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The Right HonourableThe Earl of Denbigh
Portrait from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales
High Sheriff of Flintshire
In office 1850–1851
Preceded by	Philip Lake Godsal
Succeeded by	Wilson Jones
Personal details
Born	(1823-04-09)9 April 1823
Died	10 March 1892(1892-03-10) (aged 68)
Spouse	Louisa Pennant ​ ​(m. 1846; died 1853)​ Mary Berkeley ​ ​(m. 1857)​
Parent(s)	Basil Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh Lady Mary Moreton
Military service
Rank	Honorary Colonel
Unit	1st Flintshire Rifle Volunteers Royal Welch Fusiliers

Rudolph William Basil Feilding, 8th Earl of Denbigh, 7th Earl of Desmond (9 April 1823 – 10 March 1892), styled as Viscount Feilding until 1865, was a British peer and noted Roman Catholic convert, who founded the Franciscan friary at Pantasaph, North Wales.

Early life

Feilding was born in 1823, the son of William Basil Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh, and his wife, Lady Mary Moreton, eldest daughter of Thomas Reynolds-Moreton, 1st Earl of Ducie. He was named after the claimed ancestor of the Feilding family, Rudolph I of Habsburg. Rollo and his twin sister Lady Mary Feilding were the first born children of their parents.

Feilding was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was president of the University Pitt Club and took the degree of M.A. in 1844.

Career

Feilding was received into the Catholic Church in 1850, and took an active part in many Catholic works of charity under Cardinal Wiseman. As Viscount Feilding he was appointed honorary treasurer, jointly with Viscount Campden and Archibald J. Dunn, of the Peter's Pence Association.

In 1850, Feilding was appointed High Sheriff of Flintshire.

On 29 June 1860, Feilding raised the 4th (Holywell) Flintshire Rifle Volunteer Corps as captain-commandant. After the unit was incorporated into the 1st Administrative Battalion, Flintshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, he commanded that from 1862 with the rank of major. On 2 July 1873, he became the battalion's honorary colonel, and continued in that role with its successor, the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Family

Feilding married, firstly, Louisa Pennant, great-granddaughter of the Welsh naturalist and travel writer Thomas Pennant. She died of consumption in 1853, without issue. He married, secondly, Mary Berkeley, daughter of Robert Berkeley, Esq. of Spetchley, Worcestershire. They had seven children, including:

• Rudolph Feilding, 9th Earl of Denbigh (26 May 1859 –25 November 1939), who succeeded
• Everard Feilding (6 March 1867 – 8 February 1936), Hon. Sec. of the Society for Psychical Research
• Lady Winefride Mary Elizabeth Feilding (24 September 1868 – 24 February 1959), who married Gervase Elwes on 11 May 1889

After his death in 1892, he was interred with his first wife Louisa at Pantasaph, dressed in the habit of the Third Order of St Francis, of which he was a member.

Ancestry

References

1. "Lady Mary Feilding - British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
2. Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004), "Lady Mary Feilding", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/59482, retrieved 27 June 2023
3. Fletcher, Walter Morley (2011) . The University Pitt Club: 1835-1935 (First Paperback ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-107-60006-5.
4. "Feilding, Viscount Rudolph William Basil (CMBL899NR)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
5. "No. 21065". The London Gazette. 5 February 1850. pp. 313–314.
6. Ray Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers, Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84884-211-3, p. 89.
7. Army List, various dates.
8. Trevor Hall (October 1978). Search for Harry Price. Gerald Duckworth and Company. p. 137. ISBN 0-7156-1143-7.

Further reading

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Rudolph William Basil Feilding". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Denbigh

• 1823 births
• 1892 deaths
• People educated at Eton College
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• English Roman Catholics
• Welsh Roman Catholics
• Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
• High sheriffs of Flintshire
• Feilding family
• Earls of Denbigh
• Earls of Desmond (1628 creation)