[1] The first formal creation of the earldom was in the Peerage of England in 1644, when Francis Leigh, 1st Baron Dunsmore was made Earl of Chichester (in the County of Sussex), with remainder to his son-in-law Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (the husband of his daughter Elizabeth).
He had already been made a baronet, of Newnham, Warwickshire, in 1618 (in the Baronetage of England),[2] with remainder to the heirs male of his body, and Baron Dunsmore of Dunsmore, Warwickshire, in 1628 (in the Peerage of England), with special remainder to his stepson John Anderson (the son of his second wife Hon.
The title was created again in the Peerage of England in 1675 however as a subsidiary/courtesy title when Charles Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Charles II and Barbara Villiers, was created Duke of Southampton, Earl of Chichester and Baron Newbury.
He was succeeded by his son, the fourth Baronet who was as MP for East Grinstead, Lewes and Sussex, served as a Commissioner of Customs and as a Lord of the Treasury.
He inherited vast estates on the death of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1662–1711) (his mother's brother) and took by Royal licence the additional surname 'Holles' in 1711.
In 1714 the Earldom of Clare was revived in his favour with special remainder to his younger brother, the earlier Prime Minister.
Surpassing this, the next year his maternal uncle's title was revived; he was made Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with similar remainder to his younger brother Henry.
He represented Rye and Sussex in the House of Commons and served as a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, as a Lord of the Admiralty and as Comptroller of the Household.
[8] He was succeeded by his younger brother, the eighth Earl, who was killed in a road accident in Doncaster while on active service in the Second World War.
If the ninth earl had been born a girl or had not survived early childhood, the title would have passed to Hon.
[10] The heir presumptive is the present holder's second cousin, Richard Anthony Henry Pelham (b.