Mention has already been made of Debrett's Peerage, and since there is a widespread tendency in the public to confuse it with Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, some account of the differences may prove useful. Debrett's divides up its material, putting the peers in one section and the baronets in another. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage lists all peers and baronets alphabetically. If there is a peerage and baronetcy with the same name, Chichester for example, the peer is listed before the baronet since he is of higher rank. If there is more than one baronet with the same name, for example Clark, Debrett lists them in order of their date of creation but Burke's Peerage & Baronetage lists them in alphabetical order of the place of domicile of the first holder of the title. Clark of Dunlambert, for instance, comes before Clark of Melville Crescent.

Baronets do not in fact have an official territorial designation in the way peers do, but since JAMES I's pledge to limit their numbers was abandoned from quite soon after the institution of the order it has long been found useful to be able to distinguish between them, the existence of more than one with the same name occurring from very early on in the history of the Baronetage. Where a peer has a territorial qualifying phrase as part of his full title, for example ‘Lord Wilson of Tillyorn', the former Governor of Hong Kong elevated to the House of Lords and so designated to distinguish him from the Lord Wilson who is a hereditary peer, we place him after all other Wilsons whether a peer or baronet provided their titles are Wilson only. The distinguishing marks in such cases are that the peer with a territorial qualifying phrase as part of his full title is printed all in capital letters, whereas the baronets with the same name but different places of origin have the latter in capital letters and small ones. Accordingly the order goes WILSON, Baron; WILSON, Bt, of Airdrie; WILSON, Bt, of Carbeth; WILSON, Bt, of Eshton Hall; WILSON OF TILLYORN.

Unlike Debrett's, Burke's Peerage & Baronetage is primarily a history of the families it features rather than of the title-holders. Both publications used to alphabetise multiple-barrelled names under the initial letter of the last barrel rather than of the first one on the grounds that the last barrel represented the original family, onto which was grafted the names of other families marrying into it and perhaps bringing with them estates or other forms of wealth. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage has now ceased this quaint custom, not just because it confused the general reader but because it was not even invariably justified by the history of the family in question. Debrett's lists the names of holders of courtesy titles between its peerage section and the baronetage one. The list indicates which peerage articles they appear in. The new edition of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage contains an index of every living person in its pages, whether holders of courtesy titles or not, and including members of baronetage families as well as of peerage ones. Lastly, the Burke's Peerage & Baronetage method of indenting successive generations, already mentioned in the brief history given above, is very different from Debrett's layout, where successive generations stemming from a common ancestor are gathered in a single paragraph and as far as the eye of the reader is concerned are differentiated as to their relationship one to another chiefly by long or short dashes.

Enquiries from the public evincing yet further confusion suggest that a further distinction needs to be made here between Burke's Peerage & Baronetage and Who's Who. The latter covers only living people whereas Burke's Peerage & Baronetage's concentration on family history means that it includes people who lived up to a thousand years ago. People are only selected for an entry in Who's Who if they have attained some personal as opposed to family distinction. Nevertheless, a remarkable selection of celebrities in their own right crop up in Burke's Peerage & Baronetage too, for instance the jockey turned race horse-trainer Luca Cumani (PLUNKET), the novelist Mary Wesley (SWINFEN) and the singer Roger Whitaker (INCHIQUIN). Who's Who is primarily autobiographical in that the people it features draft their entries themselves. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage carries out its own research on the people it features as well as asking them to supply information directly.

Read part 3 of 4.