BARONS AND EARLS OF

DUDLEY  . The holders of these English titles are descended from John de Sutton (c . 1310-1359) of Dudley castle, Staffordshire, who was summoned to parliament. as a baron in 1342 . Sutton was the son of another John de Sutton, who had inherited Dudley Castle through his marriage with Margaret, sister and heiress of John de Somery (d . 1321); he was called Lord Dudley, or Lord Sutton of Dudley, the latter being doubtless the correct form . However, his descendants, the Suttons, were often called by the name of Dudley; and from John Dudley of Atherington, Sussex, a younger son of John Sutton, the 5th baron, the earls of Warwick and the earl of Leicester of the Dudley family are descended . John Sutton or Dudley (c . 1400-1487), the 5th baron, was first summoned to parliament in 1440, having been viceroy of Ireland from 1428 to 1430 . He served Henry VI. as a diplomatist and also as a soldier, being taken prisoner at the first battle of St Albans in 1455, but this did not prevent him from enjoying the favour of Edward IV . He died on the 3oth of September 1487 . He was succeeded as 6th baron by his grandson Edward (c . 1459—1532), and one of his sons, William Dudley, was bishop of Durham from 1476 until his death in 1483 .

His descendant Edward Sutton or Dudley, the 9th .baron (1567—1643),had several illegitimate sons . Among them was Dud Dudley (1599—1684), who in 1665 published Met allum

Martin, describing a process of making iron with " pit-coale, sea-coale, &c:" which was put in operation at his father's ironworks at Pensnet, Worcestershire, of which he was manager . His success aroused much opposition on the part of other ironmasters, and his commercial ventures at Himley, at Askew Bridge and at Bristol ended in loss and disaster . During the Civil War he was a colonel in the army of Charles I . Dying without lawful male issue in June 1643, the 9th baron was succeeded in the barony by his grand-daughter, Frances . (1611—1697); she married Humble Ward (c . 1614—1670), the son of a London goldsmith, who was created Baron Ward of Birmingham in 1644 . Their son Edward (1631—1701) succeeded both to the barony of Dudley and to that of Ward, but these were separated when his grandson William died unmarried in May 1740 . The barony of Dudley passed to a nephew, Ferdinando Dudley Lea, falling into abeyance on his death in October 1757; that of Ward passed to the heir male, John Ward (d . 1774), a descendant of Humble Ward . In 1763 Ward wag created Viscount Dudley, and in April 1823 his grandson, John William Ward (1781-1833), became the 4th viscount . Educated at Oxford, John William Ward entered parliament in 1802, and except for a few months he remained in the House of Commons until he succeeded his father in the peerage .

In 1827 he was

minister for foreign affairs under Canning and then under Goderich and under Wellington, resigning office in May 1828 . As foreign minister he was only a cipher; but he was a man of considerable learning and had some reputation as a writer and a talker . Dudley took an interest in the foundationof the university of London, and his Letters to the bishop of Llandaff were published by the bishop (Edward Copleston) in 184o (new ed . 1841) . He was created Viscount Ednam and earl of Dudley in 1827, and when he died unmarried on the 6th of March 1833 these titles became extinct . His barony of Ward, however, passed to a kinsman, William Humble Ward (1781—1835), whose son, William (1817—1885), inheriting much of the dead earl's great wealth, was created Viscount Ednam and earl of Dudley in 186o . The 2nd earl of Dudley in this creation was the latter's son William Humble (b . 1866) ,who was lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1902 to 1906, and in 1908 was appointed governor-general of Australia: See H . S . Grazebrook in the Herald and Genealogist, vols. ii., v. and vi.; in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. xi.; and in vol. ix. of the publications of the . William Salt Society (1888) .