principal seat of the Hylton family was Hylton Castle, Sunderland, with a subsidiary property at Ammerdown House, near Kilmersdon, Somerset.

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