William Brownlow PC (I) (10 April 1726 – 28 October 1794) of

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

, Co. Armagh was an Anglo-Irish politician. He was the only son of William Brownlow MP and Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of

James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn, PC (Ire) ( – 1734) was a Scottish and Irish peer and politician. Appointed a groom of the bedchamber to Charles II after the his father's death in battle, he took the Williamite side at the Gloriou ...

and Elizabeth Reading. Brownlow served as

High Sheriff of Armagh The High Sheriff of Armagh is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Armagh. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his/her ...

for 1750 and was first elected to 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 the

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 Armagh County in 1753, styled

The Right Honourable ''The Right Honourable'' (abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific Style (form of address), style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth ...

and holding the seat until his death. He was also returned for the Strabane constituency in 1768, but was replaced in 1769. He was an officer of the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...

and one of the founding subscribers of the Bank of Ireland in 1783. He was generally seen as a reformer, although there were allegations that he misused public funds to improve his demesne. He married firstly Judith Letitia Meredyth, daughter of the Reverend Charles Meredyth,

Dean of Ardfert The Dean of Limerick and Ardfert is based in the Cathedral Church of St Mary's in Limerick in the united diocese of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert within the Church of Ireland. St Brendan's Cathedral, Ardfert was destroyed by fire in 1641. Th ...

, and had at least two sons: his heir

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, and Charles. He married secondly Catherine Hall, daughter of Roger Hall of Mount Hall, County Down, by whom he had at least six further children; including Elizabeth, who married John Bligh, 4th Earl of Darnley, and the Rev. Francis Brownlow, who married Catherine, daughter of Anthony Brabazon, 8th Earl of Meath. William, his eldest son and heir, also became an MP for County Armagh and founded the bank of William Brownlow Esq.,& Co. Charles became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the

57th Foot The 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot was a regiment of line infantry in the British Army, raised in 1755. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Middlesex Regiment in 1881. His ...

and succeeded his childless brother in 1815. Charles's son, also named Charles, became 1st Baron Lurgan.

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownlow, William 1726 births 1794 deaths 18th-century Anglo-Irish people

Irish MPs 1727–1760 Irish MPs 1761–1768 Irish MPs 1769–1776 Irish MPs 1776–1783 Irish MPs 1783–1790 Irish MPs 1790–1797 Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Armagh constituencies Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Tyrone constituencies High Sheriffs of Armagh