 Among the offices the family held besides that of Lord Great Chamberlain was the forestership of Essex, and they founded the Essex religious houses of Colne Priory, Hatfield Broad Oak Priory, and Castle Hedingham Priory.Macaulay described the family as "the longest and most illustrious line of nobles that England has seen," and Tennyson's poem "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" made the name synonymous with ancient blood.Twenty males headed the family as Earl of Oxford from 1141 to 1703