Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
William Wellesley Pole 3rd Earl of Mornington
May 20-1763-February 22 1845
Another less famous brother. William was the older brother of Arthur, who would become the Duke of Wellington. Born a Dangan Castle he was the second the son of the 1st Earl, Garret Wesley, and his older brother Richard was the 1st Marquess Wellesley. Another younger brother was the 1st Baron Cowley. He was educated at Eton and entered the Royal Navy where he served aboard the HMS Lion and fought at the Battle of Grenada.
The young William Wesley aged 14, painted in 1777 by Benjamin West
The 1st Earl had debts and the family became cost conscious. Then in 1781 William Pole, William’s godfather and the husband of his great-aunt Ann Colley died and bequeathed his estates on Wesley. But they had to adopt the name Pole. William changed his name to Wesley-Pole.
William Pole (d. 1781) who at his death bequeathed his estate to William Wesley
William was a Tory and became a member of the Irish Parliament for Trim between 1783 to 1790 and then of the British House of Commons for East Looe from 1790 to 1795 and Queen’s County from 1801 to 1821. He served as Secretary of the Admiralty under the Duke of Portland from 1807 to 1809 and as Chief Secretary for Ireland under Spencer Perceval from 1809 to 1812. He was also Lord of the Irish Treasury and Chancellor of he Irish Exchequer. He was part of the British Privy Council and Irish Privy Council and served as Master of the Mint under Lord Liverpool. (DWW-All this while Wellington was not in politics so much, but in the Army. And Richard was also a member of the government. Either this was a talented or well connected family.)
In 1821 he was elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Maryborough. He was also Master of the Buckhounds and Postmaster-General. Then in 1842 when Richard died he became 3rd Earl of Mornington.
In 1784 he married Katherine Elizabeth Forbes, daughter of Admiral Forbes and the granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Granard and 3rd Earl of Essex. THey had one son and 3 daughters. The son became the 4th Earl, one daughter married Sir Charles Bagot who became Governor General of British North America, one daughter married the man who became the 1st Baron Raglan, and one married the man who became the 11th Earl of Westmorland.
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