Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris FRS (7 August 1744 – 4 July 1816) was an Irish peer.
He was the son of Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey, and Juliana Donovan, Countess of Anglesey, who belonged to the junior sept of the O'Donovans of Clan Loughlin, the Donovans of Ballymore in County Wexford. She was initially rumoured to be of lower birth, the ancient pedigrees of some Irish families not being widely known in the English-speaking world at that time, and hers deriving from a remote region of Ireland, the Barony of Carbery. Countess Juliana was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Donel Oge na Cartan O'Donovan, the 1st Lord of Clan Loughlin to hold his territories from the Crown, from 1616 (see surrender and regrant).
He succeeded to the title of 6th Baron Altham, of Altham, in County Cork, and to the title of 8th Viscount Valentia upon his father's death on 14 February 1761.
On 22 April 1771, the House of Lords decided that his claim to his father's English titles was not valid, and that therefore these titles had become extinct on his father's death in 1761. He was created 1st Earl of Mountnorris on 3 December 1793.
Family
He married firstly Lucy Lyttelton, daughter of George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley, and Lucy Fortescue, on 10 May 1767. They had, among other children:
- George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris (2 November 1769 – 23 July 1844)
- Lady Juliana Lucy Annesley (1772 – 10 October 1833), eldest daughter and fourth child, married John Maxwell (later Maxwell-Barry, 5th Baron Farnham) in 1789, and had no issue.
He next married Hon. Sarah Cavendish, daughter of Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet, and Sarah Cavendish, 1st Baroness Waterpark, on 20 December 1783. They had, among other children:
- Lady Frances Wedderburn-Webster (1793–1837), married James Wedderburn-Webster, and had issue. She was notorious for her supposed love affairs with famous men such as Lord Byron and the Duke of Wellington, even if these may only have been flirtations.
- Lady Catherine Annesley (18 July 1793 – 25 June 1865), married Lord John Thomas Henry Somerset, eighth son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, and had one child, Sir Alfred Somerset.
References
- A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British empire, Sir Bernard Burke, Harrison, 1866
- Who's who, Volume 59, Henry Robert Addison, Charles Henry Oakes, William John Lawson, Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen, A. & C. Black, 1907
- Burke, Bernard and Ashworth Peter Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. London: Harrison & Sons. 9th edition, 1899. p. 119
- Janice Cavell, Lady Lucy Barry and Evangelical Reading on the First Franklin Expedition, Arctic Vol. 63, No. 2 (June 2010), pp. 131–140, at p. 132. Published by: Arctic Institute of North America JSTOR 27821958
- "Lady John Somerset". The Illustrated London News. 8 July 1865. p. 27. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title | Earl of Mountnorris 1793 – 1816 |
Succeeded byGeorge Annesley |
| Preceded byRichard Annesley | Viscount Valentia 1761 – 1816 | |