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.

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?

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, the wife of a coal miner, who was born in Durham around the year 1840.  Later, Kate’s maternal grandparents Dorothy Harrison from Durham (1935-2006) and Ronald Goldsmith, a builder (1931-2003), were married in 1953 in Southall, London.  Their daughter Carole, Kate’s mother, was born two years later.

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.

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 Hawkills estate, founded the law firm of Messrs Middleton & Sons in Leeds in 1834.  The firm existed for 150 years, closing in 1985.  Many of William’s descendants were solicitors in the firm, including his son John William and his grandsons Richard Noel and Henry Dubs, as well as various other Middleton relatives.

Noel and his elder brother William both wed their fiancées – from the upper-class Lupton and Kitson families – at Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds just before the First World War.  Noel and Olive’s eldest son Christopher in fact preferred being a Lupton and changed his last name to Lupton later on.

The Lupton-Middleton connection remained strong as Olive, who had lost all three of her brothers during the war, was the principal Lupton heiress.  Her husband Noel became a director of William Lupton & Co, the textile manufacturing firm she had inherited on the death of her father in 1921.  When Olive died in 1936, she left a trust fund for her children.

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

Kate Middleton’s Family Line

• William Middleton (1807-1884) m. Mary Ward (1811-1859) in Leeds in 1838
• – John Middleton (1839-1887)
• – Anne Middleton (1843-1933) m. John Asquith
• – Arthur Middleton (1846-1907) m. Jessie Dubs
• – Robert Middleton (1848-1912) m. Marian Howe
• – Charles Middleton (1849-1916)

• 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
• – 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)
• – Francis Lupton (1886-1917), died in the Great War
• – Maurice Lupton (1887-1915), died in the Great War
• – Anne Lupton (1888-1967)
• – 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)
• – Nicholas Middleton
• – Simon Middleton

• Michael Francis Middleton m. Carole Goldsmith (b. 1955) 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 2021.

• 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).