Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey
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c. 1693
The Earl of Anglesey | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Richard Annesley c. 1693 |
| Died | 14 February 1761 Camolin Park, County Wexford, Ireland |
| Occupation | Irish peer |
Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey (c. 1693 – 14 February 1761), known as The Lord Altham between 1727 and 1737, was an Irish peer and governor of Wexford. He is known for the doubts surrounding his claim to the barony of Altham, for the questionable legitimacy of his marriages and therefore of his son's claim to his titles, and for his arranging the kidnapping of his nephew, a rival claimant to his titles and estates. This incident is believed to have influenced part of the novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Annesley was the second son of Richard Annesley, 3rd Baron Altham, sometime prebendary of Westminster, and Dean of Exeter, by Dorothy, daughter of John Davy. Baptised in 1693 in Exeter,[1] he was for a short time an ensign in the army, but quit the service in 1715. He succeeded his elder brother Arthur Annesley, 4th Baron Altham, as 5th Baron Altham (a title in the Peerage of Ireland) in 1727, and was thus able to take a seat in the Irish House of Lords. In 1737 he also succeeded his cousin Arthur Annesley, 5th Earl of Anglesey, as 7th Baron Mountnorris and 7th Viscount Valentia (titles in the Peerage of Ireland) and as 6th Baron Annesley and 6th Earl of Anglesey (titles in the Peerage of England).[2]
Claim to the Altham barony by James Annesley
In or about 1742 there appeared in England one James Annesley, who claimed to be the legitimate son of Arthur, the late 4th Baron Altham, and consequently a nephew of Anglesey. As a young teenager, Annesley was kidnapped, shipped to the American plantations and ended up on a Mennonite Farm in present-day Lancaster County, and sold as an indentured servant in 1728,[3] apparently on the orders of his uncle. He escaped slavery, and in 1743 he was assaulted, for which offences Anglesey was convicted in 1744. Annesley's claim to the titles reached the courts in 1743 who found in his favour, but Anglesey immediately lodged an appeal.[1] Anglesey's defence was that Annesley was not the legitimate son of Mary, but actually the illegitimate son of Joan Landy.[4] Ironically The final verdict went in James's Annesley favour and his estates were returned to him, but he did not obtain his titles before he died at the age of 44 in 1760. Anglesey continued in the enjoyment of his estates and his titles until his death at Camolin Park in County Wexford on 14 February 1761.[1]
Marriages and children
In Devon in 1715, he married Ann Prust (1694–1741), daughter of Captain John Prust, of Monckton, near Bideford, Devon, but he appears to have deserted her almost immediately. Also in 1715, it is reported he married in Ireland Ann Simpson (c. 1700–1765), daughter of Dublin clothier John Simpson.[1] He and Prust had seemingly separated by 1719, after which he appears to have lived with Simpson in Ireland, whom he forced to quit his house in 1740 or 1741. In 1741, Simpson took proceedings against him in the ecclesiastical court on the grounds of cruelty and adultery, with a view to obtaining permanent alimony; he set up by way of defence that he was lawfully married to Prust at the time when he was alleged to have gone through the ceremony of marriage with Simpson, and she appears to have gained nothing by her suit. Simpson died in 1765, leaving three daughters:[1][2]
- Dorothea (1728–1774), writer and poet, married M. Du Bois, a French musician, in 1752 and had issue;[5]
- Caroline; and
- Elizabeth.
Prust died without issue and was buried in August 1741 as Countess of Anglesey. In September, he married in private Juliana (a second, public ceremony took place in 1752) and they had four children:[1][6]
- Arthur (1744–1816), succeeded to his father's Irish titles as 8th Viscount Valentia and was later created Earl of Mountnorris, married and had issue;
- Richarda, married Robert Phaire, of Temple Shannon;
- Juliana, married Sir Frederick Flood, 1st Baronet, of Newton Ormonde; and
- Catherine, married John O'Toole.
Juliana was first rumoured to be the daughter of Richard Donovan, a merchant in Wexford, and this later evolved into the accusation she was the daughter of an alehouse-keeper in Camolin. However Juliana was actually of noble lineage, being the daughter of Richard Donovan (newly of Camolin), of the junior sept of Ballymore of the ancient O'Donovans of Clan Loughlin, from the distant Barony of Carbery. She was the great-great-great granddaughter of Donel Oge na Cartan O'Donovan, the 1st Lord of Clan Loughlin to hold his territories from the Crown, from 1616 (see surrender and regrant).[7] A near cousin from the senior line was Jeremiah O'Donovan (MP Baltimore), and to her very own sept later belonged Edward Westby Donovan, Commander of British Troops in Hong Kong.
Additionally, his children included Ann, daughter of Mrs Mary Glover of Newport Pagnell, and Richard, son of Mrs Anne Salkeld (daughter of William Salkeld). Richard claimed Anglesey and Salkeld married in 1742, however, this would have been bigamous assuming Anglesey's 1741 marriage to Juliana.[1]
