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Life Peerages - the Assistant-Keeper of the Records Reading the Peerage Patent at the Bar of the House of Lords, 1856. 'The patent of the Earl of Huntingdon was almost illegible from age and discolouration, and the witness read the contents of the parchment roll from the printed volume of the Records. The creation of this Peer was for life. The patent of the Earl of Oxford was also a creation for life only...[Mr. H. G. Sharpe] was interrupted by Lord Ellenborough, who requested him to read clearly and slowly, as the House could not follow the old law Latin when read rapidly. Earl Grey said it was a waste of time to read the Latin text of these old patents, as they had all been printed by public authority, were known to everyone, and easily accessible. After some conversation, a list of patents in several reigns and of rolls of Parliament to be so examined was put in and read'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.