In November 2010, he received a life peerage as Baron Kerr of Monteviot and so became entitled to sit in the House of Lords.

The family previously owned a larger Scottish seat, Newbattle Abbey in Midlothian, which is now a college, and also Blickling Hall in Norfolk, which now belongs to the National Trust.

He owns Ferniehirst Castle in Roxburghshire, which is the family seat that was restored by the 12th Marquess, and Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire.

[1] According to the lore of the family of Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian, the name comes from the Norman chiefs Ralph and Robert, brothers who came to Roxburgh from Lancashire in the 1300s.

He was then created Lord Ker of Newbattle, Oxnam, Jedburgh, Dolphinstoun and Nisbet, Viscount of Briene, Earl of Ancram and Marquess of Lothian in 1701.

The heir apparent is the present holder's son John Walter Donald Peter Kerr, Earl of Ancram (born 1988).