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THE NEW YORK! PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS,

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LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉ E,

FOR SEPTEMBER, 1831.

ILLUSTRATIVE MEMOIR OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MARY ELIZABETH, COUNTESS GREY.

THE Right Honourable Mary Elizabeth, Countess Grey, wife of Charles, Earl Grey, Viscount Howick, and Baron Grey de Howick, Premier of England, is the only daughter of the late William Brabazon, first Baron Ponsonby, of Imokilly, in the county of Cork, by his lady, Louisa Molesworth, daughter of Richard, || third Viscount Molesworth. Her Ladyship was born on the 3d of March, 1775, and married on the 18th of November, 1794; and, by her happy union with the noble Earl, she has had a numerous offspring, thus particularised:

1. Louisa Elizabeth, married, December 9, 1816, to John George Lambton, of Lambton Castle, in the county of Durham, Esq., created Baron Durham, in January, 1828, and appointed Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, November 22, 1830; -2. Elizabeth, now Lady Elizabeth Bulteel ;-3. Caroline ;--4. Georgiana ;-5. Henry, Viscount Howick, born December 28, 1802;-6. Charles, born March 15, 1804, Major in the 6th, or King's Royal Rifle Corps;-7. Frederick William, born August 23, 1805, Captain in the Royal Navy ;-8. Mary, born May 3, 1807;—9. William, born May 13, 1808, died February 12, 1815; -10. George, born May 16, 1809, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy ;-11. Thomas, born December 29, 1810;—12. John, born March 6, 1812;13. Francis Richard, born March 31, 1813;14. Henry Cavendish, born October 16, 1814; -15. William George, born February 15, 1819.

On presenting, seven months since, a porNo. 81. Vol. XIV.

trait of Lady Durham,* the eldest daughter of the noble Earl and Countess Grey, it formed part of our very gratifying task to put the readers of LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE in possession of much interesting genealogical, historical, and biographical information, respecting the family of her illustrious father; and now that we have the honour of introducing the portrait of her Ladyship's equally illustrious mother, we promise ourselves a similar pleasure in briefly tracing the descent of the house of Ponsonby.

This noble family derives its origin from Picardy. Its primary ancestor in these kingdoms having accompanied William, Duke of Normandy, in his expedition against England, his posterity established themselves at Haugh-Heale, near Whitehaven, in Cumberland, where they possessed large estates, and took their name from the lordship of Ponsonby, of which they were the owners.

Sir John Ponsonby, Knt., ancestor of the Countess Grey, was the grandson of John Ponsonby, of Haugh-Heale. He was born in the year 1608. He marriedbecame a widower-settled his paternal estate in Cumberland on his son, from whom the Cumberland Ponsonbys are de

• Vide LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE, vol. xiii., page 37. N

and heir of Sir Edward Wingfield, of Powerscourt, and also relict of Edward Trevor, brother of Marcus, Viscount Duncannon. By this lady he had two sons, Henry, and William, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married, in 1673, to Richard Boyle, son and heir-apparent to Francis, Lord Viscount Shannon. His elder son and successor,

Sir Henry Ponsonby, Knt., had his estate of £1,500. a-year sequestrated—as his mother had her jointure-and was attainted as an absentee. He married, in 1674, Dorothy, daughter of Captain Shaw, of Drogheda; but, dying without issue, in the reign of William III., his possessions devolved on his brother,

scended; and afterwards went over to Ireland, where he again married, and founded a new branch of the family. It was in the year 1649, when Oliver Cromwell was appointed by the Parliament to reduce Ireland to their obedience, that, with his brother Henry, he accompanied him to Dublin with a considerable army. Having raised a regiment for the service of the commonwealth, he was first a Major, and afterwards a Colonel of horse, under Cromwell. He received the honour of knighthood; and, on the reduction of Ireland, he was appointed one of the Commissioners for taking the Depositions of the Protestants, concerning the Murders committed by the Irish during the War. Sir John was Sheriff of the counties of William Ponsonby, of Besborough, Wicklow and Kildare, in 1654; in the Esq., who also had had his estate of following year, Sheriff of the county of £1,500. a-year sequestrated, and was then Wicklow; and, on the restoration of living in the county of Wicklow. This Charles II., in 1660, he was appointed gentleman served in parliament for the one of the Commissioners for executing county of Kilkenny, during the reign of His Majesty's Declaration for the Settle- Queen Anne, and until he was created a ment of Ireland. In King Charles's first peer. In September, 1715, he was called parliament, assembled in 1661, he repre- into the Privy Council; by privy seal, sented the county of Kilkenny; and, on dated at St. James's on the 28th of July, the 19th of July, 1662, he, by the desig- and by patent, at Dublin, on the 11th of Sepnation of Sir John Ponsonby, of Kidalton, tember, 1721, he was created Baron Besin the county of Tipperary, Knt., with borough, of Besborough; and, on the 23d his brother, Captain Henry Ponsonby, of of the same month, he took his seat in the Stackstown, had a pardon granted by the Irish House of Peers. His Lordship was King, for "all treasons, rebellions, levy- || further advanced, by privy seal, dated at ing of war, &c., committed before, and St. James's on the 30th of December, 'until, the 29th of December, 1660." He 1721, and by patent, at Dublin, on the had, moreover, two grants of lands, under 28th of February, 1722, to the dignity the Acts of Settlement; on the 15th of of Viscount Duncannon, with the annual July, 1679, an abatement was made of the creation fee of twenty marks.-Lord Dunquit-rents, imposed on his estate by these cannon married Mary, sister of Brabazon Acts; and, by acquiring many debentures, Moore, of Ardee, in the county of Louth, and making other purchases, he was ena- Esq., by whom he had a family of three bled to leave considerable possessions.— sons and six daughters. He and his lady His remains were interred in the church were both buried in Fidowne church, of Fidowne, near Besborough, with this where their memory is preserved by the brief commemorative inscription :— following inscriptions:

Here lieth the Body
of

SIR JOHN PONSONBY,

of Besborough,

Who departed this Life

A.D. 1678,

In the 60th Year of his Age.

Sir John Ponsonby married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Henry Lord Folliott, of Ballyshannon, widow of Richard, son

GULIELMI PONSONBY
Vice-comitis Duncannon
quod mortuum est
Hic jacet
Depositum.

Obiit Die Nov. 17, An. Dom. 1724.

Etat. 67.
Siste Viator,

et

Memento Mori.

Here lieth the Body of MARY
The Wife of the Hon. Colonel William

Ponsonby of Besborough,
Grand-daughter of the Right Hon.
The Earl of Drogheda, by her
Father; and the Right Hon. the Earl of
Meath, by her Mother; and her

Virtues were suitable to her Birth. She departed this Life on the 26th day of May, 1713, in the 52d

Year of her Age.

His Lordship's eldest son and successor, Brabazon, second Viscount Duncannon, and first Earl of Besborough, was born in 1679. In 1704, he was returned to Parliament Knight of the shire for the county of Kildare; in 1707, he was a Captain of Grenadiers in the Enniskillen, or 27th regiment; in 1713, he was Sheriff of the county of Kilkenny, of which he was also Governor; in 1714, he was Sheriff of the county of Kildare; in 1713 and 1715, he was Member of Parliament for the borough of Newtown; and, in 1722, he was joined with his son John in the office of Searcher, Packer, and Guager, of the ports of Waterford, Passage, and New Ross. On his succession to the family honours, he took his seat amongst the peers on the 7th of September, 1725. In May, 1726, His Majesty, George I., was pleased to call him to his privy council; an honour in which he was continued on the accession of George II.

In 1737, Lord Duncannon obtained a patent for holding a Friday's market, and four annual fairs-on the 1st of May, the 5th of July, the Monday next before the|| feast of St. Michael, and the Monday next after the feast of All Saints-at Drumshanbo, in the county of Leitrim. About the same time, his Lordship, by purchase, made great additions to his estate; particularly from the Earl of Cork, for the sum of £42,719., of the seignory, barony, and manor of Inchiquin, &c., in the county of Cork.

On the 20th of April, 1739, the King appointed Lord Duncannon a Commissioner of his Revenues; and, by privy seal, dated at Kensington on the 31st of August, and by patent, at Dublin, on the 6th of October, in the same year, His Majesty was further pleased to create him Earl of Besborough. The preamble of the patent, on this occasion, was highly

honourable and grateful to his Lordship's feelings:

"As our late royal father, in consideration of the loyalty and eminent services of William, late Viscount Duncannon, and his ancestors, did first create him Baron Besborough, of Besborough, and afterwards promoted him to the degree of Viscount Duncannon: So we, equally studious to reward merit, and being well assured of the inviolable attachment of Brabazon, Viscount Duncannon to our royal person and government; and of his constant adherence to the his behaviour both before his being in possession laws and constitution of this country; and that of the dignities of Baron and Viscount, and ever since, hath rendered him worthy of an addition of honour; Know ye, therefore, &c.”

Ten years afterwards-on the 12th of June, 1749-His Majesty was further pleased to advance this nobleman to the dignity of a Peer of Great Britain, by the title of Lord Ponsonby, Baron Ponsonby, of Sysonby, in the county of Leicester; and, on the 17th of January, 1750, his Lordship took his seat accordingly. In May, 1754, and again in May, 1756, he was sworn one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. On the 18th of April, 1755, his Lordship was made Vice-Admiral of the province of Munster; and, in March, 1756, Mareschal of the Admiralty of Ireland.

The Earl of Besborough married, first, Sarah Margetson, grand daughter of James Margetson, Archbishop of Armagh, and relict of Hugh Colville, Esq., son of Sir Robert Colville, of Newton, in the county of Devon; secondly, in 1733, Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heiress of John Sankey, of Tenelick, in the county of Longford, Esq., and relict of Sir John King, Bart., and of John, Lord Tullamore. By his first lady, he had a family of four sons and six daughters; by his second, no issue. His Lordship died in 1758, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

William, second Earl of Besborough, whose next brother,

The Hon. John Ponsonby, was grandfather of the Countess Grey. This nobleman, born in March, 1713, was, in 1739, elected M.P. for the borough of Newtown; in 1741, he was appointed Secretary to the Commissioners of His Majesty's Revenue; in 1744, he succeeded his father as one of the members of that

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