AHC: Colonies as Duchies, Counties, Baronies etc.

A lot of the New World colonies of England and later Britain began as massive land grants and colonisation rights given to individuals or groups of individuals as proprietors. Would it be possible for these people to become established nobility of these regions. For example, Cæcilius Calvert was the proprietor of Maryland; he could become Duke of Maryland or similar. William Penn could be the Duke of Pennsylvania also.

Would this be at all possible, and if so, what effect would it have on the American Revolution? Does the United States become a more aristocratic society, or even a full-blown monarchy?
 
The vast majority of the settlers that came from England and the rest of the UK, left to get away from privilege like that, and make new lives for themselves, AFAIK. Though London could, if it felt it important enough, force the issue through, I don't see it doing so, because it would be wildly unpopular in the Colonies, and there would be little to no benefit.
 
The French managed something like this in New France with the seigneurial system. But the basic problem is scarcity of land. In Europe where you have a fixed amount of useful agricultural land and a comparatively large and growing number of people the power and financial heft of major landowner's kept the aristocracy on top long after the feudal system which had created it died out. It was even strengthened in some ways with the industrial revolution as sub-surface mineral rights to coal and iron provided another major boost to landowners. Add to that the British habit of ennobling people who got seriously rich in other ways e.g. the Earls of Harewood descended from a spectacularly successful sugar trader/planter and you have the British peerage that right up until the mid 1800's.

The problem why that didn't translate into the new world was that land was cheap and plentiful while people were scarce. That meant agricultural land prices were incredibly low and that in turn meant that landed estates supporting a noble family on the European model simply didn't work. The idea that you could judge someones wealth and importance based on the acreage they owned and then have that reflected by their peerage title broke down.
In the South you had something similar but different there you had a landed class being supported by slavery, that enabled the existence of a class of ultra-rich agricultural producers who didn't actually have to work but could simply live of the labour of others. While culturally they was modelled themselves on the established aristocratic traditions of Britain economically it was much closer to the Russian system where wealth was measured by the number of "souls" (serfs) a noble owned not his acreage. You could see the same thing in Spanish America as well.
Now ennobling the Southern Plantation Gentry is your best route to having an American aristocracy if you want one.
 
As Thoresby point out, you couldn't have a landed aristocracy on the European model, although I don't like it's ASBs for the Crown (possibly through the Governors of the respective colonies) giving out honorary titles to colonial notables.
 
It would be easy enough for the proprietary colonies. William Penn gets a hereditary Duchy/County as long as he gets his non-conformist self out of England....

Calvert becomes Earl Maryland in addition to Earl Baltimore. Again, if he gets his (crypto?-)RC self out of the way.

I would imagine that they'd have to swear fealty to the King of England, and that any grant of nobility higher than knighthood, if that, would have to come from the King.

If the Proprietors actually lived in their colonies, there wouldn't BE any governors there.

Don't know how this would affect the rest of the colonies.
 
IMHO all you have to do is create a Nobility of the Americas, no huge deal since you had them of Scotland, Ireland etc. In the 18th century titles are increasingly going to landowners and merchants. The link with the feudal system is lost. Its all about direct power. Sure, a duke needs a certain amount of land, income and ability to host according to his title (why there is no Duke of Clarendon) but given that and a system supporting it, there would be no reason why you could not get dukes, earls (or counts) and barons/lords with titles held on America

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The other problem with an American nobility is London. London has the Royal Courts, the Law Courts, Parliament and most especially the House of Lords etc. As the only scenario where you have Americans being granted titles in one in which America remains part of the British Empire while you will see people who have made their fortune in the America's become peers, you saw that in OTL with the Lascelles and others*, in every single case they took the money they made in the Colonies and used it to buy an estate in England. So while you might get a peer with a title based on a overseas location e.g. Viscount Nelson of the Nile in all certainty your hypothetical Earl of Maryland would live in England and simply extract money from his Colonial Estates.



*though admittedly that was the Carribean
 
I wonder, would the Crown back home in Europe be concerned about far away colonial nobles rebelling? I do appreciate the irony of my idea.
 
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