In Britain, Anyone Can Be a Lord, but It Will Cost You

Thinking of joining the English aristocracy?

It’s easier than you may think--all it takes is money and the time to go to an auction.

The price of buying yourself a “lordship of the manor”--one of England’s oldest titles--is shooting up these days as more people cash in on a fast-growing investment.

A handful of public auctions in the last three years has tripled the value of a lordship.

For a minimum of $8,900, anyone can become lord of a piece of land without actually owning it. And the buyer does not have the right to put “Lord” in front of his name, nor take a seat in Britain’s House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament.

All the aspiring aristocrat receives in return is a few old documents, the title and sometimes some odd rights that are hundreds of years old.

“Lordship prices have risen 40% this year and they have been performing above the rate of inflation and most property investments,” said Mark Foley of land agents Bernard Thorpe and Partners, which has held two auctions this year.

Ray Knappett, of agents Strutt and Parker, said, “This is something the man who has everything won’t have.”

Foley said his company had sold almost 100 lordships at auctions in 1985, the most recent of which brought in $506,000.

Between March and November the average price of lordships sold at auction rose from $8,100 to about $11,800, Foley said.

“People like to call themselves lord of the manor and add their name to a list of people such as Lord Nelson,” he said.

“It’s really a way of buying oneself into English history,” said Peter Spurrier, an expert in family history and titles.

The first public auction of lordships is thought to have taken place in the 1950s, but a long lull preceded the next auction in 1982, when land agents noticed a sudden unexplained surge in interest, partly from the United States.

Bidding for titles often gets fierce when a lordship is particularly well documented or if two villagers are desperate to become lord of their local manor.

Buyers are also attracted by the lure of the rights attached to some lordships, such as ownership of any minerals found under the manor, with the exception of coal and gold.

One lord had the right to own any ship wrecked on his manor, even though the manor is no longer on the coast.

The lordship of Codicote Manor in Hertfordshire, which fetched a record $32,800 in March, included the right to hold fairs on the village green, although the new lord quickly discovered that the village had no green.

One American said he ended up buying a lordship for about $15,000 after a friend asked him to keep him company at an auction.

“My wife’s going to shoot me when I get home and tell her this,” he said.