Earl of Morley

Earl of Morley, in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for the politician John Parker, 2nd Baron Boringdon. He was made Viscount Boringdon, of North Molton in the County of Devon, at the same time, which title is used as a courtesy title by the heir apparent to the earldom. No manor of the name "Morley" appears to exist in Devon, and the name appears rather to refer to Morley Saint Botolph in Norfolk, which was the origin of the ancient Barony of Morley held by the Lovel family and inherited in the 15th.c. by a member of a Parker family through marriage to the Lovel heiress. Whether the ancient Parker family of North Molton were related to this other Parker family of Barons Morley has not apparently formed the subject of any enquiry, but some connection would seem to exist from the choice of Morley as the name of the Parker earldom. The title of Baron Boringdon, of Boringdon in the County of Devon, was created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 for his father John Parker, who had previously represented Bodmin and Devon in the House of Commons.

Lord Morley was succeeded by his only son, the second Earl. He held minor office in the first Whig administration of Lord John Russell. His son, the third Earl, was a Liberal politician and notably served under William Ewart Gladstone as Under-Secretary of State for War and as First Commissioner of Works. As of 2010 the titles are held by his grandson, the sixth Earl, who succeeded his uncle in 1962 (who in his turn had succeeded his elder brother in 1951). He is the eldest son of the Hon. John Holford Parker, third and youngest son of the third Earl. Lord Morley served as Lord Lieutenant of Devon from 1982 to 1998.

The family seat was Saltram House in Plymouth, until it was sold to the National Trust in 1957. Their seat is now Pound House, near Yelverton, Devon.