My wife's ancestors - Fitzwilliam - Contents

Richard Fitzwilliam, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam

7th Viscount, at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, on his graduation in 1764 (age 19).
Portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby.
Used here with the kind permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Also here.

Richard Fitzwilliam, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam,
born 1 Aug 1745.
See wikipedia and historyofparliamentonline.
His father moved to Ireland in apparently 1756 and lived at Mount Merrion, Co.Dublin.
He was educ Charterhouse School in London.
He was educ Trinity Hall, Cambridge (admitted 1761, MA 1764).
He fell in love with a barmaid at Cambridge. His horrified father packed him off on a Grand Tour to forget her. On his return he found the girl married off (aided by his father). He vowed never to marry, and didn't. (As a result, the title went extinct.)

He (and maybe his father) looked at trying to revive the following two titles. See 2057/L/14. A document about the Vaux claim is dated 1763, so in the time of the 6th Viscount. But the Vaux family tree is dated 1790, so from the time of the 7th Viscount. The titles are:

The title of Baron Vaux of Harrowden, held by his distant ancestors through Shelley and Neville. This had become abeyant in 1663, but could pass through male and female lines, so inheritance by Fitzwilliam was not impossible. The claim did not succeed. The abeyance was eventually terminated in 1838 in favour of George Charles Mostyn.
The title of Earl of Warrington, granted in 1645 to his ancestor the 1st Viscount Fitzwilliam, but not recognised. The claim did not succeed.

He succ 1776 when his father died.
He took his seat in the Irish House of Lords 1776.
He let Mount Merrion again after his father's death 1776. See [Ball, vol.2, 1903] for the tenants.
He lived mainly in England, at the Fitzwilliam (formerly Decker) house in Richmond Green, Surrey. Although he made frequent visits to Mount Merrion.

He began in 1784 a long affair with Anne Bernard [or Marie Anne Bernard, born 1769, French].
She was a dancer at the Paris Opera. She used the stage name "Mademoiselle Zacharie". Only age 15 when they began an affair. He was age 39.
He had two sons with her, though he never married her, and so the title went to his brother rather than his sons.
Many letters survive from her. They show her as poorly educated. The affair continued to at least 1790.
He had issue by Anne Bernard:

Henry Bernard.
Henry Fitzwilliam Bernard. Known as "Fitz" in childhood.
He is "Henry Bernard" mentioned in father's will as living (1815) in Richmond Green with a wife and daughter.
Billy Bernard.
(dau) Bernard. Probably died in infancy.

He was a great lover of France, fluent in French, and a supporter of the French Royalists after the French Revolution 1789.
His house at Richmond Green was a centre for exiled French nobles and Royalists who had fled the French Revolution to England.
Fellow of Royal Society 1789.
MP for Wilton 1790-1806. (Wilton was home of his 1st cousin the 10th Earl of Pembroke.)
He continued the development of Georgian SE Dublin.
Act for enclosing centre of Merrion Square 1791.
Fitzwilliam Square designed from 1789, laid out 1792.
He was the author of several works:

Letters, by "Atticus". Published in English in 1802. Exploring the doctrinal foundations of stable government.
The Concordatum Explained, 1803. Published anonymously. A critique of the 1801 concordat agreed by Napoleon and the Pope.
Lettres d'Atticus (or: Considerations sur la religion catholique et le protestantisme par un Anglois protestant), a French translation of his previous work, published 1811. This showed considerable sympathy for Catholicism.
Pensées d'Atticus, 1813. Short meditations on religion, philosophy, and history.

He built the new Catholic church at Booterstown for his Catholic tenants in 1812.
Act for enclosing centre of Fitzwilliam Square 1813.

The Fitzwilliam estate is left to the Pembroke family:
Just before his death, he organised to leave his vast Irish estate to the descendants of his 1st cousin the 10th Earl of Pembroke.
His will dated 18 Aug 1815.
He left his vast estates in Ireland to his 1st cousin's son, the 11th Earl of Pembroke (succ 1794, died 1827).

Although he had two brothers, they were ageing, with no sons (they were also said to have been feeble-minded), and it was clear that the Viscounts Fitzwilliam were dying out, so he decided to dispose of the estate before his death. He did leave his two brothers an annuity.
Apparently he considered leaving his estates to the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (succ 1756, died 1833). The Earl Fitzwilliam's family had been involved with Ireland for centuries and had regarded the Viscount Fitzwilliam's family as kinsmen. But they were not proven relations at all. (Actually, they were obscurely related through Shelley, but he may not have even known this.) The story goes that the 7th Viscount was appalled by the Earl Fitzwilliam's manners in drinking tea, and resolved in favour of Pembroke. (Maybe it was the young future 5th Earl Fitzwilliam that he had for tea.)
His will leaves the entire estate to the 11th Earl, and then says that after the 11th Earl's death it is to go to the Earl's younger son Sidney (later 1st Baron Herbert of Lea, then a child, born 1810). If Sidney leaves no heirs it is to go to the elder son Robert (later 12th Earl, born 1791). (Robert of course has a large Pembroke inheritance. And note at this stage he has disappointed the family with an unapproved marriage in 1814.) If the line of the 11th Earl fails, he leaves the estate to his cousins, the family of the Earl of Onslow.
The Fitzwilliam estate in Ireland became the Pembroke estate.

Death, 1816:
He died unmarried, 4 Feb 1816, age 70 yrs, in his rooms at 31 New Bond Street, London.
He was buried in St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, where there is a memorial to him.
His will pr 22 February 1816, Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
He had spent a lifetime collecting works of art and other treasures, and decided to leave them all (and many Fitzwilliam family portraits) to the Cambridge that he had always loved.
This founded the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 1816, starting its extensive collection. He left them a huge sum of money to build a museum building and maintain the collection and fund related scholarship.

7th Viscount.
Portrait 1810 by Henry Howard.
NOT by Nathaniel Hone (died 1784).
Used here with the kind permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
See engraving by Richard Earlom. From NPG.

Listing of the Viscounts in [Dublin Almanack, 1787].
Shows the 7th Viscount inaccurately with his seat at "Merrion".
See full size.

Letter by Horace Walpole, from Berkeley Square, London, Wed 8 June 1791.
Shows the 7th Viscount planning an incredibly quick trip to Ireland, to leave Mon 6 June.
From Letters of Horace Walpole, vol.9 (and here), p.323.
The "exiles" refer to exiled French nobles and Royalists, who had fled the French Revolution to England. Many of the French exiles lived in Richmond.

Follow-up letter by Walpole, from Strawberry Hill, 23 June 1791, showing the 7th Viscount has already been to Ireland and back.
From above, p.328.

The 7th Viscount dedicated his book Lettres d'Atticus (1811) to the exiled King of France Louis XVIII.
Louis XVIII was in exile in England 1807-14. He was restored to the throne in France in 1814.

This is said to be the cup of tea that lost the estate to the Earls Fitzwilliam.
This is kept in the Pembroke Estate Office, Dublin [Wilkinson, 1925].
From Mount Merrion 300. Used with permission.

7th Viscount in [Complete Peerage].

References

7th Viscount in [DNB]

Will and probate of 7th Viscount

Will of 7th Viscount. PROB 11/1577/416 in [NA.UK].
See copy at Ancestry.
See transcript by Bob Janes.

Two copies of will in 2057/D5/18.
Older, hard to read, copy:
- See p.1 top and bottom.
- See p.2 top and bottom.
- See p.3 top and bottom.
- See p.4 top and bottom.
- See label. Label says registered in the Prerogative Court 2 July 1816.
Later, easier to read, copy:
- See p.1 and p.2 and p.3 and p.4 and p.5 and p.6 and p.7 and p.8 and p.9 and p.10 and p.11 and p.12 and p.13 and p.14 and p.15.

The 7th Viscount leaves his vast estate to the 11th Earl of Pembroke.
Top: See full size.
Bottom: See full size.
From 2057/D5/18.

The 7th Viscount leaves his vast collection to the University of Cambridge.
See full size.
From 2057/D5/18.