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Tag Archives: Charles Agar (1st Earl of Normanton)


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Birth of Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton

Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton, an Anglo-Irish clergyman of the Church of Ireland, is born in Gowran Castle in Gowran, County Kilkenny, on December 22, 1736. He serves as Dean of Kilmore, as Bishop of Cloyne, as Archbishop of Cashel, and finally as Archbishop of Dublin from 1801 until his death.

Agar is the third son of Henry Agar of Gowran and his wife Anne Ellis, daughter of the Most Reverend Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath. His brothers include James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden, and Welbore Ellis Agar, a notable art collector. Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, is his maternal uncle.

Agar is educated at Westminster School in Westminster, London, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculates on May 31, 1755, aged 18. He graduates BA in 1759, promoted by seniority to MA in 1762. On December 31, 1765, he is created a Doctor of Civil Law.

Agar is known to have held particularly marked Calvinistic positions. He serves as Dean of Kilmore from 1765 to 1768, and then as Bishop of Cloyne until 1779.

In 1776, Agar marries Jane Benson, a daughter of William Benson, of Downpatrick, County Down. In 1779 he is appointed as Archbishop of Cashel and also joins the Privy Council of Ireland. In 1784, while he is in office, the new St. John’s Cathedral, Cashel, is completed, and two years later its important Samuel Green organ is built.

In 1794, Agar is raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Somerton. In 1801, he is translated to become Archbishop of Dublin and is created Viscount Somerton. In 1806, he is further honoured when he is made Earl of Normanton. These titles are all in the Peerage of Ireland. He remains as Archbishop of Dublin until his death in 1809, and from the beginning of 1801 onward, sits in the House of Lords as one of the twenty-eight original Irish representative peer, following the Acts of Union 1800 which unites Ireland and Great Britain.

Agar dies on July 14, 1809, aged 72, and is succeeded in his secular titles by his son Welbore Ellis Agar. He is buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. His widow Jane, Countess of Normanton, is buried alongside him following her death in 1826. His tomb dates from 1815 and is created by John Bacon.


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Birth of William Beresford, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Tuam

William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Tuam, is born on April 16, 1743.

Beresford is the third surviving son, out of eight daughters and seven sons of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and his wife Catherine Power, 1st Baroness de la Poer, the only daughter and heiress of James Power, 3rd Earl of Tyrone and 3rd Viscount Decies. He enters Trinity College Dublin on December 18, 1759, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1763 and Master of Arts in 1766, before becoming a clergyman.

His birth into the politically influential Beresford family affords him a degree of opportunity, and he is made a vice-regal chaplain in 1766. Brother of George de la Poer Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford, he marries Elizabeth Fitzgibbon, sister of John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, on June 16, 1763. They had three sons and five daughters. These connections, however, do not automatically result in his being promoted to bishop, despite reaching episcopal age in 1773, and he spends several years as a well-beneficed rector of Urney in the Diocese of Derry. The Beresford family complains that he has been overlooked for several episcopal vacancies in the 1770s and it is not until 1780 that he is created Doctor of Divinity and consecrated Bishop of Dromore on April 8, 1780. At Dromore he erects a handsome new episcopal residence. On May 21, 1782, he is transferred to the diocese of Ossory and, as bishop there, takes his seat in the Irish parliament and exercises influence over the ecclesiastical borough of St. Canice.

The death of Primate Richard Robinson in 1794 is the stimulus for a reorganisation within the Church of Ireland hierarchy, and Beresford is one of the candidates rumoured to succeed him. However, his familial ties disadvantage him, because the government does not want to favour one Irish “party” over another. He is instead appointed to the vacant archbishopric of Tuam on October 10, 1794. An influential and senior position within the church, it is worth £5,000 per annum, which is more than Archbishop Charles Agar receives for the archbishopric of Cashel and provides him with extensive patronage.

In the late 1790s Beresford regularly attends parliament, particularly in the crucial session of 1799 as the Acts of Union is debated and shares his brother John’s view that a union is the best means of securing the Protestant interest in Ireland.

In the years following the union Beresford gains a temporal peerage, becoming 1st Baron Decies on December 22, 1812. He is an amiable, kind and loquacious individual, and is patron to artists, including Gilbert Stuart, who produces a portrait of him as Bishop of Ossory. His long years of service within the established church also makes him very wealthy, worth £250,000 at the time of his death.

Beresford dies on September 6, 1819, at Tuam, County Galway, and is succeeded in the barony by his eldest surviving son John on September 8, 1819. His eldest son Marcus had died in 1803. His youngest daughter Louisa, widow of Thomas Hope, marries, by special license, her cousin William Carr Beresford on November 29, 1832. Through Louisa he is a grandfather of British MP and patron of the arts, Henry Thomas Hope.

(From: “Beresford, William” by Martin McElroy, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, October 2009, revised June 2024)


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Birth of James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden

James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden, Irish peer and politician who holds the office of one of the joint Postmasters General of Ireland, is born on March 25, 1723, likely in Gowran Castle, County Kilkenny.

Agar is the second son of Henry Agar, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Gowran, and Anne Ellis. On March 20, 1760, he marries Lucia Martin, daughter of Colonel John Martin, of Dublin and widow of Henry Boyle-Walsingham. Together they have three children, Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis (b. January 22, 1761), John Ellis (b. December 31, 1763), and Charles Bagnell (b. August 13, 1765).

In addition to being a Member of Parliament (MP) for Gowran, for which he sits three times, from 1753 to 1761, again from 1768 to 1769 and finally from 1776 to 1777, he controls three other borough seats through the strength of his family holdings. Between 1761 and 1776, he represents Kilkenny County and between 1768 and 1769 Thomastown. He holds the post of joint Postmaster General of Ireland between 1784 until 1789 with William Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby.

Agar is made a Baron Clifden on July 27, 1776, and Viscount Clifden on January 12, 1781, and Baron Mendip on August 13, 1794. He dies on January 1, 1789, when his eldest son becomes the 2nd Viscount Clifden and Baron Mendip. His younger brother is Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton (1736–1809), who becomes the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.


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Birth of Politician Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis

henry-welbore-agar-ellis

Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden, Irish politician styled The Honourable Henry Agar between 1776 and 1789, is born Henry Welbore Agar at Gowran Castle, Gowran, County Kilkenny on January 22, 1761. He is perhaps the only person to sit consecutively in four different Houses of Parliament – the two in Ireland and the two in England.

Agar is the eldest son of James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden, son of Henry Agar and Anne, daughter of Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath, and sister of Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip. His mother is Lucia, daughter of Colonel John Martin, of Dublin. He is the nephew of Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton.

Agar is returned to the Irish House of Commons for both Gowran and Kilkenny County in 1783, but chooses to sit for the latter, a seat he holds until 1789, when he succeeds his father in the Irish viscountcy and enters the Irish House of Lords. He is appointed Clerk of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1785, which he remains until 1817.

In 1793 Agar is elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as one of two representatives for Heytesbury. He succeeds his great-uncle Lord Mendip as second Baron Mendip in 1802 according to a special remainder in the letters patent. This is an English peerage and forces him to resign from the House of Commons and enter the House of Lords. Two years later he assumes by Royal licence the surname of Ellis in lieu of Agar.

Lord Clifden marries Lady Caroline , daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, in 1792. His only son, George, becomes a successful politician and is created Baron Dover in his father’s lifetime, but predeceases his father. Lady Clifden dies at the age of 50 at Blenheim Palace in November 1813. Lord Clifden remains a widower until his death at the age of 75 at Hanover Square, Mayfair, London, on July 13, 1836. He is succeeded in his titles by his grandson Henry, the eldest son of Lord Dover.


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Birth of James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden

agar-ellis-arms

James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden, Irish peer and politician, is born on March 25, 1734. He holds the office of one of the joint Postmasters General of Ireland.

Agar is the second son of Henry Agar, a former MP for Gowran, and Anne Ellis, and is probably born at Gowran Castle in County Kilkenny. On March 20, 1760, he marries Lucia Martin, widow of Henry Boyle-Walsingham. Together they have three children: Henry-Welbore Agar-Ellis (b. January 22, 1761), John Ellis (b. December 31, 1763), and Charles-Bagnell (b. August 13, 1765).

Agar is made a Baron Clifden on July 27, 1776, and Viscount Clifden on January 12, 1781, and on August 13, 1794, becomes Baron Mendip. His younger brother is Charles Agar, first Earl of Normanton (1736–1809), who becomes the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.

In addition to being a Member of Parliament (MP) for Gowran, for which he sits three times, from 1753 to 1761, again from 1768 to 1769 and finally from 1776 to 1777, Agar controls three other borough seats through the strength of his family holdings. He represents Kilkenny County between 1761 and 1776 and Thomastown between 1768 and 1769. He holds the post of joint Postmaster General of Ireland with William Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby between 1784 and 1789.

James Agar dies on January 1, 1789. His eldest son, Henry-Welbore Agar-Ellis, becomes 2nd Viscount Clifden and Baron Mendip.

(Pictured: Arms of Agar-Ellis: 1st and 4th quarter: a cross sable charged with five crescents argent for Ellis; 2nd and 3rd quarter: azure with a lion rampant for Agar)