Blueblood Named Bill Is in Line to Be Called Earl

He could be addressed one day as “My Lord.” But retired grocery store worker William Jennings Capell would prefer to be known as just plain Bill.

A lifelong resident of this farming town 45 miles north of Sacramento, Capell always knew he had noble blood. What he didn’t know was that he might one day assume the title of England’s Earl of Essex.

Then last month a British newspaper reporter called to inform Capell that the 10th Earl of Essex had died and the 11th had inherited the title. As the new earl’s fourth cousin once removed, Capell was next in line as the 12th Earl of Essex.

“I was still half asleep,” recalled Capell, 52, an affable, heavyset man, as he lounged in an armchair at his home. “I acknowledged it. But that was all. It wasn’t until later that I got to thinking about it, that ‘Wow, I’m next in line.’ It started to sink in a little.”

An earl is a member of the British peerage -- a nobleman of high rank. According to Burke’s Peerage & Gentry, whose books have recorded the genealogy of titled and landed families in the United Kingdom and Ireland for some 175 years, the title can be inherited or bestowed upon an individual by the state.

Capell stands to succeed the current Earl of Essex, Frederick Paul de Vere Capell, a 61-year-old retired elementary school assistant principal, who lives near Lancaster (the one in England, not the Antelope Valley).

According to Burke’s and Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, Frederick succeeded his father, Robert Capell, the 10th Earl, who died in June. (The late earl was a distant cousin of the 9th Lord Essex.)

The 11th Earl is a bachelor and has no children. With no other apparent successor in sight, Capell is the new heir to the earldom. His aristocratic genealogy is documented in the 106th edition of “Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage.”

“I’m excited about it,” said Capell, who has never met or corresponded with his British kin and has never visited England. “I’m planning a trip to meet the earl, to say hi and let him show me around.”

“I think we should send him a family photo,” said Capell’s wife, Sandy, 53. “We’ve got the address.”

She would become Lady Essex, a countess. Her husband’s full title, at least for correspondence, would be The Right Honorable Earl of Essex.

Capell believes his great-grandfather emigrated from England to Canada, and then to Idaho. He doesn’t recall what the patriarch did for living, but he did know his grandfather -- an Idaho cattle rancher and potato farmer.

“I met him once,” said Capell, who used to check and stock shelves and do managerial duties at a local supermarket. “He died when I was 7 years old.”

Capell (pronounced KAY-pull), whose father was an Army clerk, was born in Spokane, Wash. The family moved to Yuba City when he was an infant.

Capell’s father rarely spoke about his noble family tree.

Until recently, peers of hereditary titles, like that of earl, were entitled to a seat in Britain’s House of Lords -- the second chamber of the British Parliament, which normally has to consent before Acts of Parliament can be passed.

But the House of Lords Act of 1999 removed the right of most hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House. Other reforms of the Lords are still being considered.

It’s unclear whether Capell would be entitled to sit in the House of Lords, now with 731 members, but he said he would seriously consider moving to England to fulfill his role of representing the County of Essex.

Even if Capell did get a chance to serve, membership in the House of Lords is unpaid. Nor does Capell stand to inherit any land, estate or crown jewels. “There’s no castle, no money,” he said. Previous earls have been politicians, military commanders -- even farmers.

The best-known Earl of Essex is the 2nd, Robert Devereux, who was a favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I. Eloquent and vivacious, he subsequently fell out of favor and later attempted a coup, for which he was convicted of treason and executed in the Tower of London in 1601.

Capell’s only son, 23-year-old Kevin Devereux Capell, is named for the 2nd Earl.

“Because we knew the Essex thing was in the family, we just liked the name,” said Sandy Capell, a library technician.

Kevin, a reservations agent at a hotel and casino resort, is married with no children. His title would become Viscount Malden if his dad became Earl, and he would be heir to his father’s title.

The Capells, who also have a 31-year-old daughter, live in a modest tract home in a quiet, leafy neighborhood of Yuba City. William retired in 1997 because of arthritis, and the couple share their house with five dachshunds and three cats.

Capell said his favorite pastimes are gardening, volunteering at his church’s youth center and rooting for the San Francisco 49ers. He said he wants to learn more about polo and cricket.

Although he acknowledged it would be tough leaving friends behind, Capell doesn’t think it would be difficult to adapt to a new life in England, despite the sometimes lousy weather, the unfamiliar accent, and -- oh, yes -- the cuisine.

Since the news of his prospective earldom broke, Capell said he has been inundated with media interview requests from both sides of the Atlantic. “I usually get one or two phone calls a day,” said Capell. “Now I get 15 or 20. The phone doesn’t stop.”

Indeed, Capell had to excuse himself repeatedly to take another request for an interview. “That was ‘Inside Edition,’ ” he said, returning from yet another call. The caller had offered to send the Capells to England to exclusively document their story, he said. Sandy Capell was delighted.

Capell said that Debrett’s Limited, a company that keeps genealogical records of Britain’s aristocracy, had recently requested that he update the page on his family’s lineage.

Friends of the Capells and residents of Yuba City -- the Sutter County seat known by locals as “the prune capital of California” because of its thriving plum-packing plant -- have been reveling in his surprising news.

“It’s kind of cool living next door to a celebrity,” said Karen Messick, the Capells’ neighbor of 17 years, who admires the ex-grocer’s “wonderful sense of humor.”

Yuba City Mayor Karen Cartoscelli said the excitement was understandable.

“This is the States. I suppose the closet thing we’ve gotten to aristocracy is the Kennedy generation,” said Cartoscelli, noting that Yuba City’s most famous resident to date was the mother-in-law of actor Clint Eastwood.

The Capells have also endured a fair amount of good-humored teasing.

Kevin, a fan of the British comedy troupe Monty Python, laughed as he described how his boss playfully bowed and got down on one knee to address him.

“Then he said, ‘That’s the last time I’m going to bow to you,’ ” Kevin recalled.