George Frederick Nugent, 7th Earl of Westmeath
PC (18 November 1760 – 30 December 1814), styled Lord Delvin until 1792, was an Irish peer. He gained notoriety in his own lifetime, due to his unhappy first marriage to Maryanne Jeffries, which ended in
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
, following a much-publicised legal action by the husband for
criminal conversation
At common law, criminal conversation, often abbreviated as ''crim. con.'', is a tort arising from adultery. "Conversation" is an old euphemism for sexual intercourse that is obsolete except as part of this term.
It is similar to breach of pro ...
.
Background and early career
Nugent was the only surviving son of
Thomas Nugent, 6th Earl of Westmeath
Thomas Nugent, 6th Earl of Westmeath KP PC (Ire) (April 1714 – 7 September 1792), styled Lord Delvin from 1752 to 1754 was an Irish peer and freemason.
He gained the title Earl of Westmeath in 1754 on the death of his father John Nugent, 5th ...
, by his second wife Catherine White, daughter of Henry White of Pitchfordstown,
County Kildare. He sat in the
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fran ...
as member for
Fore from 1780 until 1792, when he succeeded his father in the
earldom
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particula ...
. He became a member of the
Irish Privy Council the following year, and held the offices of
Custos Rotulorum
''Custos rotulorum'' (; plural: ''custodes rotulorum''; Latin for "keeper of the rolls", ) is a civic post that is recognised in the United Kingdom (except Scotland) and in Jamaica.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
The ''custos rotulorum'' is t ...
for Westmeath and Auditor of Foreign Accounts. He was a
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
in the Westmeath Militia. In 1796 he was involved in suppressing a threatened
rebellion, a prelude to the
Irish rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced ...
.
Marriage
As a young man, he was described as "gay, social and convivial". At the age of 24, he married Maryanne Jeffries (or Jeffreyes), who was about a year older. She was the daughter of Major
James St John Jeffereyes of
Blarney Castle
Blarney Castle ( ga, Caisleán na Blarnan) is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, near Cork, Ireland. Though earlier fortifications were built on the same spot, the current keep was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, a cadet branch of th ...
and
Arabella Fitzgibbon, daughter of John FitzGibbon and sister of
John Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare. She was described as a young woman of "great beauty, education and high accomplishments" and was also wealthy. It was generally regarded as a love marriage, and according to the evidence from the criminal conversation action, the early years of the marriage were very happy. After about six years they parted, he living in Ireland, she in London. At an unknown date Maryanne became the lover of
Augustus Cavendish-Bradshaw, younger son of
Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet
Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet PC (29 September 1732 – 3 August 1804) was an Anglo-Irish politician noted for his extensive recording of parliamentary debates in the late 1760s and early 1770s.
Early life
Cavendish was the son of Sir Henry ...
and
Sarah Cavendish, 1st Baroness Waterpark
Sarah Cavendish, 1st Baroness Waterpark ( Bradshaw; 1 August 1740 – 4 August 1807) was an Anglo-Irish peeress.
Early life
Sarah was born on 1 August 1740. She was the only daughter, and heiress, of Richard Bradshaw and, his wife, Deborah (né ...
, and brother of
Richard Cavendish, 2nd Baron Waterpark.
There is no reason to doubt the claim made by Lord Westmeath's counsel at the trial that he hesitated for a long time before deciding to end the marriage: divorce then invariably caused scandal, and the process was slow and expensive, requiring a
Private Act of Parliament
Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...
. Also, a
cuckolded
A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is aw ...
husband was traditionally a figure of fun, and his wife's infidelity did expose Westmeath to a good deal of ridicule, both among his neighbours and in the press. Even while exercising his official duties as a Colonel of Militia, when he accidentally entered the bedroom of a married woman, he was told pointedly that she (unlike some) was a virtuous wife. Although he was a rich man, financial motives may partly explain his decision to sue for criminal conversation, as he sought the (then) very large sum of £20,000 (on the other hand Cavendish-Bradshaw was notoriously short of money, and probably never paid the damages). In any case, a successful verdict in such a suit was then a necessary first step towards divorce, and he did ultimately decide on the dissolution of the marriage.
Civil action
The case opened on 20 February 1796, before
Barry Yelverton, the
Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer
The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron ( judge) who presided over the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). The Irish Court of Exchequer was a mirror of the equivalent court in England and was one of the four courts which sat in the build ...
. Each side had an impressive legal team:
John Toler
John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury PC, KC (3 December 1745 – 27 July 1831), known as The Lord Norbury between 1800 and 1827, was an Irish lawyer, politician and judge. A greatly controversial figure in his time, he was nicknamed the "Hanging Jud ...
, the
Solicitor General for Ireland
The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On ra ...
and
William Saurin
William Saurin (1757 – 11 February 1839) was an Irish barrister, Crown official and politician. He was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1807 to 1822, and for much of that period, he acted as the effective head of the Irish Government. He was ...
, the future
Attorney General for Ireland
The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...
acting for the plaintiff faced
John Philpot Curran
John Philpot Curran (24 July 1750 – 14 October 1817) was an Irish orator, politician, wit, lawyer and judge, who held the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland. He was renowned for his representation in 1780 of Father Neale, a Catholic pri ...
acting for the defendant. The trial aroused enormous public interest and the courtroom was packed, while it also received a great deal of publicity in the press.
Five witnesses, all servants of the Westmeaths, testified to actions which amounted to strong if circumstantial evidence of adultery (it was not the practice then in a divorce suit for the husband, wife or alleged lover to give evidence). Curran's cross-examination is said to have afforded great entertainment to the public, but he did not seriously damage the witnesses' credit. His speech to the jury was praised for its eloquence, although he came close to admitting that adultery had been proved. On that basis he attacked the character of both husband and wife, describing Lady Westmeath as an experienced woman of the world who had seduced a much younger man. Lord Westmeath, he described as a pleasure-loving and neglectful husband. As he quite fairly pointed out the picture of a happy marriage destroyed by the intrigues of Bradshaw did not explain the awkward fact that the couple had led separate lives for years before Bradshaw arrived on the scene.
Curran's eloquence had little effect: Yelverton in his summing up described the evidence as overwhelming and suggested that the damages should be very large. The jury found for the plaintiff and awarded him £10,000. Whether he actually recovered the damages is unclear, as Bradshaw was a poor man all his life, who spent years lobbying each Government in turn for any lucrative office which might be vacant, and was invariably refused.
Aftermath
The Westmeaths were divorced by a private Act of Parliament later that year, and in November Maryanne and Bradshaw married. She long outlived both her husbands, dying in 1849, aged about 90. Bradshaw died in 1832, in relative poverty.
In 1797 Westmeath remarried Lady Elizabeth Moore, daughter of
Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda
Field Marshal Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda (29 June 1730 – 22 December 1822), styled Viscount Moore from 1752 until 28 October 1758 and then Earl of Drogheda until 2 July 1791, was an Irish peer and later a British peer, and mili ...
and Lady Anne Seymour-Conway. He supported the
Act of Union 1800 and became an
Irish Representative Peer
This is a list of representative peers elected from the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords after the Kingdom of Ireland was brought into union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. No new members were added to the House after ...
. He died on 30 December 1814.
Family
While the trial records refer to several children of the first marriage, we know definitely of only one son,
George Nugent, 1st Marquess of Westmeath
George Thomas John Nugent, 1st Marquess of Westmeath (17 July 1785 – 5 May 1871), styled Lord Delvin between 1792 and 1814 and known as The Earl of Westmeath between 1814 and 1821, was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Background
Nugent was born in Cl ...
; the others presumably died young. There were five children in the second marriage, Robert, Thomas, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary.
[''Burke's Peerage'' p.865]
The younger George's marital career was no happier than his parents' had been: two of his three marriages ended in divorce. His first wife,
Lady Emily Cecil, recalled indignantly that her mother-in-law Maryanne had suggested that she have an affair with the
Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
, to help her husband's career, which suggests that Maryanne had no regrets about her own infidelity to George's father.
George had no son, and as both his half-brothers, Robert and Thomas had predeceased him without issue, the Earldom passed to a cousin.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westmeath, George Frederick Nugent, 7th Earl of
1760 births
1814 deaths
Irish representative peers
19th-century Irish people
People from County Westmeath
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Irish MPs 1776–1783
Irish MPs 1783–1790
Irish MPs 1790–1797
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Westmeath constituencies
Members of the Irish House of Lords
Earls of Westmeath