It was created in 1645 for Francis Leke, 1st Baron Deincourt, an ardent supporter of Charles I during the Civil War.
He had already been created a baronet, of Sutton in the County of Derby, in the Baronetage of England on 25 May 1611, and Baron Deincourt, of Sutton in the County of Derby, in the Peerage of England in 1628.
In 1680, one year before he succeeded his father in the earldom, he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration as Baron Scarsdale.
[2] One of the family seats was Sutton Scarsdale Hall, Derbyshire, built for the fourth Earl.
Some of the interior fixtures now reside in the United States, at the Philadelphia Museum.