Charles was born on 6 August 1624 at
Richmond, Surrey to
Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram and his second wife,
Anne daughter of
William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Through his mother, he was a 3 times-great grandson of
Mary Tudor, Queen of France and
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, thereby making him a direct descendant of
Henry VII. Until he inherited his father's title after the death of his father in December 1654 he was known by the courtesy title of
Lord Carr. Kerr had a long career in the English House of Commons. He was able to continue to sit in that house after he was ennobled, the fact that
Earl of Ancram was a Scottish title was no impediment to sitting in the English House of Commons representing an English or Welsh constituency. Kerr was the Member of Parliament (MP) for
St. Michaels in Cornwall between March 1647 and December 1648 in the
Long Parliament.
Robert Holborne, a Royalist, was disabled from sitting for St. Michaels and gave the seat to Kerr, who was the constituency's MP until he was excluded in
Pride's Purge. Between July 1660 and December 1660 Kerr sat in the
Convention Parliament representing
Thirsk. After the
Restoration In the
Cavalier Parliament (from 1661 to 1681) he represented
Wigan and again in the
Oxford Parliament (from 1661 and 1681). The last Parliament in which he sat, still for Wigan, was the
Loyal Parliament the first parliament of the reign of
James II (from 1685 to 1687). On his death, sometime between 1 September 1690 and 11 September 1690, the earldom devolved upon
Robert Kerr, (afterwards
Marquess of Lothian), the eldest son of Kerr's elder half brother
William Kerr, 3rd Earl of Lothian. ==Family==