John Meade, 1st Earl of Clanwilliam (21 April 1744 – 19 October 1800), was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, known as Sir John Meade, 4th Baronet, until 1766. Elevated to the

Peerage of Ireland The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...

, his debauchery and reckless spending led him to sell the family estate.

Life

The son of Sir Richard Meade, 3rd Baronet and his wife Catherine Prittie, daughter of Henry Prittie of Kilboy, he was born a few days before his father's death. He inherited a

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

and estates worth about £10,000 per year, in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

, County Kilkenny, and

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...

. He was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Banagher Banagher ( or ''Beannchar na Sionna'') is a town in Ireland, located in the midlands, on the western edge of County Offaly in the province of Leinster, on the banks of the River Shannon. It had a population of 3,000 at the height of its econ ...

in 1764. In 1765, he married Theodosia Magill, a wealthy heiress with estates in Gilford and

Rathfriland Rathfriland () is a market town in County Down, Northern Ireland. History In older documents written in English, the town's name was usually spelt ''Rathfylan'' or ''Rathfrilan''.

, County Down, worth £4,000 per year. The marriage settlement provided her with a jointure of £3,500 per year should she survive Meade, of which £2,500 was to be charged to his Tipperary estates. On 17 November 1766, he was created Viscount Clanwilliam and Baron Gilford in the

, and entered the

Irish House of Lords The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from medieval times until 1800. It was also the final court of appeal of the Kingdom of Ireland. It was modelled on the House of Lords of England, with membe ...

. The couple had five sons and five daughters: *

Richard Meade, 2nd Earl of Clanwilliam Richard Meade, 2nd Earl of Clanwilliam (10 May 1766 – 3 September 1805) was an Irish peer, styled Lord Gilford from 1776 to 1800. Life He was the eldest son of John Meade, 1st Earl of Clanwilliam and his wife, the heiress Theodosia Magill. In O ...

(1766–1805) *Lady Anne Meade (24 April 1768 – 1826), married William Whaley, second son of Richard Chapell Whaley, in 1788 *Lady Catherine Meade (7 October 1770 – 17 February 1793), married Richard Wingfield, 4th Viscount Powerscourt in 1789 *Hon. Robert Meade (1772–1852), married Anne Louise Dalling,London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: DL/T/090/004 was briefly (1813-1814) the acting governor of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

*Lady Theodosia Sarah Frances Meade (1773 – 13 December 1853), married

John Cradock, 1st Baron Howden General John Francis Cradock, 1st Baron Howden (11 August 175926 July 1839) was a British peer, politician and soldier. Life He was son of John Cradock, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. In 1775 he was admitted to St John's College, Ca ...

*Hon. John Meade (c.1775–1849) *Hon. & Ven. Pierce Meade (1776 – 22 November 1835),

Archdeacon of Dromore The Archdeacon of Dromore is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Anglican Diocese of Down and Dromore. The Archdeacon is responsible for the disciplinary supervision of clergy within the Diocese. History The archdeaconry can trace its his ...

, married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore) and had issue *Ens. Hon. Edward Meade (d. 8 March 1801), educated at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, 40th Regiment of Foot, killed at the Battle of Abukir, posthumously promoted lieutenant in the

23rd Regiment of Foot Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

*Lady Melosina Adelaide Meade (circa 1781 – 26 March 1866), married The 10th Earl of Meath *Lady Maria Rose Arabella Sarah Meade (1782 – 7 February 1876) The Clanwilliams were extravagant spenders, the Viscount dissipating large sums on horseracing, gambling, and keeping mistresses. (In 1779,

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

repeated a rumour, almost certainly exaggerated, that Clanwilliam had arranged the murder of one of his romantic rivals.) His elevation in the peerage as

Earl of Clanwilliam Earl of Clanwilliam is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1776 for John Meade, 1st Viscount Clanwilliam. The Meade family descends from Sir John Meade, who represented Dublin University and County Tipperary in the Irish Hous ...

on 20 July 1776 probably exacerbated matters, encouraging acts of ostentation like keeping an open house at his townhouse (now part of Newman House) on

St Stephen's Green St Stephen's Green () is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by L ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. Around 1783, the Clanwilliams' personal property was seized and auctioned; by 1787, his debts had grown to over £72,135. Lord Clanwilliam was forced to sell and mortgage his Cork and Kilkenny estates to pay off the debts; they were also charged with providing marriage portions for his daughters Anne and Catherine in 1788 and 1789. As these estates had provided maintenance for his eldest son Lord Gilford; Gilford was given £1,700 per year from the Tipperary and Down estates instead. The debt still stood at £31,327 in 1791, and grew to £46,251 in 1795. Clanwilliam found himself obliged to begin liquidating the Tipperary estate in 1793, a process that continued until 1805, at the cost of providing portions for his remaining younger children. Gilford's consent was needed to break the entail, but as he had contracted debts of his own and married the Bohemian,

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, noblewoman Countess Caroline Thun without the approval of his parents in October 1793, he was in no position to obstruct them. He was granted a small provision from his mother's Down estates and left to live in Vienna. In fact, the resettlement of the family estates that ensued was largely to the benefit of the Countess, at the expense of the Earl and Lord Gilford. By September 1800, Clanwilliam suffered badly from

dropsy Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

and left his wife at Gill Hall, on the Gilford estate, for his mistress and his Dublin townhouse. He died there on 19 October, having, in the words of his grandson, The 3rd Earl of Clanwilliam, "dissipated, to the last guinea, the Meade estates in Cork and Tipperary".

References

Bibliography

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Clanwilliam, John Meade, 1st Earl of 1744 births 1800 deaths Peers of Ireland created by George III Meade, John Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for King's County constituencies Earls of Clanwilliam