Baron Kensington is a title that has been created three times, in the Peerages of England, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1623 when the Honourable Henry Rich was made Baron Kensington. He was the younger son of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick (see Earl of Warwick for earlier history of the Rich family). Henry was made Earl of Holland in 1624. His son, the second Earl, succeeded as 5th Earl of Warwick on the death of his cousin in 1673. These titles all became extinct on the death of Edward Rich, 5th Baron Kensington, 5th Earl Holland and 8th Earl Warwick, in 1759 (see Earl of Warwick for a more detailed description of the descent of the titles). The barony was revived in 1776 for a female-line grandson of the fifth Earl of Warwick (see below).
Lady Elizabeth Rich, only daughter of Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick, married Francis Edwardes, Member of Parliament for Haverfordwest from 1722 to 1725, and the member of a family which owned extensive lands in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire. Their son William Edwardes represented Haverfordwest in the House of Commons for over fifty years. He succeeded to the Rich family estates (including Holland House in Kensington, although this was sold to Henry Fox in 1768) on the death of the last of Earl of Warwick and Holland in 1759. In 1776 the barony of Kensington attached to the earldom of Holland was revived when he was made Baron Kensington in the Peerage of Ireland. The first Baron was succeeded by his son, William, the second Baron, who also represented Haverfordwest in Parliament. The second Baron's son, William, the third Baron, served as Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire. The third Baron was succeeded by his son, the fourth Baron.
William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington, sat as Liberal Member of Parliament for Haverfordwest from 1868 to 1885 and served as a government whip under William Ewart Gladstone from 1880 to 1885. In 1886, he was created Baron Kensington, of Kensington in the County of Middlesex, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave the holder an automatic seat in the House of Lords up until 1999. His eldest son, the fifth Baron of the Irish Peerage, who now also became the second Baron of the United Kingdom Peerage, served in the Second Boer War and died from wounds received in action in June 1900. He was succeeded by his younger brother, the sixth and third Baron. He was a Colonel in the Territorial Army and also fought in South Africa as well as in the First World War. the titles are held by his grandson, the eighth and fifth Baron, who succeeded his uncle in 1981.[1]
The heir apparent is the present baron’s son, William Francis Ivor Edwardes (born 1993).