At the age of 80, the 10th Baron Braybrooke has eight daughters but no sons. As a result of a law that stipulates he may not pass his title to a woman, a random distant cousin stands to score big time. 

The Baron is too frail to manage his family seat of Audley End, near Saffron Walden in Essex, so the eldest of his daughters, Amanda Murray, now manages the beautiful and sprawling 6 000 acre estate. But she won’t get much out of it because “when her father dies, his title – created in 1788 – will pass to a distant cousin she has never met, because peerages can only go to male heirs.” 

We supposedly live in an era where there is equality, at least in theory, and in first world countries especially. This has prompted requests to the British government to make an amendment to the rules covering hereditary titles, especially because legislation is already in progress so that if the Duke and Duchess  of Cambridge’s firstborn is a girl, she can accede the throne. 

Said Murray: 

It boils down to this: if I was a boy, I would be sitting pretty. My poor father had no son, just lots of daughters. In this day and age, with supposed equality, why am I not allowed to inherit my father’s title? It is discriminatory. I am managing the estate, including the steam railway, so I am already doing a man’s job. 

But instead, upon the death of her father, Richard Neville, a fourth cousin once removed, will inherit the title. It’s unclear if he’ll automatically own the property though. Neville, 35, is single and owns a flat above a hairdressing salon in South-West London, so this would be a welcome change, we imagine. 

He has declined to comment on the matter. 

Reports the Mail: 

Audley End is a 17th century country house and renowned as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. It was requisitioned during the Second World War and used by the Special Operations Executive, the forerunner of MI6.

Mrs Murray said her father had examined whether the title could skip a generation and pass to her son, who is 20 – but the law is clear that it may not.

[Source: DailyMail]