I have been looking for information on Kate Middleton’s early family history and came a across a veritable treasure trove in a small local newspaper, Leeds Today.

What, you may ask, does Kate have to do with the rather grimy northern industrial city of Leeds, known more for its up-and-down football team than any cultural or Royal connections.

According to journalist Richard Hainsworth, Kate’s roots are firmly in Leeds where her family has lived for generations. It all begins with the family links between Kate and one of the city’s most civic-minded families, the Luptons.

“When Francis Martineau Lupton died in 1921 the Minister at Mill Hill chapel, Leeds said he was ‘a member of a family which for generations had been associated with the commercial, municipal, educational and religious life of Leeds’. Francis was Kate Middleton’s grandfather’s grandfather. He was one of four brothers who in the nineteenth century simultaneously held some of the most important offices in the city.”

Hainsworth says that although Kate has never lived in Leeds, “her father’s ties to the city go back many generations. Her father Michael was born in Leeds as were her Middleton grandfather, great grandfather and four great-great grandparents – and before that the Middletons lived in Wakefield.

“Kate – Catherine Elizabeth Middleton – was born in the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in 1982 but her father is a Leeds man, born on June 23 1949 at Chapel Allerton Nursing Home. He became an airline officer and he and his wife Carole, nee Goldsmith, then a stewardess, were married in 1980.

“Nowadays he is a director of Party Pieces, a mail order business selling children’s party toys. Michael’s father Peter Francis Middleton has born in 1920 and when his son was born, he was also in the aviation business working as a pilot instructor. He married Valerie, nee Glassborow, at the oldest church in Leeds, the Norman parish church at Adel on December 9 1946.

“But it is with Kate’s great grandparents that the links with well-known Leeds family the Luptons began. Her grandfather’s father was Noel Middleton, a Leeds solicitor who married Olive Lupton, the daughter of Francis Martineau Lupton, a former member of Leeds city council and one of a number of Lupton family who were a major part of Leeds life at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. In fact a book, The Lupton Family of Leeds by C A Lupton (1965), has been written about them.

“Noel Middleton, a solicitor, had joined the Lupton family business after the First World War where he had been chief administrator of the Special Constabulary. A keen music lover, he was later chairman of the Northern Philharmonia and organiser of many musical soirees in Leeds. He died in 1951. His father and grandfather, John William and William Middleton, were both solicitors in Leeds. John William, who lived at Fairfield in Far Headingley, was president of the Leeds Law Society in 1882/3. He is buried at Chapel Allerton cemetery.

“Olive was one of two daughters of Francis Martineau Lupton, a man whose family life was blighted by the early death of his wife and of his three sons in the First World War.

“Francis M Lupton was one of the four sons of Francis Lupton who lived at Beechwood, the Victorian mansion which still stands on Elmete Lane, Roundhay. He ran a wool textile business and it was his four sons who all rose to prominence in the city.

“Francis was an alderman – an appointed member of Leeds council; Arthur G Lupton was pro-vice chancellor of Leeds University from its foundation, Charles Lupton was treasurer and chairman of the General Infirmary and Hugh Lupton was chairman of the Board of Guardians. Hugh was a member of Leeds Council for 22 years and Lord Mayor of the city in 1926.

“Charles Lupton was Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1915 and left his art collection to the city. He was instrumental in the expansion of the Leeds General Infirmary and the development of the Headrow as one of Leeds’s major thoroughfares. Francis M Lupton, Kate’s grandfather’s grandfather, entered local politics as a Liberal Unionist – Liberals who opposed the Home Rule for Ireland proposed by Gladstone and became part of the Conservative party.

“An earlier ancestor, Darnton Lupton, who lived at Newton Hall and Headingley Castle, was Mayor of Leeds in 1844 and a magistrate. It was his grandchildren, brother and sister Norman and Agnes Lupton, who left their art collection of watercolours, including some by JMW Turner, Thomas Girtin and John Sell Cotman, to Leeds City Gallery in the early 1950s, giving the city one of the best collections in the country.”

In what it describes as a “Royal Exclusive”, a red-top tabloid newspaper, the People, claims that Chelsy Davy has enlisted the help of Kate Middleton to find a flat in London for her to occupy when she finishes her degree course in Cape Town next spring. The move will alow her to spend more time with Prince Harry and is seen as an attempt “to save their romance”.

“The 20-year-old beauty has enlisted the help of Prince William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton to find a home in London for when she leaves university next spring. And they have already drawn up a shortlist of three or four.”

A “highly-placed source” revealed: “Harry has got a big grin on his face. Chelsy has told him she definitely wants to move to London because she misses him when they are apart. Chelsy loves Harry to bits, but she is terrified the distance between them could cause them to break up.”

Chelsy has also been reported as planning an amazing surprise for Harry’s 22nd birthday this week and is said to be flying to London for the occasion.

Fairly innocent pictures of Kate Middleton and Prince William leaving Boujis nightclub in South Kensington at 3am have been flashed around the world.

They are said to indicate that the state of their romance is as good as ever and are the prelude to an important Royal announcement.

You certainly get the feeling that they know something we don’t and they find it all rather amusing.

What do these pictures tell about William and Kate?

Chelsy Davy, girlfriend of Prince Harry, has been held at gunpoint and robbed of her personal belongings in an hour-long incident at the trendy Cubana Latino Cafe near her home in Cape Town.

Five men who had been posing as customers suddenly produced handguns and knives and ordered everyone onto the floor. Chelsy was forced to lie face-down on the tiled floor of the kitchen at the back of the premises, along with six other customers, bar staff and waiters.

Three of the men brandished knives and went from person to person collecting mobile phones, car keys, cash and credit cards.

A source is reported as saying : “Chelsy was terrified. She’s worried about the phone as it has text messages from Harry on it and lots of private numbers. She just hopes the raiders had no idea who she was.”

Chelsy later phoned Harry who was said to be very concerned but relieved that she was unharmed.

Devilliers Nienaber, the duty manager at the Cubana bar said later : “Chelsy had been drinking quietly in the bar with a girlfriend, a fellow student. When these guys suddenly got up and threatened us with a gun, she stayed quiet and calm.

“There was no screaming and no crying. I think that’s what saved our lives. If Chelsy and her friend had panicked it could have been the end of us. When the guys eventually ran off she came over to see if I was OK. She and the others helped me up and we sat for a while having drinks while the police came.

“Chelsy was worried sick about losing her house keys and her mobile phone. She used our telephone to call her brother Shaun and he came over straightaway to get her.”

Heaven knows what might have happened if the gang had recognized the girlfriend of the third in line to the British Throne.