Baron Roborough

Baron Roborough, of Maristow in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1938 for Sir Henry Yarde Buller Lopes, 4th Baronet. He had earlier represented Grantham in Parliament as Conservative. The Baronetcy, of Maristow in the County of Devon, had been created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1805 for Manasseh Masseh Lopes, with remainder to his nephew Ralph Franco, son of his sister Esther. He was the member of a wealthy family of Sephardic-Jewish Portuguese origin. Lopes, who had converted to Christianity in 1802, later represented Evesham, Barnstaple and Westbury in Parliament. However, in 1819 he was twice convicted of bribing the voters in both Barnstaple and Grampound in order to be elected to Parliament, and sentenced to imprisonment and heavy fines. He was also unseated by the House of Commons, but after his release from prison he nonetheless managed to get elected for Westbury, a pocket borough which he controlled to a great extent.

Lopes was succeeded according to the special remainder by his nephew Ralph, the second Baronet, who assumed the surname of Lopes in lieu of Franco. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Westbury and South Devonshire. His son, the third Baronet, also sat as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Westbury and South Devonshire and served under Benjamin Disraeli as a Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1874 to 1880. In 1885 he was admitted to the Privy Council. He was the father of the fourth Baronet, who was raised to the peerage in 1938. The first Baron's son, the second Baron, was Lord Lieutenant of Devon from 1958 to 1978. As of 2007 the titles are held by the latter's son, the third Baron.

The family seat is Maristow House near Roborough in Devon. It was acquired in 1798 by the first Lopes Baronet.

Lopes Baronets, of Maristow (1805)

*Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes, 1st Baronet (1755-1831)
*Sir Ralph Lopes, 2nd Baronet (1788-1854)
*Sir Massey Lopes, 3rd Baronet (1818-1908)
*Sir Henry Yarde Buller Lopes, 4th Baronet (1859-1938) (created Baron Roborough in 1938)

Barons Roborough (1938)

*Henry Yarde Buller Lopes, 1st Baron Roborough (1859-1938)
*Massey Henry Edgcumbe Lopes, 2nd Baron Roborough (1903-1992)
*Henry Massey Lopes, 3rd Baron Roborough (b. 1940)

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage" (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]