Bessborough, Piltown, Co Kilkenny (Kidalton College) 

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London. 

“(Ponsonby, Bessborough, E/PB) A large house by Francis Bindon, consisting of a centre block of two storeys over basement joined to two storey wings by curved sweeps. Built 1744 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 1^st Earl of Bessborough, replacing an earlier house; the “Bess” in whose honour the estate received its name – which was singled out by Swift in his scornful attack on the custom of naming houses and estates after peoples’ wives – having been the wife of a seventeenth century Ponsonby. Entrance front of nine bays; three bay pedimented breakfont with niche above pedimented Doric doorway; balustraded roof parapet with urns; rusticated basement; perron and double stairway with ironwork railings in front of entrance door. Ingeniously contrived Gibbsian doorways in the curved sweeps, their pediments being above the cornice; niches on either side of them. Six bay garden front with four bay breakfront; Venetian windows in upper storey above round-headed windows. Later wing at side. Hall with screen of Ionic columns of Kilkenny marble, their shafts being monolithic. Saloon with ceiling of rococo plasterwork and chimneypieces with female herms copied from William Kent. The entrance front, never a very inspired composition, was not improved by the removal of the perron and substitution of a porch at basement level early in the present century, so as to enable the hall to be used as a sitting room; the architect of this work being Sir Thomas M. Deane. The house was burnt 1923. It was afterwards rebuilt to the design of H.S. Goodhart-Rendel; but in the end the family never went back to live in it, and it stood empty until it was sold in 1944. It now belongs to a religious order, and has been added to and altered; the urns have been removed from the parapet and are now at Belline.” 

For more on John Ponsonby (1713-1787), Speaker of the House, of Bessborough, see Melanie Hayes, The Best Address in Town: Henrietta Street, Dublin and its First Residents, 1720-80. 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/12325001/bessborough-house-kildalton-college-kildalton-piltown-co-kilkenny

Attached nine-bay two-storey over raised basement Classical-style country house with dormer attic, built 1744-55, originally detached on a symmetrical plan with three-bay full-height pedimented breakfront, four-bay three-storey side elevations having two-bay full-height breakfronts, and six-bay three-storey Garden (south) Front having four-bay three-storey breakfront. Renovated, pre-1899, with three-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting porch added to centre ground floor. Burnt, 1923. Reconstructed, 1929, to accommodate use as convent. Converted to use as agricultural college, post-1944. Hipped slate roofs on a quadrangular plan behind parapet with clay and rolled lead ridge tiles, cut-limestone chimney stacks (some on axis with ridge), lead-lined shallow barrel roofs to dormer attic windows, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Flat roof to porch not visible behind parapet. Limestone ashlar walls with rustication to ground floor (including to porch having piers supporting frieze, cornice, and balustraded parapet with urns on pedestals), stringcourse over, stringcourse to second floor, round-headed recessed niche to centre top floor breakfront with cut-limestone surround framing statuary, carved (moulded) surround to pediment, and carved (moulded) cornice supporting balustraded parapet. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, rusticated voussoirs to ground floor, carved surrounds to upper floors, and six-over-six timber sash windows. Square-headed opening (original door opening) to centre first floor breakfront with limestone ashlar pedimented Doric surround, and glazed timber double doors. Bulls-eye window opening to pediment with carved surround, and fixed-pane timber fitting. Some round-headed window openings to breakfront to Garden (south) Front (forming Venetian openings to top floor) with cut-limestone sills, channelled voussoirs to ground floor, carved surrounds to Venetian openings, six-over-six and three-over-six (top floor) timber sash windows having one-over-two sidelights to Venetian openings. Camber-headed window openings to dormer attic with timber casement windows. Round-headed openings to porch (in round-headed recesses to outer bays) with cut-limestone voussoirs having double keystones, timber panelled double doors having overlight, and six-over-nine timber sash sidelights. Interior with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set back from road in own grounds with tarmacadam forecourt, and landscaped grounds to Garden (south) Front incorporating terraces having flights of cut-stone steps with balustraded parapets supporting urns. (ii) Pair of attached single-bay (seven-bay deep) two-storey Classical-style blocks, pre-1944, perpendicular to east and to west with single-bay full-height pedimented breakfronts, and three-bay two-storey lower linking wings on L-shaped plans. Hipped slate roofs behind parapets with clay ridge tiles, rendered squat chimney stacks, copper-clad vents to ridge, and concealed cast-iron rainwater goods. Roofs to linking wings not visible behind parapets. Rock-faced limestone ashlar walls with cut-limestone stringcourse to first floor supporting limestone ashlar Doric frontispiece (incorporating breakfront) having engaged columns, flanking outer pilasters, frieze, moulded cornice, moulded surround to pediment, and balustraded parapet. Square-headed window openings to ground floor with round-headed window openings to first floor having cut-limestone sills, limestone ashlar block-and-start surrounds to first floor, and six-over-six timber sash windows having fanlights to first floor (fixed-pane fittings to Doric frontispiece on panel having foliate swag motif). Square-headed window openings to linking wings (some round-headed window openings) with cut-limestone sills, limestone ashlar block-and-start surrounds, and six-over-six timber sash windows having fanlights to round-headed openings. 

Appraisal 

A very fine substantial house built to designs prepared by Francis Bindon (c.1698-1765) for Brabazon Ponsonby (1679-1768), first Earl of Bessborough, and subsequently reconstructed in the early twentieth century to designs prepared by Harold (Harry) Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887-1959) following an extensive fire retaining a porch added in the late nineteenth century by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane (1827-99). Various cut-limestone details displaying expert stone masonry contribute significantly to the Classical elegance of the composition. Of particular importance for the relationship with Ponsonby family the house is of additional significance for the associations with ‘The Troubles’ (1922-3). Subsequently adapted to an alternative use a small number of additional ranges have been planned in a manner complementing the appearance of the original portion: however, further extensive development over the course of the mid to late twentieth century has included a number of accretions that have compromised some of the setting quality of the site. Nevertheless, the house remains an impressive feature in the landscape forming an important element of the architectural heritage of Piltown and the environs. 

Gateway, c.1750, comprising pair of sandstone ashlar piers on cruciform plans with raised bands having stringcourses supporting friezes, carved cut-sandstone cornice capping supporting acorn finials, wrought iron open work panels supporting decorative wrought iron double gates, wrought iron open work panels framing decorative wrought iron flanking pedestrian gates, limestone ashlar outer piers with cut-limestone capping supporting urn finials, limestone ashlar screen wall with cut-limestone coping, limestone ashlar piers with cut-limestone capping supporting urn finials, sections of wrought iron railings, and limestone ashlar terminating piers with cut-limestone capping supporting ball finials. Road fronted at entrance to grounds of Bessborough House (Kildalton College). 

Appraisal 

Constructed in locally-sourced Country Kilkenny limestone and sandstone an elegantly-composed formal gateway known as “The Grand Gates” exhibits particularly fine craftsmanship with robust Classically-derived dressings identifying the architectural design value of the composition. Decorative iron work fashioned at the R. and B. Graham Foundry further enlivens the aesthetic appeal of a commanding gateway forming an imposing landmark at the entrance to the grounds of the Bessborough House (Kildalton College) (12325001/KK-39-25-01) estate. 

Gateway, c.1750, comprising pair of rusticated limestone ashlar piers with cut-limestone capping supporting blocking course having ball finials over, decorative iron double gates, and random rubble stone flanking boundary wall to perimeter of site. Road fronted at entrance to grounds of Bessborough House (Kildalton College). 

Appraisal 

An appealing gateway forming a secondary entrance on to the grounds of the Bessborough House (Kildalton College) estate allowing a direct route to the centre of Piltown. The construction of the piers including heavy rustication in the Classical manner exhibits high quality stone masonry while decorative wrought iron gates further enhance the artistic design value of the composition. 

The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy: Kilkenny. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2004. 

Ponsonby (Earls of Bessborough). 

https://archiseek.com/2013/1744-bessborough-house-fiddown-co-kilkenny

1744 – Bessborough House, Fiddown, Co. Kilkenny 

Large Palladian house with wings, designed by Francis Bindon around 1744 on the site of an earlier house. Later addition of a porch by Sir Thomas Manly Deane, who also moved the principal entrance to the ground floor, and converted the original hall into a sitting room. The cigarette card illustration shows the entrance front prior to this. In 1923 the house was burnt and severely damaged. A thorough and complete reconstruction followed and was completed by 1929. Now known as Kildalton College, an agricultural college run by Teagesc. 

featured in Georgian Mansions in Ireland with some account of the evolution of Georgian Architecture and Decoration by Thomas U. Sadleir and Page L. Dickinson. Dublin University Press, 1915. 

“This large mansion, the seat of the Earl of Bessborough, is situated in the south of County Kilkenny, not far from the village of Pilltown, and lies in a well-planted desmesne of over 500 acres. It is built of hewn blue limestone, and rectangular in shape, as may be seen in Plate IX, being 100 feet in length, and in depth 80 feet. 

But this picture, we hasten to point out, does not represent the front exactly as it is now, for some years since the flight of stone steps which appears therein was removed, the principal entrance being changed to the ground-floor, and the original hall turned into a sitting-room. These alterations were carried out by Sir Thomas M. Deane, who also added a porch of the same stone that the house is built with. Thus the convenience of the house has been increased to the detriment of its Georgian appearance. 

This sitting-room, a large apartment hung with pictures, was originally decorated with plaster panels, but these, from being painted over, have lost their character as ornament. Two Ionic columns, monoliths, 10 feet 6 inches high, of black Kilkenny marble, polished, support an entablature. The drawing-room, opening off the original hall, but with a south aspect, is a handsome apartment, remarkable for its elaborate white marble mantel, which we illustrate at plate X. Its peculiarity, which was referred to in Vol. V of the Georgian Society at p. 60, is that the figures at either side are portraits. They represent two members of the Ponsonby family: Lady Catherine, wife of the fifth Duke of St. Albans, and Lady Charlotte, wife of the fourth Earl Fitzwilliam, both daughters of the second Earl. The rococo ceiling is worthy of note, and there is a deep frieze with medallions. This room contains a number of interesting pictures… It only remains to mention the well-proportioned dining-room, also on the first floor, and a small sitting-room, with a corner fireplace and handsome mantel. …[p. 22] Unlike most Georgian mansions, the stairs are not an important feature, and serve no purpose save of utility. One of teh bedrooms contains a fine oak Jacobean bedstead. 

p. 22. The history of this estate can be traced from an early period. It was called Kilmodalla, that is the Church of Saint Modailbh, and in the thirteenth century became the property of the Anglo-Norman family of D’Aton, of Dauton, from whom it received the name of Kildaton, sometimes incorrectly written Kildalton. 

Edmund Daton, of Kildaton, was attainted for participation in the rebellion of 1641, and in the time of the Commonwealth his estate was granted to Col. John Ponsonby, whose title to this and other lands, in all 19,979 statute acres, situated in the Counties of Carlow, Kerry, Donegal, Limerick, Waterford and Kilkenny, was confirmed by the Act of Settlement. Ponsonby was a Cumberland gentleman, who had raised a regiment of horse for service in Ireland, and had acted as Governor of Dundalk. [Kavanagh, the Aristocracy of Kilkenny, p. 169, tells us John Ponsonby was from Hale Hall in Cumberland.] On the fall of Richard Cromwell he declared in favour of a monarchy, and was in consequence high in favour at the Restoration, being included in the Act of Indemnity, and on 19^th February 1660-1661, dubbed a knight by the Lords Justices. It is singular that Sir John, who was a man of property in England, and in fact the head of his house, should have elected to settle in Ireland. He was at the time a widower with a family, one of whom inherited Hale Hall, his estate in Cumberland, and is said to have come over at the solicitation of his brother Henry, who had obtained a grant of Crotto and other lands in Kerry. 

[Kavanagh writes that when the war of Cromwell was concluded, he was appointed a Commissioner for the taking of depositions concerning atrocities committed against Protestants during the 1641-9 rebellion, and was made Sheriff of Wicklow and Kildare. Her was knighted by Cromwell and granted teh forfeited estate of Edmond Dalton of Kidalton and lands that formerly belonged to the Walshes particularly in the Fiddown area. …The Datons or Daltons as they were later called came to Ireland with the first Normans in 1171. They settled in Westmeath but later purchased a large estate in South Kilkenny, where they were living when the Cromwellians arrived. After their lands were confiscated some of the daltons may have moved to Connaught, but a number remained behind as tenants to the new landowners. Tjere was a number of Daltons in the Inistioge area in the 18^th century farming large holdings.] 

It was he who gave the name Bessborough, or Bessie’s Borough, in honour of his second wife, Elizabeth, widow, first, of Sir Richard Wingfield of Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, secondly, of Edward Trevor, and daughter of Henry, first Lord Folliott, probably on building a house to replace the castle of the Datons. In after years this circumstance came to the knowledge of Dean Swift, who makes use of it in his essay “On Barbarous Denominations in Ireland,” in which he vents his raillery on the landed proprietors. “The utmost extent,” he says, “of their genious lies in naming their country habitation by a hill, a mount, a brook, a burrow, a castle, a bawn, a ford, and the like ingenious conceits. Yet those are exceeded by others, whereof some have contrived anagrammatical appellations, from half their own and their wives’ names joined together: other, only from the lady; as, for instance, a person whose wife’s name was Elizabeth, calls his seat by the name Bess-borough.” Sir John was in residence in 1664, when he paid tax for five hearths. He acted in a most considerate and praiseworthy manner by the dispossessed owner, Edmund Daton, for he not only gave him shelter in his house, but maintained him there as his guest till his death. 

By purchasing land, and investing largely in soldiers’ debentures, Ponsonby acquired a considerable fortune. He died in 1668, and was succeeded at Bessborough by his son Henry [the eldest son of his second marriage], who, on Nov 5^th 1679, received the honour of knighthood. He doubtless fled to England to escape persecution during the vice-royalty of Tyrconnell, for he was resident there in 1689 when attainted by the Irish Parliament of King James II. On Sir Henry’s death, without issue, a few years later, the estates devolved on his next brother, Col. William Ponsonby, who accordingly made this his residence. He had been a Cornet of Horse in the Royal Army, from which he was removed for being a Protestant in 1686; and subsequently distinguished himself in command of Independent Companies in the memorable defence of Derry. He was prominent in affairs, represented County Kilkenny in five successive parliaments (1692-1721), and in 1715 as sworn of the Privy Council. In 1721 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bessborough, of Bessborough, and in the following year advanced to the dignity of Viscount Duncannon, of Duncannot Fort, in the County of Wexford. He married Mary, daughter of the Hon. Randal Moore, fourth son of Charles, second Viscount Drogheda (by Lady Jane Brabazon, daughter of Edward, second Earl of Meath), and had issue three sons and six daughters. 

[Kavanagh, p. 171. A son, Henry, married Frances, daughter of Chambre Brabazon 5^th Earl of Meath, “by whom he had a son, Chambre Brabazon. Chambre was married three times and by his second wife he had Sarah Ponsonby, one of the Ladies of Llangollen. Fn. Sarah ran away with her friend Eleanor Butler the daughter of the Ormonde heir. Sarah was the object of unwanted affection from her godmother’s husband, Sir William Fownes. Eleanor, a Protestant, was being persecuted by her Catholic stepmother. Sir William Barker of Kilcooley gave Sarah £580 which helped to keep them for a number of years. When Eleanor’s father succeeded as teh Earl of Ormonde he was persuaded by William Barker to make provision for Eleanor which he did. The two girls never married and stayed together at Llangollen in Wales until their deaths. They became a very celebrated couple and received visites from very distinguished peopel including Lord Byron, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Walter Scott, De Quincy, Wordsworth, Southey and many others.”] 

Lord Duncannon died at Bessborough on 17 Nov 1724, and was buried three days later, “with Escocheons,” [Funeral entry in Office of Arms, Dublin Castle], in the family burying-place in Fiddown Church. 

Brabazon, second Viscount Duncannon, who succeeded to the title and estate on his father’s death, had been an officer in the 27^th, or Inniskilling Regiment, in which he was Captain of the Granadier Company. By his marriage with Sarah, daughter of John Margetson of Bishopscourt, County Kildare, and widow of Hugh Colville, of Newtown, County Down, he acquired a considerable fortune, including landed property in County Kildare and in Leicestershire, as well as the pocket borough of Newtown Ards, for which he sat in the Irish Parliament from 1704-1714.  

[Kavanagh book, p. 171: “The following story is told of the marriage of Sir William’s eldest son, Brabazon Ponsonby, future MP and Earl of Bessborough, which took place around 1703. Brabazon soon found himself in pecuniary difficulties from which he attempted to extricate himself by proposing to marry a rich widow then living in Dubln, a Mrs Colville, granddaughter of Archbishop Margetson. Mrs Colvill woudl have none of him and refused to listen to his importunities. Brabazon, however, resolved on a plan for making her his wife. She was awakened one morning by a bank playing epithalamic airs outside her lodgings (the custom being to serenade newly married couples), and flying to the window, opened it, and beheld a great crowd cheering; at the same moment, the next window was thrown open [p.172], and Captain Brabazon Ponsonby appeared in a night dress, smiling and thanking the people for their congratulations. He had hired a neighbouring apartment and the band, and by this ruse proclaimed that he was married to Mrs Colvill. In vain she denied the assertion; public opinion, resting on such convincing proofs, was too strong for her, and she finally gave way and bestowed her hand and her fortune on th gallant officer, who left the Army.” His second wife Elizabeth Sankey was twice widowed and also an heiress] 

From 1715 until he succeeded to the peerage he was one of the members for the County of Kildare. In 1726 he was called to the Privy Council, being subsequently appointed a Commissioner of Revenue. In Nov 1733, six months after his first wife’s death, he married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of John Sankey, and widow, first of Sir John King, and secondly of John, Lord Tullamore. During the Lord Lieutenancy of the third Duke of Devonshire, and a few months after his eldest son had married the Duke’s eldest daughter, he was, by patent dated 6^th October 1739, created Earl of Bessborough in the peerage of Ireland. Ten years later he received an English peerage as Baron Ponsonby, of Sysonby, in County of Leicester, taking his title from the estate in England which his first wife had inherited from her father. 

p. 25. Til 1743 he sees to have lived principally at Bishopscourt, where in the autumn of that year he had the honour of entertaining the Lord Lieutenant, who had lately become connected with the family by another tie, his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, having married John Ponsonby, the Earl’s second son [afterwards the Right Hon. John Ponsonby, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and long leader of the patriotic party, who died in 1787. He was father of the first Lord Ponsonby, and of the Rt. Hon. George Ponsonby, Lord Chancellor of Ireland]. In 1744 he pulled down the “large old house” at Bessborough, and erected the present mansion from designs by Francis Bindon. As soon as it was completed, he took up his residence, making over Bishopscourt to his younger son John, who eventually inherited that estate. [This property remained in the possession of the family till sold to the 3^rd Earl of Clonmel in 1838.] We have unfortunately no detailed account of the house during the lifetime of the 1^st Earl. The Primate, who stayed there in January 1753, contents himself with telling Lord George Sackville that “everything was perfectly right and extremely agreeable.” 

[Kavanagh, p. 173: Brabazon’s second son, John Ponsonby, was perhaps the most talented and outstanding man of hte family. Born in 1713 he entered Parliament in 1739. Five years later he replaced his father as Commissioner for the Revenue. In the year just prior to that prestigious appointment he married Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of 3^rd Duke of Devonshire [who was Lord Lieutenant]. In order to reinforce his position as a most reliable government supporter, John raised four companies of horse for service against the the Scots rebels in 1745. In 1746 he was appointed a Privy Counsellor which carried with it the title of Rt. Honourable. Ten years later he reached the pinnacle of his power when he was appointed as Speaker of the House of Commons (in Ireland). IN addition to this he became an “undertaker” for the government. This meant that he undertook to manage the business of the government in the Irish Parliament in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant. In return he was given power to appoint people to high offices, acted as Lord Justice, was consulted about policies and given the necessary means to enable him to bring in a majority for hte government when bills needed to be passed. He retained this positino until 1770. After this time the practice was discontinued as Lords Lieutenants were obliged to remain in Ireland as residents.” 

p. 174. “John and his wife Lady Elizabeth had five sons and four daughters…His sons were William, John, George, Richard and Frederick. William and George were MPs and were very prominent in their support of the Catholic emancipatino movement, supporting the Catholic Relief Acts according as they were presented in Parliament. George was the more prominent of the two and led the Whig party in the English Parliament after th Union. William tried for the position of Speaker in 1790 but was defeated by John Foster. George was Chancellor of Ireland in 1806. …George had an illegitimate son, George Conolly Ponsonby, who distinguished himself in the Army. He fought in India and Afghanistan. He attained the rank of Major General. He settled his family in Germany and died there in 1866.] 

Lord Bessborough, who held the offices of Mariscal of the Admiralty in Ireland, and Vice-Admiral of Munster, was twice one of the Lords Justices. He died here at 3pm on Tuesday, the 4^th July, 1758, after a brief illness, caused by swallowing cherry-stones, aged 79. 

William, second Earl of Bessborough, who now succeeded his father, lived almost entirely in England. [In October 1773, he associated himself with the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquess of Rockingham, the Earl of Upper Ossory, and Lord Milton, in protesting against the Irish Absentee Tax. Their objection was based on the possession of estates in both countries, and that they should not be penalized for spending the greater part of their time residing in the capital of the UK for the purpose of attending to their duties as peers.] A highly cultivated man, an enthusiastic collector, and a patron of the fine arts, he was long prominent both in society and in politics. He had travelled extensively, and had not only made the usual European tour then essential to the man of fashion, but had even penetrated to Greece, which he visited in 1738, taking with him J.E.Liotard, the eminent French painter. [p. 26] In the following year, soon after his return home, he married, during the vice-royalty of her father, Lady Caroline Cavendish, daughter of William, third Duke of Devonshire. On 8^th June 1741, he writes from Chatsworth to inform the Lords Justices of his appointment as Principal Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant; in the following November he was sworn as Privy Councillor in Ireland. Prior to his father’s death, Lord Duncannon, as he was then, sat in the Irish House, representing Newtown Ards from 1725-1727, and County Kilkenny 1727-1758. He also sat in the English Parliament, representing Derby, a pocket borough of the Cavendish family, 1741-54; Saltash, 1754-56, and Harwich, 1756-58. In politics a Whig, he more than once held office, first for ten years, as a Lord of the Admiralty; then a Lord of the Treasury, 1756-59; and twice Joint Postmaster-General. 

[Kavanagh p. 176: “The 3^rd Earl probably lived most of his life abroad or in Dublinbut he maintained the house at Bessborough. He bought a fine mansion, called Belline that he been built by Peter Walsh in Pilltown in the late 18C, for his agent. Prior to the agent taking up residence it was made available by the Earl of William Lamb, the son of Lord Melbourne, the husband of the Earl’s only daughter, Caroline. He brought her there at the urgings of her frantic family. 

Caroline, who was born in 1788 and married to a besotted William Lamb in 1806. Caroline and William had only one son who survived childhood and he was not mentally capable. The marriage became unstable and  9p. 177) Caroline embarked on a very public affair with Lord Byron, much to the embarressment of her family and the annoyance of her husband. Affairs were very much in vogue but had to be discreet. Byron was just 24 at the time, three years her junior and on the verge of becoming the darling of society having just published Childe Harolde’s Pilgrimage. He was feted everywhere. They began a much recognised and indiscreet affair that lasted a tempestuous four months. Byron ended the affair much to Caroline’s displeasure. 

She then spent the next four years pursuing him. Byron avoided her, seeking refuge ifor some time with his new mistress, Lady Oxford, and eventually marrying a cousin of Caroline’s husband, Annabella Milbanke. As the enforced exile in Belline had no positive effect on Caroline her family frankly told Lamb to divorce her, but this he refused to do. The marriage continued until 1825. During the intervening period Caroline turned to novel writing and the characters of her first novel called Glenarvon were easily recognisable as leading society figures of the period, including Byron. She wrote two further novels, Graham Hamilton, publ, 1822, and Ada Reiss, pub. 1823. She died in 1828.] 

Lady Bessborough, who was a god-daughter of George II, died in 1760 of the same disorder , as Horace Walpole tells us, which had some years previously carried off four of her children. The Earl was a great favourite at Court, particularly with Princess Amedlia, the most attractive of the daughters of George II, and many of his letters relating to her will are preserved in the British Museum. He was so pleased at her condescension in coming to dine with him one night that he greeted her warmly with both hands, on which she exclaimed, “My Lord, you are very good, but I wish you would not paw me so!” When he was finally left alone, on the marriage of his younger daughter, the Princess was anxious that he should not remain a widower, and suggested that Lady Anne Howard would make a suitable bridge. But the Earl, so far from countenancing the idea, took upon himself to propose to the Princess, at which she “laughed to such a degree than she could hardly stand.” [from the Journal of Mary Coke. This does not appear to have caused a quarrel between them, for she appointed him one of her executors, and left him a legacy of £1000 stock]. 

He also admired Lady Mary Coke, the diariest, who describes him as “very entertaining.” … 

p. 27. As one of the first collectors in this country of gems, marbles, and works of art, he ws well qualified to become an original member of the Dilettanti, he was also member of the Accademia di Disegno at Florence, and in 1768 was elected a Trustee of the British Museum. … 

Although an absentee, Lord Bessborough did not neglect his Irish seat, and his artistic taste doubtless suggested the beautiful carved mantel in the drawing-room, with its representations of his two daughters…A visitor said “it felt as warm and comfortable as if the family had left it the day before, and it has not been inhabited these forty years.” 

…He died on May 1793, at the age of 88, being then “Father of the Dilettanti.” [A portrait of the Earl, in Turkish dress, by Knapton, is in the possession of the Society of the Dilettanti.] p. 28. A monument to him and his wife, with busts by Nollenkens, is in All Saints’ Church, Derby, where they were buried in the mausoleum of the Cavendish family. 

p. 28. Frederick, third Earl of Bessborough, his father’s only surviving son, also usually resided in England. He was educated in Christ Church College, Oxford, and entered Parliament in 1780 as M.P. for Knaresborough, which he represented until he succeeded to the peerage, beign twice appointed a Lord of the Admiralty. He tok a decided part in opposing the Union. He was a man of the most amiable and mild manners, who, without affecting the character of an orator, was an able and much-appreciated speaker. As a landlord, he showed the utmost consideration to his tenants and, inheriting the cultured tastes of his father, he was an amateur artist. Lord Bessborough married on 27 Nov 1780, Henrietta Frances, second daughter of John, first Earl Spencer, by whom he had issue, with a daughter and three sons [the daughter was the well-known Lady Caroline Lamb, wife of William, second Viscount Melbourne, and a remarkable woman. She was a devoted admirer of Byron, who is said to be the hero in her novel, Genarvon.] During his declining year he lived chiefly with his youngest son at Canford House, Dorset [the Hon. William Francis Spencer Ponsonby, who was raised to the peerage in 1838 as Baron de Mauley]. He died there on 3^rd Feb 1844 aged 86. 

His eldest son and successor, John William, fourth Earl of Bessborough, was the distinguished Whig statesman who died at Dublin Castle, while Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, on 22 May 1847.  

[Kavanagh, p. 178. 4^th Earl was reputed to have been an excellent (and resident) landlord. Liek his illustrious forebears he was closely allied to the Whig party and was liberal minded. It was he who first introduced Daniel O’Connell to the House of Commons in 1829 after he had been elected, as the first Catholic, thus gaining Emancipation.  

His was a poisoned chalice. He occupied the post of Lord Lieutenant during the Famine. This dreadful disaster was compounded by political unrest which manifested itself in the Young Ireland movement. Ever since 1829, O’Connell had been seeking Repeal of the Union, using all the peaceful means at his disposal, especially mass meetings. But younger more radical men became more violent in their language and some of their number advocated a peasant led social revolution. These wre the Young Irelanders.  [fn. Some of the persons involved were Smith O’Brien, a member of the gentry from County Limerick and an MP for Ennis, Charles Gavan Duffy, a Monaghan born Catholic journalist and publisher of The Nation, Thomas Davis, the Cork born son of an English Army surgeon, and John Blake Dillon a Mayo born Catholic barrister. 

The Lord Leiut. Threw himself wholeheartedly and vigorously into the efforts devised by the government to combat the effects of the famine. ] 

His fifth son, the Rev. Walter William Ponsonby, who succeeded when the peerage had been held successively by his two elder brothers, was father of Edward, 8^th Earl of Bessborough, the present proprietor of the estates.” 

Back to Bessborough

The above engraving of Bessborough, County Kilkenny is taken from John Preston Neale’s Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland, and Irelandpublished in six volumes between 1818-1824. It shows the house as originally designed by Francis Bindon around 1744 and without any of its later alterations and additions. As was mentioned last week, the Ponsonby family spent relatively little time on their Irish estate. When William Tighe published his Statistical survey of the County of Kilkenny in 1802 he observed ‘The principal absentee proprietor is the Earl of Bessborough, who possesses 17,000 acres in the county, about 2,000 of which are let forever…Though not inhabited for forty years, the house is kept in excellent order.’ 
It would appear that the second Earl of Bessborough, who while on his Grand Tour had travelled as far as Greece and Turkey in the company of the Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard (who painted him in Turkish costume) preferred to live in England where he enjoyed a successful political career. At Roehampton outside London he commissioned a new house from Sir William Chambers which was then filled with an exceptional collection of classical statuary. Only after his father’s death in 1893 did the third earl visit Bessborough for the first time but he too was an infrequent visitor. When staying in the house with the latter’s heir in 1828 Thomas Creevey wrote that following the first earl’s death two years after building’s completion in 1755, ‘His son left Ireland when 18 years old and having never seen it more, died in 1792. Upon that event his Son, the present Lord Bessborough, made his first visit to the place, and he is not certain whether it was two or three days he staid here, but it was one or the other. In 1808, he and Lady Bessborough came on a tour to the Lakes of Killarney and having taken their own house in their way either going or coming, they were so pleased with it as to stay here a week, and once more in 1812, having come over to see the young Duke of Devonshire at Lismore, when his Father died, they were here a month. So that from 1757 to 1825, 68 years, the family was (here) 5 weeks and two days.’ 

In 1826 the fourth earl, when still going by the courtesy title of Lord Duncannon, came over to Ireland with his wife and eleven children and, astonishingly, remained here until his death twenty-one years later: during the year before this occurred he served as Lord Lieutenant, the first resident Irish landlord to hold that office for a generation. Creevey’s letters to his step-daughter Elizabeth Ord tell us a great deal about life in Bessborough at the time. Of Lady Duncannon he wrote, ‘Her life here is devoted to looking after everybody, and in making them clean and comfortable in their persons, cloaths, cottages and everything…I wish you could have seen us walking up Piltown [the local village] last Saturday. Good old Irish usage…is to place the dirt and filth of the house at the entrance instead of behind it, and this was reformed at every house but one as we walked thro’ and Duncannon having called the old woman out told her he would not have the filth remain in that place…to which she was pleased to reply, “Well, my dear, if you do but walk by next Tuesday not a bit of the dirt shall you see remaining”.’ 
One suspects that the Duncannons were what might be described as benign despots, ruling over their tenants with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Creevey reported ‘My Lady’s mode of travelling is on a little pony, she sitting sideways in a chair saddle; one of the little girls was on another pony. My Lord and I sauntered on foot by her side. She got off and went into different cottages as we went. She gives prizes for the cleanest cottages…She put her Cottagers in mind of it, but there is a simplicity and interest and kindness in every communication of hers with the people here, on their part a natural unreserved confidential kind of return…’ 
No doubt worn out by her efforts to improve the lives of those around her, Lady Duncannon died in 1834 at the age of 46. Three of her seven sons became successively Earls of Bessborough, the sixth earl chairing the 1880 commission which investigated the problems of landlord and tenant in Ireland. His younger brother, the seventh earl, had previously been a Church of England clergyman. 

Although Bessborough was occupied more than had previously been the case, it was never a permanent home for the Ponsonbys who continued to spend much of their time in England. In Twilight of the Ascendancy (1993) Mark Bence-Jones reports that the family was in residence for eight weeks each summer and another four at Christmas, but while there they entertained extensively and on one occasion had Queen Victoria’s son the Duke of Connaught and his wife to stay. Bence-Jones notes that the royal party was treated to a concert during which another of the houseguests sang Percy French’s ballad ‘The Mountains of Mourne’; she was supposed to do so in her bare feet but instead wore bedroom slippers. During this period Bessborough was also notable for its amateur dramatic performances, a popular pastime in the Edwardian era; the future ninth Earl of Bessborough was a keen actor and even brought over a professional director from London. 
Nevertheless, like his forbears he was inclined to spend the greater part of his time on the other side of the Irish Sea. Prior to his father’s death in 1920 he had qualified as a barrister and served as an MP as well as becoming a successful businessman (and in the early 1930s he would be appointed Governor General of Canada). When the War of Independence broke out in this country he organised to have much of the contents of Bessborough removed from the house and brought to England. It was a wise decision since in February 1923 during the Civil War Bessborough was gutted by fire, along with another house in the same county, Desart Court. The damage to Bessborough was estimated at £30,000. 

The year after Bessborough was burnt, the ninth earl bought Stansted Park in West Sussex and commissioned Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel, an old friend from their days together at Cambridge, to carry out alterations to the house. Goodhart-Rendel was a gentleman architect who had inherited Hatchlands in Surrey, which he gave to the National Trust in 1945. Writing of him in October 1942, James Lees-Milne noted, ‘He told me the order of his chief interests in life is 1. the Roman Catholic Church, 2. the Brigade of Guards and 2. Architecture.’ It was thanks to Lees-Milne that Hatchlands came to be given to the NT and today the house is occupied by that wondrous Irish polymath Alec Cobbe in whose own family property Newbridge, County Dublin (now under the authority of the local council) hangs a portrait of his own ancestor Archbishop Charles Cobbe; this was painted by another gentleman-architect Francis Bindon, in turn responsible for the original design of Bessborough. 
Completing this circle, after he had carried out the job at Stansted Park, Goodhart-Rendel was invited by the ninth earl to oversee the rebuilding of Bessborough, which he duly did from 1925 onwards. In an article on Stansted Park written for Country Life in February 1982, Clive Aslet quotes Goodhart-Rendel’s comment that Lord Bessborough, when it came to reconstructing his family house, ‘relied on my memory for the character of what new internal detail we were able to put in.’ In fact, it does not appear that the house benefitted from much internal detail since the rooms are noticeably plain, the only striking space being the double-height entrance hall with a large staircase that runs up to a screened corridor and has a first-floor gallery on the opposite wall (see the three photographs immediately above). One also has the impression that the central block alone was rebuilt and not the quadrants or wings. 
The reason for this want of detail is most likely that the Ponsonbys never again lived at Bessborough and by the end of the 1930s they had entirely disposed of their County Kilkenny estate. Soon afterwards it was bought by a religious order, the Oblate Fathers who established a seminary there, adding large and aggressively workaday wings to either side of the house; understandably the architect of these extensions is unknown. In 1971 the estate was bought by the Irish Department of Agriculture and today Bessborough, now called Kildalton, serves as an agricultural college at the centre of a large working farm. Other than some fine planting in the immediate parkland, there is little to recall the house’s former existence, so let us end today as we did last week with a page from a visiting book. This one was kept by Lady Olwen Ponsonby who in 1901 married the third Lord Oranmore and Browne. The page below features signatures of guests at a house party at Bessborough in September 1909 and includes that of Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel immediately below a charming drawing he made of the front of the old house. Consider it serving as a memento mori not just for the old Bessborough but for many other such places in Ireland. 

In the Borough of Bess

Believed to date from September 1908 this photograph, which has appeared on several sites of late, shows the indoor servants at Bessborough, County Kilkenny. The house lay at the centre of an estate owned by the Ponsonby family. The first of their number to settle in Ireland was yet another of those English soldier adventurers who came to this country in such abundance during the late 16th and 17th centuries. Originally from Cumberland, Colonel Sir John Ponsonby was a member of Oliver Cromwell’s army who found himself rewarded for military service here with a parcel of land. He subsequently acquired several more, the largest being an estate by the river Suir in the south of the county hitherto owned by the Anglo-Norman D’Altons after whom it was called Kildalton. Here he settled and having built himself a residence, he re-named the place Bessie-Borough, later Bessborough after his second wife Elizabeth Folliott. 
Subsequent generations increased their landholdings in both Kilkenny and the neighbouring counties of Carlow and Kildare and by the mid-18th century were in possession of almost 30,000 acres. Furthermore, following the example of Sir John who had served as a local MP in the Irish Parliament and especially in the aftermath of the Williamite Wars (in which the Ponsonbys had been decisively opposed to the Roman Catholic James II) they became more engaged in politics. William Ponsonby, third son of Sir John, was created Baron Bessborough in 1721 and Viscount Duncannon two years later; in turn his son Brabazon Ponsonby became first Earl of Bessborough in 1739. 

The main block of Bessborough as we see it today dates from c.1744 and was commissioned by the first Earl to mark his new status. Although it is known that Sir Edward Lovett Pearce wrote a memorial about the building’s setting some time before his death in 1733, the design is attributed to Francis Bindon, a gentleman architect from County Clare, also notable as a portraitist (he painted no less than four likenesses of his friend Dean Swift). Bindon was related by marriage to Pearce and collaborated with Richard Castle on several projects, so his credentials are admirable. Nevertheless, one must be honest and admit that Bessborough was never one of his best works, the handling of the central structure being somewhat heavy. Writing in The Beauties of Ireland (1825) John Norris Brewer pertinently observed ‘The mansion of Bessborough is a spacious structure of square proportions, composed of hewn stone, but the efforts of the architect were directed to amplitude, and convenience of internal arrangement, rather than to beauty of exterior aspect. The house extends in front 100 feet, and in depth about 80. Viewed as an architectural object, its prevailing characteristic is that of massy respectability.’ 
Likewise in an essay on Bindon published in the Irish Georgian Society Bulletin for spring 1967, the Knight of Glin, evidently struggling to find something good to say about Bessborough (he described the garden front as being ‘an uninspiring six-bay breakfront composition with a pair of Venetian windows clumsily adrift on the first floor’) commented ‘The redeeming architectural feature of the house is to be found in the fine handling of the shallow quadrants leading to the flanking pavilions…The facing sides of the pavilions have niches and surmounting lunettes.’ The photographs above show the front of the house before and after it was altered at the end of the 19th century when the double-staircase leading to the raised entrance was removed and the ground was lowered to permit access via a porte-cochere; this work was undertaken by architect Sir Thomas Manly Deane. 

Others found Bessborough more appealing, certainly members of the Ponsonby family even though during the second half of the 18th century they were hardly ever there. The first time the third Earl of Bessborough, who had been raised in England, saw his inheritance was in the aftermath of his father’s death in March 1793. Four months later he wrote to his wife ‘I came here yesterday and am indeed very much pleased with the place…The mountains are beautiful over fine wood, and the verdure is the finest that can be seen…The house is large and very comfortable, but as you may suppose very old-fashioned. There are about 10 or 11 good bedchambers. You would make it very cheerful with cutting down the windows & I believe I should agree.’ 
His proposals were never carried out, not least because another fifteen years were to pass before Henrietta, Lady Bessborough – the beautiful sister of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – came to see her husband’s Irish home, although she was equally delighted with it then, writing ‘I like this place extremely; with a very little expense it might be made magnificent, and it is beautiful…’ Likewise when staying in the house in September 1828 with the next generation of Ponsonbys, that indefatigable diarist and letter-writer Thomas Creevey advised his step-daughter Elizabeth Ord, ‘This is a charming place. I ought to say, as to its position and surrounding scenery – magnificent.’ Above are two photographs of the garden front of the rear. Note the two-storey extension to the left of the main block, which may date from the same time as the alterations to the front. However, as the second picture shows, at the very start of the last century, this development was improved by the addition of a balustrade stone terrace with double steps leading down to the garden. 

We have relatively little information about the interiors of Bessborough, although they were, as both the largely absentee third countess and Thomas Creevey duly noted, certainly magnificent. The entrance hall – which became a sitting room after Deane’s alterations – featured a screen of four Ionic columns of solid Kilkenny marble each ten and a half feet tall. Sadleir and Dickinson’s 1915 Georgian Mansions in Ireland includes a couple of photographs of the saloon or drawing room, both shown above. One features a detail of the splendid rococo plasterwork with which the ceiling was decorated. The other shows the chimney piece, a design supposedly taken from William Kent although Sadleir and Dickinson propose the female herms in profile are portraits of the second earl’s two daughters, the Ladies Catherine and Charlotte Ponsonby who married the fifth Duke of St Albans and the fourth Earl Fitzwilliam respectively. 
Even though the house was not much occupied during this period, it was well-maintained. When staying at Curraghmore, County Waterford in 1785 Lady Portarlington wrote, ‘Another day we went to Bessborough, which is a charming place, with very fine old timber and a very good house with some charming pictures, and it felt as warm and comfortable as if the family had left it the day before, and it has not been inhabited these forty years.’ 
There remains a great deal more to tell about Bessborough, its destruction, reconstruction and subsequent history, so rather in the manner of Country Life, today’s piece finishes with the words: To be concluded next week. 
Meanwhile, below is a photograph of Bessborough with surrounding signatures of members of a house party there, taken from a visiting book kept by one of the Mulholland family (of Ballywalter, County Down) at the start of the last century. 

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_bessborough.html 

PONSONBYS of BESSBOROUGH 

SIR JOHN PONSONBY OF BESSBOROUGH 

The Ponsonbys of Bishopscourt, Co Kildare, and Bessborough, Co Kilkenny, were a family of staunch protestant Whigs descended from Sir John Ponsonby, a cavalry officer from Cumberland who was appointed by Cromwell to make a record of all atrocities committed on Protestants during the 1641-49 Rebellion. He was awarded an estate in Kilkenny at Kildalton which he renamed Bessborough after his wife Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Folliott. 

WILLIAM PONSONBY, VISCOUNT DUNCANNON 

Sir John Ponsonby’s second son William served with the Williamite army at the Siege of Derry. Elected MP for Kilkenny City in 1692, Sir William retained the seat for nearly thirty years when, in 1721, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Bessborough. Two years later, he became Viscount Duncanon.[i] 

THE 1st EARL OF BESSBOROUGH (1679-1758) 

Upon his death in 1724, Sir William was succeeded as 2nd Viscount by his eldest son, Brabazon Ponsonby (1679-1758) who had secured a wealthy heiress as his bride in 1703. The 2nd Viscount played an ingenious hand when he threw his lot in with the 3rd Duke of Devonshire, the rising star of British Whig politics. When the Duke began his seven year tenure as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1737, the 2nd Viscount convinced him to take his son William Ponsonby on as Private Secretary. In 1739, William married the Duke’s 20-year-old daughter, Lady Caroline Cavendish. That same year, the 2nd Viscount superseded Lord Shannon to become Commissioner of the Revenue and was further elevated to the Earldom of Bessborough. In 1743, the Earl’s ambitious younger son John ‘Speaker’ Ponsonby married another of the Devonshire daughters, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish. 

THE DEVONSHIRE – BURLINGTON MARRIAGE OF 1748 

By 1745, the Earl of Bessborough was a happy man. He had a secure seat in the Irish House of Lords and his family would retain control of the Revenue Board until Lord Townsend’s dismissal of Speaker Ponsonby as First Commissioner of the Revenue in 1770.[ii] His second son John (later the Speaker) further earned the trust of the government when he raised four companies of horse for service against the Jacobite rebels in Scotland in 1745. John was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland the following year and quickly began to consolidate the foundations laid by his father to make the Ponsonbys one of the principal parliamentary families in 18th century Ireland. 
 
But, if Speaker Boyle was already wary of the Ponsonbys, his heckles were considerably raised when, in 1748, the Duke of Devonshire ‘s heir (the Marquess of Hartington) married the ailing Earl of Burlington’s heiress. On one hand, this bode well as the Duchess-in-waiting was the Speaker’s niece. On the other hand, the Duke-in-waiting was a brother-in-law of not one but two of the dastardly Ponsonby boys. Moreover, it meant that Lord Burlington’s sister (aka Speaker Boyle’s wife) would no longer succeed to any of the fortune. Sure enough, when Lord Burlington died in 1753, Lady Hartington (the future Duchess) secured the whole shebang, including Lismore Castle in Waterford and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.[iii] 

THE PONSONBYS IN ATTACK 

The Ponsonbys were dog-like in their bid to bring down the Boyles, pushing for control of Cork City itself and angling for control of all the old Burlington boroughs. [iv] But they had no real power at constituency level, owning just one seat in their native Kilkenny plus control of the borough of Newtonards, Co Down, which they acquired amid much notoriety in 1744. Their political influence rested almost entirely on connections and borrowed strength – and it was always to do so. The pendulum swung Boyle’s way in 1751 when the Ponsonbys unsuccessfully challenged Speaker Boyle at a bye-election in Cork City.[v] But by April 1755 it was back with the Ponsonbys when their brother-in-law, Lord Hartington, became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Hartington succeeded his father as Duke of Devonshire in December 1755 and, the following year, replaced the Duke of Newcastle to become Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland. 

THE TRUCE & THE EARLDON OF SHANNON 

The Duke of Devonshire had no time for the Ponsonby-Boyle vendetta. The achievement of peace in 1756 involved protracted negotiations after which Boyle stepped down as Speaker on condition that he be elevated through three ranks of the Peerage to the Earldom of Shannon. He was further granted an annual pension of £2,000 for 31 years, payable by the Crown. His son was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance, for which one disgruntled contemporary felt he was ‘as fit …as the Primate or one of his own daughters’. 

JOHN ‘SPEAKER’ PONSONBY (1713-1787) 

Lord Bessborough’s second son, John Ponsonby, was duly appointed Speaker with a hefty annual salary of £4,000. He simultaneously became an ‘undertaker’ for the government by which he controversially undertook to manage the business of government in the Irish Parliament in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant. This gave him power to appoint people to high offices, as well as act as Lord Justice, and do anything he deemed necessary to bring about a government majority when bills needed to be passed. 

THE EARLS OF BESSBOROUGH 

Upon the death of the 1st Earl of Bessborough in 1758, the Speaker’s elder brother William Ponsonby (1704-93) succeeded as 2nd Earl. He had been MP for Kilkenny since 1727 and served variously as Lord of the Treasury, Lord of the Admiralty and as Joint Postmaster General. But his principle interests were collecting art and seducing women (including George II’s daughter, Princess Amelia). He and his son were largely absentee landlords but they would continue to exert considerable political influence throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The 3rd Earl’s daughter Caroline married future Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and enjoyed a very public affair with Lord Byron.[vi] The 4th Earl served as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, as Home Secretary, as Lord Privy Seal and as First Lord of the Admiralty. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland when the Famine broke but died, a day after his friend Daniel O’Connell in May 1847. The 9th Earl of Bessborough was Governor General of Canada from 1931-35. The 10th Earl was a Minister of State in Ted Heath’s cabinet. The 12th and present Earl lives in Hampshire. The family seat of Bessborough in Co Kilkenny was burned in 1922. 

THE PONSONBY-SHANNON MARRIAGE OF 1763 

The Ponsonby, Boyle and Devonshire dynasties were further united by a political marriage of 1763 when Richard Boyle (Lord Shannon’s son and heir) married Speaker Ponsonby’s daughter Catherine. The following year, Richard succeeded as 2nd Earl of Shannon. An uneasy alliance between the two families duly ensued although Lord Shannon and his father-in-law continued to disagree and bicker in private. The castle noted that, though their families were married, the two men ‘do not consult or act together politically’.  

THE DOWNFALL OF THE PONSONBYS 

In a letter to Anthony Foster from 15 August 1765, Speaker Ponsonby expressed himself with characteristic indiscretion: ‘What matters it to us who are Ministers in England? Let us stick to our own circle and manage our own little game as well as we can’. But the Speaker underestimated the charismatic Lord Townshend who became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1767. In 1770, both the Ponsonby and Boyle dynasties took a serious blow when Lord Townshend dismissed Speaker Ponsonby from his lucrative position as Commissioner of the Revenue, and dismissed Lord Shannon from his post as Master-General of the Ordnance. In a state of panic, Ponsonby resigned as Speaker and so lost any remaining influence he might have had. He spent the remainder of his life trying, in vain, to be reelected. His honest but indolent son Billy (aka Lord Shannon’s brother-in-law William Brabazon Ponsonby) tried to follow in his father’s footsteps but lost his way entirely, being defeated in 1790 when he attempted to wrestle the Speakership from John Foster.[vii] The Speaker’s second son George became a prominent advocate of Catholic Relief and led the British Whig party in opposition from 1808-1817. 

FOOTNOTES 

[i] William Ponsonby was created Viscount Duncannon (of the fort of Duncannon in the County of Wexford), and Baron Bessborough (of Bessborough in the County of Kilkenny) in the Peerage of Ireland in 1723 and 1721 respectively. 

[ii] In 1749 Lord Bessborough was given the additional title of Baron Ponsonby of Sysonby, in the County of Leicester, which entitled him to a seat in the British House of Lords. 

[iii] The 4th Duke duly recruited Capability Brown to landscape the gardens. Their son and heir, the 5th Duke, was played by Ralph Fiennes in the recent movie ‘The Duchess’. 

[iv] The Ponsonby’s first broadside had been fired in 1737 when they purchased the seignory of Inchiquin, right in the heart of Lord Shannon’s East Cork empire. 

[v] Their candidate was Sir Henry Cavendish, a kinsman of the Duke of Devonshire who had been collector of the Revenue in Cork from 1743-47 

[vi] The 3rd Earl’s son Major General Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby, a great Waterloo hero, was father to Sir Henry Ponsonby, private Secretary to Queen Victoria. 

[vii] His son William was the General Sir William Ponsonby who so memorably killed leading the cavalry charge at Waterloo. During the 1790s, the General’s older brother John, 2nd Baron Ponsonby, enjoyed an affair with society beauty Lady Elizabeth Conyngham, wife of the Marquess of Conyngham and later mistress to George IV.  

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/08/bessborough-house.html

THE EARLS OF BESSBOROUGH WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KILKENNY, WITH 23,967 ACRES

This ancient and noble family derives its origin from Picardy, in France. Their ancestor accompanied William, Duke of Normandy, in his expedition to England, and his descendants established their residence at Haile, near Whitehaven, in Cumberland.

They assumed their surname from the lordship of Ponsonby, in Cumberland. The office of Barber to the King was  reputedly conferred upon them  in 1177 by HENRY II, about the same time as the Earl of Arran’s ancestor was appointed Butler. Their coat-of-arms includes three combs.

JOHN PONSONBY, of Haugh Heale, Cumberland, and had a son,

SIMON PONSONBY, of Haile, who married Anna Englesfield, of Alenburgh Hall, Cumberland, and had a son,

HENRY PONSONBY, of Haile, who wedded, in 1605, Dorothy, daughter of Henry Sands, of Rottington, Cumberland, and had two sons, of whom the elder,

SIR JOHN PONSONBY (1608-78), Knight, of Haile, and of Bessborough (formerly Kidalton), County Kilkenny, Colonel of a regiment of horse in the service of CROMWELL, who wedded Dorothy, daughter of John Briscoe, of Crofton, Cumberland, and had by her a son, JOHN, ancestor of MILES PONSONBY, of Haile.

Sir John married secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, 1st Baron Folliott, and widow of Richard, son and heir of Sir Edward Wingfield, and by her had issue, from which derives the family of which we are about to treat.

Colonel Ponsonby, removing himself into Ireland, was appointed one of the commissioners for taking the depositions of the Protestants, concerning murders said to have been committed during the war, and was Sheriff of counties Wicklow and Kilkenny in 1654.

He represented the latter county in the first parliament called after the Restoration; had two grants of lands under the acts of settlement, and, by accumulating debentures, left a very considerable fortune.

Sir John was succeeded by his eldest son,

SIR HENRY PONSONBY, Knight, of Bessborough, at whose decease, in the reign of WILLIAM III, without issue, the estates devolved upon his brother,

THE RT HON WILLIAM PONSONBY (1659-1724), of Bessborough, MP for County Kilkenny in the reigns of ANNE and GEORGE I,who was sworn of the Privy Council in 1715, and elevated to the peerage, in 1721, in the dignity of Baron Bessborough. of Bessborough, County Kilkenny.

His lordship was advanced to a viscountcy, in 1723, as Viscount Duncannon, of Duncannon, County Wexford.

He married Mary, sister of Brabazon Moore, of Ardee, County Louth, and had, with six daughters, three sons,

BRABAZON, his heir;
Henry, major-general;
Folliott.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

BRABAZON, 2nd Viscount (1679-1758), who was advanced to an earldom, in 1739, as EARL OF BESSBOROUGH; and created a peer of Great Britain, 1749, as Baron Ponsonby of Sysonsby, Leicestershire.

His lordship wedded firstly, Sarah, widow of Hugh Colville, and daughter of James Margetson (son and heir of the Most Rev James Margetson, Lord Archbishop of Armagh), and had issue,

WILLIAM, his successor;
John, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons;
Richard;
Sarah, m to Edward, 5th Earl of Drogheda;
Anne, m to Benjamin Burton;
Elizabeth, m to Rt Hon Sir W Fownes Bt;
Letitia, m to Hervey, Viscount Mountmorres.

The 1st Earl espoused secondly, in 1733, Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of John Sankey, of Tenelick, County Longford (and widow of Sir John King, and of John Moore, Lord Tullamore), but by that lady had no issue.

He was succeeded by his elder son,

WILLIAM, 2nd Earl (1704-93), who married, in 1739, Lady Caroline Cavendish, eldest daughter of William, Duke of Devonshire, and had surviving issue,

FREDERICK, his successor;
Catherine, m to Aubrey, 5th Duke of St Albans;
Charlotte, m to William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam.

His lordship was succeeded by his only son,

FREDERICK, 3rd Earl (1758-1844), who wedded, in 1780, Henrietta Frances, second daughter of John, 1st Earl Spencer, and had issue,

JOHN WILLIAM, his successor;
Frederick Cavendish (Sir);
William Francis, 1st Baron de Mauley;
Caroline.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

JOHN WILLIAM, 4th Earl (1781-1847), LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND, 1846-7, who espoused, in 1805, the Lady Maria Fane, daughter of John, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and had issue,

JOHN GEORGE BRABAZON, his successor;
William Wentworth Brabazon;
FREDERICK GEORGE BRABAZON, 6th Earl;
George Arthur Brabazon;
WALTER WILLIAM BRABAZON, 7th Earl;
Spender Cecil (Rt Hon Sir);
Gerald Henry Brabazon;
Maria Jane Elizabeth; Kathleen Louisa Georgina; Georgiana Sarah; Augusta Lavinia Priscilla.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

JOHN GEORGE BRABAZON (1809-80), 5th Earl, who wedded twice, though the marriages were without issue, and the family honours devolved upon his brother,

FREDERICK GEORGE BRABAZON (1815-95), 6th Earl, DL, who died unmarried, when the titles devolved upon his brother,

THE REV WALTER WILLIAM BRABAZON (1821-1906), 7th Earl, who married, in 1850, the Lady Louisa Susan Cornwallis Eliot, daughter of Edward, 3rd Earl of St Germans, and had issue,

EDWARD, his successor;
Cyril Walter;
Granville;
Arthur Cornwallis;
Walter Gerald;
Ethel Jemima; Sara Kathleen; Maria.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

EDWARD, 8th Earl (1851-1920), KP CB CVO JP DL, who wedded, in 1875, Blanche Vere, daughter of Sir Josiah John Guest, 1st Baronet, and had issue,

VERE BRABAZON, his successor;
Cyril Myles Brabazon;
Bertie Brabazon;
Olwen Verena; Helena Blanche Irene; Gweneth Frida.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

VERE BRABAZON (1880-1956), 9th Earl, GCMG PC DL,

• John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl (1781–1847);
• John George Brabazon Ponsonby, 5th Earl (1809–80);
• Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, 6th Earl (1815–95);
• Walter William Brabazon Ponsonby, 7th Earl (1821–1906);
• Edward Ponsonby, 8th Earl (1851–1920);
• Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl (1880–1956);
• Frederick Edward Neuflize Ponsonby, 10th Earl (1913–93);
• Arthur Mountifort Longfield Ponsonby, 11th Earl (1912–2002);
• Myles Fitzhugh Longfield Ponsonby, 12th Earl (b 1941).

The heir apparent is the present holder’s son, Frederick Arthur William Ponsonby, styled Viscount Duncannon.

BESSBOROUGH HOUSE is located in Kildalton near Piltown in County Kilkenny.

It was first built in 1745 by Francis Bindon for the 1st Earl of Bessborough.

Bessborough House, as stated by Mark Bence-Jones, consists of a centre block of two storeys over a basement joined to two-storey wings by curved sweeps.

The entrance front has nine bays; a three-bay pedimented breakfront with a niche above the pedimented Doric doorway.

The roof parapet has urns, while the basement is rusticated; perron and double stairway with ironwork railings in front of the entrance door.

The Hall has a screen of Ionic columns made of Kilkenny marble.

The Saloon has a ceiling of Rococo plasterwork; and a notable chimney-piece.

Bessborough House had to be rebuilt in 1929 following a catastrophic fire in 1923, and the Bessboroughs never returned to it as a consequence.

In 1940, the Oblate Fathers established a seminary at Bessborough House.

The Oblates worked their own bakery, and farmed dairy cows, poultry, cattle, pigs, sheep. They grew potatoes, grain and other crops.

They also had a very good orchard.

Alas, the great mansion has been altered and added-to since the Ponsonbys left: The urns have been removed from the parapet and are now at Belline. 

From 1941 to 1971, 360 priests were ordained in Bessborough House, Kildalton.

By 1970, numbers joining the order had fallen and the Oblates decided to sell the property.

It was bought for £250,000 by the Irish Department of Agriculture in 1971.

It was then opened as an agricultural and horticultural college and renamed Kildalton College.

Other seats ~ Parkstead House, Surrey; Sysonby, Leicestershire; Stansted Park, West Sussex.

First published in September, 2011.