Earl of Ranfurly


Earl of Ranfurly, of Dungannon in the County of Tyrone, a title in the Peerage of Ireland, was created in 1831 for Thomas Knox, 2nd Viscount Northland. He had earlier represented County Tyrone in the House of Commons, and had already been created Baron Ranfurly, of Ramphorlie in the County of Renfrew, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1826. Knox was the eldest son of Thomas Knox, who represented Dungannon in the Irish House of Commons. He was created Baron Welles, of Dungannon in the County of Tyrone, in 1781, and Viscount Northland, of Dungannon in the County of Tyrone, in 1791.
Both titles were in the Peerage of Ireland. Lord Northland also sat in the British House of Lords as one of the 28 original Irish Representative Peers.
The first Earl was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He sat as Member of Parliament for County Tyrone and Dungannon. His son, the third Earl, also represented Dungannon in Parliament. On his early death in 1858, having held the titles for only two months, the peerages passed to his eight-year-old son, the fourth Earl. He also died young and was succeeded by his younger brother, the fifth Earl. He served as a Lord-in-Waiting in the third Conservative administration of Lord Salisbury and became Governor of New Zealand between 1897 and 1904. He also was a member of The Apprentice Boys of Derry Parent Club in Derry.
His grandson, the sixth Earl, mainly known as Dan Ranfurly, became well known for his exploits in the Second World War, and also served as Governor of the Bahamas from 1953 to 1956. His wife Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, also became well known for her memoirs of her and her husband's lives during the Second World War, and for establishing the organisation which is now known as Book Aid International. They had one daughter but no sons. After this death, the titles passed to his fifth cousin, the seventh Earl. He was the great-great-great-grandson of the Hon. John Knox, third son of the first Earl. As of 2018, the title is held by his son, the eighth earl, who succeeded in that year.
The Hon. William Knox, younger son of the second Earl, served as Member of Parliament for Dungannon.
The earldom of Ranfurly, pronounced "Ran-fully", is the last earldom created in the Peerage of Ireland that is still extant. Despite its territorial designation and the fact that it is in the Peerage of Ireland, the name of the earldom references the village of Ranfurly in Renfrewshire in the south-west of Scotland.
The Knox dynasty, Earls of Ranfurly, owned a large country estate centered on Dungannon in the south-east of County Tyrone in Ulster, Ireland, from 1692 until the very early twentieth-century.
The family seat is Maltings Chase, a house designed by Ted Cullinan and built in the late 1960s, near Nayland, Suffolk.

Viscounts Northland (1791)

The heir apparent is his only son Adam Henry Knox, Viscount Northland