The English title of Baron Methuen of Corsham (Wilts) was created in 1838 for Paul Methuen (1779–1849), who had been a Tory member of parliament for Wilts from 1812 to 1819, and then sat as a Whig for North Wilts from 1833 to 1838. His father, Paul Methuen, was the cousin and heir of the wealthy Sir Paul Methuen (1672–1757), a well-known politician, courtier, diplomatist and patron of art and literature, who was the son of John Methuen (c. 1650–1706), Lord Chancellor of Ireland (1697–1703) and ambassador to Portugal. It was the last-named who in 1703 negotiated the famous “Methuen Treaty,” which, in return for the admission of English woollens into Portugal, granted differential duties favouring the importation of Portuguese wines into England to the disadvantage of French, and thus displaced the drinking of Burgundy by that of port. He and his son were both buried in Westminster Abbey. The 1st baron was succeeded in the title by his son Frederick Henry Paul Methuen (1818–1891), and the latter by his son Paul Sanford, 3rd baron (1845–1932), field-marshal, who joined the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1864, served in the Ashanti War of 1874, the Egyptian Expedition of 1882 and the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884–85. As a major-general he served in the Indian Frontier War of 1897–98, shortly after which he was promoted lieutenant-general. On the outbreak of the South African War he went out in charge of the 1st Division, which he commanded at Belmont, Enslin, Modder river and Magersfontein; he remained in the field, engaged constantly on active operations and holding various commands, until just before the end of the conflict when he was, in March 1902, dangerously wounded and taken prisoner at Tweebosch; he was rewarded with the K.C.B. and the G.C.B. for his services in the war. He was in charge of the Eastern Command from 1904, in which year he was promoted general, until 1908, and he then went out as commander-in-chief to South Africa 1908–09. In 1911 he was promoted field-marshal. During the greater part of the World War he was governor of Malta. In 1919 he became Constable of the Tower.
