The Princess of Wales and Leeds aren't two things you'd normally associate with each other.
But Princess Catherine – still often referred to by her maiden name Middleton – has a Leeds ancestry going back generations. And you only need to go back one generation to see the future Queen Consort's connection to the city.
Kate's father Michael Middleton was born in Leeds but that isn't the way to the Princess's distant but oft-mentioned working-class ancestry. That was on her mum Carole's side.
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Michael, who runs a very successful party accessories company with Carole, was born to a wealthy Leeds family. The Princess's father grew up in Moortown close to the Middleton family seat of Hawkhills.
This mansion off Gledhow Lane has long since been demolished and is now a residential cul-de-sac although the gatehouse remains. Michael's late father was Captain Peter Middleton, a World War Two fighter pilot who flew co-pilot with Prince Philip on a flying tour of South America in 1962.
But this wasn't the family's first connection to royalty. Peter, of Fieldhead House, opposite Roundhay Park, was the son of Richard Noel Middleton. Noel (1878 - 1951) was on 'friendly terms' with Queen Elizabeth II's neice Princess Mary.
Noel, originally of Otley Road, Far Headingley, was one of a five-generation line of Leeds solicitors. He chaired Leeds Musical Festival of which Princess Mary and her son George Lascelles, Lord of Harewood, were patrons. Noel and his wife Olive, Princess Kate's great-grandmother, would entertain royalty in Leeds in the 1920s.
The Middletons are recorded as owners of Rectory Manor, Wakefield, in the late 18th century. Kate's great-great-great-grandfather William Middleton (1807 - 1884), a gentleman farmer and solicitor, founded the Leeds law firm Middleton and Sons in 1834.
The Leeds connection widens when we go back to 1914 when Noel married Olive Lupton, of the Potternewton Hall estate. The estate, which included Potternewton Hall and the older Newton Hall, was cleared in the 1920s and 1930s and the halls were demolished. Today the site is occupied by a residential cul-de-sac called Riviera Gardens.
The Luptons were a wealthy and powerful Leeds family with Yorkshire roots which can be traced back to the 15th century. The earliest known Lupton of Leeds was Thomas Lupton who can be traced back to Holbeck in the early 17th century.
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- Sign up to our Best in Leeds newsletter
Many thanks to Michael Reed, of Ilim College, Melbourne, Australia for his help with this.
