# Investigations or legal proceedings involving titled Peers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233 "2018-11-28T22:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/1 "2018-11-28T22:35:03Z")
(Inspired by an Agatha Christie story) I’ve been listening _Lord Edgeware Dies_, which is mostly about the murder of the fourth Baron Edgeware. Naturally, this being a classic British mystery story, Edgeware’s nephew, now the fifth Baron Edgeware, is alternately a suspect or a witness. And this got me wondering: Do the courts and police have a standard way of referring to all the individuals involved, so that there’s no ambiguity? And if you know the story, please don’t spoil it! ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/2 "2018-11-28T22:43:06Z")
Do British lords have the right to be tried in front of a jury of their peers? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/3 "2018-11-28T22:49:03Z")
The son of a peer would usually have his own set of given names. Some would match his father’s, but there’s usually enough to differentiate. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/4 "2018-11-28T22:53:17Z")
Since there can only be one Baron Edgeware the current one is referred to using that title. The predecessor can be referred by number or more likely as “The late Baron Edgeware”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/5 "2018-11-29T00:08:33Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Do British lords have the right to be tried in front of a jury of their peers? Nope. Surrendered that right back in the 1930s. But if you want a fictional account of a trial in the Lords, read “Clouds of Witnesses” by Dorothy L. Sayers. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/6 "2018-11-29T13:56:35Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Nope. Surrendered that right back in the 1930s. I rather think you mean [1948](http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/58/section/30/enacted). (There had been an earlier attempt to change the law, but it did not receive the consent of both houses of Parliament.) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/7 "2018-11-29T15:07:14Z")
The last actual trial was in 1935 > **[Edward Russell, 26th Baron de Clifford](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Russell,_26th_Baron_de_Clifford)** > > Lieutenant Colonel Edward Southwell Russell, 26th Baron de Clifford, OBE, TD (31 January 1907 – 3 January 1982), was the only son of Jack Southwell Russell, 25th Baron de Clifford, and Eva Carrington. > In 1935 he became the last peer to be tried in the House of Lords for a felony, manslaughter, the result of a car accident. He was found not guilty. He lost his father to a road accident; in his maiden speech in 1928 in the House of Lords he called for mandatory driving tests. Later he spoke in fa... ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/investigations-or-legal-proceedings-involving-titled-peers/825233/8 "2018-12-06T04:44:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The son of a peer would usually have his own set of given names. Some would match his father’s, but there’s usually enough to differentiate. But that’s exactly it. When the head of the family dies, his title goes to his heir, effectively a name change. Where the peer in question has a higher rank than Baron or Viscount\* than his eldest son is usually Viscount X or Baron X, and at the ranks of marquess or duke the eldest son might be Earl of X and the eldest son’s eldest son is Viscount or Baron X. So when the Duke of Z is murdered his son and grandson both assume higher titles formerly used by their fathers. We’re trying to solve a murder here, and two people in the house are changing their names right in the middle of all this. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk