Francis Jack Needham, 2nd Earl of Kilmorey (12 December 1787 – 20 June 1880), known as Viscount Newry from 1822 to 1832, was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

peer and Member of Parliament.

Biography

He was the son of General Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey. He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

for

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

in 1819 (succeeding his father), a seat he held until 1826. In 1832 he succeeded his father in the earldom but as this was an

Irish peerage The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

it did not entitle him to a seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. He served as High Sheriff of Down for 1828. He married Jane Gun-Cuninghame in 1814, they separated in 1835 and she died in 1867. He married his second wife, Martha Foster (1838-1908), on the 20 November 1867. No issue. Lord Kilmorey scandalised Victorian society by eloping with his

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

, Priscilla Anne Hoste (26 June 1823 – 21 October 1854), when he was in his late fifties and she was 20. Priscilla Hoste was the daughter of Admiral Sir William Hoste and his wife Lady Harriet Walpole. Her father died when she was a small child and her mother allegedly was careless of her relations with Lord Kilmorey. A year after their elopement, in July 1844, they had a child, Charles, who Lord Kilmorey acknowledged as his son and to whom he gave his surname.Charles was born on 20 July 1844 in

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

and died 25 February 1934 in Tylehurst, Sussex. See ''Nederland's Adelboek'' (1939) for birth date. He set up his mistress in an adjoining house with a tunnel between the two.

Kilmorey Mausoleum

Priscilla died of heart disease on 21 October 1854, and she was buried in a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

which had been specially commissioned by Lord Kilmorey for them both, with the inscription "Priscilla, the beloved of Francis Jack, Earl of Kilmorey". When Kilmorey himself died in June 1880, aged 92, he was buried beside her in the mausoleum underneath a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

showing the dying Priscilla on a couch surrounded by her lover and ten-year-old son. The Kilmorey Mausoleum, in an ancient Egyptian design, is now a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

monument. It cost £30,000 to build and was moved several times between Lord Kilmorey's homes. It is in St Margarets (the subdistrict named after the house and grounds the Earl bought) in

and is maintained jointly by Richmond upon Thames Council and

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

Legacy

Kilmorey was succeeded in his titles by his grandson

Francis Francis may refer to: People and characters *Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025) *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) * Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie2 ...

, his eldest son Francis Needham, Viscount Newry, having predeceased him. Charles Needham, despite being illegitimate, was said to be his father's favourite – the "apple of his eye". He was two years younger than his half-nephew, the eventual 3rd Earl of Kilmorey. On 25 February 1874 he married in London a Dutch heiress called Henriette Amélie Charlotte Vincentia barones van Tuyll van Serooskerken (known as Amy), the third daughter of Vincent Gildemeester baron van Tuyll van Serooskerken, who had made a fortune out of the tin concessions on the island of Billiton in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

.Dates and spelling of names according to ''Nederland's Adelsboek'', jrg. 37 (1939: 348–349). Amy van Tuyll van Seerooskerken was born on 14 November 1853 in

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

and died on 27 April 1936 in Tylehurst, Sussex. Charles and Amy had two daughters, Evelyn and Violet. Violet Needham (1876–1967) was the author of 19 books for children published between 1939 and 1957. Although she came to writing late – she was 63 when her first book, ''The Black Riders'', was published – her books achieved immediate and lasting popularity with young readers.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*Kidd, Charles; Williamson, David (editors). ''

Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John D ...

'' (1990 edition). New York:

St Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 ...

* *

External links

Kilmorey Mausoleum home page

Kilmorey Mausoleum on St Margarets Community Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilmorey, Francis Needham, 2nd Earl of 1787 births 1880 deaths Earls of Kilmorey High sheriffs of Down Mausoleums in England Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Newry (1801–1918) Needham, Francis UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 Kilmorey, E2