Earl_of_Donegall

Marquess of Donegall

Marquess of Donegall

Title in the Peerage of Ireland

Marquess of Donegall is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally from Devon, England. Sir John Chichester sat as a Member of Parliament and was High Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons, Sir Arthur Chichester, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1605 to 1616. In 1613, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Chichester, of Belfast in County Antrim. When he died childless in 1625 the barony became extinct.[3]

Quick Facts Marquessate of Donegall, Creation date ...

However, in the same year the Chichester title was revived in favour of his younger brother, Edward Chichester, who was made Baron Chichester, of Belfast in the County of Antrim, and Viscount Chichester, of Carrickfergus in County Antrim.[4] Both titles are in the Peerage of Ireland. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Arthur Chichester. A distinguished soldier, he was created Earl of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland in 1647 (one year before he succeeded his father), with remainder to the heirs male of his father.[5][6]

He died without male issue and was succeeded (in the earldom according to the special remainder) by his nephew Arthur Chichester, the second Earl. He was the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Chichester, second son of the first Viscount. Lord Donegall had previously represented County Donegal in the Irish House of Commons. His eldest son, the third Earl, was a Major-General in the Spanish army and fought in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was killed in action in 1706. His eldest son, the fourth Earl, died childless and was succeeded by his nephew, the fifth Earl. He was the son of the Hon. John Chichester, younger son of the third Earl. Lord Donegall was created Baron Fisherwick, of Fisherwick in the County of Stafford, in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1790,[7] and one year later he was further honoured when he was made Earl of Belfast and Marquess of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland.[8][9]

His grandson, the third Marquess, served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard under Lord John Russell between 1848 and 1852. In 1841, three years before he succeeded his father in the marquessate, he was created Baron Ennishowen and Carrickfergus, of Ennishowen in the County of Donegal and of Carrickfergus in the County of Antrim, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.[10] Both his sons predeceased him and on his death in 1883 the barony of 1841 became extinct. He was succeeded in his other titles by his younger brother, the fourth Marquess. On the death of his grandson, the sixth Marquess, in 1975, the line of the second Marquess failed. The sixth Marquess was succeeded by his kinsman, the fifth Baron Templemore (see below), who became the seventh Marquess. From 1790 until 1999, when most hereditary seats were abolished with the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, the Marquess sat in the House of Lords as Baron Fisherwick in the Peerage of Great Britain. As of 2015, the titles are held by the latter's son, the eighth Marquess, who succeeded in 2007.[2]

The county in Ulster from which the title is derived is now spelt Donegal. Several locations in Belfast are named after the family, such as Donegall Square, Donegall Place, Donegall Road, Donegall Pass, Donegall Quay, Chichester Street, Arthur Street, Arthur Square, and Chichester Park.

Chichester family

Several other members of the Chichester family have also gained distinction. John Chichester, grandson of Sir John Chichester, brother of the first Baron Chichester and the first Viscount Chichester, was created a baronet in 1641 (see Chichester baronets).[11] John Chichester, second son of the first Viscount and father of the second Earl, represented Dungannon in the Irish House of Commons. For the branch of the family founded by John Chichester's younger son and namesake, John Chichester, see Baron O'Neill and Baron Rathcavan.

Arthur Chichester, eldest son of Lord Spencer Chichester, second son of the first Marquess, was created Baron Templemore in 1831.[12] Lord Arthur Chichester, fourth son of the second Marquess, and Lord John Chichester, sixth son of the second Marquess, both represented Belfast in Parliament. Robert Chichester, eldest son of Lord Adolphus Chichester, youngest son of the fourth Marquess, briefly represented Londonderry South in Parliament. His wife Dehra was also a politician while their daughter, Marion Caroline Dehra, was the mother of The Baron Moyola, who served briefly as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and the politician Sir Robin Chichester-Clark and of the gardening writer and television presenter Penelope Hobhouse.

Family seats

Ulster and Dublin

The caput, or family seat, has been in several locations over the centuries, usually in the east of Ulster. Joymount House was built for The 1st Baron Chichester in the 1610s in Carrickfergus in the south-east of County Antrim, probably being completed in 1618.[13] Joymount, along with Chichester House on the outskirts of Dublin and the Plantation-era Belfast Castle in Belfast,[14] were the three original principal residences of the Chichester family in Ireland. Lord Chichester maintained Chichester House, located on the Hoggen Green (now College Green), as his 'town' residence on what was then the eastern edge of Dublin. Joymount House was probably demolished in the early eighteenth century, while Parliament House was built on the site of Chichester House in Dublin in the early 1730s. The Plantation-era Belfast Castle was largely destroyed by fire on 24 April 1708 and was not rebuilt.[15]

In the early to mid-nineteenth-century, the family seats were: Donegall House, a large townhouse on the corner of what is now Donegall Place and Donegall Square North in central Belfast[16] (Donegall House was later converted, in the 1820s, into a hotel called The Royal Hotel[17]); and Ormeau House (formerly Ormeau Cottage), a mansion largely built in the 1820s in the Ormeau Demesne (now Ormeau Park) in County Down, in what was then the south-eastern outskirts of Belfast.[18] Both these residences were later demolished, with Ormeau House being demolished in 1869 or 1870.[19][20]

The 2nd Marquess of Donegall, again during the early to mid-nineteenth-century, also maintained Fisherwick Lodge, a hunting 'lodge' near Doagh (pronounced 'D'oak') in County Antrim, on the family's country estate there.[21] Later in the nineteenth-century, Belfast Castle, on the lower slopes of Cave Hill in North Belfast, was purpose-designed and built for The 3rd Marquess of Donegall as the main residence of the family. This new Belfast Castle, a Victorian structure built in the 1860s,[22] was inherited by The 8th Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife in October 1883, thus passing out of the ownership of the Chichester family. Lord Shaftesbury had married the daughter of the third Marquess.

Belfast Castle (photographed in August 2011), constructed for The 3rd Marquess of Donegall on the slopes of Cave Hill in the 1860s.

County Wexford

From October 1953 until about 1996, Dunbrody House, formerly the seat of the Barons Templemore near Arthurstown in the south-west of County Wexford, was the family seat of The 7th Marquess of Donegall. From October 1953 until May 1975, the seventh Marquess was known as The 5th Baron Templemore. Arthurstown was named for The 1st Earl of Donegall. The house was sold by the seventh Marquess to chef Kevin Dundon, who converted it into a luxury hotel and restaurant in 1997.[23] What remains of the Dunbrody Estate is, however, still in the ownership of the current head of the family, The 8th Marquess of Donegall, whose present family seat is the much smaller Dunbrody Park within the estate grounds.

Baron Chichester (1613)

Baron Chichester and Viscount Chichester (1625)

Earl of Donegall (1647)

Marquess of Donegall (1791)

Present peer

(Arthur) Patrick Chichester, 8th Marquess of Donegall (born 9 May 1952), is the eldest son of the 7th Marquess. Styled as Earl of Belfast from 1975 to April 2007, he was educated at Harrow School and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.[24]

In April 2007 he succeeded his father as Marquess of Donegall and in his other peerages. [citation needed] He also holds 1/100th of the office of Lord Great Chamberlain.[24] Donegall is married to Caroline Philipson (born 1959), and they have two children:[24]

  • James Arthur Chichester, Earl of Belfast (born 1990), heir apparent[24] whose heir is his son Arthur Humphrey John Chichester, Viscount Chichester (born 2022)
  • Lady Catherine Chichester (born 1992).[24]

They live near Arthurstown in the south-west of County Wexford.[24]

Male-line family tree

Line of succession

More information Line of succession ...

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Burke, Bernard (1864). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. London: Harrison & Sons. p. 192. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  2. [2]
    "Obituaries: The Marquess of Donegall". The Daily Telegraph. 20 July 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  3. [3]
    "Arthur Chichester, Baron Chichester". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  4. [4]
    Burke, Bernard (1914). Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. London: Burke's Peerage Limited. p. 636. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  5. [5]
    Burke 1914, p. 636
  6. [6]
    Debrett, John (1822). The Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland: Volume 1. London: Debrett's. p. 905.
  7. [7]
    "No. 13210". The London Gazette. 19 June 1790. p. 373.
  8. [8]
    "No. 13322". The London Gazette. 5 July 1791. p. 387.
  9. [9]
    Debrett 1822, p. 906
  10. [10]
    "No. 20007". The London Gazette. 13 August 1841. p. 2072.
  11. [11]
    Complete Baronetage: English, Irish and Scottish, 1625-1649. Exeter: W. Pollard & Company. 1902. p. 120.
  12. [12]
    "No. 18846". The London Gazette. 9 September 1831. p. 1834.
  13. [13]
    Philip Robinson, Irish Historic Towns Atlas No. 2: Carrickfergus, p. 4 (and Fig. 1 on p. 3), and Map 7 (Carrickfergus, drawn by Thomas Phillips in 1685). Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1986.
  14. [14]
    Raymond Gillespie and Stephen A. Royle, Irish Historic Towns Atlas Number 12: Belfast - Part I, to 1840, pp. 1–4. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2003.
  15. [15]
    Raymond Gillespie and Stephen A. Royle, Irish Historic Towns Atlas Number 12: Belfast - Part I, to 1840, p. 4. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2003.
  16. [16]
    W. A. Maguire, Living like a Lord: The Second Marquis of Donegall, 1769-1844, pp. 16–18. The Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 2002 (originally published by The Appletree Press and The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies, Belfast, 1984).
  17. [17]
    W. A. Maguire, Living like a Lord: The Second Marquis of Donegall, 1769-1844, p. 61. The Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 2002 (originally published by The Appletree Press and The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies, Belfast, 1984).
  18. [18]
    W. A. Maguire, Living like a Lord: The Second Marquis of Donegall, 1769-1844, pp. 73–75. The Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 2002 (originally published by The Appletree Press and The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies, Belfast, 1984).
  19. [19]
    W. A. Maguire, 'Lords and landlords - the Donegall Family' in J. C. Beckett et al., Belfast: The Making of the City, p. 38. Lagan Books, Belfast, 2003 (originally published by The Appletree Press, Belfast, 1983. Maguire does not give an exact date for the demolition of Ormeau House; he seems to infer in this publication that it occurred in either 1869 or 1870.).
  20. [20]
    Norman Weatherall and George Templeton, South Belfast: History and Guide, p. 89. Nonsuch Publishing, Dublin, 2008 (the authors of this publication, without exact references, claim that Ormeau House was demolished around 1867). The Belfast valuation records show it as being 'down' in 1865 - VAL/12/B/43/A/7 (1862 - 1873) page 164 of 194 (original page 889). Available online from https://apps.proni.gov.uk/Val12B/Search.aspx
  21. [21]
    W. A. Maguire, Living like a Lord: The Second Marquis of Donegall, 1769-1844, pp. 28, 73. The Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 2002 (originally published by The Appletree Press and The Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies, Belfast, 1984).
  22. [22]
    W. A. Maguire, 'Lords and landlords - the Donegall Family' in J. C. Beckett et al., Belfast: The Making of the City, pp. 37–38. Lagan Books, Belfast, 2003 (originally published by The Appletree Press, Belfast, 1983).
  23. [23]
    Ó Conghaile, Pól (13 April 2014). "A touch of Downton in the Blue Book-listed Dunbrody House". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  24. [24]
    Burke's Peerage, volume 1, 2003, page 1157.

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