The Rt Hon. John Vesey, 2nd Viscount de Vesci and 3rd Baron Knapton (16 February 1771 – 19 October 1855), 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 ...

politician and peer. Around 1790, Vesey planned and developed the new town of

Abbeyleix Abbeyleix (; ) is a town in County Laois, Ireland, located around south of the county town of Portlaoise. Abbelyleix is in a civil parish of the same name. Abbeyleix was formerly located on the N8, the main road from Dublin to Cork. At one p ...

because the original settlement was subject to flooding of the

River Nore The River Nore ( ) is one of the principal rivers (along with the River Suir and River Barrow) in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region of Ireland. The river drainage basin, drains approximately of Leinster and Munster, that encom ...

. The old settlement was levelled and the residents moved to the new town. He was a compassionate and conscientious landlord and was extremely charitable to the local people during the difficult famine years. A fountain in memory of John Vesey stands in the Market Square of Abbeyleix. A map commissioned by John Vesey in 1828, showing the Abbeyleix Manor holdings was discovered after almost 200 years and went to auction in 2016.

Family

Vesey was the son of the 1st Viscount de Vesci and Selina Elizabeth Brooke. He was 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 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 the Member of Parliament for Maryborough in 1796, sitting until 1798. On 13 October 1804, he succeeded to his father's titles.John Debrett
''The peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland''
9th Edition (G. Woodfall, 1814), p. 1058. Retrieved 25 February 2016. In 1839, Lord de Vesci was elected by his fellow peers to sit in the British

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 ...

as 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 ...

. From 1831 to his death in 1855, he served as the first

Lord Lieutenant of Queen's County This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Queen's County. There were lieutenants of counties in Ireland until the reign of James II, when they were renamed governors. The office of Lord Lieutenant was recreated on 23 August ...

Marriage and issue

On 25 August 1800, he married Frances Letitia Brownlow, the fifth daughter of his great-uncle, William Brownlow. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas Vesey. * Thomas (3rd Viscount Vesey) * William John (1806–1863) * Catherine, who married her cousin, Lt. Col. Patrick John Nugent"John, 2nd Viscount de Vesci", Cracroft's Peerage
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vesci, John Vesey, 2nd Viscount 1771 births 1855 deaths 18th-century Anglo-Irish people 19th-century Anglo-Irish people Irish MPs 1790–1797 Irish representative peers Lord-lieutenants of Queen's County Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for Queen's County constituencies