Quarterly: 1st and 4th grandquarters: Per bend dancetty Azure and Or a Bend invected between three Crosses Patée in chief and as many Horseshoes in base all counterchanged (Bigham);2nd grandquarter:1st and 4th, Ermine, on a Bend Azure, a Magnetic Needle, pointing to the Polar Star Or (Petty); 2nd and 3rd, Argent, a Saltire Gules, and a Chief, Ermine (FitzMaurice); 3rd grandquarter: 1st, Parted per pale Sable and Argent on a Chaplet four Quatrefoils counterchanged (Nairne); 2nd counterquartered: 1st and 4th, Or on a Fess Gules between three Crosses Patée in chief of the second a Mullet Azure in base three Bezants (Mercer); 2nd and 3rd, Argent a Chevron Sable between three Boars' Heads erased Gules (Elphinstone); 3rd counterquartered: 1st and 4th, Paly of six Or and Sable (Atholl); 2nd, Or a Fess chequy Azure and Argent (Stewart); 3rd, Azure three Mullets Argent within a Double Tressure flory counterflory Or (Murray); 4th, Argent three Martlets Sable (de Flahault).](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Coronet///of///a///British///Viscount.svgArms///of///the///house///of///Bigham%2C///Viscounts///Mersey.svg) Name: Viscountcy of Mersey
Creation Date: 22 January 1916
Peerage: Peerage of the United Kingdom
First Holder: John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey
Present Holder: Edward John Hallam Bigham, 5th Viscount Mersey
Heir Presumptive: Hon. David Edward Hugh Bigham
Family Seat: Bignor Park
Motto: I Advance
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Viscount Mersey, of Toxteth in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1916 for the lawyer and politician John Bigham, 1st Baron Mersey. He had already been created Baron Mersey, of Toxteth in the County Palatine of Lancaster, in 1910, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. His son, the second Viscount, was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and also served as Liberal Chief Whip in the House of Lords from 1944 to 1949. His son, the third Viscount, married Katherine Petty-Fitzmaurice, 12th Lady Nairne, the eldest daughter of Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne and 10th Lord Nairne. They were both succeeded by their son, the fourth Viscount Mersey and thirteenth Lord Nairne. the titles are held by the latter's son, the fifth Viscount, who succeeded in 2006. The family seat is Bignor Park, near Pulborough, Sussex.

Viscounts Mersey (1916)

The heir presumptive (to the Mersey but not Nairne titles) is the present holder's cousin Charles Richard Petty Bigham (b. 1967).

Family tree

Works