(215) Asquith of Mells Manor House, Earls of Oxford and Asquith

Asquith of Mells

Many of the families which appear in this blog owed their wealth and social status to a single exceptional individual, whose successors have more or less successfully husbanded their inheritance. Some have at intervals produced men and women of ability who have augmented or reinvigorated the fortune or reputation of the family. But few indeed, especially in the last century, have so consistently produced an array of intellectual, literary, artistic, political and diplomatic talent as the Asquiths.

The story really begins with Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), who came from a modest middle-class nonconformist background in Yorkshire and rose to the highest office in the land, being Prime Minister from 1908-16. Despite a successful practice at the Chancery bar and three decades at the forefront of British politics, Asquith was never personally wealthy, and although his second wife brought some money into the marriage and introduced him to more exalted social circles, in his later years both 'H.H.' and his wife found it helpful to write semi-professionally to supplement their income. After leaving office in 1916, Asquith initially turned down the offer an earldom, preferring to remain in the Commons and to continue as Leader of the Liberal Party, but he accepted the peerage when the offer was renewed in 1925. He wished to take 'Earl of Oxford' as his title, but the Harley family - who had had this title in earlier centuries - complained and a compromise was reached when his peerage was gazetted as 'Earl of Oxford and Asquith'.

Archerfield House, East Lothian, rented by Asquith, 1907-11

The Wharf, Sutton Courtenay, built in 1912
by Walter Cave for the Asquiths.

The Asquiths lived modestly by the standards of the time, renting Archerfield House in East Lothian from 1907-11 and then building Wharf House at Sutton Courtenay (Berks, now Oxon) to the designs of Walter Cave in 1912, which remained their home for the rest of their lives. Asquith had five children by his first marriage and a further five by his second wife, Margot Tennant, although three of the latter died young. 

His eldest son, Raymond Asquith (1878-1916) showed every sign of having a career as prominent and successful as his father, but the outbreak of the First World War saw him join the army rather than entering Parliament and in 1916 he was killed on the Somme. It was Raymond's marriage to Katharine Horner in 1907 which ultimately brought the Horners' home, Mells Manor House in Somerset, into the Asquith family. 

The second son, Herbert ('Beb') was like his elder brother President of the Oxford Union, but pursued a literary career after the war rather than entering politics. Arthur, the third son, was a career soldier (and twice wounded during the war), while Cyril, who became a judge and ultimately one of the law lords, was an assiduous correspondent in The Times and sought diversion from severer disciplines in translating A.E. Housman's A Shropshire lad into Latin. The only daughter of Asquith's first marriage was Lady Violet, who married Sir Maurice Bonham Carter. Of all his children, she pursued the most political career, and in 1964 she became one of the first women appointed to the House of Lords when she was made a life peer as Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury.  The surviving children of

The Hon. Anthony Asquith (1902-68),
film director

the second marriage were Lady Elizabeth, who married the Romanian diplomat, Prince Antoine Bibesco, in 1919, and spent the rest of her life in Paris, Washington, Madrid and Romania while continuing to write fiction and poetry; and Anthony ("Puffin") Asquith (1902-68), who in the 1920s began a pioneering career as a British film director. Collectively, they were a glamorous and high-achieving family, who applied the intellectual ability of their father in diverse fields and were not shy of the social spotlight.

When 'H.H.' died on 15 February 1928 he was succeeded as 2nd Earl of Oxford & Asquith by his grandson, Julian Edward George Asquith (1916-2011), then a schoolboy at Ampleforth. The 2nd Earl's mother had converted to Roman Catholicism in 1923 and he and his siblings were brought up in that faith, which along with the intellectual and artistic interests so many members of the family have exhibited, has been a key part of their identity, and has given a particular character to their life at Mells Manor House. The 2nd Earl's mother (1885-1976) and his sister, Lady Helen Asquith (1908-2000) made Mells Manor House a hospitable centre for Catholic intellectuals, and numbered among their friends Monsignor Ronald Knox (1888-1957), who made his home at Mells for the last ten years of his life, and other prominent Catholic converts, including Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) and Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), who like Knox is buried in the churchyard. Another friend was Conrad Russell (1878-1947), whose deathbed conversion to Catholicism took place at Mells Manor House.

The Dowager Countess of Oxford and Asquith moved out of Mells Manor House in the 1960s, and the house was let to tenants while the 2nd Earl was serving overseas as a colonial administrator. By the early 1970s, Britain was running out of colonies to administer and he retired to Mells in 1975 "to cultivate my garden", both literally and metaphorically. The 2nd Earl never lost his intellectual curiosity, or his wide-ranging interests in politics, philosophy and religion, and he and his wife (d. 1998), maintained the reputation of Mells Manor for hospitality. Their two sons both became career diplomats, and their daughter, Lady Clare has sustained the family's literary tradition as a stalwart of The Spectator.

When the 2nd Earl died aged 94 in 2011 he was succeeded by his elder son, Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith (b. 1952), 3rd Earl of Oxford & Asquith, who with his wife has since restored the house. The present Lord Oxford, like his father and younger brother, was a career diplomat until 1997, when he went into the private sector. On inheriting the title he was rapidly elected to one of the seats in the House of Lords reserved for hereditary peers, where he sits as a Liberal Democrat. His wife, the author Clare Asquith, is noted chiefly for her book Shadowplay (2005), which claims Shakespeare was a crypto-Catholic, and which attracted praise and ridicule in almost equal measure. They have five children who show early promise of continuing the Asquith traditions of intellectual ability in diverse fields.

Mells Manor House, Somerset

Mells Manor House: entrance front showing the close proximity to the church.

A largely 16th century single-pile house with five gables on each of the long sides, mullioned and transomed windows, and a canted bay on the west end. It appears fairly uniform, but is actually of at least three main periods. The earliest part, beneath the central gable, is of the later 15th century, when the manor belonged to Glastonbury Abbey. After the Dissolution, the Crown sold the estate to Thomas Horner, and the western end of the present house was perhaps built for his nephew, Sir John Horner, c.1550-70. This extension is marked by two slender polygonal buttresses with concave sides. A little later, c.1590-1600, the house was extended to the east for Thomas Horner, and then in the early 17th century there were further additions  to the north, which formed an H-plan. The 17th century additions were however dismantled in the second half of the 18th century when the Horner family migrated to the new house they had built in the park, which became known as Mells Park. In 1794 the Gentleman's Magazine said 'half the old house is mouldering in ruins; the rest is occupied by a farmer'. It was rescued from deeper dereliction when it became an Anglican training college for craftsmen in the mid 19th century: some of the stained glass produced here can be seen in the church.

Mells Manor House: sketch of 1852, The house became a training college for craftsmen at about this time.

In 1901 the Horners sold Mells Park and moved back to the Manor House, which was restored for them by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901-05, although additions and alterations continued into the 1920s. The parlour at the west end has a geometrical ceiling made c.1905 based on a lost ceiling of 1650 at Merchant's Barton, Frome (Somerset). The drawing room at the east end has an early 16th century fireplace with a big frieze of five quatrefoils containing shields and fleurons, brought from a house in the village in the 1920s, and also a 17th century ceiling with simple corner sprays which is perhaps also an import. To the east of the drawing room is a single-storey extension by Lutyens containing a music room and adjoining garden room of c.1922. This has a neo-Tudor facade on the entrance front to keep in keeping, but glazed round arches opening south onto a Tuscan pergola. Lutyens planned a wing running west from the north-west corner of the house, but this was never built and instead a low kitchen range was added to the south by Owen Little in 1912.

Mells Manor House: garden front, 1994. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Since the 3rd Earl of Oxford & Asquith and his wife, the historian Clare Asquith, inherited the house in 2011, it has been gently and carefully restored while its romantic atmosphere has been carefully preserved. The restoration was celebrated by an account in Country Life in 2015, which was extensively illustrated with photographs of the interior.

Descent: Thomas Horner; to nephew, Sir John Horner (d. 1587); to son, Thomas Horner (c.1547-1612); to son, Sir John Horner (1576-1659); to son, Sir George Horner (b. 1604); to son, George Horner (b. 1646); to son, Thomas Horner (1688-1741); to brother, John Horner (1689-1746); to son, Thomas Horner (1737-1804); to son, Col. Thomas Strangways Horner (1762-1840); to son, Rev. John Stuart Hippisley Horner (1810-74); to son, Sir John Francis Fortescue Horner, KCVO (1842-1927); to daughter, Katharine Frances (1885-1976), widow of Raymond Asquith (1878-1916); to son, Sir Julian Edward George Asquith (1916-2011), 2nd Earl of Oxford & Asquith; to son, Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith (b. 1952), 3rd Earl of Oxford & Asquith.

Asquith family, Earls of Oxford and Asquith

Asquith, Joseph Dixon (1825-60). Son of Joseph Asquith (1778-1855), clothier, of Morley (Yorks WR) and his wife Esther Dixon (1794-1856), born 10 February and baptised 29 March 1825. Wool merchant at Morley (Yorks WR). He married, Jul-Sep 1850, Emily (1828-88), daughter of William Willans JP, of Huddersfield, and had issue:
(1) William Willans Asquith (1851-1918), born 23 June 1851; educated at Balliol College, Oxford (admitted 1871; BA 1875; MA 1879); school housemaster at Clifton College, Bristol; died unmarried, 7 November 1918; will proved 2 January 1918 (estate £13,576);
(2) Sir Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (q.v.);
(3) Emily Evelyn Asquith (1855-1937), born 20 May 1855; married, Jul-Sep 1878, Rev. William Wooding of Stoke Newington (Middx), Unitarian minister, and had issue four sons and one daughter; died 16 December 1937; will proved 25 January 1938 (estate £7,474);
(4) Lillian Josephine Asquith (1860-65), born 6 May 1860; died young and was buried at Rehoboth Chapel, Morley, 31 March 1865.
He lived at Croft House, Morley.
He died 16 June 1860 and was buried at the Rehoboth Chapel, Morley (Yorks WR); administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 16 April 1861 (effects under £450). His widow died 12 December 1888; her will was proved 8 January 1889 (effects £1,019).

Sir Herbert Henry Asquith,
1st Earl of Oxford & Asquith

Asquith, Sir Herbert Henry (1852-1928), 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith. Second son of Joseph Dixon Asquith (1825-60) and his wife Emily, daughter of William Willans of Huddersfield, born 12 September 1852. Educated at City of London School, Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1874; Fellow, 1874; Hon. DCL 1904; Hon. Fellow 1908) and Lincolns Inn (called to bar 1876; QC 1890; bencher 1894; Treasurer, 1920). Barrister-at-law, practising at the Chancery bar, 1876-1905. Liberal MP for East Fife, 1886-1918 and for Paisley, 1920-24; Leader of the Liberal Party, 1908-26; an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, 1892-95; Home Secretary, 1892-95; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1905-08; Prime Minister, 1908-16; Secretary of State for War and President of the Army Council, 1914 and 1916; Leader of the Opposition, 1920-22. In peacetime he was an urbane and conciliatory politician who achieved several significant social reforms, including the introduction of old age pensions and national insurance, although he remained an opponent of women's suffrage until 1917, when he was out of office. During the First World War he became exhausted and hesitant, and was eventually replaced by Lloyd George. Arguably we are still working through the implications of his passage of the Parliament Act in 1910 which began the process of limiting the powers of the House of Lords, and of his dispute with Lloyd George which led to the collapse of the Liberal party as a major force in British politics. He was appointed to the Privy Council, 1892 and to its judicial committee, 1925; and to the Privy Council of Ireland, 1916. He was made Rector of Glasgow University, 1905-28 and Aberdeen University, 1908-28; High Steward of Oxford University, 1927-28, and was an Elder Brother of Trinity House, 1909 and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was created 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith and Viscount Asquith, 9 February 1925, and made a Knight of the Garter later in 1925. He was awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Oxford (DCL 1904), Edinburgh (LLD 1907); Glasgow (LLD 1907); Cambridge (LLD 1909); Leeds (LLD 1910), St. Andrews (LLD 1911); Bristol (LLD 1912); Durham (DCL 1913) and McGill (LLD 1921) and was a Freeman of the cities of London and Leeds. He was the author of Occasional addresses, 1916; The genesis of the war, 1918; Studies and sketches, 1924; Fifty years of Parliament, 1926; and Memories and reflections, 1928; his Letters to a friend were edited by Desmond MacCarthy in 1933-34; his Letters to Venetia Stanley were edited by Michael and Eleanor Brock in 1982. He married 1st, 23 August 1877, Helen Kelsall (1854-91), eldest daughter of Frederick Melland MD of Manchester, and 2nd, 10 May 1894, (Emma Alice) Margaret (k/a Margot) (1864-1945), sixth daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st bt, and one of the intellectual and political group who were known as 'The Souls'. In 1912-15 he also had a romantic affair with Venetia Stanley (1887-1948), probably never consummated, which resulted in an extensive correspondence (he was writing two or three times a day, even during Cabinet meetings) of considerable historical value. By his two wives he had issue (with three other children of the second marriage who died at or soon after birth):
(1.1) Raymond Asquith (1878-1916) (q.v.);
(1.2) Hon. Herbert (k/a Beb) Asquith (1881-1947), born 11 March 1981; educated at Winchester, Balliol College, Oxford and Lincolns Inn (called to bar, 1907); President of the Oxford Union, 1901; author and poet; served in Royal Field Artillery (Capt.) in First World War; lived at Claverton Lodge, Bathwick Hill, Bath (Somerset); married, 28 July 1910, Lady Cynthia Charteris (1887-1960), daughter of 11th Earl of Wemyss & March and had issue three sons; died 5 August 1947; will proved 24 October 1947 (estate £4,622);
(1.3) Brig-Gen. the Hon. Arthur Melland (k/a Oc) Asquith (1883-1939), born 24 April 1883; educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford; an official in the Sudan civil service, 1906-11; served with Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and Royal Navy Division in First World War (Hon. Brig-Gen., 1918) and was wounded, mentioned in despatches and awarded the DSO and the Croix de Guerre; controller of Appointments Dept. and member of council of Ministry of Labour, 1918-20; chairman of Kassala Cotton Co. and director of Westminster Bank and Sudan Plantation Syndicate; he married, 30 April 1918, Hon. Betty Constance (d. 1962), second daughter of John Thomas Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners and had issue four daughters; died 25 August 1939; will proved 24 October 1939 (estate £37,924);
(1.4) Lady (Helen) Violet Asquith (1887-1969), Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, born 15 April 1887; President of Women's Liberal Federation, 1923-25, 1939-45 and of Liberal Party organisation, 1947-66; President of Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1964; a Governor of the BBC, 1941-46 and of the Old Vic Theatre, 1945; Vice-Chairman of United Europe Movement, 1947; member of the Royal Commission on the Press, 1947-49; patron of the United Nations Association and Trustee of the Glyndebourne Arts Trust, 1955; appointed DBE 1953 and created a life peer as Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, 21 December 1964; awarded honorary degree by Sussex University (LLD 1963); author of Winston Churchill as I knew him, 1965; married, 30 November 1915, Sir Maurice Bonham Carter KCB KCVO (1880-1960), youngest son of Henry Bonham Carter, and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 19 February 1969; will proved 16 June 1969 (estate £49,742) [I will write more about the Bonham Carters in a future post on that family];
(1.5) Sir Cyril Asquith (1890-1954), Baron Asquith of Bishopstone (q.v.);

(2.1) Lady Elizabeth Charlotte Lucy Asquith (1897-1945), born 26 February 1897; "a precocious child of uncertain temper but great intelligence"; author and poet; married, 30 April 1919, Prince Antoine Bibesco (1878-1951), son of Prince Alexandre Bibesco of Romania, and had issue a daughter; but also had an affair in 1921 with the critic John Middleton Murry (1889-1957); lived chiefly in Paris although she travelled with her husband on his postings as Romanian ambassador to Washington, 1920-26 and Madrid, 1927-31; lived in Romania during WW2; died of pneumonia, 7 April 1945 and was buried at Mogosoaia Palace, Ilfov (Romania); administration of her goods (with will annexed) was granted to her husband, 2 June 1949 (effects in England £10,173);

(2.2) Hon. Anthony (k/a Puffin) Asquith (1902-68), born 9 November 1902; educated at Winchester and Balliol College, Oxford (BA); film director on projects including Tell England, 1930-31; Pygmalion, 1938; The Winslow Boy, 1948; The Browning Version, 1950; The importance of being earnest, 1952; The Millionaires, 1960; and The Yellow Rolls-Royce, 1964; a Governor of the British Film Institute; President of Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians, 1937-68; Fellow of British Film Academy and Royal Society of the Arts; Commander of the Italian Order of Merit; a gentle, kind and creative aesthete, at ease with all classes of society; died unmarried, 21 February 1968; will proved 29 May 1968 (estate £64,231).
He rented Archerfield (East Lothian) from 1907-11 and in 1912 had Walter Cave rebuild The Wharf, Sutton Courtenay (Berks, now Oxon) where he lived until his death. Margot Asquith sold The Wharf in 1932 and lived thereafter in London, at various addresses of gradually declining grandeur as her resources diminished.

He died 15 February 1928 and was buried at Sutton Courtenay; he is commemorated by a monument in Westminster Abbey and by a tomb at Sutton Courtenay; his will was proved 9 June 1928 (estate £9,345). His first wife died of typhoid at Lamlash (Isle of Arran), 11 September 1891; her will was proved 16 October 1891 (effects £504). His widow died 28 July 1945 and was buried at Sutton Courtenay; her will was proved 13 February 1947 (estate £5,799).

Raymond Asquith (1878-1916)

Asquith, Raymond (1878-1916) of Mells Manor House. Eldest son of Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), 1st Earl of Oxford & Asquith, and his first wife, Helen Kelsall, eldest daughter of Frederick Melland of Manchester, born 6 November 1878. Educated at Winchester, Balliol College, Oxford (where he was regarded as a brilliant Classical scholar, won three prizes and graduated with 1st class honours) and the Inner Temple (called to the bar, 1904). Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1902. Barrister-at-law. A tall, handsome man, he was a member of "The Coterie", a group of Edwardian socialites and intellectuals, many of whom were the children of "The Souls". He was selected as Liberal candidate for Parliament in the Derby constituency, 1914, but on the outbreak of the First World War joined the London Regt. (2nd Lt., 1914) and later transferred to the Grenadier Guards (Lt., 1915). He was assigned to be a staff officer but his request to return to active duty was granted in 1916 just before the Battle of the Somme. He was shot in the chest while leading an assault on 15 September 1916, but famously lit a cigarette to hide the seriousness of his injuries, so that his men would continue the attack; he died while being carried back to British lines. After his death, his contemporary Winston Churchill wrote that he was 'so gifted and yet so devoid of personal ambition'. In 1923 his widow converted to Roman Catholicism and brought up her children in that faith; during her long widowhood she made Mells a centre for Catholic intellectuals, including most famously Monsignor Ronald Knox (1888-1957), who lived at Mells for the last ten years of his life and completed his translation of the Bible here. Raymond Asquith married, 25 July 1907, Katharine Frances (1885-1976), daughter of Sir John Horner KCVO of Mells (Somerset), and had issue:
(1) Lady Helen Frances Asquith (1908-2000), born 1908; educated at St Paul's Girls School and Somerville College, Oxford (BA 1930); granted rank of an earl's daughter, 1928; teacher and schools inspector in Wiltshire and Oxfordshire; trustee of Girls' Public Day Schools Trust; appointed OBE 1965 and awarded the papal medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, 1989; died unmarried, 25 May 2000; will proved 13 September 2000;
(2) Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith (1910-96), born 1910; granted rank of an earl's daughter, 1928; suffered from acute depression; married, 14 January 1931, William George Hervey Jolliffe (1898-1967), 4th Baron Hylton and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 17 May 1996; will proved 11 October 1996;
(3) Sir Julian Edward George Asquith (1916-2011), 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith (q.v.).
His widow inherited Mells Manor House from her father in 1927.
He was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme, 15 September 1916, and buried in France, but he is commemorated by monuments in Amiens Cathedral (France) and in Mells church designed by Lutyens, with lettering by Eric Gill; administration of his goods (with will annexed) was granted to his widow 18 November 1916 (estate £3,189). His widow died 9 July 1976; her will was proved 14 January 1977 (estate £39,003).

Julian, 2nd Earl of Oxford & Asquith

Asquith, Sir Julian Edward George (1916-2011), 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, of Mells Manor House. Only son of Raymond Asquith (1878-1916) and his wife Katharine Frances, daughter of Sir John Horner KCVO of Mells (Somerset), born 22 April 1916. Educated at Ampleforth and Balliol College, Oxford (MA). He succeeded his grandfather as 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, 15 February 1928. Lt. in Royal Engineers, 1941-42. Assistant District Commissioner in Palestine, 1942-48; Deputy Chief Secretary to British Administration in Tripolitania, 1949-50; Director of Interior Tripolitania, 1951; adviser to Prime Minister of Libya, 1952; Administrative Secretary, Zanzibar, 1955; Administrator, St Lucia, 1958-62; Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Seychelles, 1962-67; Commissioner of British Indian Ocean Territory, 1965-67; Constitutional Commissioner, Cayman Islands, 1971 and Turks and Caicos Islands, 1973-74. He was appointed CMG, 1961 and KCMG, 1964, and made a Knight of St John, 1962. He married, 28 August 1947 at Brompton Oratory, London, Anne Mary Celestine CStJ (1916-98), only daughter of Sir (Charles) Michael Palairet KCMG, HM ambassador to Greece, and had issue:
(1) Lady (Mary) Annunziata Asquith (b. 1948), born 28 July 1948; educated at Mayfield (Sussex) and Somerville College, Oxford; former model for Burberry Ltd; partner of Patrick John Anson (1939-2005), 5th Earl of Lichfield, who left her the bulk of his personal fortune;
(2) Lady Katharine Rose Celestine Asquith (b. 1949), born 16 October 1949; educated at Mayfield and King's College, London; married 1st, 18 July 1970 (div. 1976) Sir Adam Nicholas Ridley (b. 1942) (who m2, 1981, Margaret Anne Passmore) and 2nd, 16 February 1985, (John) Nathaniel Micklem Page, second son of Sir (Arthur) John Page MP, but had no issue;
(3) Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith (b. 1952), 3rd Earl of Oxford & Asquith (q.v.);
(4) Lady Clare Perpetua Frances Asquith (b. 1955), born 28 March 1955; deputy literary editor of The Spectator; partner of James Crain Mitchie (1927-2007) by whom she had issue one son;
(5) Hon. Sir Dominic Anthony Gerard Asquith (b. 1957), born in Zanzibar, 7 February 1957; educated at Ampleforth; an officer in the diplomatic service 1983-2013, 2016-date (Minister, Argentina, 1997-2001; Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission, Saudi Arabia, 2001-2004; Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission, Iraq, 2004; Director, Iraq, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2004-2006; ambassador to Iraq, 2006-07, Egypt, 2007-11 and Libya, 2011-13 (where he narrowly escaped assassination in 2012); High Commissioner in India, 2016); appointed CMG, 2004 and KCMG, 2012; senior adviser, Dentons LLP, 2013-date; married, May 1988, Louise E., only daughter of John E. Cotton of Wollaton (Notts) and had issue two sons and two daughters.
He inherited Mells Manor House from his mother in 1976.
He died 16 January 2011, aged 94. His wife died 19 August 1998.

Asquith, Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael (b. 1952), 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith. Elder son of Sir Julian Edward George Asquith (1916-2011), 2nd Earl of Oxford & Asquith, and his wife Anne Mary Celestine, only daughter of Sir (Charles) Michael Palairet KCMG, born 24 August 1952. Educated at Ampleforth and Balliol College, Oxford (MA). An officer in the diplomatic service, 1980-97 (First Secretary at Moscow, 1983-85; Counsellor in Kiev, 1992-97); he was appointed OBE 1992. Director of Dessna Co. Ltd., 1997-date, JKX Oil and Gas Ltd, 1977-2016; Executive Chairman of Zander Corporation Ltd., 2006-date (Chief Executive, 2002-06); Chairman of Meteor Asset Management Ltd; Director of Ferravale Ltd; non-executive director of Hansa Trust plc and Group DF, a Ukranian-based international corporate group. Director of the British Ukranian Society and a Trustee of the Ukranian Catholic Foundation. He succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, 16 January 2011. A Liberal Democrat in politics, he was elected by his peers to be a member of the House of Lords, October 2014. He married, 2 August 1978, (Mary) Clare (b. 1951), literary historian, elder daughter of Francis Anthony Baring Pollen, the Catholic architect, and had issue:
(1) Mark Julian Asquith (b. 1979), Viscount Asquith, born 13 May 1979; educated at St. Andrews University (MA 2001); investment banker; married, May 2008, Dr. Helen Sonia Clary (b. 1984), daughter of Christopher Norman Russell Prentice, and has issue one son;
(2) Lady Magdalen Katharine Asquith (b. 1981), born 30 December 1981; married, 4 July 2015 at Mells, Robert Picton Seymour Howard (b. 1971), elder son and heir of Sir David Howarth Seymour Howard, 3rd bt.;
(3) Lady Frances Sophia Asquith (b. 1984), born 27 April 1984; educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford; Russian picture expert with Sothebys, 2007-date, currently as Senior International Specialist in New York (USA);
(4) Lady Celia Rose Asquith (b. 1989), born 9 August 1989; educated at Bristol University (BA, 1st class hons.; John Gould Greek prize); administrator and lecturer at Free University of Georgia, Tbilisi;
(5) Lady Isabel Anne Asquith (b. 1991), born 31 May 1991.
He inherited Mells Manor House from his father in 2011 and restored the house.
Now living.

Cyril Asquith,
Baron Asquith of Bishopstone

Asquith, Rt. Hon. Cyril (1890-1954), Baron Asquith of Bishopstone. Fourth son of Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), 1st Earl of Oxford & Asquith, and his first wife, Helen Kelsall, eldest daughter of Frederick Melland of Manchester, born 5 February 1890. Educated at Winchester, Balliol College, Oxford (BA, 1913; Hon. Fellow, 1947) and Inner Temple (called to bar, 1920; KC 1936; bencher, 1939). Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1913-14. Served in First World War as in 16th bttn, London Regiment (Capt.), 1914-16 and Ministry of Munitions, 1916-18. Barrister at law, 1920-37; Assistant Reader in Common Law at Council for Legal Education, 1925-28; member of Council for Legal Education, 1938-54; member of General Claims Tribunal, 1939-43; Recorder of Salisbury, 1937-38; Justice of King's Bench, 1938-46; Lord Justice of Appeal, 1946-51; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, 1951-54. He was knighted, 1938, appointed to the Privy Council, 1946, and created a life peer as Baron Asquith of Bishopstone, April 1951. Chairman of the Commission for Higher Education in the Colonies, 1942-44 and Royal Commission on Equal Pay for Men and Women, 1944-46. The success of his legal career was to no small extent dependent upon the patronage of his former head of chambers, Lord Jowitt, who as Lord Chancellor made him a lord justice of appeal. Jowitt was not, however, blind to his faults, regarding him as having the finest mind on the bench but being lazy; his consistent promotion was widely seen as unmerited, but it was also recognised that ‘the higher he went the better he became’. In 1951 Churchill offered to make him Lord Chancellor but he wisely refused; his lack of political experience would quickly have told on the Woolsack. His conversation and writing have been described as showing ‘the same deliberation, dry humour and careful choice of words that marked his father's style’; he was an extensive and sometimes witty contributor to The Times and also wrote a successful manual, Trade Union Law for Laymen (1927), as well as a more récherché translation of some of A.E. Housman's A Shropshire lad poems into Latin. He married, 12 February 1918, Anne Stephanie (1896-1964), elder daughter of Sir Adrian Donald Wilde Pollock KCMG and had issue:
(1) Hon. Luke Asquith (1919-94), born 18 November 1919; educated at Winchester; served in WW2 as Capt. in 60th Rifles; with Kleinwort Benson, merchant bankers, 1947-79; married, 2 July 1954, (Ethel) Meriel (1934-2003), ballet dancer, elder daughter of Maurice Cann Evans, and had issue two daughters; died 26 August 1994; will proved 12 January 1995 (estate £152,519);
(2) Hon. Jane Asquith (1922-78), born 3 July 1922; lived in London; died unmarried, 4 January 1978 and was buried at Bishopstone (Sussex); will proved 16 March 1978 (estate £109,245);
(3) Hon. Frances Rose Asquith (b. 1925), born 4 October 1925; married, 8 December 1951, Sir John Frederick Eustace Stephenson (1910-98), kt., Lord Justice of Appeal, second son of Sir Guy Stephenson CB, and had issue two sons and two daughters;
(4) Hon. Paul Asquith (1927-84), born 4 January 1927; educated at Eton; served in Coldstream Guards, 1945-48; married 1st, 18 July 1953 (div. 1963), Helena Mary (1932-2014) (who married 2nd, 15 July 1963, James Francis Leslie Bayley, son of Thomas Eliot Bayley and had further issue one son and one daughter), elder daughter of Hon. Geoffrey John Orlando Bridgeman MC and had issue one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 16 July 1963, Caroline Anne (1933-2018), younger daughter of Sir John Gawen Carew Pole, 12th bt., and had issue a further son and daughter; died 12 November 1984; will proved 29 March 1985 (estate £71,526).
He lived in London and had a holiday house at Bishopstone (Sussex).
He died 24 August 1954 and was buried at Bishopstone (Sussex), where he is commemorated by a tombstone; administration of his goods was granted 25 October 1954 (estate £12,064). His widow died 19 February 1964 and was also buried at Bishopstone; her will was proved 19 March 1964 (estate £32,719).

Sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, vol. 2, pp. 3036-39; A. Foyle & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Somerset - North and Bristol, 2011, p. 556; C. Aslet, 'The Souls' delight: Mells Manor, Somerset', Country Life, 11 February 2015, pp. 56-63; ODNB entries on H.H. Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford & Asquith; Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford & Asquith, Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford & Asquith; Anthony Asquith and Raymond Asquith; Wikipedia articles on the above and Sir Dominic Asquith.

Location of archives

Asquith family, Earls of Oxford and Asquith: family letters and papers, 19th-20th cents. [Private Collection: enquiries to Archives Sector Development, The National Archives]
Asquith, Anthony (1902-68), film director: correspondence, papers and film scripts, 20th cent. [British Film Institute Special Collections]
Asquith (later Bibesco), Elizabeth Charlotte Lucy (1897-1945): correspondence and papers, 1901-41 [Bodleian Library, Oxford: MSS. Eng. c.6718-19, d.3316, e.3292, d.3205, d.3207, d.3283, d.3287, c.6693-4, d.3308, c.6714, d.3318]
Asquith, Emma Alice Margaret ("Margot"), 1864-1945, Countess of Oxford & Asquith: diaries, 1876-1945 [Bodleian Library, Oxford, MSS. Eng. c.6665-6720, c.6729, d.3198-3218, d.3262-3319, e.3256-7, e.3280-92]
Asquith (later Bonham Carter), Lady Helen Violet (1887-1969), Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury: correspondence and papers, 20th cent. [Bodleian Library, Oxford]
Asquith, Herbert Henry (1852-1928), 1st Earl of Oxford & Asquith: political correspondence and papers, 1886-1929 [Bodleian Library, Oxford, MSS. Asquith]

Coat of arms

Sable, on a fess between three cross-crosslets argent, a portcullis of the field.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 25 April 2016 and was updated 1 July 2018 and 1 January 2019. I am most grateful to Craig Asquith for an additional image.