William Jennings "Bill" Capell (born 9 August 1952), an American retired grocery clerk from Yuba City, California, is the heir presumptive to the Earldom of Essex.
[1] Capell had considered renouncing the earldom to maintain his United States citizenship[citation needed] (under the United Kingdom's Peerage Act 1963, a person may disclaim a hereditary peerage).
U.S. law, however, requires renunciation of noble titles only of persons seeking to become naturalized citizens and of holders of government office (unless they have congressional authorization).
As Capell is neither, there would be no legal impediment to his use of the title as a U.S. citizen; indeed, there is precedent in the case of the Earl of Wharncliffe, currently a Maine construction worker.
His father, Bladen Horace Capell, claimed the title after the ninth earl died in 1981, but Robert de Vere Capell (1920–2005) eventually proved that his ancestor, Algernon, was older than Bladen's ancestor Adolphus and thus took his seat in the House of Lords in 1989.