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           For $10, you can claim a royal title for yourself or your friends. But most of the time, they’re not what they seem.
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                <a style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 100%; text-decoration: none;">
                 The Hustle
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                Issue #167
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                 <img alt="The Hustle, Sunday, July 18, 2021" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Ftitle_of_nobility.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; display: block;" width="600"/>
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                Sunday, July 18, 2021
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            <h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 25px;">
             <strong>
              The big business of nobility titles
             </strong>
            </h2>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 10px; font-style: italic; color: #737373; margin: 0;">
             For $10, you can claim a royal title for yourself or your friends. But most of the time, they’re not what they seem.
            </p>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 24px; margin: 0;">
             <strong>
              BY
              <a style="color: #D62829; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">
               Juliet Bennett Rylah
              </a>
             </strong>
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             If 23&amp;Me has yet to reveal a long-lost royal relative, there are plenty of sites that promise to make you a Russian
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               tsarina
              </u>
             </a>
             , a
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               German count
              </u>
             </a>
             , or an
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Irish lord
              </u>
             </a>
             — all for a mere $10.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             For a bit more, you can upgrade a loved one or your entire family, a popular gift for the
             <em>
              Downton Abbey
             </em>
             fan who has everything except noble blood.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Or, you could
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               join Ed Sheeran
              </u>
             </a>
             and become a baron of
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Sealand
              </u>
             </a>
             — a
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               WWII defense platform
              </u>
             </a>
             just off the coast of England. For $45, you’ll get a deed and documents about Sealand, and the ability to connect with fellow Sealand barons around the world.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “Our titles offer you the chance to be a part of the Sealand’s story and adventure, which is totally unique,” says “Prince” Liam Bates, the grandson of the pirate radio broadcaster who declared Sealand a nation in 1967.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The business of nobility titles — some more legit than others — is proliferating, with dozens of sites hawking titles, and deals everywhere you turn.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The Hustle set out to learn more about the business. And in our attempted journey from peasant to noble, we uncovered a bizarre world of colorful characters and hard-to-spot scams.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              What’s in a lord title?
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               British peerage
              </u>
             </a>
             dates back to the feudal system when someone could gain a title (baron, viscount, earl, marquess, duke) by blood, marriage, or from the crown.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Today, most sites claiming to sell you one of these titles use the honorific ‘lord’ or ‘lady.’
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fgroupon.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             An ad on Groupon to become the tsar or tsarina of Marinovka, a small forest in Russia (Groupon)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             However, British peerage can’t be bought or sold. Neither can chivalric order titles like knight or dame, or baronetcies, which are hereditary.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Nobility from other countries is often equally, if not more, meaningless. (Russian nobility, for example, hasn’t been acknowledged since the Bolshevik revolution.)
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Usually, all a buyer really gets is a fancy certificate that bestows upon them a meaningless title — and perhaps a few keepsakes.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Some services also come with a deed poll, which, in the UK, lets you change your first name to Lord or Lady. But Brits can already do that for
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               free
              </u>
             </a>
             , like
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               the UK man
              </u>
             </a>
             who changed his name to Mark I Love Spam Benson and got married at the Spam Museum in Minnesota.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In the US, it
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               costs
              </u>
             </a>
             ~$150-$450 to change your name. But if you ask nicely, maybe your friends will call you Lord Dave of Culver City or Lady Jennifer of Bowling Green.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              The Earl of telling you what’s rubbish
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Bonafide British noble Richard Bridgeman, the 7th Earl of Bradford, is the operator of the site
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Fake Titles
              </u>
             </a>
             , which warns people of title scams.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             He told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             he started the site after someone paid to become Lord Newport, which is actually Richard’s son’s title. This led him to discover one scam after another in an industry he estimates to be worth “millions of pounds.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
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           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="Richard Bridgeman" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fearl.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Richard Bridgeman, 7th Earl of Bradford, at Weston Park, his home in Staffordshire, in 1976. (Ben Martin/Getty Images)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Richard doesn’t care about protecting his own title and will happily explain real ways to buy them, but seems to find it offensive that people can profit off what is essentially nothing.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “The whole thing is ludicrous and should be stamped on,” he told us.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Despite his warnings, people continue to buy fake titles –– while others, like Sealand, successfully use the ruse to fund projects.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              So, what’s actually for sale?
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              Scottish Barony titles
             </strong>
             are the
             <em>
              only
             </em>
             real titles on the
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               market
              </u>
             </a>
             .
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Michael Yellowlees
              </u>
             </a>
             , partner and head of rural services at Scottish law firm Lindsays, told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             they’re very rare and currently run between US ~$120k-$130k –– or even more for Lordships, Earldoms, and Marquisates.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Baronies can be sold, transferred, or bequeathed (which is most common), and “because of their rarity, they have retained their value despite various economic downturns,” Yellowlees said.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              German noble titles
             </strong>
             can also be had for a hefty sum.
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Per
              </u>
             </a>
             <em>
              Bloomberg
             </em>
             , it costs about ~$100k to become a baron and $975k or more to be a prince. Of course, Germany’s monarchy is long gone and nobility comes with no legal perks.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              Stuff that isn’t real,
             </strong>
             like “recreated lordships of the manor” that died out many years ago, reverted to the crown, and thus, Richard said, no longer exist.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             One man shelled out $2.8k for a likely non-existent manor,
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               per
              </u>
             </a>
             British tabloid
             <em>
              The Sunday Mercury.
             </em>
             Another paid $20k to become a German prince, then
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               hired
              </u>
             </a>
             a private investigator who appeared to uncover a many-layered fraud.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="certificate" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Ftasrina.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             The author spent $10 for this certificate declaring her the tsarina of a Russian forest. Nobility hasn’t been recognized in Russia since 1917. (Juliet Bennett Rylah)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              Manorial lordships
             </strong>
             , which date back centuries and
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               refer
              </u>
             </a>
             to not a lord, but the lord of a manor or rural estate. Because lordships can be split from their associated land, most don’t come with any.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             When the Manor House in Horton, Gower went up for sale for $1m+ in 2017, an attorney who specializes in medieval manorial rights
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               told
              </u>
             </a>
             the BBC it was the second time in 40 years that he’d seen a lordship come with property.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A handful may come with other privileges, like mining or fishing rights. The Lord or Lady of Horton has rights to any wreckage within the manor’s coastal boundaries.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A man
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               once
              </u>
             </a>
             bought several lordships in Wales, then tried to charge his neighbors to cross the verges in front of their homes like he was playing
             <em>
              Monopoly
             </em>
             . (It didn’t work.)
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              And infamously, the Scottish Lairdship
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 2001, Charles Dixon-Spain’s wife, Sadie Dixon-Spain, bought him one square foot of land in Scotland. They were relocating from England, and the gift was a “promise to each other that soon, we'd own a few more square feet,” he told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             via email.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Dixon-Spain soon learned his plot was in an inaccessible field in Argyll and that the company that sold it wasn’t even based in Scotland.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="Lord and Lady at Dunans Castle pamphlets" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fdunnan_pamphlets.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             A couples package to become Lord and Lady at Dunans Castle is $29 on Groupon (plus shipping). It includes a certificate, information about the castle and area, a map, and visitors guide. (Groupon)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             These schemes are billed as Scottish Lairdships, and there are several sites that hawk them through Groupon and social media ads. They come with a small “souvenir” plot of land and purport to make you the lord or lady of it.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             They cost as little as $50 and
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Ice Cube
              </u>
             </a>
             has one, but it
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               doesn’t
              </u>
             </a>
             make you lord of anything.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              The novelty nobles of a fire-gutted castle
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A year after Dixon-Spain received his souvenir plot, the couple came upon the ruins of Dunans Castle, a wrecked
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               19th-century
              </u>
             </a>
             mock castle and an 18th-century
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               home
              </u>
             </a>
             in Glendaruel.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Back in 1999, Lord and Lady Marr bought Dunans Castle and ran it as a hotel, offering -- among other activities -- a juice cleanse retreat. In less than 2 years, it was
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               gutted
              </u>
             </a>
             by a fire.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             And it turned out Lord and Lady Marr were actually Robert and Ewa Lucas-Gardiner. Ewa had -- you guessed it --
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               bought
              </u>
             </a>
             the titles online years prior.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The Dixon-Spains bought Dunans in 2003 for
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               ~$320k
              </u>
             </a>
             and finished renovating the smaller Dunans House in 2009, where they now live.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="Dunans Castle" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fdunnans_castle.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             The ruins of Dunans Castle (David Solman)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But it turns out restoring a burned-out castle is expensive -- about $5.6m to $9.9m before taxes. Because that’s more than its value, Dixon-Spain said they can’t borrow funds.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             So, in 2010, they established
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               The Scottish Laird Project
              </u>
             </a>
             , which sells decorative titles and plots to finance the castle’s return to glory. Once finished, it will become a tourist attraction and events space, and its “nobles” can even vacation there.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             If the whole thing sounds a bit theatrical, the Dixon-Spains are versed in that, too. Sadie also runs the
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;" target="_blank">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               Walking Theatre Company
              </u>
             </a>
             , an interactive theater troupe that has performed all over the world, including
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               at Dunans
              </u>
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The plot-of-land game isn’t exclusive to Scotland.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Squire Association
             <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829;">
              <u style="color: #d62829; underline: none; text-decoration: none;">
               formed
              </u>
             </a>
             in 1956 when demand for its whiskey was higher than the distillery could meet.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             An employee proposed that fans who wrote in about the shortage would get a plot of the Lynchburg distillery, thus making them part-owner and “Squire.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Today, new Squires must be nominated and enjoy perks like free parking at the distillery, gifts, and events.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              Why do people buy titles anyhow?
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The website Elite Titles -- which bills itself as a title change service -- suggests that by going from Mrs. to Viscountess, you’ll “experience life as a VIP or celebrity” with free hotel and airline upgrades.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Felite.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             A nobility title in Dartmouth, Devon goes for ~$1.4k on Elite Titles (Elite Titles)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Richard said that in his 73 years as an actual noble, this has never happened to him.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “You will find people with titles are not overbearing and trying to claim things that they’re not entitled to, whereas people who bought fake titles try to claim everything,” Richard told us.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Yellowlees, the property lawyer from Lindsays, said in his experience with baronies, it’s predominantly been for social status, an interest in heraldry (referring to coats of arms, crests, etc.), or to connect with Scottish ancestry.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “I acted for one American gentleman who acquired the barony of the area in Scotland where his family originated from in the 17th century before emigrating to the States,” Yellowlees told us.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             For others, it’s for fun, a quirky gift, or as a joke. One man told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             he bought a couples’ package one Christmas so he could call his wife “m’lady” and “leave family events early by dramatically accusing them of being usurpers.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="Registration Deed" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fseas.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1m54If:UrRdnKjYSPU2aLK06mFnA743DP8dEPLT3oAbXuv1fvk" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             A lord or lady title in the Principality of Sealand can be had for $45 (Sealandgov.org)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             For Dunans’ “nobles,” the novelty and restoration appear to be the draw. So far, Dunans Castle has:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              300k+ “lairds” and “ladies” worldwide, 2k-7k of whom visit annually
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              ~100k subscribers to the castle’s newsletter
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Invested between $32k and $254k into restoring the castle, bridge, and grounds every year since 2010
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Over the next 5 years, the Dixon-Spains plan to invest significantly more in building upgrades, hoping that lords and ladies may be able to stay overnight sometime in 2024.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             For now, Dunans offers its nobles “glamping” in a small cottage, priced at ~$126/night, and tours of the grounds.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Like naming a star, buying nobility isn’t possible unless you have a lot of money. Done with transparency, the model could work as a fundraiser, though.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But if you get caught scamming, the Earl of Bradford will expose you on his website — and you’ll deserve it.
            </p>
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