Rockingham, Co Roscommon
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.
p. 244. “(King and King-Harman, sub Kinsgton, E/PB; Stafford-King-Harman, Bt/PB)” A large Classical mansion by John Nash, built 1810 for Gen. Robert King, 1st Viscount Lorton, a younger son of 2nd Earl of Kingston to whom this part of the King estates had passed… Magnificent demese; wooded peninsulas and island in Lough Key, one island, oppostie the house, having an old castle of the MacDermots on it, to which was added an early C19 folly castle…2nd Viscount Lorton succeeded his cousin as 6th Earl of Kingston; but Rockingham passed to his younger brother, Hon Laurence King-Harman, from whom it passed eventually to Stafford-King-Harman family. The house was gutted by a second fire 1957; the then owner, Sir Cecil Stafford-King-Harman, second and present Bt, at first considered rebuilding but it was too expensive, so sold the estate to the Dept of Lands, which has made the demesne into a “forest park” and demolished the ruin of the house.”
https://archiseek.com/2012/1810-rockingham-boyle-co-roscommon/
1810 – Rockingham, Boyle, Co. Roscommon
Architect: John Nash
Originally built as a two storey house for General Robert King by John Nash. In 1822 an extra floor was added and after a fire in the 1860s it was rebuilt.
Known for a very fine interior, the house was destroyed by fire in 1957 and demolished. In 1973, a viewing platform, the Moylurg tower was built on the north west corner of the house
Featured in Mark Bence Jones, Life in an Irish Country House. Constable, London. 1996.
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland. Collins Press, Cork, 2010.
MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002
p. 185. [first pages of entry ripped out]
The King family were traditional English adventurers, anglicized versions of ‘the Mick on the Make.’ With the exception of a single member, Edward King, they were almost universally objectionable during their time in Ireland. Their blood was somewhat improved whenit started to flow through the female lines of descent, but even this would not be enough to save them. The first of the gang to arrive in Ireland was John King, who obtained a lease on the Abbey of Boyle from Elizabeth I. The family climbed the greasy pole up to a baronetcy and in 1764, the head of the family, Edward King of Rockingham, the second son of Henry King, the 3rd Baronet, became Baron Kingston of Rockingham. Two years later he rose a step in the peerage to Viscount Kingston and in 1768 he was created Earl of Kingston.
The family lived in their splendid (and recently restored) town house at Boyle, but it was the 1st Earl who decided to build a residence on his demesne at Rockingham. Robert, the 2nd Earl, was tried for the murder of Col Fitzgerald, the illegitimate son of his brother-in-law who ‘with circumstances that were particularly dishonourable’ secuded and then eloped with his daughter.
The Earl was tried by his peers in Dublin and had the sympathy of their lordships from the start. The full panoply of state was trotted out for this, only the third trial of a peer in Ireland. There was, of course, a full house with all the other peers decked out in their parliamentary robes for the occasion. A member of the public, dressed up to look like a public executioner, stood beside the accused throughout the trial armed with an axe, the blade held raised during the whole of the proceedings. If the verdict were guilty, then the axe would be turned towards his Lordship’s neck, in order to indicate the inescapable sentence – although at this date (f0llowing the splendid example set by the late Earl Ferrers) it would probably have ended in a hanging with a silken rope rather than a beheading. As it turned out, no witnesses appeared for the prosecution and so each of the peers declared that Robert, Earl of Kingston, was ‘not guilty, upon mine honour.’ The Lord Chancellor then broke his wand of office and the peer was declared to be acquitted.
This Lord Kingston was the public-spirited individual who is cretied with the invention of the ‘pitch cap,’ a diabolical form of torture whereby the victim’s head is liberally covered with pitch which is then set alight. It was much used immediately before and during the 1798 rebellion (cynics have even suggested that its use might have contributed, in some small way, to the outbreak of the unfortunate incident). With an eye to a fortune, he had married the heiress of the Fitzgibbons, the head of which family was known as the White Knight. She had brought as her dowry the vast estates in County Cork that became the seat of the future earls. Rockingham passed to their second son, Robert King, who had been jointly charged with his father for the murder of Col Fitzgerald and, like his father, found innocent of the charge.
The Act of Union brought Robert King an Irish barony as Lord Erris of Boyle. This was improved on six years later when the Viscountcy of Lorton was bestowed on him, and in 1810 he engaged John Nash to built him a grand neoclassical mansion on the shores of Lough Key. The house was originally of two storeys over a basement, which was undergound, roofs over by lawns. Fuel was brought in boats across Lough Key and taken into the house through one of several tunnels; another tunnel was used for delivering other goods by land, while the servants used a third to reach the stable yard where they slept.
p. 186. In The Statistical Survey of Roscommon of 1832, Isaac Weld wrote about the landscape: ‘No office of any kind being visible, but the whole being surrounded by smooth, shorn grass interspersed with beds of flowers and ornamental walks… subterranean passages carried from underneath the eminence on which the house stands towards the stables, which stand at a considerable distance screened by trees; the covered passage… does not reach the whole way to the latter, but merely far enough to prevent the appearance of movement near the mansion.’
The garden, or lake, front had a curved central bow with a colonnade of Ionic columns….[p. 187] A fire in 1863 led to further alterations…
p. 187. “Robert, 1st Viscount Lorton, served as Representative Peer for Ireland between 1823 and 1854. By this time it had become obvious that the senior branch of the family was going to die out, and that, in consequence, the Earldom of Kingston would pass to the Lortons. The second Viscount arranged accordingly that Rockingham would pass to his second son, Laurence, who took the additional name of Harman (when he married the heiress of that family from County Longford). Under this settlement Lord Lorton’s heir Robert retained the right to reside in the mansion, and he arrived one day bringing his mother, who was estranged from her husband. Lord Lorton was informed and he attempted to prevent his wife from getting into the house. Nonetheless, she arrived with Robert and her youngest son Henry and pushed her way into the house to take possession. Lorton ordered that his wife nd sons should be ejected by force if necessary and locked the gates. He tried to starve them out and, although some of the workers did side with her ladyship (as well as the local curate, a Mr Ward), the siege of Rockingham lasted for almost three months before the party decamped from the house.
The Earldom had been through awkward times since it had been created. The 3rd Earl, Robert’s older brother and known as “big George” was unintentionally the cause of the death of his son and heir. This gentleman, Lord Kingsborough, had stood surety for some of his father’s debts and, since they were unpaid, he was committed to the Sheriff’s prison in Dublin. As a result of drinking the water there, he contracted typhus fever and died in the gaol. His father, jealous of his younger brother Robert’s palatial home at Rockingham, had engaged the Pain brothers (who had come to Ireland to assist John Nash) to built him a new castle at Mitchelstown in order to outdo his brother’s mansion, his only instruction to his architects being that it was to be bigger than any other house in Ireland. He eventually went mad after his tenants rejected his candidate in an election. “They are coming to tear me to pieces!” he is said to have shrieked. After that, it was off to a lunatic asylum in London for the rest of his life.”
“Affairs did not improve for the family. The 4th Earl, Robert King (described as ‘a very weak minded man, wholly governed by whatever may be his favourite at the moment… he generally selects from the most vulgar of people’) was charged in 1848 with sodomy, but failed to appear at his trial. He had been bankrupted four years earlier; his castle had been under siege from his creditors and the great doors had to be forced. By 1860 he was making a series of court appearances charged with drunkenness, assaulting the police and even failing to pay his cab fares. [p. 188] The family, and the establishment, decided to put him safely out of harm’s way and in 1860 had him declared to be of unsound mind. He was followed as 5th Earl, for a brief two years, by his younger brother, on whose death the peerage passed to his cousin, the 2nd Viscount Lorton, who died a mere six weeks after becoming the 6th Earl.
Laurence King-Harman (the son of the 6th Earl, who inherited Rockingham), was followed by his son Col. Edward.
Of imposing stature, Edward was known as ‘The King.’ A brawler, who nearly died when he was stabbed in a public house in Sligo, he was a member of parliament for the Home Rule Party at a time when popular representation was passing out of the hands of the landed classes. He received about £8000 a year from rents which, but for encumbrances, would have brought him nearer to £40,000. Despite the drastic fall in his rents, he was a kind-hearted man whowould forgo rents if he knew that his tenants were in difficulties. By 1882, however, the Land War had forced a drop in his rent roll of some 20%, which removed, at a stroke, the remaining £8000 per annum that his rents gave him. Despite this setback, which would have finished lesser men, the Colonel determined to keep going. An opinion of his was expressed by the journalist Jasper Tully, who wrote ‘breeding may confer titles, but it cannot confer brains.’
In 1883, the King family estates consisted of 24,421 acres in Co Cork, based around Mitchellstown Castle, and 250 acres in Co Limerick – these brought in an annual income of £17,950. In addition,there were 17,726 acres in Co Roscommon, with Rockingham at their heart; 1783 acres in Co Sligo; 1554 acres in Co Leitrim, 196 acres in Dublin and 48 acres in Co Westmeath, which had an accumulated rent roll of some £9064 a year.
The ‘King’s’ daughter married Dr Thomas Stafford, a Catholic gentleman who nonetheless agreed to their children being brought up as Protestants. He eventually received a baronetcy (although for his medical services rather than for his ecumenism). The house was let to the Viceroy Lord Dudley among others at the turn of the 20th century. It was even suggested as a suitable residence for a member of the royal family, which, in the mood of the early twentieth century was wishful thinking indeed.
There is a story told about the time that Sir Thomas Stafford’s sons, Edward and Cecil Stafford-King-Harman, went to stay with their neighbours, the Gore-Booth family, at their home, LIssadell. They arrived rather late and then, to make matters worse, Edward mistook Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth for the butler and handed him his hat and coat. There was a ball after dinner and the young men got to bed not so much late as early. They were awakened before dawn by the real butler, Kilgallon, who told them that they had to go. ..
p. 189. Edward Stafford-King-Harman…married Olive Pakenham-Mason… He was heir to Rockingham and she was the heiress of Strokestown Park … The tenanted farms however had been sold as a result of the Wyndham Act and these large properties were expensive to run. WWI began less than a month later, and in November, Edward was killed in the trenches. His brother Cecil inherited the estate and the title and came to live at Rockingham in 1929.
p. 190. The house survived the burnings [of the Troubles]. Sir Cecil’s son Thomas came of age in 1942 and 200 people came to his party – he was killed less than two years later. The family stayed on and employed the architect Philip Tilden to make the house more manageable. Tilden closed off the basement and the top floor and brought the kitchen upstairs. .. In 1957 the house was burnt out again, and Sir Cecil sold the estate to the Dept of Lands….The house was demolished…The powers that be did provide a huge ugly concrete viewing tower – the ‘Moylug’ Tower – on the site of what had once been one of the most extraordinarily beautiful houses in Ireland.”
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http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/09/rockingham-house.html
THE KING-HARMANS WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY ROSCOMMON, WITH 29,242 ACRES
NICHOLAS HARMAN, of Carlow, settled in Ireland during the reign of JAMES I.
He was one of the first burgesses of Carlow, named in the charter granted to that borough by JAMES I in 1614, and was High Sheriff of County Carlow in 1619.
By Mary his wife he was father of
HENRY HARMAN, of Dublin, who had by Marie his wife, five sons and as many daughters, viz.
Edward, of Derrymoyle;
Anthony, dsp before 1684;
THOMAS, of whom hereafter;
William;
Henry, ancestor of HARMAN OF PALACE;
Anne; Mary; Jane; Margaret; Mabel.
Mr Harman died before 1649, and was succeeded by his third son,
SIR THOMAS HARMAN, Knight, of Athy, knighted by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas, Earl of Ossory, in 1664, Major in the army, 1661, MP for counties Carlow and Kildare.
Sir Thomas obtained a grant of considerable estates in County Longford, under the Act of Settlement, dated 1607.
He married Anne Jones.
Sir Thomas died in 1667, and they were both buried in Christ Church, Dublin, having had issue, with a daughter, Mary, a son,
WENTWORTH HARMAN, of Castle Roe, County Carlow, Captain of the Battleaxe Guards, 1683, who wedded firstly, in 1679, Margaret, daughter of Garrett Wellesley, of Dangan, and had issue, with one daughter, two sons, namely,
Thomas, b 1681, dsp;
WENTWORTH, of whom hereafter.
Mr Harman married secondly, in 1691, Frances, sister and heir of Anthony Sheppard, of Newcastle, County Longford, and had further issue,
ROBERT, successor to his nephew;
Francis, died 1714;
Anthony;
William;
CUTTS (Very Rev), successor to his brother;
ANNE, m Sir Anthony Parsons Bt, of Birr Castle.
Mr Harman died in 1714, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
WENTWORTH HARMAN, of Moyne, County Carlow, who espoused, in 1714, Lucy, daughter of Audley Mervyn, of Trillick, County Tyrone (and sister and heir of Henry Mervyn, of same place), and had issue,
WESLEY, his heir;
Thomas.
Mr Harman died in 1757, when was succeeded by his eldest son,
WESLEY HARMAN, of Moyle, who wedded Mary, daughter of the Rev Dr Nicholas Milley, Prebendary of Ullard, Diocese of Leighlin, by whom he had an only son,
Wentworth, who dsp in his father’s lifetime.
Mr Harman died in 1758, and was succeeded by his uncle,
ROBERT HARMAN (1699-1765), of Newcastle, County Longford, and Millicent, County Kildare, MP for County Kildare, 1755, County Longford, 1761, who married Ann, daughter of John Warburton, third son of George Warburton, of Garryhinch, in the King’s County.
Mr Harman dsp, and was succeeded by his only surviving brother,
THE VERY REV CUTTS HARMAN (1706-84), of Newcastle, Dean of Waterford, who wedded , in 1751, Bridget, daughter of George Gore,of Tenelick, County Longford, Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, and sister of John, Lord Annaly, by whom he had no issue.
The Dean presented to his cathedral the very fine organ which it possesses.
He died in 1784, and bequeathed his estates to his nephew, the son of his sister ANNE, who espoused, as above, Sir Lawrence Parsons,
LAWRENCE PARSONS-HARMAN (1749-1807), of Newcastle, MP for County Longford, who assumed the additional surname of HARMAN in 1792, on succeeding to his uncle’s estates.
He married, in 1772, the Lady Jane King, daughter of Edward, 1st Earl of Kingston, by which lady he had an only daughter,
FRANCES, of whom hereafter.
Mr Parsons-Harman was elevated to the peerage, in 1792, in the dignity of Baron Oxmantown, County Dublin.
He was advanced to the dignity of an earldom, in 1806, as EARL OF ROSSE, with special remainder, in default of male issue, to his nephew, Sir Lawrence Parsons, 5th Baronet, of Birr Castle.
His lordship died in 1807, when his peerage passed according to the limitation, and his Harman estates devolved upon his only daughter and heir,
THE LADY FRANCES PARSONS-HARMAN, of Newcastle, who married, in 1799, Robert Edward, 1st Viscount Lorton, and had issue,
ROBERT, 2nd Viscount, succeeded as 6th Earl of Kingston;
LAWRENCE HARMAN, succeeded to the Harman estates;
Jane; Caroline; Frances; Louisa.
Her ladyship died in 1841, when was succeeded in her estates by her second son,
THE HON LAWRENCE KING-HARMAN (1816-75), of Newcastle, and of Rockingham, County Roscommon, who assumed the additional surname of HARMAN.
He wedded, in 1837, Mary Cecilia, seventh daughter of James Raymond Johnstone, of Alloa, Clackmannanshire, and had, with other issue, a second son.
On his death, the property passed to his eldest son,
THE RT HON EDWARD ROBERT KING-HARMAN JP MP (1838-88), of Rockingham, County Roscommon,
Lord-Lieutenant of County Sligo, MP for Sligo, 1877-80, and Dublin, 1883-5, and for the Isle of Thanet, 1885-8, Colonel, 5th Battalion, Connaught Rangers, eldest son the the Hon Lawrence Harman King-Harman, of Rockingham.
Mr King-Harman married, in 1861, Emma Frances, daughter of Sir William Worsley, 1st Baronet, and had issue,
Lawrence William (1863-86), died unmarried;
Frances Agnes, mother of EDWARD CHARLES STAFFORD;
Violet Philadelphia.
Mr King-Harman was succeeded by his grandson,
EDWARD CHARLES STAFFORD-KING-HARMAN (1891-1914), who assumed, in 1900, the additional surnames and arms of KING-HARMAN.
He married, in 1914, Olive Pakenham, daughter of Henry Pakenham Mahon, and had issue,
LETTICE MARY STAFFORD-KING-HARMAN, born in 1915.
Captain Stafford-King-Harman was killed in action.
The family was seated at Rockingham, Boyle, County Roscommon, and Taney House, Dundrum, County Dublin.
ROCKINGHAM HOUSE, near Boyle, County Roscommon, the superb demesne of the King-Harmans, Viscounts Lorton, is bounded on the north by beautiful, island-studded waters of Lough Key; and, on the south, by a long line of lofty wall, overhung from within by a bordering estate along the road from Boyle to Dublin.
This was a large, Classical mansion, designed and built in 1810 by John Nash for General Robert King, 1st Viscount Lorton, a younger son of 2nd Earl of Kingston to whom this part of the King estates had passed.
Rockingham was remarkable due to its dome front and 365 windows.
It accidentally burnt down in 1957, as the result of an electrical fault, after which it was taken over by the Irish Land Commission.
The great mansion was declared as unsafe in 1970 and subsequently demolished.
The remnants of the house can be seen in the park to this day, such as its two ‘tunnels’ (which allowed the staff to unload provisions from boats and bring them to the house unseen).
These tunnels are still accessible to this day.
The demesne was magnificent, with a straight beech avenue three-quarters of a mile in length; and 75 miles of drives within the estate.
Sir Cecil William Francis Stafford-King-Harman, 2nd Baronet (1895-1987), considered rebuilding Rockingham after its catastrophic fire of 1957 with its original two storeys and dome; however, it transpired that the expense was prohibitive, so the estate was sold and the Irish forest service demolished the ruin of the once-great mansion.
The Moylurg Tower which provides a spectacular view of the lake, was built on the original foundations of Rockingham House.
First published in June, 2011.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2021/06/09/rockingham-1/
Differing Fates I
The two-storey gatehouse which formerly provided the main entrance to the Rockingham estate in County Roscommon; this building, like most of the others here, was commissioned by Robert King, first Viscount Lorton from architect John Nash. The gatehouse, however, is not in the classical idiom employed elsewhere at Rockingham but instead is an exercise in Tudorbethan Gothic with a crenellated parapet and pointed-arch windows, sandstone used for the main body of the building and limestone for the dressings. For the past half century this part of the former estate has been in public ownership, jointly managed by the local authority and Coillte. It might therefore have been thought that the historic buildings under their care would be decently maintained, but instead the gatelodge, under which many visitors pass as they arrive at the site, has been allowed to fall into neglect; hardly an impressive introduction to the place. Instead of being left in its present condition, the building ought to be restored, and could repay investment by being offered for holiday lets.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2021/06/12/different-fates-ii/
Differing Fates II
The Rathdiveen or ‘Tiara’ gate lodge stands at what was once another of the entrances to Rockingham, County Roscommon. Dating from c.1810 like many other buildings on the estate, this one is believed to have been designed by John Nash, the architect of the main house, but it has also been attributed to Humphrey Repton with whom Nash had earlier worked. However, since the two men had famously fallen out and ended their partnership in 1800, a link with Repton seems highly unlikely. The lodge’s most distinctive feature is a highly-distinctive bowed pediment reminiscent of a tiara which rises above a Doric colonnaded portico: the facade’s frieze echoes that found on the adjacent gate posts. Unfortunately, some years ago the latter were moved during road-widening works and not correctly realigned, thereby disrupting the symmetry of the entrance. Nevertheless, the lodge itself has been well-maintained by private owners, a contrast with the poor condition of the lodge shown here a few days ago which is in public ownership.
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John King 1st Baron Kingston lived in Mitchelstown Castle. John gave his younger brother Robert considerable lands in what was to become Rockingham, outside Boyle. John predeceased his brother Robert, dying in 1676, leaving two sons, who became 2nd and 3rd Barons Kingston.
Robert King (abt. 1640-1707) of County Roscommon held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Ballyshannon between 1661 and 1666. He built a sumptuous house at Rockingham in 1673, after he married Frances Gore, daughter of Lt.-Col. Henry Gore, around 1670. She had been previously married to Robert Choppyn of Newcastle, County Longford.
Robert was created 1st Baronet King, of Boyle Abbey, Co. Roscommon [Ireland] on 27 September 1682. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for County Roscommon between 1692 and 1699. He was also appointed Privy Counsellor in Ireland, and he held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Boyle between 1703 and 1707.
Robert’s brothers’ sons, the 2nd and 3rd Barons Kingston, still owned the property in Boyle. Robert King, 2nd Baron Kingston, and his uncle Robert 1st Baronet King of Boyle Abbey both supported William III, whereas most English families in Counties Sligo and Roscommon supported King James II. Both Robert Kings became heavily involved in military operations. Robert 1st Baronet King played a major role in the Battle of Aughrim. Anthony Lawrence King-Harman tells us that it was during this battle that Robert saved the life of the head of the MacDermot family, the original owner of Rockingham.
To add to complications of the time, Robert 1st Baronet of Boyle Abbey’s son John (1673-1720) supported King James II. He sat in King James’s parliament in Dublin. Fortunately he later escaped retribution from William III when William was made King, and his father must have forgiven him also as he was his father’s heir. John became 2nd Baronet King of Boyle Abbey.
The brother of Robert 2nd Baron Kingston, John (abt. 1664-1727/28), or Jack as he was known, eloped with a servant girl from King House named Peggy O’Cahan (or Kane). They moved to France and married, and he joined court of “The Pretender,” son of James II, also known as James III. Jack converted to Catholicism. His brother did not have children so Jack would have been his brother’s heir. However, due to his Catholicism, his family took legal action to disinherit him. Robert 2nd Baron Kingston instead changed his will so that his uncle Robert, 1st Baronet King of Boyle Abbey, would inherit the Mitchelstown estates and the estate in Boyle. Jack, however, disputed this. King-Harmon tells us in The Kings of King House that Jack, with the support of James II and Catholic circles in London, launched a legal action to show that the actions of his family were in contravention of the marriage settlements of his father, and before that of William Fenton, his mother’s father. He was successful and he obtained possession of Mitchelstown in 1699, but not the estate lands. Jack, who had become 3rd Baron Kingston after his brother’s death, also achieved a Royal pardon from William III for his previous support of King James II and his son.
Jack’s actions threatened the Baronets of Boyle Abbey and their ownership of Rockingham. However, they managed to hold on to their estate and the threat receded somewhat with the accession of William and Mary to the throne. Jack, with an eye to their future, raised his children as Protestants in Mitchelstown.
Robert 1st Baronet of Boyle Abbey’s daughter Mary married Chidley Coote of Cootehall, County Roscommon, son of Richard Coote 1st Lord Coote, Baron of Colloony, County Sligo. His son John, who became 2nd Baronet of Boyle Abbey upon his father’s death, married Elizabeth Sankey, but he had no children. Elizabeth went on to marry secondly, John Moore, 1st Baron Moore of Tullamore and thirdly, Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough. Her mother, Eleanor Morgan, was from Cottlestown, County Sligo, a property added in 2022 to the Section 482 list, which we have yet to visit.
The 2nd Baronet moved from Rockingham back to the house in Boyle, which by this time may have been known as King House. He died in March 1720 and his brother Henry (1681-1739) became 3rd Baronet King of Boyle Abbey.
It was Henry 3rd Baronet who built the King House that we see today. Rockingham burnt down, probably sometime shortly after the death of the 1st Baronet. King House in Boyle was destroyed by fire in 1720, so Henry immediately started to rebuild. King-Harman tells us he hired either Edward Lovett Pearce, or William Halfpenny, an assistant to Edward Lovett Pearce, as architect. The newer house may incorporate walls of the earlier house. A pleasure garden was created across the river, and it is now a public park. It contains a plinth that used to hold a statue of King William III but that statue disappeared!
Bence-Jones points out that: “As at Ballyhaise, County Cavan and King’s Fort, County Meath, there is vaulting in other storeys than just the basement; in fact, all four storeys are vaulted over. This was, according to Rev Daniel Beaufort, a fire precaution, Sir Henry King having naturally been fire-conscious after the fire in the earlier house.“
Sir Henry King, 3rd Baronet of Boyle Abbey, served as MP for either Boyle or County Roscommon for thirty three years. He married Isabella Wingfield, daughter of Edward Wingfield of Powerscourt, County Wicklow (her brother was the 1st Viscount of Powerscourt). Henry died in 1739 and was succeeded by his son Robert (1724-1755), 4th Baronet of Boyle Abbey.
Robert 4th Baronet became MP for Boyle also and was created Baron Kingsborough in 1748. It was he who bought the house in Henrietta Street in Dublin. He became Grand Master of the Freemasons in Ireland. He died unmarried. On his death, the Barony of Kingsborough became extinct.
On his death the entailed parts of the estate went to his younger brother Edward (1726-1797), who became 5th Baronet of Boyle Abbey. Edward was also a Grand Master for the Freemasons and MP for County Roscommon, and Privy Counsellor in Ireland. He inherited King House and large parts of the Sligo and Roscommon estates. However, a later will of his brother was found after his brother’s death, and all the unentailed land was left to their younger brother Henry. Henry did not marry but the dispute over inheritance led to lawsuits and caused family rifts, King-Harmon’s book The Kings of King House tells us.
Edward the 5th Baronet married Jane Caulfeild, daughter of Thomas Caulfeild of Donamon Castle, County Roscommon (still standing, it now belongs to the Divine Word Missionaries). Edward was ambitious and when his cousin James King 4th Baron Kingston died in 1761 with no sons, he applied for a peerage and was granted it, becoming the 1st Baron Kingston of the second creation. He built a second mansion in Rockingham, which he called Kingston Hall.
He arranged with 4th Baron Kingston that his son would marry the heir to Mitchelstown, Caroline Fitzgerald. The 4th Baron Kingston’s son William predeceased him in 1755, dying childless. The 4th Baron’s daughter Margaret married Richard Fitzgerald, son of the 19th Earl of Kildare. Their only child was a daughter, Caroline (1754-1823).
By marrying into the family of the Barons of Kingston, Mitchelstown came into the family of the Baronets of Boyle Abbey. Caroline and Edward’s son Robert were to marry when just 15 and 16 years old.
Meanwhile Edward, after intense lobbying, had become Viscount Kingsborough in 1767 and Earl of Kingston in 1768.
Edward, now Earl of Kingston, and his family moved into Kingston Hall in 1771, and King House was kept as a second residence, but following a fire in 1778, Edward decided to dispose of it. It was bought by the British army in 1795, and became the depot of the Connaught Rangers until taken over by the Irish army in 1922. It was abandoned and in ruins by 1987 when bought by Roscommon County Council, and it was restored and opened to the public in 1995.
Edward Earl of Kingston’s daughter Jane married Laurence Harman Parsons (1749-1807), son of Laurence Parsons, 3rd Baronet, who was later created 1st Earl of Rosse, and Anne Harman. Lawrence Harman Parsons changed his surname to Harman.
The 1st Earl of Kingston’s daughter Frances married Thomas Tenison, and their son Lt.-Col Edward King-Tenison lived in Kilronan Castle in County Roscommon and his wife, Lady Louisa Mary Anne Anson, was the origin of the use of the word “loo” for toilet! (according to The Peerage website). I’m not sure why! (Kilronan Castle is now also a hotel, https://www.kilronancastle.ie/ )
His daughter Eleanor died unmarried in 1822.
Edward’s heir, Robert (1754-1799) became the 2nd Earl of Kingston and married his cousin Caroline Fitzgerald of Mitchelstown when he was just 15.
They had nine children but later separated. When young, they lived in London, and toured the world, until they took up residence at Mitchelstown Castle. Mary Wollstonecraft, who later died after giving birth to Mary Shelley née Godwin who wrote Frankenstein, was tutor to the 2nd Earl of Kingston’s children. Mary Wollstonecraft later became a writer, intellecutal and radical, spending time in Paris during the French Revolution, and wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, as well as several novels. She remained friendly with King’s daughters, who imbibed Mary’s feminism. Caroline, unhappy in her life with Robert, moved to England, and Robert took a lover, Elinor Hallenan, who bore him two more children.
On 18 May 1798 Robert 2nd Earl of Kingston was tried by his peers in the Irish House of Lords for the murder of Colonel Henry Gerald Fitzgerald, who had seduced the Earl’s daughter. He was acquitted as no witnesses came forward – a benefit of being in the House of Lords was that one was not tried in a general court, but tried in a court consisting of the other members of the House of Lords.
Colonel Henry Gerald Fitzgerald was the illegitimate son of Caroline’s half-brother. Her father had remarried after her mother died. Caroline raised Henry Gerald along with her own family. Caroline brought her daughter Mary with her when she separated her husband and moved to England. It was Mary who was seduced by her cousin, despite him having a wife. As Mary Wollstonecraft later had lovers, perhaps young Mary King was influenced by her governess’s romantic nature. Colonel Fitzgerald regularly visited Caroline and Mary in their new home in London. One day, Mary disappeared, and was found installed in a lodging house, regularly visited by her lover, Colonel Fitzgerald. King-Harman tells the story in The Kings of King House. Her father shot and killed Colonel Fitzgerald.
Another daughter, Margaret, married Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl Mountcashell. Also influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft’s radicalism, she supported the United Irishmen and Anthony Lawrence King-Harman writes that she may have been with Edward Fitzgerald when he was mortally wounded in Dublin. She left her husband for George Tighe (1776-1837) of Rossana, County Wicklow, an Irishman living in Rome, and became close friends with Wollstonecraft’s daughter Mary Shelley. She wrote children’s books and treatises on pre- and post-natal care.
Robert’s son George (1770-1839) became the 3rd Earl of Kingston upon his father’s death in 1797. Robert left the Boyle properties to his second son, Robert Edward (1773-1854), who later became Viscount Lorton, the name chosen from a local place-name.
Robert Edward King (1773-1854) inherited Kingston Hall at Rockingham. He joined the military and distinguished himself in the Caribbean. When he inherited in 1797, he returned to Ireland and joined the Roscommon Militia and worked his way up to become a General. With Rockingham, however, came debt. In 1799 he married his first cousin, Frances Parsons Harman, daughter of his aunt Jane who had married Lawrence Parsons Harman (1749-1807), who owned the Newcastle Estate in County Longford. Robert worked hard to reduce the debt, and was a tough landlord, evicting many tenants.
Robert Edward was created Baron Erris of Boyle, County Roscommon in 1800 and in 1806, Viscount Lorton of Boyle, County Roscommon. His support of the Act of Union in 1800 would have helped in his rise within the Peerage.
Viscount Lorton decided to build a new house on the Rockingham estate, which is a few kilometers from Boyle. Robert O’Byrne tells us that the previous house, Kingston Hall, remained in use and became known as the Steward’s House. [4] The new house was designed by John Nash and was ready by 1810. Lorton also modernised the estate. Landscaper Humphrey Repton helped with the design of the outbuildings, gate houses and demesne. The house no longer exists, and the demesne is now part of Lough Key Park. An impressive gate lodge remains, and a chapel built by Lord Lorton in 1833 on the site of a 17th century church also built by the Kings. An icehouse, gazebo called the Temple and a tunnel which ran from the mansion to the lake and was used by tradesmen is open for visitors.
It was a time of trouble with tenants, as outlined in The Kings of King House. Robert evicted Catholic tenants due to uprisings. In famine years, however, he lowered rents and provided work.
Viscount Lorton’s daughters married well. Jane married Anthony Lefroy of Carriglass Manor, County Longford. Jane Austen had been in love with his father, Thomas Lefroy, and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice may have been based upon him. Caroline married Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet, of Lissadell, County Sligo (another section 482 property). Frances married Right Reverend Charles Leslie, who we came across when we visited Corravahan, another Section 482 property, in County Cavan.
Viscount Lorton’s heir was Robert (1804-1869). He had an unhappy marriage, and his wife, Anne Gore-Booth, daughter of Robert Newcomen Gore-Booth, 3rd Baronet of Lissadell, had an affair which produced a son. Robert and his father sought to make sure that this son would not inherit the King estates.
The Kings of Rockingham were a “cadet branch” of the family of the Kings of Mitchelstown, County Cork. Viscount Lorton’s older brother inherited the Mitchelstown estate and the title of 3rd Earl of Kingston. Let’s make a diversion and look at what was happening at the Mitchelstown estate.
After her husband Robert 2nd Earl of Kingston’s death, Mitchelstown remained in the hands of Caroline (née Fitzgerald), and she returned to run the estate for a further twenty-five years. She kept her son George at arm’s length, King-Harman tells us.
George did not inherit Mitchelstown until he was 53 years old. He was godson of King George III and was a friend of the Prince Regent who later became King George IV. He had several illegitimate children with a lover when he was in his twenties, with whom he lived in the Bahamas. He went on to marry Helena Moore, daughter of Stephen, 1st Earl of Mountcashell, County Tipperary. Before his father died, he was titled Viscount Kingsborough between 1797 and 1799, and he held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for County Roscommon between 1797 and 1799. He became Colonel of the local Militia, the Mitchelstown Light Dragoons, part of the North Cork Militia.
When his father died, he succeeded as the 3rd Baron Kingston of Rockingham, Co. Roscommon, the 3rd Viscount Kingston of Kingsborough, Co. Sligo, 3rd Earl of Kingston, and 7th Baronet King, of Boyle Abbey, Co. Roscommon.
George 3rd Earl of Kingston’s eldest son, Edward, predeceased him. Edward, who was Viscount Kingsborough, became interested in Mexico while in Oxford and devoted his life and finances to the production of a monumental work, The Antiquities of Mexico. He fell into debt, partly because his father did not allow him enough to run Mitchelstown, and was imprisoned in Ireland, where he developed typhus and died in 1837. In his lifetime he presented a number of antiquities to Trinity College Dublin.
It was therefore George’s second son, Robert Henry (1796-1857) who became 4th Earl of Kingston in 1839. By 1844 the Mitchelstown estate had been taken over by the Encumbered Estaes Court. Outstanding debts went back to James 4th Baron, King-Harman tells us. Despite this, Robert Henry’s life continued at Mitchelstown in rather high style, also despite the famine. Sadly, parts of the estate were sold off bit by bit and eventually Robert Henry had a mental breakdown and ended up in an asylum in England. [for more about the 4th Earl of Kingston see the Irish Aesthete’s blog. [5]
His younger brother James became the 5th Earl of Kingston, but died two years later without issue, and with him the Barony of Kingston of Mitchelstown became extinct. He married Anna Brinkley from Parstonstown (Birr), who was thirty years his junior, and King-Harman tells us that she “was destined to play a major role in the affairs of Castle [of Mitchelstown] right through to the present century.” They had no children, so the estate would have gone to the Viscounts Lorton of Boyle.
Robert, who was to become 2nd Viscount Lorton, and his wife Anne née Gore-Booth, had a son, Robert (1831-1871), and a daughter, Frances. Anne then had a son, Henry Ernest, with her lover, Vicomte Ernest Satgé St Jean. 1st Viscount Lorton tried to take action to ensure that Henry Ernest would not inherit.
In order to avoid Henry Ernest from inheriting Mitchelstown, they had to break the entail on Mitchelstown and James the 5th Earl of Kingston promised money from the Mitchelstown estate to the 3rd Viscount Lorton, for signing away the entail. Instead, Mitchelstown was left to his wife. The money promised to 3rd Viscount Lorton formed a debt, falling to Anna Brinkley, which gave her much difficulty later.
Before continuing, I must mention the youngest son of 1st Viscount Lorton, Laurence Harman King (1816-1875). He married Mary Cecilia Johnstone of Alva, Scotland. His father drew up a settlement which in the event that the 2nd Viscount’s legitimate son did not have an heir, Rockingham would go to his younger son, Laurence Harman, who in 1838 had legally changed his name to Laurence Harman King-Harman.
Laurence Harman King-Harman also inherited the estate of Newcastle in County Longford. He was chosen for the inheritance in preference to his dissipated brother. Lawrence’s mother, recall, was Frances Parsons, daughter of Laurence Harman Parsons and and Jane King (daughter of 1st Earl of Kingston). Laurence Harman Parsons’s father was Laurence Parsons, 3rd Baronet of Birr Castle, County Offaly, and his mother was Anne Harman, whose family owned Newcastle, County Longford.
The property of Newcastle had belonged to the Chappoyne family. A daughter of that family married Anthony Sheppard, and the property passed into the ownership of the Sheppard family. It then passed via a daughter, Frances Sheppard, who married Wentworth Harman (c. 1635-1714). On Frances’s death in 1766 the property passed to her son Reverend Cutts Harman (1706-1784), Dean of Waterford. He had no children, so he left the property to his nephew, Laurence Parsons, who had married Jane King. In return, Laurence Parsons added the name Harman to his surname in 1792 to become Laurence Harman Parsons-Harman.
Laurence Harman Parsons was created 1st Baron Oxmantown, Co. Wexford in 1792, and 1st Earl of Rosse in 1806.
Laurence and Jane had a daughter, Frances, and no son. Frances married Robert Edward King, 1st Viscount Lorton in 1799. Laurence left all of his property to his wife Jane, which included Newcastle and two houses in St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Upon the birth of Frances and Robert Edward’s second son, whom they named Laurence Harman King, Lady Rosse decided to leave Newcastle to him. In 1838 when Lady Rosse died, just a year after Laurence Harman King’s marriage, he inherited Newcastle. At that time he also added Harman to his surname to become Laurence Harman King-Harman. [6]
One can now stay in Newcastle House, see https://www.newcastlehousehotel.ie/
Let us go back, however, to his brother Robert, who was upon his father’s death to become 2nd Viscount Lorton. The reason that 1st Viscount Lorton was worried about the second, illegitimate grandson inheriting, is that the first grandson, Robert Edward, had suffered a serious illness and had only one child, a daughter.
The 1st Viscount Lorton died in 1854 and was buried in the family vault in Boyle Abbey.
The 1st Viscount Lorton’s son Robert had been a long time waiting to come into his inheritance and had meanwhile spent his time dissipating the family’s money and by the time of his marriage, according to The Kings of King House, had a reputation for drinking too much alcohol. In the same year that she was proven to have an affair, Robert became semi-paralysed, perhaps after severe attack of delirium tremens from his drinking.
Robert and his wife Anne moved to Frankfurt in 1840 and his health improved somewhat. However it was here that his wife met Vicomte Ernest de Satgé St Jean. He too was married. He and Anne accumulated debts at the gaming tables which Robert had to pay, and when his wife left him, Ernest de Satgé St Jean moved into the home of the Kings in Frankfurt!
When 1st Viscount Lorton heard of the shenanigans, he sent an old friend to bring his son and his son’s wife back to Ireland. He did not succeed, and the story of Robert’s wife’s debts reminds me of “Buck” Whaley’s, with the Vicomte entering in convoluted schemes in order to try to gain money to pay off his debts, as described in The Kings of King House.
When the 1st then 2nd Viscounts Lorton died, the 2nd Viscount’s legitimate son Robert Edward (1731-1771) came into ownership of Rockingham, and became 3rd Viscount Lorton and 7th Earl of Kingston. He died two years later, after felling large quantities of timber at Rockingham to pay off his debts.
In the meantime, the younger son, Henry Ernest Newcomen King (named Ernest after his birth father) had not been legally recognised as illegitimate. Therefore when his brother died, he became 8th Earl of Kingston, although he did not inherit as much land as he could have, since the entail on Mitchelstown had been broken, and his uncle Laurence Harman inherited Newcastle and Rockingham. He joined the Connaught Rangers, which were housed in the old King home, and he gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was a representative Irish peer in the House of Lords. He married Florence, daughter and co-heir of Colonel Edward King-Tenison of Kilronan Castle in County Roscommon. He changed his name to surname King-Tenison in 1883. He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of County Roscommon between 1888 and 1896.
The Coronation Robe and Crown in the dining room of King House belong to his son the 9th Earl of Kingston’s wife, Ethel Lisette, made to be worn at the coronation of King Edward VIII in 1936, which did not happen since he abdicated the throne.
On the death of the 7th Earl of Kingston, the 1st Viscount Lorton’s youngest son, Harman King-Harman, inherited Rockingham and the Boyle estates as life tenant. He remained living in Newcastle, County Longford. He had six sons and his eldest Edward King-Harman (1838-1888) would inherit Rockingham and Newcastle.
To continue with the story of Mitchelstown, in 1873 Anna née Brinkley, wife of James 5th Earl of Kingston, remarried, to William Webber. King-Harman writes that Webber allowed his relationship to the tenants to deteriorate. Meanwhile, the old debts were paid off by selling off tenanted lands under the Wyndham Land Acts. Anna, the Countess of Kingston, expressed a wish that upon her husband’s death, Mitchelstown should revert to the King family, in the person of Lt Colonel Alec King-Harman of Newcastle, great grandson of the 1st Lord Lorton. However, the castle was burnt by the IRA during the Civil War in 1922, and Alec sold off the estate.
The 2nd Earl of Kingston laid out much of the town of Mitchelstown. King Square includes Georgian houses of Kingston College and its Protestant chapel and family vault built by James, 4th Baron Kingston, and the square also includes the building where James founded the first Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Ireland. The 3rd Earl erected a drinking fountain in the square. The inn at Kilworth where Colonel Fitzgerald was shot is now a private residence. [The Kings of King House]
Edward Robert King-Harman (1838-1888), son of Laurence Harman King-Harman, inherited Newcastle in County Longford and Rockingham in Roscommon. He joined the military and fought in the siege of Dehli during the Indian Mutiny, then returned to Ireland in 1859 and became Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers whose depot was now in King House. He developed an interest in politics and the cause of Home Rule and was returned to the House of Commons in Ireland as a Conservative Home Ruler for County Sligo. He moved from Newcastle into Rockingham. He managed to leave Rockingham to his daughter, Fay, although her brothers contested this. She managed to keep Rockingham, however, along with her husband, Dr. Thomas Stafford, who was a Catholic. Fay’s son took the name Edward Stafford King-Harman.
Meanwhile Edward’s younger brother Wentworth (1840-1919) inherited Newcastle from his brother. He joined the military in Britain. When he inherited, he immersed himself in running Newcastle. It was his son Alec who inherited Mitchelstown. Alec also joined the military. He left Newcastle to a cousin Douglas King-Harman, and by that time the estate was reduced to just 50 acres, and he sold it in 1951. Before leaving Newcastle, Douglas set aside most of the family records and took them to England with him and published a book in 1959, Kings Earls of Kingston.
Edward Stafford King-Harman died in WWI. His father was raised to the British peerage as 1st Baronet Stafford in 1914. Edward married Olive Pakenham Mahon from Strokestown in Roscommon – I will be writing about it soon as it is also a Section 482 property.
It was his second son, Cecil Stafford King-Harman, who inherited Rockingham and became 2nd Baronet Stafford. Having taken a degree in Agriculture in New Zealand, Cecil was able to bring the estate back into good working order. Unfortunately, Rockingham was destroyed by fire in 1957 and although most of the furniture and pictures were saved, Cecil decided to sell. The house was demolished, and half the estate became Lough Key Forest Park. On Cecil’s death the baronetcy became extinct.
Irish Historic Houses 