FRANCIS, the 5th earl, took part in the invasions of Scotland under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and was one of the two peers who alone opposed the bill for abolishing the pope's jurisdiction under Elizabeth. His son George, who succeeded, was the to whom the custody of Mary Stuart was committed, his task rendered the more difficult by the intrigues of his second wife, Bess of Hardwick, the builder of Chatsworth, who was thrice married before her union with him. Two sons of this last earl succeeded one another, and the title then devolved on the lineal descendants of Sir Gilbert Talbot of Grafton in Worcestershire, third son of John, the 2nd earl.
Charles, the 12th earl, was raised by William III. to the dignity of a duke, but as he left no son this title died along with him in 1718, and the earldom of Shrewsbury devolved on his cousin Gilbert, a Roman Catholic priest.
From this time the direct line of Sir Gilbert Talbot of Grafton began to fail. A nephew three times succeeded to an uncle, and then the title devolved upon a cousin, who died unmarried in 1856. On the death of this cousin the descent of the title was for a short time in dispute, and the lands were claimed for Lord Edmund Howard (now Talbot), an infant son of the duke of Norfolk, under the will of the last earl; but the courts decided that, under a private act obtained by the duke of Shrewsbury shortly before his death, the title and bulk of the estates must go together, and the true successor to the earldom was found in Earl Talbot, the head of another line of the descendants of Sir Gilbert Talbot of Grafton, sprung from a second marriage of Sir Gilbert's son, Sir John Talbot of Albrighton. The head of
this family in the beginning of the 18th century was a divine of some mark, William Talbot, who died bishop of Durham in 173o.
His son Charles, who filled the office of lord chancellor, was created Baron Talbot of Hensol in Glamorganshire in 1733; and his son William was advanced to the dignity of Earl Talbot in 1761, to which was added Ingestre, the barony of Dynevor, with special remainder to his daughter, Lady Cecil Rice, in 1780.
Then succeeded a nephew, who was created Viscount and Earl Talbot, and assumed by royal licence the surname of Chetwynd before Talbot, from his mother.
All the titles just mentioned have been united in the line of the Earl Talbot who successfully claimed the Shrewsbury title as the 18th earl, the earldom of Shrewsbury (1442) being now the oldest existing that is not merged in a higher title. The family seats (Alton Towers and Ingestre Hall) and the chief estates are in Staffordshire. The old badge of the family was a "talbot" or running hound. (J. GAI. ; J. H. R.)