The Moon Baronets of Copsewood Grange, Coventry: Rise, Decline and Dormancy in a Late Victorian Industrial Baronetcy
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The dormancy of a baronetcy may appear a minor historical detail, yet it illuminates the changing meanings and limits of hereditary honour in modern Britain. This article examines the rise, decline and dormancy of the Moon baronetcy, created for Sir Richard Moon, chairman of the London and North Western Railway, during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and associated with Copsewood Grange in Coventry. Tracing the title across five generations, it shows how strict patrilineal succession, imperial service, emigration and changing familial and gender norms progressively undermined dynastic continuity. As successive Moons dispersed across Britain, North America, the South Pacific and Africa, the conditions necessary to sustain hereditary honour weakened, rendering the title dormant by 2022. Drawing on genealogical reconstruction and regional history, the article situates the Moons within the Midlands, arguing that their baronetcy reveals the structural fragility of hereditary honours created to recognise industrial success in Victorian Britain.
Source: Midland History
Author: Brandon Reece Taylorian
Institution: University of Lancashire
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7212318994
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