Roxborough Castle, Moy, County Tyrone
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. 249. “(Caulfeild, Charlemont, V/PB) In 1602, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, built a fort on the County Armagh bank of the River Blackwater, which was subsequently enlarged and given the name of Charlemont. Inside the fort was the charming little C17 governor’s house, which resembeled one of those hunting lodges built in the castle style in Elizabethan or Jacobean England; with symmetrical bows and clusters of chimneys rising like turrets from its four corners. This became the home of the Caulfeild family, who, when raised to the peerage, took the title of Charlemont. The famous C18 “Volunteer” Earl of Charlemont lived mostly at charlemont House in Dublin and at Marino, the seat he acquired just outside the capital,but some time in C18, a new house, called Roxborough, was built facing Charlemont Fort from the County Tyrone side of the river; and this became the principal seat of the Volunteer Earl’s descendants. This house,aplain five bay block of three storeys over a high basement, was enlarged and remodelled from 1842 onwards by 2nd Earl; his architect being William Murray. Wings were added of one bay and two storeys over basement…Belfast architect, William J. Barre’s exterior ornamentation defies description, his biographer, writing 1868, a year after his untimely death, describes it as “the very extensive use of Classic and Gothic detail indiscriminately, in immediate connection with each other.” All the ornament was confined to the wings…The whole was spectacular, if somewhat reminiscnent of the Grand Hotel at a fashionable Victorian resort. Both Roxborough and the house in Charlemont Fort were burnt 1922.”
https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/05/house-of-caulfeild.html
The settlement of this noble family in Ireland took place in the reign of ELIZABETH I, when THE RT HON SIR TOBY CAULFEILD(1565-1627), a distinguished and gallant soldier, was employed in that part of Her Majesty’s dominions against the formidable Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone.
He was the son of Alexander Calfihill, Recorder of Oxford, who was descended from ancestors of great antiquity and worth, settled in that county, and at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. In 1615, Sir Toby was appointed one of the council for the province of Munster.
The next year, 1616, he joined in commission with the Lord Deputy of Ireland (Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison), and others, for parcelling out the escheated lands in Ulster to such British undertakers as were named in the several tables of assignation.
In these employments, the King (JAMES I) found him so faithful, diligent, and prudent, that His Majesty deemed him highly deserving the peerage, and accordingly created him, in 1620, Lord Caulfeild, Baron of Charlemont, with limitation of the honour to his nephew, Sir William Caulfeild, Knight.His lordship died unmarried, in 1627, and was succeeded by the said
SIR WILLIAM CAULFEILD, 2nd Baron Charlemont (1587-1640), Governor of Fort Charlemont, 1621, and Master-General of the Ordnance, 1627-34, who took his seat in parliament, in 1634, after the Lord Chancellor of Ireland had moved to know the pleasure of the House, whether he should be admitted to this place, having brought neither writ of summons nor patent; whereupon it was resolved that his lordship should be admitted, inasmuch as they were all satisfied that he was a Lord of Parliament.
His lordship wedded Mary, daughter of Sir John King, Knight (ancestor of the Earls of Kingston), and had (with other issue),
TOBY, 3rd Baron;
ROBERT, 4th Baron;
WILLIAM, 5th Baron and 1st Viscount;
Thomas;
Anne; Mary; Margaret.
Lord Charlemont died in 1640, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
TOBY, 3rd Baron (1621-42), who also succeeded his late father as Governor of Charlemont Fort, and there resided, with his company of the 97th Regiment of Foot, in garrison.
This fort was a place of considerable strength and importance during the rebellion of 1641; but his lordship suffered himself to be surprised, in that year; and being made prisoner, with his whole family, was subsequently murdered, by the orders, it is said, of Sir Phelim O’Neill.
This unfortunate nobleman died unmarried and was succeeded by his brother,
ROBERT, 4th Baron (1622-42), who died a few months afterwards from an overdose of a prescription of opium, and was succeeded by his next brother,
WILLIAM, 5th Baron (1624-71), who apprehended Sir Phelim O’Neill, and had him executed for the murder of his brother, the 3rd Baron.
His lordship having filled, after the Restoration, several high and confidential situations, was advanced to a viscountcy, in 1655, in the dignity of VISCOUNT CHARLEMONT.
He wedded Sarah, second daughter of Charles, Viscount Drogheda, by whom he had four sons and three daughters, of whom,1657-1729)
WILLIAM, his successor;
Toby.
His lordship was succeeded by his son,
WILLIAM, 2nd Viscount (c1655-1726), who zealously opposed the cause of JAMES II, by whose parliament he was attainted; but WILLIAM III, after the rebellion was quelled, gave him a regiment of foot and made him Governor of counties Tyrone and Armagh etc.
He espoused Anne, only daughter of the Most Rev Dr James Margetson, Lord Archbishop of Armagh, by whom he had, with five daughters, five sons to survive infancy, viz.
JAMES, his heir;
Thomas, Governor of Annapolis;
Charles, in holy orders;
John, MP;
Henry Charles.
His lordship died after enjoying the peerage for more than half a century, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
JAMES, 3rd Viscount (1682-1734), MP for Charlemont, 1703-5, 1713-26, who married Elizabeth, only daughter of the Rt Hon Francis Bernard, of Castle Mahon, County Cork, one of the judges of the court of common pleas in Ireland, by whom he had two sons; the younger, Francis, who wedded Mary, only daughter of John, Lord Eyre, was lost, with his lady, infant child, and servant, in a hurricane, during his passage to Ireland from London, in 1775, to fulfil his parliamentary duties as Member for the borough of Charlemont.
His lordship left issue, Colonel James Eyre Caulfeild, born in 1765, and Eleanor, who espoused William, 3rd Earl of Wicklow.
The 3rd Viscount was succeeded by his only surviving son,
JAMES, 4th Viscount (1728-99), KP, who was created, in 1763, EARL OF CHARLEMONT.
He married, in 1768, Mary, daughter of Thomas Hickman, of County Clare, and had issue,
FRANCIS WILLIAM, his successor;
Henry, MP;
Elizabeth.
His lordship, a distinguished patriot, had the honour of commanding-in-chief the celebrated Irish Volunteers in 1779.
His son and heir,
FRANCIS WILLIAM, 2nd Earl (1775-1863), KP, wedded, in 1802, Anne, youngest daughter and co-heir of William Bermingham, of Ross Hill, County Galway, but had no surviving issue, when the family honours devolved upon his nephew,
JAMES MOLYNEUX, 3rd Earl (1820-92), KP (son of the Hon Henry, 2nd son of 1st Earl), Lord-Lieutenant of County Tyrone, MP for Armagh, 1847-67.
His lordship died in 1892, when the earldom and barony became extinct, and the remaining peerages devolved upon his cousin,
JAMES ALFRED, 7th Viscount (1830-1913), CB JP DL, of Loy House, Cookstown and Drumcairne, County Tyrone,
Vice Lord-Lieutenant of County Tyrone, 1868, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1868; Comptroller of the Household of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1868-95; Honorary Colonel, 3rd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; Usher of the Black Rod of the Order of St Patrick, 1879-1913.
The 8th Viscount (1880-1949), PC DL, was elected to the Northern Ireland Parliament as a senator, where he sat from 1925-37, and was Minister for Education.
James Alfred Caulfeild, 7th Viscount (1830–1913);
James Edward Caulfeild, 8th Viscount (1880–1949);
Charles Edward St George Caulfeild, 9th Viscount (1887–1962);
Robert Toby St George Caulfeild, 10th Viscount (1881–1967);
Charles St George Caulfeild, 11th Viscount (1884–1971);
Richard St George Caulfeild, 12th Viscount (1887–1979);
Charles Wilberforce Caulfeild, 13th Viscount (1899–1985);
John Day Caulfeild, 14th Viscount (1934–2001);
John Dodd Caulfeild, 15th Viscount (b 1966).
The heir apparent is the present holder’s son, the Hon Shane Andrew Caulfeild (b 1996).
The Viscounts Charlemont were a Patrick family, three members of whom were Knights of St Patrick.
Sir Toby Caulfeild built Castle Caulfield [sic] in County Tyrone.
ROXBOROUGH CASTLE (above), Lord Charlemont’s main country seat, was near the village of Moy, County Tyrone, the exquisite gates being all that are left as a reminder.
The Castle and the nearby Charlemont Fort, on the County Armagh side of the river, were both burned to the ground by the IRA in 1920.
Subsequently Lord Charlemont resided at another residence, Drumcairne, near Stewartstown in County Tyrone.
It is thought that he eventually moved to Newcastle, County Down.
He inherited the titles from his uncle in 1913.
Having no children, the titles passed, on his death, to a cousin.
The 14th Viscount lived in Ontario, Canada and the viscountcy is still extant with the present 15th Viscount Charlemont.
Former residence ~ Ranby, 12, Milnethorpe Road, Eastbourne, Sussex.
First published in May, 2013.
Irish Historic Houses 
