My mom's first cousin is a baronet. Sir Walter would find our family appalling because this baronetcy was created only in 1812, so at the time of Persuasion, it would have been brand new.

The baronetcy was created in our family because my grandmother's grandfather was an equerry and personal messenger to the Prince Regent's brother, so again not due to the kind of 'ancient respectability' that would have impressed Sir Walter or Elizabeth--although still due to having had a personal connection to the royal family!

When I was little, my name and my siblings were in the Debrett's under our family baronetcy, because our grandmother was a direct descendant of the 2nd baronet (the current baronet is her brother's son). We did get a bit of a thrill seeing our names and birth dates in the book under the family crest, etc. although we didn't spend hours on end poring over it like Sir Walter. When my grandmother passed away in 1997, our names were removed from the next edition, although all the descendants of her two brothers were/all still in there.

The odd thing is that I'm a much, much closer relation of the current baronet than I was of the previous baronet, back when my name used to be in the book. I've babysat his children and he came to our wedding, even.

The previous baronet's daughter came to tea at my mom's uncle and aunt's house once and I met her. Even though she was quite a distant relation, we were all kind of exited to meet her. She was a very nice, but perfectly ordinary young lady.

She and her sisters would have been in the same situation as Anne, Elizabeth and Mary, in that the male branch of their immediate family died out and the title went to a distant cousin. My mom's cousin has a son and also two brothers who have six more sons between them, so the title is staying with our closer relations for the forseeable future.