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Michael Francis Middleton (born 23 June 1949) is a British businessman. He is the father of Catherine, Princess of Wales, Philippa Matthews and James Middleton.

Born in Leeds, Middleton was educated at the University of Surrey. He joined British Airways and worked as a flight dispatcher. In 1980, he married Carole Goldsmith, who founded Party Pieces, a mail-order party supply company. Middleton joined his wife at the company in 1989. Their eldest three grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, are second, third and fourth in line to the British throne respectively. The Middleton family resides at Bucklebury Manor, in Berkshire.

Early life, education, and early career

Michael Francis Middleton was born in Leeds on 23 June 1949 into a wealthy family with connections to the landed gentry. He spent his early years in Moortown, Leeds. Royal historian Robert Lacey describes Middleton as having aristocratic kinship; his grandmother, Olive Christiana Middleton, was close to her second cousin Baroness Airedale (1868–1942). The Middleton family, including Michael's grandfather Richard Noël Middleton and his wife Olive, had played host to members of the British royal family in Leeds from the 1920s.

Middleton's mother was Valerie Middleton (née Glassborow, 1924–2006), who served as a VAD nurse and code-breaker during the Second World War. His father, Captain Peter Middleton (1920–2010), was a pilot who served as an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. He flew alongside Prince Philip as co-pilot on a two-month flying tour of South America in 1962. British Pathé newsreel film shows Middleton alongside the prince during the tour. Middleton has three brothers: Richard (b. 1947), Simon (b. 1952) and Nicholas (b. 1956). Richard's son, Adam Middleton, is godfather to Michael's granddaughter, Princess Charlotte. Adam's sister Lucy Middleton – a lawyer who, like her brother attended Bedales School – is godmother to Michael's grandson, Prince Louis.

Like his father and grandfather, Middleton was educated at Clifton College, a public school in Bristol. At Clifton, all three generations of Middleton men boarded at Brown's House. The archives at Clifton record that Middleton was a praepostor, the title for a college prefect. Middleton represented Clifton at rugby in the 1st XV and also gained his tennis colours.

Following Clifton, Middleton attended the University of Surrey where he was awarded a BSc in 1973, according to the entry in the Clifton College Register 1962–1978, published by Clifton College Council in October 1979. Middleton then commenced studies for six months at British European Airways' flight school to become a pilot before switching to ground crew where he graduated from the company's internal course. He then worked for British Airways as a flight dispatcher.

Marriage and family

Middleton met his future wife Carole while they were working for British Airways as ground crew. By 1979, he was promoted to aircraft dispatcher, one of British Airways' Red Caps, at London Heathrow Airport. They married on 21 June 1980 at St James's Parish Church in Dorney, Buckinghamshire, and later bought a Victorian house in Bradfield Southend near Reading, Berkshire.

They have three children, two daughters and a son. Following the birth of Catherine Elizabeth (born 1982) and Philippa Charlotte (born 1983), the family moved to Amman, Jordan, where Michael worked as a manager for BA from 1984 to 1986. Their youngest child, James William, was born in 1987.

Later career and inherited wealth

Carole Middleton established Party Pieces, a company making party bags in 1987. It branched into party supplies and decorations by mail order and by 1995 was managed by both Michael and Carole Middleton and had moved into farm buildings at Ashampstead Common. The Middletons' business was successful, at that time, though later collapsed. Along with trust funds inherited by Michael from his aristocrat grandmother, Olive Christiana Middleton (née Lupton), the business enabled the family to continue the Middleton family tradition of sending their children to board at independent schools. All three children were sent to St Andrew's School, Pangbourne and both daughters were sent to Downe House School, a girls' boarding school in Cold Ash, and Marlborough College, in Wiltshire. James also attended Marlborough.

The Middletons sold Party Pieces in May 2023 after it fell into administration. The company owed £2.6 million to creditors when it collapsed, including £612,685 owed to HM Revenue and Customs, £218,749 owed to Royal Bank of Scotland for a Coronavirus Business Interruption loan, and £20,430 to an Afghan refugee whose small business was a supplier of helium gas. The company's administrator's report stated that unsecured creditors were unlikely to be paid.

In 1995, the Middletons purchased Oak Acre, a Tudor-style manor house in Bucklebury, Berkshire. In 2002, the Middletons bought a flat in Chelsea, in which their children lived, which they eventually sold for £1.88 million in 2019. Carole and Michael Middleton are also the owners of a racehorse. By 2012, the Middletons had moved to Bucklebury Manor, a Georgian mansion with an 18-acre estate where their grandson Prince George spent his first few weeks.

The British press created the term Upper Middleton Class to describe the family's social position; other reports refer to the family as being "minted with a smattering of blue-blooded antecedents". Their wealth has resulted in the Middletons being reported to be multi-millionaires.

Ancestry

Michael Middleton's grandmother, Olive Middleton was photographed at Headingley, in 1927, in the procession of dignitaries following Princess Mary who was patron of the Leeds Infirmary fundraising committee of which Olive was a member. Olive's husband, Richard Noel Middleton co-founded the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra of which the Princess and her son George were patrons. Richard Noel Middleton and his cousin Ralph Middleton, grandson of Sir Henry Berney, 9th Baronet, were solicitors at the Leeds law firm Messrs Middleton & Sons founded by their ancestor, William Middleton in 1834. Michael Middleton's great grandfather, politician Francis Martineau Lupton, was the son of Yorkshire landowner Francis W. Lupton, Esq., whose marriage to educationalist Frances Lupton (née Greenhow) on 1 July 1847, is listed in The Patrician – John Burke's supplement to Burke's Peerage. Her father was surgeon Thomas Michael Greenhow whose wife, Elizabeth, was a member of the Martineau family. Many portraits of Elizabeth's siblings, sociologist Harriet Martineau and James Martineau, a friend of Queen Victoria, are held in London's National Portrait Gallery.

Michael Middleton's family is linked, via his Leeds-born cousin, Lady Bullock (née Barbara Lupton), to William Petty-FitzMaurice,1st Marquess of Lansdowne, Prime Minister of Great Britain between 1782 and 1783. Through his direct ancestor, Dame Anne Fairfax (née Gascoigne), Michael Middleton has several descents from King Edward III.

The Rev. Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer is Michael Middleton's paternal ancestor.

Arms

Coat of arms of Michael Middleton

Notes A coat of arms was granted to Michael Middleton by the College of Arms on 19 April 2011. Thomas Woodcock, Garter King of Arms, the senior officer of the College of Arms, helped the family with the design. Adopted 19 April 2011 Crest A Rock Argent, thereon a Wolf sejant Azure, gorged with a Collar of Roses Argent, barbed and seeded Proper, supporting in the dexter Forepaw a Caduceus Or, Serpent Gules. The crest's blazon is based on the arms of the Lupton family, Michael Middleton's grandmother being Olive Middleton (née Lupton). Escutcheon Per pale Azure and Gules, a chevron Or, cotised Argent, between three acorns slipped and leaved Or. Symbolism The dividing line down the centre is a canting of the name "Middle-ton". The acorns (from the oak tree) are a traditional symbol of England and a feature of west Berkshire, where the family have lived for over 30 years. Three acorns denote the family's three children. The gold chevron in the centre of the arms is an allusion to Carole Middleton's maiden name, Goldsmith. The two white chevronels (narrow chevrons above and below the gold chevron) symbolise the following: the peaks and mountains and the family's love of both the Lake District and skiing and also Middleton family relative, Beatrix Potter, a Lake District resident.

Further reading

• Reed, Michael E. (2020). A Regal Yorkshire Family Tree – Blood Relations: The Barons Airedale and the Middleton Family. J.G.K. Nevett. ISBN 9780648862604.
• Lacey, Robert (2021). Battle of Brothers. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780008408527.

References

1. "Kate Middleton Biography". Bio. 2016. Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016. It was on this job at British Airways that Carole met Michael Middleton, a dispatcher, whose wealthy family hails from Leeds and which has ties to British aristocracy.
2. Cunningham, John M. (2016). "Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016. The success of that venture, along with a family inheritance ...
3. Poole, David (18 March 2015). "Potternewton Hall, Leeds". Heritage Gazette. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015. Michael Middleton, her (Kate Middleton's) father, spent his first two years (until the age of two) living at Moortown in Leeds
4. Jobson, Robert (25 June 2014). The Future Royal Family. John Blake Publishing. ISBN 9781784186760. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2016. The family home was (in) the aptly named King Lane in an affluent suburb of Leeds (Moortown).
5. Ward, V. (22 June 2024). "Aristocratic roots of Peter Phillips' NHS nurse girlfriend revealed". UK Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 October 2024. The Princess of Wales' great-grandmother, Olive Middleton, was close to her second cousin, Baroness Airedale, and was photographed in 1927 ...
6. Lacey, Robert (2021). Battle of Brothers (2nd ed.). HarperCollins Publishers, London. pp. 62, 553. ISBN 978-0-00-840854-1. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2021. (Chapter 6 "Party Pieces" and Source Notes) Michael E. Reed has published his fascinating research into the aristocratic ancestry of the Middleton family in the Telegraph and the Guardian and kindly supplied me with photographs of Baroness Airedale in her costume for the coronation of 1911.
7. Wilson, Christopher (26 July 2013). "The Middletons deserve a title, step forward the Earl and Countess of Fairfax". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2016. As long ago as 1926, the Middleton family played host to the Queen's aunt, Princess Mary and another relative ... was a friend of George V
8. Tominey, Camilla (19 August 2022). "Duchess of Cambridge's great-great aunt was a mental asylum patient - just like Prince William's great-grandmother". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 22 September 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2022. ...Gertrude was the wealthy sister of the Duchess of Cambridge's great-grandfather Noël Middleton, a solicitor, director of the family's textile firm and - through his founding of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and his directorship of the Leeds Music Festival - on friendly terms with the Queen's aunt, Princess Mary
9. "Garden Party, Headingley". Leodis – a Photographic Archive of Leeds. City of Leeds UK Gov. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021. Her Royal Highness, Princess Mary attends a garden party held at Headingley Cricket Ground on 27th July 1927...The Lord Mayor, Alderman Hugh Lupton, Lady Clarke and Mrs R.X. Middleton bring up the rear of the procession
10. "Headrow, Permanent House". Leodis – a Photographic Archive of Leeds. City of Leeds UK Gov. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2016. As Chairman of the Leeds General Infirmary, Henry (Dubs Middleton) had played host to Princess Mary when she visited the Leeds General Infirmary in 1932.
11. Tominey, Camilla (14 February 2016). "Truth behind Prince George's love of aviation". Daily Express. UK. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2015. It (the photograph) shows the Duchess of Cambridge's grandfather, Captain Peter Middleton, with Prince Philip in 1962...flew regularly together on 2 month tour of South America...
12. Sparkes, Matthew (22 April 2014). "Pictured: Royal couple's grandparents' jet-age meeting". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 May 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
13. Rayner, Gordon (21 June 2013). "How the family of 'commoner' Kate Middleton has been rubbing shoulders with royalty for a century". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
14. Joseph, C. (2009). Kate: The Making of a Princess. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1845964207. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2020. Valerie and Peter celebrated the birth of their first child, a son Richard, who was born at the Willows Nursing Home in Broad Lane on 21 September 1947, making him a year older than Prince Charles.
15. Brennan, Zoe (19 March 2011). "The family fortune of the minted Middletons". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016. ... Michael, and his three brothers, Simon, Nicholas, and Richard and ...
16. "My Heritage - Middleton Family Tree". MyHeritage Ltd. 2022. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2022. ...Simon Middleton, born August 24, 1952; Nicholas Middleton, born September 11, 1956
17. "Princess Charlotte is christened at Sandringham church". BBC News. 5 July 2015. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
18. Armecin, C. (7 October 2018). "Prince Louis' Godparents Revealed; Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Not On The List". IB Times. Archived from the original on 1 September 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021. ...Lucy is Middleton's cousin. She's a lawyer and sister of Adam Middleton, one of Princess Charlotte's godparents.
19. "Lucy Middleton". Retrieved 10 November 2021. Lucy Middleton - Senior Publishing Lawyer at Penguin Random House ...Educated ...Bristol University...Bedales (1990-1995)
20. Bedales Internet Year Book - Old Bedalians - Adam Middleton. Old Bedalians. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2021. Adam Middleton. At Bedales: 1994-1999
21. Llewellyn Smith, J. (17 July 2013). "Why we should all be grateful for the Middletons". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019. Michael Middleton comes from a line of wealthy Yorkshire wool merchants, whose trust fund enabled him to send his three children to public school. His grandfather was a solicitor, his father a pilot. All three generations boarded at Clifton College in Bristol.
22. "Welcome". The Old Cliftonian Society. Bristol, UK: Clifton College. September 2013. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014. Michael left Brown's in 1967, and with his two brothers, was the third generation of Middletons at Clifton .
23. "School days revealed of Royal bride's father". Newark Advertiser. 21 April 2011. Archived from the original on 2 January 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2015. He (Michael Middleton) became a prefect himself, represented the school at rugby in the 1st XV and (gained) his tennis colours.
24. "The Council (Clifton College)". Clifton College, Registered charity no. 311735. 2014. Archived from the original on 4 October 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2016. ...Management consultant with MONITOR. Praepostor and Captain of unbeaten XV ...
25. Hodgkin, E. (18 July 2021). "'Deep rapport': Rare glimpse at Kate Middleton's relationship with dad Michael - 'genuine'". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021. Kate Middleton's father, Michael Middleton, was born in Leeds and attended university in Surrey.
26. Andersen, C. (1 January 2011). William and Kate: A Royal Love Story. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780857206152. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2018. ... Michael joined BEA with the intention of becoming a pilot. After six months of flight school, he discovered he wasn't aviator material (his eye-sight was lacking) and opted instead to work on terra firma. ...
27. "Kate Middleton The Life & The Wealth of Being a Princess". Financial Wealth Magazine. 29 March 2015. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015. He (Michael Middleton) worked as a flight attendant prior to becoming a flight dispatcher (trainee) for British Airways
28. Llewellyn Smith, Julia (27 July 2013). "Why we should all be grateful the Middletons". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015. Mike began his career as an air steward and then became a flight dispatcher
29. Deerwester, J. (4 December 2018). "Duchess Kate's mother Carole Middleton gives first interview: What we learned". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018. She got a couple of entry-level jobs, first as a department store corporate trainee, then as a secretary for what would become British Airways, later trading a typewriter for the uniform of a ground crew member at the airline. The lingo, she says, was akin to learning another language and "almost like being at university". It was there that she met her future husband, Michael Middleton, who was six years older.
30. "Dispatch and Load Control". The Emerates Group. 2015. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015. Dispatcher; comprises the Red Caps. These men and women can be described as Flight Managers. Each Red Cap takes ownership of a flight
31. ^ Rayner, Gordon (16 November 2010). "Royal wedding: Kate Middleton's family background". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
32. Party Pieces Princess in News of the World (21 November 2010), p. 4
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34. "Generation why-should-I?". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 11 June 2008. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
35. "Royal wedding: Family tree". BBC News. UK. 13 April 2011. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015. He (R. Noel Middleton) attended Clifton College in Bristol as a boarder before heading to Leeds University and qualifying as a solicitor. He met and married aristocrat Olive Christiana Lupton.
36. Lewis, Jason (27 November 2010). "How a Victorian industrialist helped Kate Middleton's parents". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
37. Walker, Tim (22 July 2014). "The Duchess of Cambridge is related to Beatrix Potter, who once gave the Middleton family her own original hand-painted illustrations". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2014. It was in the Lake District in the summer of 1936 that Peter's mother Olive Lupton was rushed to hospital with peritonitis, dying on September 27, aged only 55, leaving behind a large trust fund for her descendants
38. "James Middleton reveals how he overcame dyslexia to read at royal wedding". Hello. 29 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
39. Kleinman, Mark (18 May 2023). "Princess of Wales's parents' party supplies firm sold after brush with insolvency". Sky News. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
40. "Kate's parents' party firm leaves creditors £2.6m short after collapse". The Independent. 8 June 2023. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
41. "Carole Middleton is 'desperately sad' as her party supplies business collapses". Tatler. 19 April 2023. Archived from the original on 10 June 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
42. "Carole Middleton is 'desperately sad' as her party supplies business collapses". Tatler. Archived from the original on 10 June 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.(subscription required)
43. "Statement of administrator's proposal". Companies House. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
44. Andersen, Christopher (2011). William and Kate – A Royal Love Story. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 77. ISBN 9781451621457.
45. Brennan, Zoe (19 March 2011). "The family fortune of the minted Middletons". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015. This (flat) was bought with cash for £780,000 in 2002 and is worth some £1.2 million now (in 2011). Land Registry records show there is no mortgage on it.
46. "Kate Middleton and sister Pippa's £1.88million flat they lived in for free". Hello!. 3 July 2021. Archived from the original on 10 June 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
47. Reslen, E. (2021). "Carole and Michael Middleton Have Made Millions Off of Party Planning". Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021. According to the personal finance website lovemoney.com, the Middletons own stakes in racehorse shares, including those for horses Blue Java and Sohraab. The racehorses have reportedly earned the Middletons hundreds of thousands of pounds in prize money.
48. "About us". Party Pieces. Archived from the original on 13 May 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
49. "Profiles: Kate Middleton". Hello!. August 2020. Archived from the original on 21 June 2009. Retrieved 13 June 2021. The couple showed their little Prince off in a photocall outside St Mary's Hospital, London before whisking him off to the Middleton family home.
50. Bennett, Rosemary (2 May 2015). "Sloanes lose their place in society to the polite new Middleton class". The Times. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015. ...tunnelling their way into the higher echelons were the Upper Middletons, a new social grouping. Named in honour of their most famous family...
51. Gaudoin, Tina (29 July 2015). "How Kate Middleton Imploded the Class System and Gave Rise of a New Kind of Brit". Town and Country Magazine. Hearst Communications. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015. The Upper Middleton classes, or UMs, have their eyes on the prize: royalty at best ...
52. Brennan, Zoe (19 March 2011). "The family fortune of the minted Middletons". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
53. Pelling, Rowan (13 July 2013). "Carole Middleton will be a key figure in the royal baby's upbringing". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 July 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
54. A Photographic Archive of Leeds, Leodis. "Potternewton Hall, Potternewton Lane". UK Gov. City of Leeds. Archived from the original on 16 October 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2014. When Olive Middleton died in 1936, her will shows that she left a personal estate of £52,031. Olive's will also discloses that by 1936 there were three separate family trusts in operation controlling the bulk of her and her family's fortune
55. Lewis, Jason (27 November 2010). "How a Victorian industrialist helped Kate Middleton's parents". UK Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2014. By 1936 there were three separate family trusts in operation controlling the bulk of her and her family's fortune
56. "Generation why-should-I?". Edinburgh: News.scotsman.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
57. Report of the Council – Volume 72. Vol. Vol. 72. Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. 1892. p. 25. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023. Arthur Middleton, Hawkhills, Chapel Allerton
58. Silson, A. (Autumn 2014). "Oak Leaves (Part Fourteen) – The Mysteries of Gledhow Grange" (PDF). Oakwood and District Historical Society: pp. 13–14. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021. This is indeed the case, and the older building was known as Gledhow Grange. It is this house that is the focus of this article. Confusingly, another demolished detached house had the same name and was only about 500 metres to the south on Gledhow Lane. It was this Gledhow Lane house that was occupied by William Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge's ancestor. Shortly after 1870, Middleton changed the name of his house to Hawkhills.
59. Reed, Michael (2016). "Gledhow Hall". David Poole. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016. A gentleman farmer, William Middleton Esq. had also lived in the area at Gledhow Grange Estate.
60. "Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood". National Portrait Gallery, London. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2021. On 27th July 1927, at the Headingley Cricket Ground, near Leeds, Princess Mary was photographed as guest of honour at a garden party...Their niece, Olive Middleton (nee Lupton) was also photographed as one of the dignitaries in the procession walking behind Princess Mary. Olive had been on the Princess's fundraising committee for the Leeds Infirmary and her husband, Noel Middleton, had co-founded the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra with both the Princess and her son George Lascelles as patrons.
61. "Garden Party, Headingley Cricket Ground". Leodis – Leeds City Council. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021. The Princess carries an impressive bouquet of carnations and trailing fern and is escorted by former Leeds Lord Mayor Sir Edwin Airey, of the building company, William Airey and Son Leeds Ltd. The Lady Mayoress, Isabella Lupton escorts the Princess's husband, Viscount Lascelles, who is behind his wife. The Lord Mayor, Alderman Hugh Lupton, Lady Clarke and Mrs R.X. Middleton bring up the rear of the procession.
62. "The Headrow, Permanent House and Headrow Buildings". Leeds City Council. 2021. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
63. Bradford, E. (May 2014). "They Lived In Leeds – Francis Martineau Lupton". The Thoresby Society, The Leeds Library, Leeds. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2017. Frank (Francis Martineau Lupton) entered local politics and was elected a Councillor and then Alderman
64. Burke, John (1847). The Patrician. E. Churton. p. 188. Retrieved 25 August 2017. Marriage – Francis Lupton, Esq., of Leeds to Frances Elizabeth Greenhow, only daughter of T. M. Greenhow, Esq., ...
65. Furness, Hannah (11 February 2014). "Duchess of Cambridge visits National Portrait Gallery, home of little-known Middleton family paintings". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 February 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
66. Martineau, Harriet (1 January 1983). Arbuckle, Elisabeth Sanders (ed.). Harriet Martineau's Letters to Fanny Wedgwood. Stanford University Press. p. 150. ISBN 9780804711463. Retrieved 15 May 2015. (May 1857) My (H. Martineau) niece, Mrs (Frances) Lupton and her husband came for two days
67. Reed, Michael (5 April 2013). "Duchess of Cambridge not posh? Her ancestor was lord mayor of Leeds". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016. My research revealed that Kate's second cousin, thrice removed, is Leeds-born Lady Bullock (Barbara May Lupton), a Cambridge graduate.
68. Multiple sources:
    • Nicholl, Katie (13 December 2013). Kate: The Future Queen. Weinstein Books. ISBN 9781602862470. Retrieved 16 August 2015. (Michael Middleton's family were) linked to earls, countesses, a former Prime Minister – William Petty-FitzMaurice, (the first) 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, who served as Prime Minister...
    • Rayner, Gordon (13 September 2013). "'Middle-class' Duchess of Cambridge's relative wore crown and attended George V's coronation". Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2015. Her (Duchess of Cambridge's) father Michael is a descendant of Edward III
    • Reitwiesner, William Addams (April 2011). "The ancestry of Catherine, Princess of Wales". New England Historic Genealogical Society. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2015. 38561 – (Michael Middleton's ancestor) Agnes Gascoigne has several descents from King Edward III
    • Roya, Nikkhah (16 December 2012). "Duchess of Cambridge discovers blue blood in her own family". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2015. Further research found that in 1917, Barbara Lupton had married Sir Christopher Bullock, a Cambridge scholar and descendant of William Petty FitzMaurice
    • Westcott, Sarah (17 December 2012). "Family tree reveals Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton's aristocratic roots". Daily Express. UK. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016. He (Lord Shelburne, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne) is related to (Michael Middleton's daughter) Kate through Lady Barbara Bullock...
    • "The will of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Walton, Knight". Testamenta Eboracensia. Vol. V. Durham: Andrews & Co. 1884. pp. 121–123. "Dame Anne Fairfax, my (Sir Thomas') wif" – as executrix and she is granted administration 11 April 1521.
    • Laycock, Mike (17 March 2015). "Duchess of Cambridge's links with stately home near York revealed". The Press (York). Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2015. ... he discovered previously unpublished pictures in the depths of the Leeds archives showing the Potternewton Hall Estate where Olive ... (and) her blood cousin Baroness von Schunck ... grew up.
    • Reed, Michael (2016). Poole, David (ed.). "POTTERNEWTON HALL". House and Heritage. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2017. ... the Duchess's great-grandmother, Olive Lupton (later Middleton), was born and grew up on the Potternewton Hall Estate near Leeds ... Darnton Lupton had lived at Potternewton Hall from the 1830s and had been Mayor of Leeds in 1844 ... From 1860 the (Barker) family had split their estate and sold Potternewton Hall to Frank Lupton, a wool merchant and mill owner, and the father of politician Francis Martineau Lupton (who was Olive's father and had himself grown up at Potternewton Hall). The Lupton family had been landowners since the 18th century and Frank's brother, Arthur Lupton, a wool merchant in the family firm, owned the adjacent Newton Hall Estate. Arthur had nurtured ideas for subdivisions on his adjoining estates since the 1850s and in 1870 decided to sell Newton Hall to Frank and his other brother, Darnton Lupton.
69. Reitwiesner, William Addams (2011). Child, Christopher Challender (ed.). The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton. Scott Campbell Steward. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-88082-252-7.
70. Reitwiesner, William Addams (2011). Child, Christopher Challender (ed.). The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton. Scott Campbell Steward. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-88082-252-7.
71. ^ "The arms of Miss Catherine Middleton". College of Arms. 1 May 2011. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
72. "Grant of Arms to Middleton" (PDF). Somerset Heraldry Society Journal. Summer 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
73. Murdock, J. Paul. "The Middletons, the Luptons and HRH The Duchess of Cambridge". A ROYAL HERALDRY. Weebly 2020. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
74. Walker, Tim (22 July 2014). "Duchess of Cambridge is related to Beatrix Potter". Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2014. The snow-covered peaks featured on the Middleton family crest represent the Lake District and are perhaps also a reminder of one-year old Prince George's famous literary relative.

External links

• Michael Middleton at IMDb

• 1949 births
• Living people
• People educated at Clifton College
• Alumni of the University of Surrey
• British people of English descent
• 20th-century British businesspeople
• 21st-century British businesspeople
• British racehorse owners and breeders
• 20th-century English people
• 21st-century English people
• Middleton family (British)