Kate Middleton Family History

Overview

Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on January 9th, 1982 to Michael and Carole Middleton in Reading, Berkshire.

Better known as Kate Middleton, she became the Duchess of Cambridge when she married Prince William in 2011 and became a member of the Royal Family.  She is today the mother of three children, two sons and one daughter.

Prince William’s younger brother Harry had married the American actress Meghan Markle in 2018.  However, the rift between the two brothers and their families has grown wider since that time.

Kate, the eldest of three children, grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire.  She was educated at private schools – St. Andrew’s School and Marlborough College – before enrolling at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland to study art history.  That was where she met Prince William in 2001.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022, William and Kate became the Prince and Princess of Wales, next in line to the throne after King Charles.  Kate consequently received more public attention and scrutiny.

The operation she had at the London Clinic in January 2024 and her consequent withdrawal from public life caused much speculation on social media.  That speculation turned into shock when she revealed that cancer had been detected.  However, thankfully the cancer after treatment now appears to be in remission.

What Class?

Royalty would marry royalty, or at least the aristocracy.  That was how it used to be, even perhaps at the time that Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

But by the time that his son Prince William got married thirty years later in 2011, it was deemed OK for someone who in former times might be described as a “commoner” to marry into the Royal Family   Of course there were still some upper-class contemporaries of theirs who would sneer at Kate Middleton’s supposedly middle-class roots.

But what class then was Kate Middleton?

Kate’s Maternal Line.  Her mother’s family were descended from coal miners and thus could be categorized as working-class.  The female line here started with Jane Harrison nee Liddle, the daughter and wife of a coal miner.  She was born in Durham in 1838.

There were some early deaths in her family.  Jane and her husband both died of TB in the 1880’s.  Her eldest son Anthony Harrison, aged thirty-two, was killed in a mining accident at the Eppleton colliery in 1895 (he died through gas suffocation while trying to rescue two of his workmates).  And her younger son John Harrison, aged forty-four, died fighting in the First World War in 1918.

Later, Kate’s maternal grandparents Dorothy Harrison and Ronald Goldsmith were married in London in 1953. Dorothy – who had moved with her parents from Durham to Southall in London – was then working in a jewelry shop.  Ronald was a builder in London, later a painter and decorator.

Their daughter Carole, Kate’s mother, was born in 1955, followed by a son Gary.  They lived in a council house in west London.

Carole had intended to be a teacher, but her parents couldn’t afford to put her through college.  Instead, she started working as a secretary for British Airways.  She eventually became a flight attendant, which was how she met her husband Michael Middleton.

Carole’s younger brother Gary prospered in IT business and bought a pad in Ibiza.  Married four times, he and his daughter Tallulah attended the Westminster Abbey marriage of his niece Kate.

Kate’s Paternal Line.  Kate’s father’s side on the other hand was described by Robert Lacey, the biographer of royalty, as having an aristocratic ancestry; and, based on their Yorkshire history, they might well have come across as upper middle-class.

The Yorkshire Firm of Middleton & Sons

The Middleton family established themselves as civic figures in the West Riding of Yorkshire when William Middleton, a gentleman farmer at the Hawkhills estate in Chapel Allerton, came to Leeds and founded the law firm of Messrs Middleton & Sons in 1834.  He himself had started out from more humble origins, being the son of a joiner and cabinet-maker in Wakefield.

The firm existed for 150 years, closing in 1985.  Many of William’s descendants were solicitors in the firm, including his son John William – who joined him in 1860 – and later his grandsons Richard Noel and Henry Dubs, as well as a number of other Middleton relatives.

Noel was the youngest of John William’s seven children.  He was just ten years old when he lost both his parents.  Later he attended Clifton College in Bristol as a boarder before heading to Leeds University and qualifying as a solicitor.  In the 1901 census he was working as an articled clerk and living with his older brother William in his Leeds flat.

Middletons and Luptons.  Noel and William both wed their fiancées – from the upper-class Lupton and Kitson families – at Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds in January 1914, a little before the outbreak of war.  Both fought on the Western Front and lived to tell the tale.

It was Frank Lupton, born in 1813, who had started the Lupton textile business that made his Yorkshire family rich.  They lived at Beechwood, a sprawling Victorian mansion in the village of Roundhay, seven miles north of Leeds.  Frank’s son Francis took over the business on Frank’s death in 1884. He and his wife Harriet had three sons – Francis, Maurice and Lionel – who all tragically lost their lives at different times during the Great War.

The Lupton-Middleton connection remained strong as their sister Olive, married to Noel Middleton, became the principal Lupton heiress.  Noel and Olive’s eldest son Christopher in fact preferred being a Lupton and would change his last name from Middleton to Lupton.

Noel meanwhile became a director of William Lupton & Co, the textile manufacturing firm Olive had inherited on the death of her father in 1921.  When Olive died in 1936, she left a sizeable trust fund for her children.

Later Middletons.  Their sons Anthony and Peter married the Glassborow twins Mary and Valerie after the Second World War.  Captain Peter Middleton had seen fighter service with the RAF during the war and continued afterwards as a commercial pilot.  His wife Valerie had served as a VAD nurse during the war.

Peter’s son Michael met his future wife Carole when they were working as ground crew for British Airways.  In 1987 Carole started Party Pieces, a company making party bags.  The business, later managed by both Michael and Carole, flourished for a long time.

They moved with their family to Bucklebury in Berkshire in 1995 and purchased Bucklebury Manor in 2012.

Kate Middleton’s Family Line

• William Middleton from Wakefield (1807-1884) m. Mary Ward, a milliner’s daughter (1811-1859) in Leeds in 1838.  After Mary’s death he rem. Sarah Ward, Mary’s sister (1819-1885) in 1861
• – John William Middleton (1839-1887)
• – Edwin Middleton (1841-1884)
• – Anne Middleton (1843-1933) m. John Asquith
• – Leonard Middleton (1844-1879), emigrated to New Zealand
• – Arthur Middleton (1846-1907) m. Jessie Dubs (with son Henry Dubs Middleton)
• – Robert Middleton (1848-1912) m. Marian Howe
• – Charles Middleton (1849-1916) m. Caroline Naylor (who died a year later)

• John William Middleton m. Mary Asquith (1839-1889) in Leeds in 1863
• – Gilbert Middleton (1865-1921) m. Alice Joy
• – Olive Middleton (1870-1961)
• – Ellen Middleton (1872-1949)
• – William Middleton (1874-1940) m. Agnes Talbot (niece of Sir James Kitson)
• – Gertrude Middleton (1876-1942), twin
• – Caroline Middleton (1876-1961), twin
• – Richard Noel Middleton (1878-1951)

• Francis (Frank) Lupton (1848-1921) m. Harriet Davis (1850-1892) in Leeds in 1880
• – Olive Lupton (1881-1936), married Richard Noel Middleton
• – Major Francis Lupton (1886-1917), died in the Great War
• – Captain Maurice Lupton (1887-1915), died in the Great War
• – Anne (Annie) Lupton (1888-1967)
• – Lieut. Lionel Lupton (1892-1916), died in the Great War

• Richard Noel Middleton m. Olive Lupton in Leeds in 1914
• – Christopher Middleton (b. 1915), became Christopher Lupton, m. Dorothy Martin
• – Anthony Middleton (1917-2010) m. Mary Glassborow
• – Peter Middleton (1920-2010)

• Captain Peter Middleton m. Valerie Glassborow (1924-2006) in Leeds in 1946
• – Richard Middleton (b. 1947)
• – Michael Middleton (b. 1949), father of Catherine (Kate) Middleton, Princess of Wales
• – Simon Middleton (b. 1953)
• – Nicholas Middleton (b. 1956)

• Michael Francis Middleton m. Carole Goldsmith in Buckinghamshire in 1980
• – Catherine (Kate) Middleton (b. 1982)
• – Philippa (Pippa) Middleton (b. 1983), m. James Matthews in 2017
• – James Middleton (b. 1987), m. Alizee Thevenet in 202

• Catherine (Kate) Middleton m. Prince William (b. 1982) in Westminster Abbey in 2011
• – Prince George (b. 2013)
• – Princess Charlotte (b. 2015)
• – Prince Louis (b. 2018).