11.7 Internal Structure/Genealogy

11.7.1 Record in narrative form the internal structure of the entity being described. Wherever possible, devise dates as an integral component of the narrative description.

11.7.2 For corporate bodies, record the internal and external administrative structure of the body, as well as the dates of any significant changes to that structure. Record the name(s) of any higher body(ies) having authority or control over the corporate body, or any corporate body(ies) over which it exercised authority or control, and describe the nature and any change of the authority or controlling relationship.

Until 1586, the internal structure of the Council of War was minimal. With the king as president, the Council was constituted of various councilors and a secretary, who was in turn on other councils, assisted by officers, clerks, and other subordinate staff. Beginning in 1554, an auditor was responsible for judicial matters, expanding the number of councilors, which ranged between five and ten. In 1586 the position of secretary of the Council of War was split into the Secretariat of Land and the Secretariat of Sea. The greater control of two areas of conflict caused the division of the Secretariat of Land in 1646 into two: the Secretariat of Land, Cataluña and the Secretariat of Land-Extremadura. After the coming of the Bourbon dynasty in the early eighteenth century, the secretariats underwent successive administrative reorganizations according to their new roles and were eventually merged in 1706. In 1717 the structure of the Council was reduced in term of the number of councilors, divided into military and judicial, the presidency fell to the Secretary of the War Office, and the secretary disappeared, with administrative activity processed by the clerk of the House. In 1773 this structure was again revised, with the presidency returning to its traditional association with the king and the number of councilors expanded to twenty, including ten ex officio and ten assistants divided between government and justice and again establishing the role of secretary. The staff also included two prosecutors, three reporters, a house clerk, lawyer, tax agent, solicitor, officers, clerks, bailiffs, and doormen. This structure remained practically stable until the abolition of the Council of War in 1834.

11.7.3 For families, describe family relationships so as to document the relationships between family members.

Sir Edward Noel (died 1643) married Julian, daughter and co-heir of Baptists Hicks (died 1629), Viscount Campden, and succeeded to the viscounty of Campden and a portion of his father-in-law's estates. The third Viscount Campden (1612-1682) married Hester Wotton, daughter of the second Baron Wotton. The fourth Viscount Campden (1641-1689, created Earl of Gainsborough 1682) married Elizabeth Wriothesley, elder daughter of the fourth Earl of Southampton. Jane Noel (died 1811), sister of the fifth and sixth Earls of Gainsborough, married Gerard Anne Edwards of Welham Grove (Leicestershire) and had issue Gerard Noel Edwards (1759-1838). He married in 1780 Diana Middleton (1762-1823) suo jure Baroness Barham, daughter of Charles Middleton (1726-1813), created first Baronet of Barham Court (Kent) in 1781 and first Baron Barham in 1805. GN Edwards assumed the surname Noel in 1798 on inheriting the sixth Earl of Gainsborough's Rutland and Gloucestershire estates (though not the earl's honours, which were extinguished); and he later inherited his father-in-law's baronetcy. His eldest son John Noel (1781-1866) succeeded to the estates of his mother and his father, to his mother's barony and his father's baronetcy, and was created Viscount Campden and Earl of Gainsborough in 1841.