The Fitzwilliams of Mount Merrion Lodge
Fitzwilliam Dynasty - End of the line
Slide 1. Self Intro
Slide 2. Wall Plaque - MM300.
Slide 3. The Coat of Arms of the Fitzwilliams of Merrion.
After the Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169 it took the best part of 30 years for any kind of normality to return to Leinster. After Strongbow died in 1176 there was a major struggle for power and property.
We understand the Fitzwilliams arrived from Yorkshire in about 1200 AD. They were asked in by various chieftains to bring Law and order to the South Dublin /Wicklow area. Tribes such as the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles (the Hill raiders) were raiding the (now) Norman farms which were originally theirs –how nasty of them.
Remember that one of the initial reasons for sending in the Anglo Normans was to bring the peasantry back into the strict realms of the Catholic Church. They were seen in Rome and by the English Pope Adrian 4th as being semi heretics.
SLIDE 4. The Fitzwilliam Castles
Over the next 500 years the extended Fitzwilliam family became very “ascendancy” Irish, they erected and dwelt in Castles in WICKLOW, DUNDRUM, SWORDS, SIMMONSCOURT, BAGGOTRATH, THORNCASTLE and MERRION. The pictures show Baggotrath, Dundrum, today’s Simmonscourt, Swords and Wicklow. They prospered and became one of the most important and prosperous Families in Leinster. They acquired their wealth and property through Marriages and conquests.
During the 17th century the Fitzwilliams were dispossessed by both Cromwell in 1653 and by William of Orange in the 1690s. They were later forgiven and the lands returned. Through it all they remained ardent Royalists and Catholics.
Slide 5/6. Merrion Castle
Their last Castle home was MERRION Castle on the site of what is now St Mary’s Centre for the blind on the Merrion Road. A plaque(6) from the original Castle is embedded in the end wall of the building.
MERRION castle was very big, decaying and was occupied at various times by both Friend and Foe Troops and “rats the size of cats”.
Slide 7 Thomas the 4th Viscount
Thomas the 4th Viscount Fitzwilliam was very highly regarded intellectually and because of his wealth and business acumen. It was he who so impressed William of Orange with his integrity that he returned to him all his confiscated property. Thomas was repeatedly nominated for a seat in the House of Lords but he refused to renounce his religion and so never sat. He died in 1704.
AND SO OUR STORY BEGINS. IT IS A TALE OF THREE FITZWILLIAM VISCOUNTS, EACH CALLED RICHARD- 5th, 6th and 7th.
Slide 8/9/10 RICHARD 5th VISCOUNT (1677—1743)
Thomas was succeeded by 27 year old Richard who became the 5th Viscount Fitzwilliam. Recently married to Frances Shelley (antecedent to Percy the Poet) he was both ambitious and felt very constricted by his religion.
He felt his rightful place was in the House of Lords and in 1710 he joined the Established Church (9) and took his place in College Green. That year he also set about finding a beautiful new site for his Family seat and found what he was looking for in Cnoc Rua, Mount Merrion. (10) His Lodge and Stables were built there in 1711.
He moved there with his wife Frances and Daughters Mary and Frances. Sons Richard, William and John were born in Mount Merrion.
Slide 11. The Stables, then and now.
Slide 12. George 1st and George 2nd
In 1714 they had a bit of a problem in England. Queen Anne died but thanks to the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 the next 57 persons in bloodline were Catholic and so could not accede to the Throne. George from House of Hanover, Anne’s second cousin and closest living Protestant relative, was invited to take the English Throne. Richard Fitzwilliam was given the task of welcoming him on behalf of his Irish subjects. It seems he hit it off particularly well with George’s son the Prince of Wales who became George 2nd in 1727.
Slide 13. THORP
In 1727 Richard’s ambition caused him to move the family from Dublin to Thorp in Surrey. Each member of his family secured posts in the Royal Household over the years that followed.
Cornwall
Richard himself was elected MP for the “rotten constituency” of Fowey in Cornwall. It was one of the Prince’s constituencies. It consisted of 300 Tax Payers. Richard served as MP for the constituency, without distinction, until 1734.
Slide 14. Mary and Henry Herbert 9th Earl of Pembroke
Richard’s daughter Mary became Maid of Honour to Princess (later Queen) Caroline in 1727 and at the age of 25 married Henry the 9th Earl of Pembroke.
Slide 15. Check out Wilton House in Salisbury. Henry was part of George’s close entourage and a career officer in the Kings own Regiment of the Horse. He was also an Architect of note.
Slides 16/17. Attributed to Henry
Slide 18. After her daughter’s marriage Richard’s wife Frances decided she had enough of Richard and being a good Catholic could not divorce him so she took herself off to a convent in France. There she stayed until his death in 1743. She returned to Surrey after his death and lived to be 86.
Slide 19. RICHARD 6th Viscount, (1711—1776) and Catherine Decker
As a young man Richard 6th Viscount joined the Kings own Regiment of the Horse commanded by his brother- in- law Henry Herbert. In fact he was in Germany with the Horse Guards at the battle of Dettingen fighting the French on behalf of the house of Hannover when his father died in 1743. And so he inherited the title.
!744 was a big year for Richard 6th. He married Catherine Decker the eldest daughter and heiress to Sir Matthew Decker a very wealthy Dutch born business man who had extensive trading lines with the Far East and was a Director of the East India Company. He was an avid collector of Dutch Masters Paintings, Prints and Drawings.
In a short time Richard was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of Bath, Vice Admiral of the Province of Leinster, Fellow of the Royal Society and a Privy Councillor in Ireland, obviously it paid to be well connected.
Slide 20. Ashford sketch of the Decker Home in Richmond
He and Catherine lived in the beautiful Decker house in Richmond.
Up to this time Richard had not shown much interest in the Family’s extensive Irish holdings. In fact he sent both his brothers to Dublin to help manage the Estates with Agent Bryan Fagan. But, on his accession to the title he was elected a member of the Irish House of Lords and appointed Vice Admiral of the Province of Leinster---so the seed was sown.
Slide 21. Leinster House
In 1745 Thomas Fitzgerald the Earl of Kildare contacted Bryan Fagan the Fitzwilliam Agent asking to purchase the lease for a large site south of St Stephens Green. When asked why he wanted a South City site when all the Gentry lived on the drier, more fashionable North side Kildare is alleged to have responded “Where I go the others will follow”.
And so Kildare House, later called Leinster House designed by Richard Cassells was built. An instant success, the exodus to the South side commenced and hasn’t stopped since.
Slide 22. Map of the area
Richard, shrewd man that he was then commissioned John Ensor (assistant to Richard Cassels) to design a square and a number of the adjoining streets. The area first had to be drained as it was low lying, but by 1762 Merrion Square and the adjoining streets were being built to very well -defined plans. Each building was 3.5 stories high, it helped that the granite used in the Pillars, Window surrounds and sills, Door frames and Steps were procured from the Fitzwilliam Family owned quarries in Ticknock. All the bricks were baked in the Fitzwilliam Kilns in Merrion. No shops or alehouses allowed, only residential. (maybe a few Doctors and Lawyers).
Slide 23. Rutland Fountain
Fitzwilliam had agreed to Kildare’s request that no houses would be built in front of his lawns. It must have hurt when Lord Louth offered £6000 for the site directly in front of Kildare house. But the offer was rejected. The only other construction on that side of the square was the Rutland Fountain, built in 1790 in memory of Charles Manners the Duke of Rutland who had been Lord Lieutenant from 1784—1787. The interesting thing about the fountain was that the water used was fresh and clean and was carted away by the barrel load---an early version of excessive use perhaps???
Slide 24,25, 26. Fitzwilliam holdings
The Fitzwilliam land holdings extended along the coastline from the South City to Blackrock past Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount and Booterstown. From there it went up the hill west to Ballinteer and thence North to Donnybrook. Flushed with the success of the Merrion Square area development and the subsequent movement of Merchants and Professional classes to the South side Richard decided the time was right to make better use of his extensive Land Bank and thus become a property developer. He was now spending more of his time in Dublin than in Richmond.
He built Mount Merrion Avenue which stretched from his home in Mount Merrion to the sea at Blackrock and sold/leased sites on the new Avenue. He then constructed Black Rock Avenue, what is now Cross Avenue and did likewise thereby generating sizable revenues.
(26) In Mount Merrion itself he extended the Demesne, added on to the original Lodge and laid out the beautiful Park with Gazebo, Shell house, Obelisk, Walks, Formal gardens and Deerpark surrounded by 8 foot high Granite walls (a large proportion of which are still in situ).
Slide 27. Bishop Pococke’s tour of Ireland 1752.
He also commissioned the first drawings for another smaller south city centre square to be called Fitzwilliam Sq.
Alas he died in Dublin in 1776 before that could commence and is buried in Donnybrook Graveyard.
Slide 28. Richard 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam (1745—1816)
Unlike his predecessors Richard 7th was not a soldier, a courtier, or a business man. He was a Man of the Arts. He grew up in his Grandfather’s magnificent home which was full of beautiful art.
Slide 29. Educated in Charterhouse and Trinity College in Cambridge from which he graduated in 1764 with a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. A very talented musician (harpsicord) he chose to study music in Paris and developed his tastes in all aspects of the Arts. Naturally he did the Grand tour of all the European Capitals where he indulged his passion for all branches of Art, but particularly original music.
Now there has always been a rumour that Richard became infatuated with a Barmaid in Cambridge. But when the family heard this they expedited his departure to Paris. Sometime later he is alleged to have discovered her in a fine house in Cambridge with a husband and child. And that as they say is that.
Slide 30. Zacharie
Although he never married he did father three children in Paris with a young ballet dancer called Anne Bernard better known by her stage name Mademoiselle Zacharie. This affaire lasted at least until the French Revolution in 1789, after that there is no record of they meeting.
Apart from representing the constituency of Wilton for 16 years in the English Parliament he was a member of the Irish House of Lords and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He went ahead with the Fitzwilliam Square development in Dublin. The work commenced in 1792 and ran in to many problems, mostly of the cash-flow variety. Problems were exacerbated by the Act of Union in 1801 which resulted in an exodus of some wealthy Dublin residents. But mainly thanks to incredible work by Barbara Fagan Verschoyle it was eventually successfully completed in 1813 when he persuaded Parliament to allow him to keep both Parks (Merrion and Fitzwilliam) for the private use of Square residents.
Slide 31, 32, 33. Paintings
His friendship with the eminent Landscape Artist William Ashford resulted in the commissioning of a folio of 24 grey wash drawings and 6 large paintings of and from Mount Merrion Demesne. These are now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Ashford later founded and became the first President of the RHA in 1823. A few years ago my wife, daughter and I were accorded a special viewing of the Folio and of the 6 paintings which were in the process of being restored in the Museum.
Slide 34. Lettres d’Atticus.
Richard’s travels throughout the Continent gave him a keen view on the political scene in Europe and in an anonymous publication in French called “Lettres D’Atticus” he discusses the difference between Protestant and Catholic Governments. He later published it in English under his own name. Not sure how it was received.
Slide 35. Verschoyle plaque in Booterstown Church
Although he continued to reside in London he remained very committed to his Irish heritage and that is best demonstrated by his acceding to a request from Barbara Verschoyle to fund the building of the Catholic Church in Booterstown in 1812, primarily for the convenience of his Catholic employees and tenants.
Richard had two brothers, both of whom were invalided, in poor health and had no heirs. After his death any surviving brother would succeed to the title but that was soon to die out. However the Dublin Estates were very valuable and now generated sizable income.
Slide 36. The Cup and saucer
So who benefits??
Well there are the cousins, the Herbert/Pembroke gang and there are the “other” Fitzwilliam line from Yorkshire.
Slide 37. Wentworth . They already have extensive estates in South County Wicklow based around Coolattin. Rumour has it that Richard invited the heir of both families to tea in Richmond. Yer man from Yorkshire, the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam from Wentworth Yorkshire, reportedly poured the hot tea from his cup into a saucer to cool it, much to the disgust of Richard. That did for him. The 11th Earl of Pembroke supped his way to an immense fortune. I believe the Cup and Saucer is still on display in Wilton House in Wiltshire.
The Doyan of Mount Merrion Historical Society Gerard O’Kelly got permission to examine the Pembroke papers many years ago. He saw a small brown paper parcel but ignored it. Did it contain the Cup and Saucer? It is reported to be still on view in Wilton House.
Slide 38. The Museum
Late in 1815 Richard had a fall from a ladder in the Library of his home and broke his hip. He died, presumably, from his injuries, in Feb 1816.
Slide 39. The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and a virginal.
He bequeathed his entire collection of 150 Magnificent Paintings, 300 Albums of priceless Dutch Master’s Prints, 10 rare Books, hundreds of Original Musical Scores, Manuscripts, Musical Instruments and the Capital and Dividends of an investment of £100,000 in South Sea annuities to his Alma Mater Cambridge to finance the building of a beautiful new Museum as he did not want his collection broken up and farmed out.
Hence the magnificent Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge today.
Slide 40. Richard 7th Viscount, the end of the line.
Slide 41. The Gates
Welcome to the Herbert—Pembroke era. The beautiful Irish Made Garden Gates taken from Mount Merrion and now in situ in the gardens of Wilton House in Salisbury.
Slide 42.
The original Gates to the Fitzwilliam Mount Merrion Demesne. Willow Park.
©Des Smyth- February 2020
For more Information on Mount Merrion History see MM300 Website
Fitzwilliam Dynasty - End of the line
Slide 1. Self Intro
Slide 2. Wall Plaque - MM300.
Slide 3. The Coat of Arms of the Fitzwilliams of Merrion.
After the Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169 it took the best part of 30 years for any kind of normality to return to Leinster. After Strongbow died in 1176 there was a major struggle for power and property.
We understand the Fitzwilliams arrived from Yorkshire in about 1200 AD. They were asked in by various chieftains to bring Law and order to the South Dublin /Wicklow area. Tribes such as the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles (the Hill raiders) were raiding the (now) Norman farms which were originally theirs –how nasty of them.
Remember that one of the initial reasons for sending in the Anglo Normans was to bring the peasantry back into the strict realms of the Catholic Church. They were seen in Rome and by the English Pope Adrian 4th as being semi heretics.
SLIDE 4. The Fitzwilliam Castles
Over the next 500 years the extended Fitzwilliam family became very “ascendancy” Irish, they erected and dwelt in Castles in WICKLOW, DUNDRUM, SWORDS, SIMMONSCOURT, BAGGOTRATH, THORNCASTLE and MERRION. The pictures show Baggotrath, Dundrum, today’s Simmonscourt, Swords and Wicklow. They prospered and became one of the most important and prosperous Families in Leinster. They acquired their wealth and property through Marriages and conquests.
During the 17th century the Fitzwilliams were dispossessed by both Cromwell in 1653 and by William of Orange in the 1690s. They were later forgiven and the lands returned. Through it all they remained ardent Royalists and Catholics.
Slide 5/6. Merrion Castle
Their last Castle home was MERRION Castle on the site of what is now St Mary’s Centre for the blind on the Merrion Road. A plaque(6) from the original Castle is embedded in the end wall of the building.
MERRION castle was very big, decaying and was occupied at various times by both Friend and Foe Troops and “rats the size of cats”.
Slide 7 Thomas the 4th Viscount
Thomas the 4th Viscount Fitzwilliam was very highly regarded intellectually and because of his wealth and business acumen. It was he who so impressed William of Orange with his integrity that he returned to him all his confiscated property. Thomas was repeatedly nominated for a seat in the House of Lords but he refused to renounce his religion and so never sat. He died in 1704.
AND SO OUR STORY BEGINS. IT IS A TALE OF THREE FITZWILLIAM VISCOUNTS, EACH CALLED RICHARD- 5th, 6th and 7th.
Slide 8/9/10 RICHARD 5th VISCOUNT (1677—1743)
Thomas was succeeded by 27 year old Richard who became the 5th Viscount Fitzwilliam. Recently married to Frances Shelley (antecedent to Percy the Poet) he was both ambitious and felt very constricted by his religion.
He felt his rightful place was in the House of Lords and in 1710 he joined the Established Church (9) and took his place in College Green. That year he also set about finding a beautiful new site for his Family seat and found what he was looking for in Cnoc Rua, Mount Merrion. (10) His Lodge and Stables were built there in 1711.
He moved there with his wife Frances and Daughters Mary and Frances. Sons Richard, William and John were born in Mount Merrion.
Slide 11. The Stables, then and now.
Slide 12. George 1st and George 2nd
In 1714 they had a bit of a problem in England. Queen Anne died but thanks to the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 the next 57 persons in bloodline were Catholic and so could not accede to the Throne. George from House of Hanover, Anne’s second cousin and closest living Protestant relative, was invited to take the English Throne. Richard Fitzwilliam was given the task of welcoming him on behalf of his Irish subjects. It seems he hit it off particularly well with George’s son the Prince of Wales who became George 2nd in 1727.
Slide 13. THORP
In 1727 Richard’s ambition caused him to move the family from Dublin to Thorp in Surrey. Each member of his family secured posts in the Royal Household over the years that followed.
Cornwall
Richard himself was elected MP for the “rotten constituency” of Fowey in Cornwall. It was one of the Prince’s constituencies. It consisted of 300 Tax Payers. Richard served as MP for the constituency, without distinction, until 1734.
Slide 14. Mary and Henry Herbert 9th Earl of Pembroke
Richard’s daughter Mary became Maid of Honour to Princess (later Queen) Caroline in 1727 and at the age of 25 married Henry the 9th Earl of Pembroke.
Slide 15. Check out Wilton House in Salisbury. Henry was part of George’s close entourage and a career officer in the Kings own Regiment of the Horse. He was also an Architect of note.
Slides 16/17. Attributed to Henry
Slide 18. After her daughter’s marriage Richard’s wife Frances decided she had enough of Richard and being a good Catholic could not divorce him so she took herself off to a convent in France. There she stayed until his death in 1743. She returned to Surrey after his death and lived to be 86.
Slide 19. RICHARD 6th Viscount, (1711—1776) and Catherine Decker
As a young man Richard 6th Viscount joined the Kings own Regiment of the Horse commanded by his brother- in- law Henry Herbert. In fact he was in Germany with the Horse Guards at the battle of Dettingen fighting the French on behalf of the house of Hannover when his father died in 1743. And so he inherited the title.
!744 was a big year for Richard 6th. He married Catherine Decker the eldest daughter and heiress to Sir Matthew Decker a very wealthy Dutch born business man who had extensive trading lines with the Far East and was a Director of the East India Company. He was an avid collector of Dutch Masters Paintings, Prints and Drawings.
In a short time Richard was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of Bath, Vice Admiral of the Province of Leinster, Fellow of the Royal Society and a Privy Councillor in Ireland, obviously it paid to be well connected.
Slide 20. Ashford sketch of the Decker Home in Richmond
He and Catherine lived in the beautiful Decker house in Richmond.
Up to this time Richard had not shown much interest in the Family’s extensive Irish holdings. In fact he sent both his brothers to Dublin to help manage the Estates with Agent Bryan Fagan. But, on his accession to the title he was elected a member of the Irish House of Lords and appointed Vice Admiral of the Province of Leinster---so the seed was sown.
Slide 21. Leinster House
In 1745 Thomas Fitzgerald the Earl of Kildare contacted Bryan Fagan the Fitzwilliam Agent asking to purchase the lease for a large site south of St Stephens Green. When asked why he wanted a South City site when all the Gentry lived on the drier, more fashionable North side Kildare is alleged to have responded “Where I go the others will follow”.
And so Kildare House, later called Leinster House designed by Richard Cassells was built. An instant success, the exodus to the South side commenced and hasn’t stopped since.
Slide 22. Map of the area
Richard, shrewd man that he was then commissioned John Ensor (assistant to Richard Cassels) to design a square and a number of the adjoining streets. The area first had to be drained as it was low lying, but by 1762 Merrion Square and the adjoining streets were being built to very well -defined plans. Each building was 3.5 stories high, it helped that the granite used in the Pillars, Window surrounds and sills, Door frames and Steps were procured from the Fitzwilliam Family owned quarries in Ticknock. All the bricks were baked in the Fitzwilliam Kilns in Merrion. No shops or alehouses allowed, only residential. (maybe a few Doctors and Lawyers).
Slide 23. Rutland Fountain
Fitzwilliam had agreed to Kildare’s request that no houses would be built in front of his lawns. It must have hurt when Lord Louth offered £6000 for the site directly in front of Kildare house. But the offer was rejected. The only other construction on that side of the square was the Rutland Fountain, built in 1790 in memory of Charles Manners the Duke of Rutland who had been Lord Lieutenant from 1784—1787. The interesting thing about the fountain was that the water used was fresh and clean and was carted away by the barrel load---an early version of excessive use perhaps???
Slide 24,25, 26. Fitzwilliam holdings
The Fitzwilliam land holdings extended along the coastline from the South City to Blackrock past Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount and Booterstown. From there it went up the hill west to Ballinteer and thence North to Donnybrook. Flushed with the success of the Merrion Square area development and the subsequent movement of Merchants and Professional classes to the South side Richard decided the time was right to make better use of his extensive Land Bank and thus become a property developer. He was now spending more of his time in Dublin than in Richmond.
He built Mount Merrion Avenue which stretched from his home in Mount Merrion to the sea at Blackrock and sold/leased sites on the new Avenue. He then constructed Black Rock Avenue, what is now Cross Avenue and did likewise thereby generating sizable revenues.
(26) In Mount Merrion itself he extended the Demesne, added on to the original Lodge and laid out the beautiful Park with Gazebo, Shell house, Obelisk, Walks, Formal gardens and Deerpark surrounded by 8 foot high Granite walls (a large proportion of which are still in situ).
Slide 27. Bishop Pococke’s tour of Ireland 1752.
He also commissioned the first drawings for another smaller south city centre square to be called Fitzwilliam Sq.
Alas he died in Dublin in 1776 before that could commence and is buried in Donnybrook Graveyard.
Slide 28. Richard 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam (1745—1816)
Unlike his predecessors Richard 7th was not a soldier, a courtier, or a business man. He was a Man of the Arts. He grew up in his Grandfather’s magnificent home which was full of beautiful art.
Slide 29. Educated in Charterhouse and Trinity College in Cambridge from which he graduated in 1764 with a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. A very talented musician (harpsicord) he chose to study music in Paris and developed his tastes in all aspects of the Arts. Naturally he did the Grand tour of all the European Capitals where he indulged his passion for all branches of Art, but particularly original music.
Now there has always been a rumour that Richard became infatuated with a Barmaid in Cambridge. But when the family heard this they expedited his departure to Paris. Sometime later he is alleged to have discovered her in a fine house in Cambridge with a husband and child. And that as they say is that.
Slide 30. Zacharie
Although he never married he did father three children in Paris with a young ballet dancer called Anne Bernard better known by her stage name Mademoiselle Zacharie. This affaire lasted at least until the French Revolution in 1789, after that there is no record of they meeting.
Apart from representing the constituency of Wilton for 16 years in the English Parliament he was a member of the Irish House of Lords and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He went ahead with the Fitzwilliam Square development in Dublin. The work commenced in 1792 and ran in to many problems, mostly of the cash-flow variety. Problems were exacerbated by the Act of Union in 1801 which resulted in an exodus of some wealthy Dublin residents. But mainly thanks to incredible work by Barbara Fagan Verschoyle it was eventually successfully completed in 1813 when he persuaded Parliament to allow him to keep both Parks (Merrion and Fitzwilliam) for the private use of Square residents.
Slide 31, 32, 33. Paintings
His friendship with the eminent Landscape Artist William Ashford resulted in the commissioning of a folio of 24 grey wash drawings and 6 large paintings of and from Mount Merrion Demesne. These are now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Ashford later founded and became the first President of the RHA in 1823. A few years ago my wife, daughter and I were accorded a special viewing of the Folio and of the 6 paintings which were in the process of being restored in the Museum.
Slide 34. Lettres d’Atticus.
Richard’s travels throughout the Continent gave him a keen view on the political scene in Europe and in an anonymous publication in French called “Lettres D’Atticus” he discusses the difference between Protestant and Catholic Governments. He later published it in English under his own name. Not sure how it was received.
Slide 35. Verschoyle plaque in Booterstown Church
Although he continued to reside in London he remained very committed to his Irish heritage and that is best demonstrated by his acceding to a request from Barbara Verschoyle to fund the building of the Catholic Church in Booterstown in 1812, primarily for the convenience of his Catholic employees and tenants.
Richard had two brothers, both of whom were invalided, in poor health and had no heirs. After his death any surviving brother would succeed to the title but that was soon to die out. However the Dublin Estates were very valuable and now generated sizable income.
Slide 36. The Cup and saucer
So who benefits??
Well there are the cousins, the Herbert/Pembroke gang and there are the “other” Fitzwilliam line from Yorkshire.
Slide 37. Wentworth . They already have extensive estates in South County Wicklow based around Coolattin. Rumour has it that Richard invited the heir of both families to tea in Richmond. Yer man from Yorkshire, the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam from Wentworth Yorkshire, reportedly poured the hot tea from his cup into a saucer to cool it, much to the disgust of Richard. That did for him. The 11th Earl of Pembroke supped his way to an immense fortune. I believe the Cup and Saucer is still on display in Wilton House in Wiltshire.
The Doyan of Mount Merrion Historical Society Gerard O’Kelly got permission to examine the Pembroke papers many years ago. He saw a small brown paper parcel but ignored it. Did it contain the Cup and Saucer? It is reported to be still on view in Wilton House.
Slide 38. The Museum
Late in 1815 Richard had a fall from a ladder in the Library of his home and broke his hip. He died, presumably, from his injuries, in Feb 1816.
Slide 39. The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and a virginal.
He bequeathed his entire collection of 150 Magnificent Paintings, 300 Albums of priceless Dutch Master’s Prints, 10 rare Books, hundreds of Original Musical Scores, Manuscripts, Musical Instruments and the Capital and Dividends of an investment of £100,000 in South Sea annuities to his Alma Mater Cambridge to finance the building of a beautiful new Museum as he did not want his collection broken up and farmed out.
Hence the magnificent Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge today.
Slide 40. Richard 7th Viscount, the end of the line.
Slide 41. The Gates
Welcome to the Herbert—Pembroke era. The beautiful Irish Made Garden Gates taken from Mount Merrion and now in situ in the gardens of Wilton House in Salisbury.
Slide 42.
The original Gates to the Fitzwilliam Mount Merrion Demesne. Willow Park.
©Des Smyth- February 2020
For more Information on Mount Merrion History see MM300 Website