William Jennings Capell

William Jennings Capell (born 9 August 1953), a retired grocery clerk from Yuba City, California, is the heir presumptive to the Earldom of Essex. He will be the 12th Earl if the current earl, Paul Capell, 11th Earl of Essex (currently 64 and unmarried), dies without legitimate male issue. He had considered renouncing the earldom if it would require him to give up his United States citizenship. (Under the United Kingdom's Peerage Act 1963, a person may disclaim a hereditary peerage.) United States law requires only government officeholders without Congressional authorization and persons wishing to become naturalized citizens, however, to renounce titles of nobility. As Mr. Capell is in neither category, there would be no legal impediment to his use of the title as a U.S. citizen.

Like the sixth and later Earls of Essex, William Capell is descended from the younger son of the fourth Earl. His father Bladen Horace Capell claimed the title after the ninth Earl died in 1981, but Robert de Vere Capell (1920–2005) eventually proved that his ancestor Algernon was older than Bladen's ancestor Adolphus and thus took his seat in the House of Lords in 1989.

The unusual forename of his father and grandfather, Bladen, comes from his ancestress Harriet Bladen, who (as recorded in The National Encyclopaedia of American Biography) became the second Countess of the widowed 4th Earl, and grandmother to the 6th Earl when her stepson, George Capel the 5th Earl, died sine prole (Latin: without children). She was a member of the ancient and wealthy Derbyshire Bladon/Bladen clan, which included rich London merchants, courtiers and Puritan dissenters.

Harriet Bladen had an American connexion: her father Sir Thomas Bladen (1698-1780) was the royal governor of Maryland in 1742–46; the town of Garrison's Landing was renamed Bladensburg in his honour (see The National Encyclopedia of American Biography). Her grand-uncle Colonel Martin Bladen, MP, founded Bladen County in Carolina. Harriet's grand-aunt Elizabeth Bladen, another sister of Martin (sometimes erroneously referred to as Anne), married secondly to become Baroness Hawke of Tawton and ancestress of Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron and famous English cricketer of the Victorian era; and Harriet's sister Barbara (sometimes confused with Elizabeth) married Henry St. John, a brother of the 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke. Harriet was an artist, but she was not related to the noted poet William Collins of Chichester; this error is often repeated in some history texts due to William and Elizabeth being Bladen family names and William Collins' uncle being surnamed Martin, which was the Christian name of Colonel Martin Bladen, MP.

In 2005, Capell made his first visit to England with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. The visit was televised on the tabloid show Inside Edition.

He has two children:

* Jennifer Elaine Capell (b. 1974), married Alfred Cabrera in 2004

* Kevin Devereux Capell (b. 1982), married Sarah Gunderman in 2004

If William succeeds to the earldom, Kevi