John Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Shelburne PC (Ire) (1706 – 14 May 1761), known as John FitzMaurice until 1751 and as The Viscount FitzMaurice between 1751 and 1753, 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 politician. He was the father of William Petty FitzMaurice, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1782 to 1783.

Life

Born John FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne was the second son of Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry, and Anne, daughter of Sir William Petty (1623–1687). He was the younger brother of

William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (1694 – 4 April 1747) was a British Army officer and peer. He was the eldest son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry and Anne Petty. In 1738, he married Lady Gertrud ...

, and the nephew of Charles Petty, 1st Baron Shelburne and

Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne PC (I) (22 October 1675 – 17 April 1751) was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1727. Background Petty was a younger son of Sir William Petty and Elizabeth, Baro ...

. He was educated at

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

and was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

, in 1727.thepeerage.com John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne
/ref> In 1751 he succeeded to the estates of his uncle the

Earl of Shelburne Earl of Shelburne is a title that has been created twice while the title of Baron Shelburne has been created three times. The Shelburne title was created for the first time in the Peerage of Ireland in 1688 when Elizabeth, Lady Petty, was made ...

(who had died childless) and assumed by Act of Parliament the surname of Petty in lieu of his patronymic. Later the same year he was raised to the

Peerage of Ireland 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 ...

as Baron Dunkeron and Viscount FitzMaurice. Two years later the earldom of Shelburne was revived in his favour when he was made Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, in the Irish peerage. In 1754 he bought Bowood Park, an estate between Chippenham and Calne in Wiltshire, and rebuilt the mansion there.

Political career

FitzMaurice was High Sheriff of Kerry in 1732. In 1743 he entered the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

as one of two representatives for

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

, a seat he held until 1751. He was Governor of County Kerry in 1754 and the same year he was returned to the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

for Wycombe, a seat he held until 1760. He was sworn of the

Irish Privy Council His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal execut ...

in 1754 and in 1760 he was created Lord Wycombe, Baron of Chipping Wycombe, in the County of Buckingham, in the

Peerage of Great Britain The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain between the Acts of Union 1707 and the Acts of Union 1800. It replaced the Peerage of England and the Peerage of Scotland, but was itself repla ...

, which entitled him to a seat in the English House of Lords.

Family

Lord Shelburne married his first cousin, Mary, daughter of the Hon. William FitzMaurice, in 1734. Their younger son the Hon. Thomas FitzMaurice married Mary O'Brien, later ''suo jure'' Countess of Orkney. Lord Shelburne died in May 1761 and was buried in Bowood, Wiltshire. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son,

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

, who became

Prime Minister of Great Britain The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pr ...

and was created Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784. The Countess of Shelburne died in 1780.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelburne, John Petty, 1st Earl of 1706 births 1761 deaths 18th-century Anglo-Irish people British MPs 1754–1761 Peers of Ireland created by George II Peers of Great Britain created by George II Fitzmaurice, John Irish emigrants to Kingdom of Great Britain Members of the Middle Temple Members of the Privy Council of Ireland People educated at Westminster School, London Petty

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

High sheriffs of Kerry Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kerry constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Parents of prime ministers of Great Britain 2 Hereditary peers elected to the House of Commons