Two questions about peerages that use the family name

I have recently finished reading two books, one about the late Lord
Mountbatten, and one about the Spencer family.

I am curious to know how many earldoms are similar to the Mountbatten
earldom, in that they have or will in future be held by a person who does
not use the family name applied to the title.

I was looking through a list of earldoms on Wikipedia, and these seemed to
be potential candidates :

- Earl Ferrers : held by the Shirley family from the beginning.
- Earl Brooke : held by the Greville family from the beginning.
- Earl De La Warr : held now by the Sackville family.
- Earl Winterton : held by the Turnour family from the beginning.
- Earl Erne : held by the Crichton family since the beginning.
- Earl Belmore : held by the Lowry-Corry family since the beginning.
- Earl Cawdor : held by the Campbell family.
- Earl Granville : held by the Leveson-Gower family.
- Earl Cowley : held by the Wellesley family.

How many of these titles use an actual family name instead of a place name?
I know Cawdor is a place name because I have been to the castle. What about
the others?

My second question is about a claim made in the book on the Spencer family
by the current earl. He apparently told somebody that earldoms created with
a family name are more prestigious than those created with a place name. Is

Don Aitken...

Which raises an interesting question. Originally, all earldoms were
earldoms of counties - that is what the title meant. It occurred to me

CJ Buyers...

I would have thought that earldoms predated counties. Yes?

Don Aitken...

Yes, I expressed myself loosely. There was a discouninuity at the
Conquest. The Anglo-Saxon earldoms were really a different kind of
animal entirely, and frequently covered areas larger than a single
county, but under the Norman kings this was never allowed (with the
doubtful exception of the Bigod Earldom "of East Anglia", if that is
what it was).

Christopher Buyers

to wonder what was the first English earldom *not* to use the name of
a county? (I include those named after county towns, such as
Shrewsbury, in the "county" category). Then I realised that that was
too easy; the answer is almost certainly the anomalous case of Derby
(1485). The second oldest among extant earldoms is Lindsey (1626), or,
if Lincolnshire's "Parts of Lindsey" are regarded as a quasi-County,
Winchelsea (1628). But are there older examples now extinct?

Donald Renouf...

I've an idea that the first earldom that was unrelated to a county or
some other place name was that of Earl Rivers, created in 1466. Several
earlier earldoms were commonly known by their holders' surnames, e.g.
Earl of Warenne, but they were nevertheless actual earldoms of counties
(in the case of Warenne, I think the proper title was Earl of Surrey).

Peter Tilman...

I believe the CP says it was Earl of March (1328).

The oldest extant Earldom which uses a family name which is not also a
placename is Ferrers (1711).

this true?

chas8391...

I, too, have read, and I wish I could remember where, that an earldom
using a family name is more prestigious than one with a place name.
Perhaps because one with a family name means the rank attaches to the
family not just to a territory.

I don't know when the book about the Spencer family was written, but I
think it has been ten or fifteen years ago that I read about the
difference in earldom names. I don't think I got my information from a
book by the present Earl Spencer.

Thank you for your assistance.