YUBA CITY, Calif. – He could be addressed one day as “My Lord.” But retired grocery store worker William Jennings Capell would prefer to be known as just plain Bill.

A lifelong resident of this farming town 45 miles north of Sacramento, Mr. Capell always knew he had noble blood. What he didn’t know was that he might one day assume the title of England’s Earl of Essex.

Then a British newspaper reporter called in June to inform Mr. Capell that the 10th Earl of Essex had died and the 11th had inherited the title. As the new earl’s fourth cousin once removed, Mr. Capell was next in line as the 12th Earl of Essex.

“I was still half asleep,” recalled Capell, 52, an affable, heavyset man, as he lounged in an armchair at his home. “I acknowledged it. But that was all. It wasn’t until later that I got to thinking about it, that ‘Wow, I’m next in line.’ It started to sink in a little.”

An earl is a member of the British peerage – a nobleman of high rank. According to Burke’s Peerage & Gentry, whose books have recorded the genealogy of titled and landed families in the United Kingdom and Ireland for some 175 years, the title can be inherited or bestowed upon an individual by the state.

Mr. Capell stands to succeed the current Earl of Essex, Frederick Paul de Vere Capell, a 61-year-old retired elementary school assistant principal, who lives near Lancaster (the one in England, not the one in the Southern California desert).

According to Burke’s and Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, Frederick succeeded his father, Robert Capell, the 10th Earl, who died in June. (The late earl was a distant cousin of the 9th Lord Essex.)

The 11th Earl is a bachelor and has no children. With no other apparent successor in sight, Mr. Capell is the new heir to the earldom. His aristocratic genealogy is documented in the 106th edition of “Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage.”

“I’m excited about it,” said Mr. Capell, who has never met or corresponded with his British kin and has never visited England. “I’m planning a trip to meet the earl, to say hi and let him show me around.”

“I think we should send him a family photo,” Mr. Capell’s wife, Sandy, 53, said. “We’ve got the address.”

She would become Lady Essex, a countess. Her husband’s full title, at least for correspondence, would be The Right Honorable Earl of Essex.

Mr. Capell believes his great-grandfather emigrated from England to Canada, and then to Idaho. He doesn’t recall what the patriarch did for a living, but he did know his grandfather – an Idaho cattle rancher and potato farmer.

Until recently, peers of hereditary titles, like that of earl, were entitled to a seat in Britain’s House of Lords – the second chamber of the British Parliament, which normally has to consent before Acts of Parliament can be passed.

But the House of Lords Act of 1999 removed the right of most hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House. Other reforms of the Lords are still being considered.

It’s unclear whether Mr. Capell would be entitled to sit in the House of Lords, now with 731 members, but he said he would seriously consider moving to England to fulfill his role of representing the County of Essex.

Even if Mr. Capell did get a chance to serve, membership in the House of Lords is unpaid. Nor does Mr. Capell stand to inherit any land, estate, or crown jewels. “There’s no castle, no money,” he said. Previous earls have been politicians, military commanders – even farmers.