Thomas Southwell, 1st Viscount Southwell

Thomas George Southwell, 1st Viscount Southwell (4 May 1721 – 29 August 1780) was an Anglo-Irish military officer, peer and politician who served as the governor of Limerick from 1762 to 1780.[1]

A 1741 portrait of Southwell by Charles Jervas

Background

He was the oldest son of Thomas Southwell, 2nd Baron Southwell and his wife Mary Coke, eldest daughter of Thomas Coke.[2] Southwell was educated at Lincoln's Inn and went then to Christ Church, Oxford.[3] He was commissioned an ensign in the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards on 1 May 1738, retiring from the Army in November 1741.[4] Between 1753 and 1757, Southwell was Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland.[5]

Career

In 1747, Southwell entered the Irish House of Commons for Enniscorthy, sitting for it until 1761.[6] Subsequently, he was returned for County Limerick, the same constituency his father and his uncle Henry Southwell had represented before,[6] until 1766, when he succeeded his father as baron.[7] Three years later, Southwell delivered his maiden speech in the Irish House of Lords.[8] He was appointed Constable of Limerick Castle in 1750 and Governor of County Limerick in 1762, posts he held until his death in 1780.[8] He was made High Sheriff of County Limerick for 1759. In 1776, Southwell was elevated to the title Viscount Southwell, of Castle Mattress, in the County of Limerick.[9]

Family

On 18 June 1741, he married Margaret Hamilton, daughter of Arthur Cecil Hamilton of Castle Hamilton, Killeshandra, Co. Cavan[10] and had by her three sons, Thomas (died young), Thomas Southwell, 2nd Viscount Southwell, and Robert, and a daughter, Lucia.[2]

Southwell had another daughter, Meliora, named after her paternal great-grandmother. The identity of this daughter's mother is not clear. Southwell recognised her as his daughter and, being her natural father, he was granted guardianship of her by the Court of Chancery of Great Britain. On 19 December 1758, Meliora married, by licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Joseph Otway, at St James's Church, Piccadilly. As a minor, Southwell had to give his permission for the marriage to proceed. The marriage was witnessed by Southwell, his son, Thomas, and his daughter Lucia.[11]

Southwell died, aged 59 and was buried at Rathkeale.[8] He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest surviving son, Thomas,[2] while his younger son, Robert, also sat in the Parliament of Ireland.[6]

References
  1. "Leigh Rayment - Peerage". Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. Burke, John (1832). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Vol. II (4th ed.). London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. p. 465.
  3. "ThePeerage - Thomas George Southwell, 1st Viscount Southwell of Castle Mattress". Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  4. Mackinnon, Daniel (1833). Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards. Vol. II. London: Richard Bentley. pp. 478–479.
  5. Waite, Arthur Edward (2007). A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. Vol. I. Cosimo, Inc. p. 400. ISBN 978-1-60206-641-0.
  6. "Leigh Rayment - Irish House of Commons 1692-1800". Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 11 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. Lodge, Edmund (1838). The Genealogy of the Existing British Peerage (6th ed.). London: Saunder and Otley. pp. 462.
  8. Lodge, John (1789). Mervyn Archdall (ed.). The Peerage of Ireland or A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. Vol. VI. Dublin: James Moore. pp. 26–27.
  9. "No. 11679". The London Gazette. 29 June 1776. p. 1.
  10. Debrett, John (1828). Debrett's Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. II (17th ed.). London: G. Woodfall. p. 781.
  11. The Register of Marriages solemnized in the Parish Church of St James within the Liberty of Westminster & County of Middlesex. 1754-1765. No. 1397. 19 December 1758.
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