Burghersh

The Burghersh family were English soldiers and royal servants raised to the peerage when Robert de Burghersh became Baron Burghersh in 1303. As constable of Dover Castle and warden of the Cinque Ports he guarded the crossing to France, offices his sons inherited. His son Henry became Bishop of Lincoln and joined Queen Isabella's invasion of 1326 that overthrew Edward II.

The title was recreated in 1330 for another son, Bartholomew the elder, who held Dover and the Cinque Ports for Edward III.

His son Bartholomew the younger fought at Crécy in 1346 and the siege of Calais in 1347, and was among the first Knights of the Garter in 1348. The barony passed through the Despenser and Beauchamp families and fell into abeyance in 1449; a new creation in 1624 carried it to the Earls of Westmorland.