It was first created in 1567 for Thomas Sackville, MP for East Grinstead and Ailesbury.
Dorset Street was named after Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
While he was at Florence he received the news of the death of his elder brother Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, which took place on 28 March 1624 and he thereupon became fourth Earl of Dorset.
When his eldest brother, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, was killed fighting for Lancaster in 1464 at the Battle of Hexham, the next brother, Edmund, succeeded to the Dukedom, and John became "Marquess of Dorset" and "Earl of Dorset", courtesy titles granted to the Beaufort heir-apparent or heir-presumptive.
Dorset | James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Earl | Weymouth, Dorset | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Earl of Derby | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick | Earl of Leicester | John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Devon | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig | My Name Is Earl | Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon | Earl Scruggs | Earl of March |
His contemporary reputation rested on his pastorals and epistles, particularly the description of winter addressed by him from Copenhagen (1709) to the Earl of Dorset.
On September 24, 1631, Captain Luke Foxe named the landform "Cape Dorset" to honor his benefactor, Lord Chamberlain, Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset.