Family of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge


Members of the Middleton family have been related to the British royal family by marriage since the wedding of Catherine Middleton and Prince William in April 2011, when she became the Duchess of Cambridge.

History

Gentleman farmer, legal and aristocratic links

By the late Georgian era, the Middleton family were established in the West Riding of Yorkshire as cultural and civic figures, particularly in the legal profession. The law firm, Messrs Middleton and Sons, was founded in Leeds in 1834 by gentleman farmer and solicitor William Middleton Esq. of Gledhow Grange Estate.
A grandson of William Middleton was Oxford University graduate and solicitor Henry Dubs Middleton who was chairman of the Leeds General Infirmary. Henry's son was Cecil Middleton who played first-class cricket for Oxford University Cricket Club in 1933. Cecil Middleton's grandfather was Sir Henry Hanson Berney, 9th Baronet.
William Middleton's descendants also include his grandson Richard Noel Middleton, a solicitor who was one of the founders of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. Richard Noel's son was Captain Peter Middleton, who was Prince Philip's co-pilot on a tour of South America. Peter Middleton's son is entrepreneur Michael Francis Middleton whose children are: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, socialite and columnist Pippa Middleton and businessman James Middleton.
The Middleton family were described as being "members of the aristocracy" and "friends of British royalty" to whom, in their civic capacity, they "played host as long ago as 1926". The great-grandfather of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Richard Noel Middleton, and his elder brother William Middleton reportedly wed their fiancés in Leeds at Mill Hill Chapel in the years before the First World War. "Mrs William Middleton" was the niece of James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale, who "led" the chapel's congregation at this time and "Mrs Noel Middleton" was the second cousin of Florence, 2nd Baroness Airedale.

Family law firm

The relatives of Michael Middleton were solicitors in the Leeds-based family firm, Messrs Middleton and Sons. His grandfather Richard Noel Middleton, great-grandfather John William Middleton, Esq., and great-great-grandfather William Middleton were solicitors. The family law firm which William Middleton established in 1834 existed for over 150 years, closing in 1985. Richard Noel Middleton was also one of the founders of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and a director of William Lupton and Co., the textile manufacturing firm his wife, Olive, had inherited in 1921. Michael Middleton's niece, Lucy Middleton, is a solicitor and a godparent of Prince Louis.

Political connections

Michael Middleton's great-grandfather, politician Francis Martineau Lupton, was the first cousin of Sir Thomas Martineau, whose nephew was Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The Martineaus came from a Huguenot immigrant background, and were noted in the medical, intellectual and business fields. At a political event hosted by members of the Leeds and County Unionist Club at Leeds Town Hall on 27 September 1894, Liberal Unionist Francis Martineau Lupton entertained his relative Joseph Chamberlain who would be Secretary of State for the Colonies within a few months. Francis Martineau's cousin, politician and Mayor of Birmingham Sir Thomas Martineau, was Joseph Chamberlain's brother-in-law.

Michael Francis Middleton

Michael Middleton, the father of the Duchess of Cambridge, was born in 1949 into a wealthy family with ties to the British aristocracy. His family had entertained members of the British royal family in Leeds from the 1920s. Shortly before his daughter married Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, in April 2011, he was granted a coat of arms as the armigerous head of the family.
Michael Middleton was born on 23 June 1949 in Leeds, where he spent his early years in Moortown. His father, Captain Peter Middleton, was a pilot who flew alongside Prince Philip as co-pilot on a two-month flying tour of South America in 1962. British Pathé newsreel film shows Middleton alongside the prince during the tour.
Michael Middleton has three brothers, including Richard, whose son Adam Middleton is godfather to Catherine's daughter, Princess Charlotte.

Education and early career

Like his father, Peter, and grandfather Noel, Michael Middleton was educated at Clifton College, the public school in Bristol. At Clifton, all three generations of Middleton men boarded at Brown's House. The archives at Clifton record that Michael Middleton was a praepostor, the title for a college prefect. Middleton represented Clifton at rugby in the 1st XV and also gained his tennis colours., Oxford University – New College, Hall
Following Clifton, Michael Middleton attended the University of Surrey who conferred the degree of B.Sc on him in 1973 according to the entry in the Clifton College Register 1962-78, published by Clifton College Council in October 1979 with an introduction by then Headmaster and academic historian, Stuart M. Andrews. Middleton then commenced studies for six months at British European Airways' flight school to become a pilot before switching to ground crew where he graduated from the company's own internal course. He then worked for BA as a flight dispatcher.

Marriage and family

Michael Middleton's wife, Carole, was born Carole Elizabeth Goldsmith on 31 January 1955 at Perivale Maternity Hospital in Ealing. The daughter of a builder, Ronald Goldsmith, and Dorothy Harrison, she was raised in Southall, and attended local state schools.
The Middletons met when they worked for British Airways as ground crew. By 1979, Michael was promoted to aircraft dispatcher, one of British Airways' Red Caps, at London Heathrow Airport. They married on 21 June 1980 at St James's Parish Church in Dorney, Buckinghamshire. They bought a Victorian house in Bradfield Southend near Reading, Berkshire.
The Middletons have three children, two daughters and a son. Following the birth of Catherine Elizabeth and Philippa Charlotte, the family moved to Amman, Jordan, where Michael worked as a manager for BA from 1984 to 1987. Their youngest child, James William, was born in 1987 by which time Catherine and Pippa attended St Andrew's School, Pangbourne. Carole Middleton established Party Pieces, a company making party bags in 1987. It branched into party supplies and decorations by mail order and by 1995 was managed by both Middletons and had moved into farm buildings at Ashampstead Common. At this time the Middletons purchased Oak Acre, a Tudor-style manor house in Bucklebury, Berkshire. In 2002, the Middletons bought a flat in Chelsea, in which their children lived. Carole and Michael Middleton are also the owners of a racehorse.
By 2012, the Middletons had moved to Bucklebury Manor, a Georgian mansion with an 18-acre estate where their grandson Prince George spent his first few weeks.
The Middletons' business was successful, and along with trust funds inherited by Michael Middleton, enabled the family to send their children to independent schools. All three children were sent to St Andrew's School, Pangbourne and both daughters were sent to Downe House, a girls' boarding school in Cold Ash and Marlborough College, Wiltshire. James also attended Marlborough.
Shortly before his elder daughter's marriage, Michael Middleton was granted a coat of arms featuring three acorn sprigs, one for each of his children. The oak represents England and strength as well as the family's home district of West Berkshire. The white chevronels symbolise peaks and mountains, said to represent the family's love of the Lake District and skiing, and the gold chevron represents Carole Middleton's maiden name of Goldsmith.
The British press created the term Upper Middleton Class to describe the family's social position; other reports refer to the family as being "minted....with a smattering of blue-blooded antecedents".

Children of Michael and Carole Middleton

Catherine

The Middletons' first daughter, Catherine, now the Duchess of Cambridge, was born on 9 January 1982. A boarder at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne and Marlborough College, she graduated from the University of St Andrews. It was here, while living at St Salvator's Hall, that she met Prince William. After a long relationship and a six-month engagement, she married Prince William at Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011.
In December 2012, it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were expecting their first child. Catherine gave birth to a son, Prince George of Cambridge, on 22 July 2013, who is third in line to the throne. Her second pregnancy was announced on 8 September 2014, and she gave birth to a daughter, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, on 2 May 2015, who is fourth in line to the throne. Her third pregnancy was announced on 4 September 2017, and she gave birth to her second son, Prince Louis of Cambridge on 23 April 2018, who is fifth in line to the throne.

Philippa

The Middletons' second daughter, Philippa "Pippa", born on 6 September 1983, attended the same schools as her siblings and studied English literature at the University of Edinburgh. There she shared a house with Lord Ted Innes-Ker, a son of the Duke of Roxburghe, and George Percy. Following graduation in 2008 she took an events management / marketing job with Table Talk, a London-based events catering company. She has written for The Spectator, Waitrose Magazine, the Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair and The Party Times, an online magazine which is an offshoot of her parents' company.
In July 2016, she became engaged to hedge fund manager and former racing driver James Matthews, eldest son of David Matthews, the Laird of Glen Affric. If he inherits his father's lairdship, Pippa will be accorded the courtesy title, Lady Glen Affric.
Pippa Middleton and James Matthews were married on 20 May 2017, at St Mark's Church, at Englefield Estate, Berkshire, near Bucklebury Manor, the Middleton family home. In June 2018, Pippa announced she was pregnant with her first child. Her son Arthur Michael William Matthews was born on 15 October 2018.

James

James, the Middletons' youngest child and only son, was born on 15 April 1987. He was educated from age four at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, and at Marlborough College. He started a degree in Environmental Resources Management at the University of Edinburgh but left in 2006 after a year to start a cake-making business. His company Boomf employed over 100 people at peak periods in 2016.
In September 2018, James was reportedly hosting deer stalking parties at the 10,000 acre Scottish estate of James Matthews, Laird of Glen Affric, James's brother-in-law.
Pippa was a bridesmaid and James read the lesson at their sister's wedding.

Parents of Michael Middleton

Michael Middleton's father was commercial pilot and RAF officer Capt. Peter Francis Middleton.
His boyhood in Leeds saw Peter Middleton share a governess with his second cousins, brothers Arthur Ralph Ransome Lupton and Dr Francis Hugh Lupton, both nephews of Arthur Ransome. Dr Francis Lupton's 2001 book, The Next Generation: A Sequel to The Lupton Family in Leeds by C.A. Lupton contains Middleton's memoirs.
Middleton boarded at Clifton College and then studied English at New College, Oxford. After leaving in 1940 Middleton served as a RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. Commissioned as a pilot officer in the RAFVR on 9 March 1941, he was confirmed in his rank and promoted to flying officer on 9 March 1942. In May 1942, he was posted to No 37 Service Flying School in Calgary, Canada where he spent two-and-a-half years as an instructor, training Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster pilots, receiving a promotion to flight lieutenant on 9 March 1943. After joining the reservist 605 Squadron at Manston, near Ramsgate in Kent, in August 1944, Middleton flew a de Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber, nudging the wings of unmanned German V1 flying aircraft to divert them from hitting London. After the war, Middleton joined British European Airways as a pilot, but remained in the reconstituted RAFVR, receiving a reserve commission as a flying officer on 12 August 1949. Promoted to flight lieutenant on 1 March 1951, he relinquished his reserve commission on 12 August 1959.
On a two-month tour of South America in 1962, Prince Philip piloted 49 of the tour's 62 flights with Peter Middleton as his co-pilot. He sent Middleton a letter of thanks and a pair of gold cufflinks. British Pathe newsreel captured Middleton and Prince Philip during the tour.
Middleton met his granddaughter's fiancé, Prince William, on his 90th birthday and William attended Middleton's funeral in November 2010.
commemorates Valerie Middleton's work there as a code-breaker
Michael's mother, Valerie Glassborow was the daughter of bank manager Frederick Glassborow and Constance Robinson. She had a twin sister, Mary. Both sisters grew up in France and were bilingual. They attended an English boarding school and then studied at a private secretarial college. Valerie Middleton worked at the Second World War Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park where a memorial commemorates her work as a code-breaker. Codebreaking penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powersmost importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers and is the birthplace of the world's first programmable, digital, electronic computer: Colossus. Her Bletchley Park colleague and friend, Lady Body, recalled in 2014 that she had shared a "rather special moment" with Valerie: "Our superior officer, Commander Williams, came into the room smiling and he said, ‘Well done, girls. A signal has been intercepted from Tokyo to Geneva and it's the signal that the Japanese are surrendering'. He told us that a message has gone to the King and the Prime Minister but that it could not be announced until Geneva has sent on the message to London."

Grandparents of Michael Middleton

s had been established from the fortunes of Michael Middleton's grandmother – heiress Olive Middleton, a member of the Lupton family. Olive was a boarder at Roedean and was accepted to study at Cambridge University. Olive's husband was Richard Noel Middleton, a solicitor who had "met and married the aristocrat" at the Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds in 1914. In 1919, Middleton retired as a solicitor from the legal practice in Leeds he shared with partner Sir William Henry Clarke who was a City of Leeds councillor alongside Olive's father. In 1921, Richard Noel Middleton became a director of the company his wife had inherited from her father. Members of the Lupton family owned the Newton Park and Beechwood estates in Leeds, the latter being the family seat where, for decades, the "whole family would gather". The Lupton family are described in the Leeds City Council's photographic archive as "woollen manufacturers and landed gentry - a political and business dynasty"; Olive's cousin, Baroness von Schunck had been invited to the coronation of King George V in 1911.
; the two cousins worked together for the war effort during the Great War
Olive Middleton's family had contributed to the political life of both the UK and to the civic life of Leeds, especially in the areas of education, housing, and public health, for several generations. Olive Middleton's father was a landowner and also a lead magistrate; addressed as Sir, Francis Martineau Lupton dealt with probate matters for the Leeds and West Riding Court. The 1899 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers record Lupton as being instrumental in establishing a Parliamentary inquiry into the Religious Education for Dissenting Protestants.
A "society beauty", newsreports from 1935 record that "Mrs Noel Middleton", her husband, their sons, Christopher and Tony Middleton and their Kitson family relatives arrived as "the Kitson party" when attending the Leeds Arts Ball. Olive Middleton was reportedly a guest at the 1931 Leeds Lady Mayoress First Civic "At Home" which she attended with Lady Clarke, wife of her husband's former legal partner. Both Sir William and Lady Clarke were presidents of the Leeds Conservative Association, the political party which invited Olive's uncle Hugh to become Lord Mayor in 1926.
Olive Middleton's family – the Luptons – were prominent Unitarians and worshipped at Leeds' Mill Hill Chapel where they are commemorated in stained glass windows.
, the estate of her cousin Baroness AiredaleDuring the First World War, Olive Middleton worked for the war effort at Gledhow Hall, the home of her second cousin, Florence, Baroness Airedale which was used as a VAD hospital, with Olive's cousin, The Hon. Doris Kitson and sister-in-law, Gertrude Middleton, as volunteer nurses. Olive remained involved with the VAD cause for many years; "Mr and Mrs Noel Middleton" and Lady Moynihan were amongst the guests reported at a garden party held in 1934 in aid of VAD nurses raising funds for the Leeds General Infirmary. The party was hosted by Olive Middleton's relatives, former Leeds Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress Mr and Mrs F.J. Kitson whose home, Gledhow Grove later became Chapel Allerton Hospital.
Olive Middleton's brother, Lionel Lupton attended Trinity College, Cambridge, at the same time as Diana, Princess of Wales's grandfather Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, where both men studied the same subject. The two men joined up together to fight in the Great War which saw Lionel and his two brothers killed. In April 1917, King George V "commanded" that a letter be written to the brothers' father in which the King recognised the exceptional loss of "your gallant" sons.

Beechwood and Newton Park Estates

Olive Middleton's father, Francis Martineau Lupton, was the eldest son and heir of Francis Lupton and grew up initially on the family's Newton Park Estate and then their Georgian Beechwood Estate, in Roundhay. Whereas the family eventually sub-divided Newton Park, the Beechwood estate was entailed to Olive's eldest brother, Francis Ashford Lupton who lacked a male heir. His death on 26 February 1917 followed the deaths of his two brothers – all First World War casualties. Their father's death occurred in 1921. Their sisters – Anne Lupton and Olive Middleton – were prohibited from inheriting Beechwood and the estate succeeded to their father's brother, Arthur G. Lupton. Arthur's only son, Major Arthur Michael Lupton, tragically died in 1929 following an accident on his horse the previous year whilst fox hunting on the Bramham Moor Hunt and Beechwood passed to his only son, Tom Lupton. As Tom was only nine at the time of his father's death, his aunts, Elinor and Elizabeth Lupton – "The Misses Lupton" – were granted a life interest in Beechwood and continued to live there, occasionally opening their gardens to the public. After their deaths,, their nephew, Tom, inherited Beechwood and in 2016, Tom's children retain some of the Beechwood Estate.

City of Leeds dignitaries

On 2 September 1914, Leeds Lord Mayor Lord Brotherton announced that the Leeds City Council would be raising a new battalion; the Leeds Pals. His committee was composed of "City dignitaries" including Olive Middleton's father, Alderman Francis Martineau Lupton and his brother Arthur G. Lupton. The following year, they were filmed inspecting the Pals troops alongside their brother Leeds Lord Mayor Sir Charles Lupton. Olive Middleton's first cousin, Leeds Lady Mayoress Elinor Lupton, played host to the Princess Royal which included attending a music concert together in Leeds on 27 May 1943. Elinor shared great-grandparents with Beatrix Potter who had given Elinor her own hand-drawn watercolour Christmas cards. Both Elinor and her sister died as spinsters.
Two of Olive Middleton's uncles were Lord Mayors of Leeds: Hugh Lupton and Sir Charles Lupton who was Deputy Lieutenant of Yorkshire County when Princess Mary's father-in-law, the 5th Earl of Harewood, was his Lord Lieutenant.
In 2018, Olive Middleton's great-granddaughter, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stated that her patronage of the Nursing Now campaign meant a lot to her personally as both her great-grandmother, Olive Middleton, and grandmother, Valerie Middleton, were volunteer nurses.

Ancestry of Michael Middleton

Michael Middleton's great grandfather – politician Francis Martineau Lupton – was the son of Francis Lupton, Esq., whose marriage to Frances Greenhow on 1 July 1847 is listed in The Patrician – John Burke's supplement to Burke's Peerage. Frances Lupton was a pioneer of girls' education who co-founded Leeds Girls' High School. Her maternal family was the Martineau family of Norwich and later, Birmingham; her aunt, the sociologist Harriet Martineau was especially close to her. London's National Portrait Gallery, holds nearly 20 portraits of Middleton's ancestors; siblings Harriet and Dr James Martineau, a friend of Queen Victoria.
The Rev. Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer is Michael Middleton's paternal ancestor.
– home to generations of Michael Middleton's ancestors, including his grandmother, Olive Middleton
Michael Middleton's family tree is linked, via his Leeds-born cousin, Lady Bullock, to William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1782–83. Through his direct ancestor, Dame Anne Fairfax, Michael Middleton has several descents from King Edward III.
According to genealogists Patrick Cracroft-Brennan and Anthony Adolph, Michael Middleton's children descend, via their mother, from Elizabeth Plantagenet, King Edward IV's illegitimate daughter by Elizabeth Lucy, via Sir Thomas Blakiston Conyers, 9th Bt. of Horden, Durham. Catherine and Prince William's closest common ancestors are Sir William Blakiston of Gibside and his wife Jane Lambton, making them eleventh cousins once removed, These findings echo Christopher Challender Child's research, published in 2011.
The Blakiston-Bowes Cabinet, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, provided proof that Catherine shared ancestry with Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Catherine and the Queen Mother share a common ancestor, County Durham's Sir William Blakiston, whose great granddaughter, Elizabeth Blakiston, married into the Bowes-Lyon family who were ancestors of the Queen Mother, née Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The cabinet was made in Newcastle upon Tyne to celebrate the union of the two families. Reports suggest that Catherine and the Queen Mother's blood cousinship was the reason Catherine wore the Queen Mother's tiara when she wed Prince William.

Arms