Writ of acceleration

[citation needed] The last such writ of acceleration was issued in 1992 to the Conservative politician and close political associate of John Major, Viscount Cranborne, the eldest son and heir apparent of the 6th Marquess of Salisbury.

[citation needed] An heir apparent receiving such a writ took precedence within the House of Lords according to the peerage accelerated.

For example, Charles Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan, the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Burlington, was summoned to Parliament in 1689 in his father's barony of Clifford of Lanesborough.

His son Charles was, by virtue of the writ of acceleration, summoned to Parliament as Baron Clifford of Lanesborough, but predeceased his father.

However, the Barony of Pawlett of Basing became extinct on his death, while the Dukedom was inherited by his younger brother, the fourth Duke.

[citation needed] When it had been decided that the eldest son of a peer should become a member of the House of Lords, the alternative to a writ of acceleration was to create a completely new peerage.

This was in contrast to his son, Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, who in 1844 was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in the aforementioned title of Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe.

Similarly, after his career in the House of Commons was ended by a defeat in the October 1974 general election, Lord Balniel was given a life peerage as Baron Balniel, of Pitcorthie in the County of Fife, enabling him to sit in the House of Lords before succeeding his father, David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford in 1975.

Eldest sons of peers who had not received a writ of acceleration or a new peerage were eligible to stand for election to the House of Commons.