Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Richard Fitzwilliam, 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam (see here),
6th Viscount was
FRS 1747
and
FSA 1748.
His father-in-law died 1749.
He
lived in his father-in-law's grand house
in Richmond Green, Richmond, Surrey.
He
took his seat in the
Irish House of Lords
1751,
Moves back to Ireland:
In apparently 1756
[Mount Merrion 300]
he decided to live at Mount Merrion once more,
and made alterations there.
He
laid out Mount Merrion Ave and Cross Ave before 1757.
They are both visible in
Rocque's map of 1757.
He
landscaped
the Deer Park at Mount Merrion.
The beauty of Mount Merrion
is praised in
Freeman's Journal,
1 Sept 1774.
See
p.14
and
p.15.
He died at Mount Merrion, 25 May 1776, age 64 yrs.
NOT 25 Apr.
He was bur at Donnybrook chapel
on 27 May 1776.
NOT 28 May.
See entry in
burial register transcript on
p.286
of
[Blacker, 1860-74].
Catherine's will dated 12 Aug 1784.
She died 8 Mar 1786.
Her will pr 11 Mar 1786,
Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
She was bur 15 Mar 1786 at Richmond.
6th Viscount and Catherine
had issue:
9th Viscount, c.1830.
Portrait by James Coleman.
Used here with the kind permission of the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Bishop Richard Pococke
passes by Mount Merrion, apparently in Oct 1752 (see p.142).
This seems to be the very end of his 1752 tour.
"Butlerstown" would be Booterstown.
From
Pococke's Tour in Ireland in 1752,
ed. George T. Stokes, 1891,
p.163.
The SE edge of Dublin city on
John Rocque's map of Dublin, 1757.
See larger.
This captures Dublin just before the 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam
started developing his Baggotrath
estate in the open countryside
to the E of
Kildare House.
6th Viscount listed in
[Watson's Almanack, Dublin, 1760, p.43].
See full size.
6th Viscount in
[Complete Peerage].
8th and 9th Viscounts in
[Complete Peerage].
Sir Matthew Decker, Bart.
Portrait by Theodorus Netscher, early 1700s.
Used here with the kind permission of the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Lady Henrietta Decker, wife of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart.
Portrait c.1715.
Used here with the kind permission of the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
"What scenes superb, displayed on every side!
What native dignity and rural pride!
Slow from the bay exalted Merion swells,
And the luxuriant Richmond far excels;
Art's rich embroidery glistens o'er her plains,
Simple and great, here various nature reigns."
- From "Phoenix Park",
a poem by John Leslie,
published in London, 1772.
Original in
[NLI]
LO 5221.
The poem is a general celebration of the vista of Dublin.
He is comparing Mount Merrion favourably to the Fitzwilliams' English seat at Richmond.
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