Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry

The Most Honourable The Marquess of Londonderry PC (Ire)
The Marquess of Londonderry, by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, c. 1800–08
Tenure	1816–1821
Successor	Robert, 2nd Marquess
Born	27 September 1739 Mount Stewart
Died	6 April 1821 Mount Stewart
Buried	Newtownards Priory
Spouse(s)	Sarah Frances Seymour Frances Pratt
Issue Detail	Robert, Charles, & others
Father	Alexander Stewart
Mother	Mary Cowan

Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry PC (Ire) (1739–1821), was a County Down landowner, Irish Volunteer, and member of the parliament who, exceptionally for an Ulster Scot and Presbyterian, rose within the ranks of Ireland's "Anglican Ascendancy." His success was fuelled by wealth acquired through judicious marriages, and by the advancing political career of his son, Viscount Castlereagh (an architect of the Acts of Union, and British Foreign Secretary). In 1798 he gained notoriety for refusing to intercede on behalf of James Porter, his local Presbyterian minister, executed outside the Stewart demesne as a rebel.

Birth and origins

Robert was born on 27 September 1739, at Mount Stewart,^[1] the eldest son of Alexander Stewart and his wife Mary Cowan. His father was an alderman of Derry in 1760, and his grandfather, Colonel William Stewart, had commanded one of the two companies of Protestant soldiers that Derry admitted into its walls when Mountjoy was sent there by Tyrconnell before the start of the siege.^[2] Robert's mother was a daughter of John Cowan, also an alderman of that same town. His parents had married on 30 June 1737 in Dublin.^[3]

Family tree

Robert Stewart with his two wives, his parents, and other selected relatives.[a] His mother inherited Robert Cowan's fortune. William Stewart Colonel John Cowan d. 1733 Alexander 1699–1781 Mary Cowan d. 1788 Robert Cowan d. 1737 Bombay Governor Sarah Frances Seymour- Conway 1747–1770 Robert 1st Marquess 1739–1821 Frances Pratt c. 1751 – 1833 Castlereagh 2nd Marquess 1769–1822 Catherine Bligh d. 1812 Charles 3rd Marquess 1778–1854 Frances Vane 1800–1865 Frederick 4th Marquess 1805–1872 George 5th Marquess 1821–1884 Legend XXX Subject of the article XXX Robert Cowan XXX Marquesses of Londonderry

Robert listed among his siblings
He appears among his siblings as the second child: Anne (1738–1781)[6] Robert (1739–1821) William (1741–1742)[7] Francis (born 1742)[8] John (1744–1762)[9] Alexander (1746–1831), married Mary Moore, the 3rd daughter of the 1st Marquess of Drogheda[10][11] Mary (born 1747), died young[12]

Cowan inheritance

Within three months of his parents' marriage in 1737, Robert's mother inherited the fortune her half-brother, Robert Cowan, had acquired in service to the East India Company as Governor of Bombay.^[13] The legacy allowed Alexander Stewart to retire from the linen trade and buy into the landed gentry. In 1743 he purchased sixty townlands and a large estate from the Colville family at Newtownards and Comber in County Down.^[14][15]

Education and first marriage

Robert Stewart was brought up a Calvinist, sent by his father under the care of a tutor to the University of Geneva, where he studied literature. He thus "temptations of Oxford and similar academic strongholds of the Established Church" to which, as the son landed gentry, he might naturally have been drawn.^[16]

On his return from the continent, he courted Lady Sarah Frances Seymour-Conway (whose niece, Mary Moore, married Robert's brother Alexander in 1791). Lady Sarah Frances Seymour-Conway's father, Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, owned considerable property in the neighbourhood of Lisburn, and in 1765 was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Robert Stewart attended the viceregal court in Dublin, where he successfully pressed his suit. The marriage took place in the Chapel Royal of Dublin Castle, and Lord Hertford housed the new couple in the city.^[16]

Robert and Sarah had two sons:

1. Alexander-Francis, who died within his first year^[17]
2. Robert (1769–1822), later to be known as "Castlereagh", the famous statesman^[18]

Lady Sarah died in childbirth in 1770.^[19][20]

Opposition member of parliament

The year following his wife's death Robert Stewart entered the Irish House of Commons as member for County Down filling a vacancy created by the elevation of Bernard Ward to the House of Lords as Baron Bangor.^[21] He was returned by the "independent" or "county" interest backed by the local Whigs and by his fellow Presbyterians ("Dissenters" from the Established Church who were a majority among the county's exceptionally high number of freeholder voters). Their discomforted rivals were the "official" or "court" party of the Earl of Hillsborough, the county's Lord-Lieutenant and largest proprietor.^[22]

This political triumph over the interests of an Ascendancy family which had hitherto returned both county members to the Irish House of Commons formed the prelude of a long period of rivalry. Robert Stewart's initial success was largely due to popular sympathy with John Wilkes and the discontented American colonists, and to the growing feelings in favour of constitutional and parliamentary reform which found expression in the Volunteer movement.^[23]

He proved a consistent antagonist of the administration, invariably voting and sometimes speaking for the Opposition in the House. His early political conduct won the approval of his constituents. A dinner at which they entertained in Belfast was marked by toasts "liberal in quality as in quantity", including to "The memory of John Hampden" (who had led parliamentary opposition to Charles I), and to "All those who would rather die in jack-boots than live in wooden shoes".^[23]

Second marriage and children

Robert Stewart remarried, on 7 June 1775, taking for his second wife, Frances Pratt, the independent-minded daughter of the Whig politician Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden.^[24]

From his second marriage he had 11 more children, three sons and eight daughters:

1. Charles William (1778–1854), succeeded him as 3rd Marquess^[25]
2. Frances Ann (1777–1810), married Lord Charles Fitzroy^[26]
3. Elizabeth Mary (1779–1798)^[27]
4. Caroline (1781–1860), married Col. Thomas Wood MP^[28]
5. Alexander John (1783–1800)^[29]
6. Georgiana (1785–1804), married the politician George Canning, 1st Baron Garvagh, nephew of army general and politician Brent Spencer^[30]
7. Selina Sarah Juliana (1786–1871), David Guardi Ker MP for Downpatrick^[31]
8. Matilda Charlotte (1787–1842), married Edward Michael Ward, the eldest son of the Robert Ward of Bangor^[32]
9. Emily Jane (1789–1865), married firstly John James, son of Sir Walter James James, 1st Baronet, and secondly Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge^[33]
10. Thomas Henry (1790–1810)^[34]
11. Octavia (1792–1819), married Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough^[35][36]

Irish Volunteer

Robert Stewart by Anton Raphael Mengs, c. 1760–76

Between 1775 and 1783, Robert Stewart lived in Bangor with his wife, while his father was living at Mount Stewart.

In 1776, a general election was held in Ireland. Robert Stewart stood again for Down and was re-elected.^[37] He sat until the dissolution of this parliament on 25 July 1783.

Stewart participated in the Irish Volunteers, the self-armed militia ostensibly formed to maintain order and defend Ireland while the Crown and its forces were distracted by the American War. Following the raid on Belfast Lough by the American privateer John Paul Jones in April 1778, Stewart organised a volunteer company in Newtownards of 115 men, the Arms Independents, to act as fencibles, but which, like other companies, were soon engaged in patriotic debate.^[38]

Alexander Stewart, died on 2 April 1781^[39] and as his heir he moved into the family seat, Mount Stewart, near Newtownards (where in the park he completed the Temple of the Winds). On 17 September 1782 he was sworn to the Irish Privy Council.^[40]

That very same month as Colonel Stewart he was elected president of the second Ulster (overwhelmingly Presbyterian) Volunteer Convention in Dungannon.^[41]

Anticipating a "grand national convention" called for Dublin in November, it notably failed to broaden the front against the Ascendancy. Resolutions in support of Catholic enfranchisement were rejected.^[40]

In the general election of October Stewart stood again for County Down but the Ascendancy families triumphed, one seat taken by Arthur Hill, the son of the Earl of Downshire, the other by Lord Bangor's son, Edward Ward.^[42] Stewart unsuccessfully challenged the returns at the bar of the House of Commons claiming irregularities. Downshire's influence was able to procure the dismissal of his petition with costs".^[43]

At the Dublin convention, Stewart was appointed chairman of the committee "for the receiving and digesting plans of reform".^[44] But the convention tactic did not succeed as in 1781, when the massed ranks of the Volunteers had helped secure Irish legislative independence. The digested bill, presented by Henry Flood, which would have abolished the proprietary boroughs (with which their Ascendancy rivals, but not the Stewarts, were endowed) and extended the vote to a broader class of Protestant freeholders was rejected. Having accepted defeat in America, Britain could again spare troops for Ireland, and neither parliament nor Dublin Castle would again be intimidated.^[45]

Although he believed that the demands of Dissenters for greater representation should have been met so as to dissuade them from pushing Catholic claims along with their own,^[46] Stewart joined his friend, president of the convention, the Earl of Charlemont in urging the Volunteers to receive their rebuff quietly.^[47]

Ascendant peer

In 1789 Robert Stewart was created Baron Londonderry in the Peerage of Ireland.^[48][49] Unable as a peer to himself avenge his defeat in 1783, for general election of 1790 he took his eldest son, Robert, out of Cambridge University to run for the county. Still able to persuade Down's Forty-shilling freeholders that the Stewarts were the friends of reform, the younger Stewart did so successfully^[50] albeit at considerable expense to his father.^[51]

The arms of Robert Stewart, Earl of Londonderry^[52] The Stewart arms are quartered with the Cowan saltires.^[b]

Stewart deserted Presbyterianism for the Established Church,^[54] at what point is unclear but likely in advance of his elevation in 1795 to Viscount Castlereagh^[55] and the following year to Earl of Londonderry.^[56] His eldest son, now Viscount Castlereagh, also quietly converted to Anglicanism and was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland to serve under Lady Frances's brother, Earl Camden, the Lord Lieutenant. Londonderry's second son, Charles, meanwhile kept the family present in the Irish Commons as member for Thomastown borough, County Kilkenny.^[57] Banking on these new establishment connections, and alarmed by the evident disaffection of their tenantry, Stewart reached an accommodation with the Hills: the families in future would divide the two county seats in Down, each returning a nominee to the parliament in Dublin unopposed.^[58]

Following a theft of gunpowder and grapeshot in Donaghdee, on 26 September 1796, Londonderry summoned his tenants to Mount Stewart to compel them to sweat as oath of allegiance.^[59] To the extent that he and his sons were prepared to consider reform, including further rights for Catholics, it was now to be within the more secure context of a union with Great Britain. When in 1799 the parliament in Dublin rejected the bill for the Union they fought to have it re-presented.

With the bill's final passage, in 1801, Londonderry become one of the 28 original Irish representative peers in the new United Kingdom parliament at Westminster.^[60] In 1816, thanks to the advancing career of Castlereagh as Foreign Secretary, he was further elevated to Marquess of Londonderry.^[61] He thus achieved the rare feat of rising from a "Dissenting" (Presbyterian) commoner into the highest ranks of the Irish aristocracy.

1798, the execution of James Porter

During their three-day "Republic" in Ards and north Down, 10–13 June 1798, the United Irish insurgents briefly occupied Mount Stewart.^[62] In August, the wife of the local Presbyterian minister, James Porter, appeared at the house with her seven children where they overwhelmed Lady Londonderry and young sister, then dying of tuberculosis, with a plea for his life. One of the children was later to recount that when Londonderry discovered his wife composing a letter to General Nugent, he insisted she add a postscript: "L does not allow me to interfere in Mr Porter's case. I cannot, therefore, and beg not to be mentioned. I only send the letter to gratify the humour", i.e. to placate the distraught Mrs Porter to whom, with a smile that filed her with "much horror", Londonderry then handed the letter.^[63]

Londonderry was himself present at the court martial^[64] which had accepted dubious testimony to the minister's presence among the rebels,^[65][66] and was to see the sentence executed. Porter was hanged in sight both of his own meeting house at Greyabbey and of his family home (with Stewart tenants reportedly defying their landlord's wish that they attend).^[65][67] The Presbyterian minister Rev. Henry Montgomery of Killead, County Antrim, would later describe the circumstances of Porter's execution as being of "extreme cruelty towards both himself and his family, which were altogether unnecessary for any purpose of public example".^[68]

Londonderry was content that other offenders should be allowed exile. David Bailie Warden who commanded north Down rebels in the field;^[69] the Reverend Thomas Ledlie Birch, a United Irish firebrand who rallied with the rebels after the Battle of Saintfield; and William Sinclair who joined the tenantry in swearing loyalty before Londonderry yet served on the rebel Committee of Public Safety,^[70] were all permitted passage to the United States.^[71]

Porter's offence may have been his popular satire of the local landed interest, Billy Bluff, in which the master of Mount Stewart is clearly recognisable as the inarticulate tyrant "Lord Mountmumble".^[72] Porter had been aware that Billy Bluff might not go unpunished, acknowledging in its preface: "I am in danger of being hanged or put in gaol, perhaps both".^[68]

It may also be that Londonderry believed that Porter, who had been close to the family (their election agent and a frequent visitor to the Mount Stewart),^[73] had been a source of his wife's wayward, and potentially compromising, political sympathies. Lady Frances is rumoured to have continued to send privately for Porter's offending paper, the Northern Star,^[72] and in correspondence with Jane Greg (reputedly "head of the [United Irish] Female Societies" in Belfast)^[74] made bold to identify herself as a "republican countess".^[75]

Local tradition has it that Mrs. Porter waylaid his lordship's carriage, in a vain hope of prevailing by a further direct entreaty, but Londonderry bade the coachman "drive on." The sentence, however, was mitigated by remission of the order for quartering.^[65]

Reputation as landlord

Despite political differences with his tenants, Londonderry did have a reputation as a comparatively generous landlord. He and his father rarely evicted tenants unless they were more than five years in arrears, and they abided by the Ulster custom of tenant right. They patronised the local town of Newtownards raising a subscription for a Catholic primary school as a gesture of ecumenical good will, and building a market house with a striking clock tower (a building which occupied by Scottish Fencibles was attacked by the rebels under Warden's command in 1798).^[76] During food shortages in 1800 and 1801, Londonderry at his own expense imported provisions into the stricken districts.^[77]

Death, succession, and timeline

Lord Londonderry died on 6 April 1821 at Mount Stewart, County Down, and was buried at the Newtownards Priory, where his father already had been laid to rest. He was succeeded briefly as the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry by his eldest son Robert (Castlereagh) who took his own life the following year.^[78]

Timeline
Age	Date	Event
0	1739, 27 Sep	Born at Mount Stewart[1]
21	1760, 25 Oct	Accession of King George III, succeeding King George II[79]
26	1766, 3 Jun	Married his 1st wife[80]
30	1770, 17 Jul	First wife died in childbirth[19]
31–32	1771	Elected MP for County Down in the Irish Parliament[81][82]
35	1775, Jun	Married his 2nd wife[24]
36–37	1776	Re-elected MP for County Down in the Irish Parliament[37]
41	1781, 2 Apr	Father died[39]
42	1782, 17 Sep	Made an Irish Privy Councillor[40]
43–44	1783	Electoral defeat against Arthur Hill and Edward Ward[42]
49	1789, 9 Sep	Created Baron Londonderry[48]
50–51	1790	Eldest son elected MP for Down[50]
56	1795, 10 Oct	Created Viscount Castlereagh[55]
56	1796, 10 Aug	Created Earl Londonderry[83]
76	1816, 13 Jan	Created Marquess of Londonderry[61]
80	1820, 29 Jan	Accession of King George IV, succeeding King George III[84]
81	1821, 6 Apr	Died at Mount Stewart[78]

Notes and references

Notes

1. This family tree is based on the genealogies of the marquesses of Londonderry.^[4][5] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.
2. White saltires on red ground appear on armorial plates of Chinese manufacture linked to Robert Cowan,^[53] preserved in the National Trust collection at Mount Stewart.

Citations

1. Bew 2012, p. 10. "... Robert, had been born, at Mount Stewart, 27 September, 1739."
2. Bew 2012, p. 6. "His son, Colonel William Stewart, had raised a troop of horse during the siege of Londonderry by James II in 1689, making them the archetypal Ulster Scots settlers."
3. Watson 2004, p. 752, right column. "Mary Cowan married (Dublin, 30 June 1737) her cousin Alexander Stewart (1700–1781)."
4. Burke & Burke 1909, p. 1148–1150. "Genealogy of the marquesses of Londonderry"
5. Cokayne 1893, p. 131–134. "Genealogy of the marquesses of Londonderry"
6. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 51. "Anne, b. [born] 27 Sept. 1738, d. [died] 21 April 1781."
7. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 42. "William, b. [born] 11 April 1741, d. [died] in 1742."
8. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 52. "Francis, b. [born] 26 Oct. 1742."
9. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 43. "William, b. [born] 3 July 1744, d. [died] 1762."
10. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 44. "Alexander, b. [born] 26 March 1746, m. [married] Mary Moore, 3d da. of Charles, marquess of Drogheda (by Anne, eldest da. of Francis Seymour, 1st marquess of Hertford,) and has issue ... "
11. Debrett 1838, p. 518, left column. "4. Alexander, b. [born] 26 March 1746, m. [married] 2 Oct. 1791, Mary Moore, 3d da. of Charles, marquess of Drogheda (by Anne, eldest da. of Francis Seymour, 1st marquess of Hertford,) and d. [died] Aug. 1831 ..."
12. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 53. "Mary, b. [born] 15 April 1747, d. [died] young."
13. Watson 2004, p. 752, right column, line 42. "... he [Robert Cowan] died, unmarried, a few days later (9 February 1737), in London, of complications caused by quinsy."
14. Debrett 1838, p. 518, left column, line 40. "[Alexander Stewart] purchased the estate of Mount Stewart in co. Down from the Colville family;"
15. Bew 2012, p. 7. "... bought into the landed gentry in 1743, with the acquisition of sixty townlands and a large estate in County Down ..."
16. Hyde, H. M. (1933). The Rise Of Castlereagh. London: Macmillan & Co. p. 16.
17. Debrett 1838, p. 518, right column, line 6. "Alexander-Francis, d. 1769."
18. Debrett 1838, p. 518, right column, line 7. "Robert, 2d marquess."
19. Debrett 1828, p. 635, line 5. "... by her (who d. 17 July 1770) had issue ..."
20. Bew 2012, p. 15. "Just over a year later, however, on 17 July 1770, his mother died in childbirth along with her baby."
21. Lodge 1789, p. 71. "by Privy Seal at St. James's, 1 May 1770 and patent at Dublin 30 of the same month, to advance him [Bernard Ward] to the peerage, and by the title of Baron Bangor of Castle-Ward in the county of Down ..."
22. Hyde (1933), p. 17
23. Hyde (1933), p. 18
24. Debrett 1838, p. 518, right column, line 8. "The marquess m. [married] 2ndly, 7 June 1775, Frances, eldest da. [daughter] of Charles Pratt, 1st earl Camden, and sister to the present marquess Camden, and by her (who d. [died] 18 Jan. 1833, aet. 82) had issue ..."
25. Debrett 1828, p. 635, line 11. "Charles-William, G.C.B., present and 3d marquess."
26. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 17. "Frances Ann, m. [married] 10 March, 1799, Lord Charles Fitzroy ; and d. [died] 9 Feb. 1810 ..."
27. Debrett 1828, p. 635, line 16. "Elizabeth-Mary, d. [died] 1798."
28. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 19. "Caroline m. [married] 23 Dec. 1801 Thomas Wood, MP of Littleton, Middlesex, and of Gwernevet, co. Brecon, Col. of the East Middlesex mil., and d. [died] 26 Jan. 1860."
29. Debrett 1828, p. 635, line 12. "Alexander-John, d. [died] 1800"
30. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 22. "Georgiana m. [married] 13 July 1803, George Canning, afterwards Lord Garvagh, and d. s.p. [died without issue] 17 Nov. 1804. He d. [died] 20 August 1840, leaving issue."
31. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 24. "Selina m. [married] 22 Feb. 1814, David Kerr of Portavo, Down, and d. [died] 5 Feb. 1871, leaving issue. He d. 30 Dec. 1844."
32. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 26. "Matilda m. [married] 14 Sept. 1815, Michael Edward Ward, and d. [died] 3 Oct. 1842, leaving issue ..."
33. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 28. "Emily Jane m. [married] 1stly, 29 June 1814 John James who d. [died] 4 June 1818. She m. 2ndly, 10 Dec. 1821 1st Viscount Hardinge, G.C.B., C-in-C, and d. 18 Oct. 1865, leaving issue. He d. 24 Sept. 1856."
34. Debrett 1828, p. 635, line 15. "Thomas-Henry, d. [died] 1810"
35. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 31. "Octavia m. [married] 11 Dec. 1813, 2nd Lord, afterwards Earl of Ellenborough; and d.s.p. [died without issue] 5 March 1819. He d. [died] 22 Sept. 1871."
36. Debrett 1838, p. 313. "[Edward Law] married 1st, 11 Dec. 1813, Octavia-Catherine Stewart, youngest daughter of Robert 1st Marquess ..."
37. House of Commons 1878, p. 674. "Robert Stewart, esq. / Down County."
38. Hinde, Wendy (1981). Castllreagh. London: Collins. p. 17. ISBN 000216308X.
39. Debrett 1828, p. 634. "... [Alexander Stewart] d. [died] 2 April 1781 ..."
40. Thorne & Hamilton 2004, p. 748 right column, line 5. "... sworn to the Irish privy council on 17 September 1782 ..."
41. Hamilton 1898, p. 345. "During the Irish volunteer movement he was one of the delegates sent to the second Dungannon convention in 1783, and was one of its leading spirits."
42. Thorne & Hamilton 2004, p. 748 left column. "... lost the seat in 1783 in an embarrassing contest, which diminished his popularity."
43. Hyde (1933), p. 19
44. Hyde (1933), p. 22
45. Bardon, Jonathan (2008). A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. pp. 286–288. ISBN 9780717146499.
46. Hinde, Wendy (1981). Castlereagh. London: Collins. pp. 32–33. ISBN 000216308X.
47. MacNevin, Thomas (1845). The History of the Volunteers in 1782. Dublin: James Duffy. pp. 202–203.
48. "No. 13131". The London Gazette. 9 September 1789. p. 597. The Right Honourable Robert Stewart, Baron Londonderry
49. Cokayne 1893, p. 131, line 6. "Robert Stewart was on 20 Sep. 1789 cr. Baron Londonderry [I. [Ireland]] ..."
50. House of Commons 1878, p. 683. "Hon. Robert Stewart. / DOWN County."
51. Alison 1861, p. 14. "... no less than £60,000 ..."
52. Debrett 1808, p. 61. Note that this drawing appears under the heading "Earls of Ireland"
53. Teggins 2020, p. 306. "Figure 6.3 Cowan Armorial Plate"
54. Stewart, A.T.Q. (1995), The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down Belfast, Blackstaff Press, p. 16 ISBN 9780856405587.
55. "No. 13821". The London Gazette. 10 October 1795. p. 1052. To Robert Lord Londonderry, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, the Dignity of Viscount Castlereagh, of Castlereagh in the County Down
56. "No. 13922". The London Gazette. 10 August 1796. pp. 781, right column. To Robert Lord Viscount Castlereagh, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, by the Name Stile and Title of Earl of Londonderry, of the County of Londonderry
57. House of Commons 1878, p. 688 above. "Hon. Charles William Stewart, in place of Mr. Dunbar, Gentleman at Large to the Lord-Lieutenant / Thomastown Borough"
58. Brendan, Clifford, ed. (1991). Billy Bluff and the Squire [1796] and Other Writing by Re. James Porter. Belfast: Athol Books. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9780850340457.
59. McCavery, Trevor (2003), "'As the plague of locuts came to Egypt': Rebel motivation in north Down", in Thomas Bartlett et al. (eds.), 1798: A Bicentenary Perspective, Dublin, Four Courts Press, ISBN 1851824308, (pp. 212–225), p. 216.
60. Cokayne 1893, p. 131, line 17. "REP. PEER [I.] (being one of the 28 original representatives) 1801–21"
61. Cokayne 1893, p. 131, line 9. "... and finally on 13 Jan. 1816 cr. [created] Marquess of Londonderry [I. [Ireland]]"
62. The National Archives, Reference U840/C562 (1797–1809). "Insurgents in occupation at Mount Stewart", John Petty to Frances Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry.
63. Waters 1990, pp. 95–96.
64. Stewart, A. T. Q. (1995). The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down. Belfast: The Blackstaff Press. p. 252. ISBN 0856405582.
65. Gordon, Alexander (1896). "Porter, James (1753-1798)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. pp. 180–183.
66. Phoenix, Eamon (30 June 2014). "Presbyterian minister hanged in '98". The Irish News. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
67. Waters 1990, p. 80. "Dr. Birch told his brother, prior to the court marshal, that the court would acquit him if he would offer to go into exile."
68. Beiner, Guy (2018). Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (p. 156). Oxford University Press Scholarship Online. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198749356.003.0004. ISBN 978-0-19-874935-6. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
69. Courtney 2013, pp. 133–134.
70. Gilmore, Parkhill & Roulston 2018, pp. 53–55.
71. McClelland 1964, p. 32.
72. Bew 2012, p. 101.
73. Porter 1991.
74. National Archives of Ireland, Dublin, Rebellion Papers, 620/30/194. Thomas Whinnery to John Lees, 25 May 1797.
75. Sekers, David (18 March 2013). A Lady of Cotton: Hannah Greg, Mistress of Quarry Bank Mill. History Press. pp. 89, 99. ISBN 978-0-7524-9367-1.
76. Stewart, A.T.Q. (1995), The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1995,ISBN 9780856405587.
77. Bew (2011), pp. 7–8
78. Burke 1949, p. 1247, right column, line 33. "The marquess d. [died] 8 Apr. 1821, and was s. [succeeded] by the son of his first marriage."
79. Fryde et al. 1986, p. 46, line 35. "George III ... acc. 25 Oct. 1760;"
80. Debrett 1838, p. 518, right column, line 1. "The marquess m. [married] 1st, 3 June 1766, Sarah-Frances Seymour, 2nd da. of Francis, 1st marquess of Hertford, K. G. ..."
81. House of Commons 1878, p. 669. "Robert Stewart, esq., in place of Bernard Ward, Lord Bangor / DOWN County."
82. Rayment. "Down County: 1771 / Robert Stewart, later [1816] 1st Marquess of Londonderry (to 1783)"
83. "No. 13922". The London Gazette. 10 August 1796. p. 781. To Robert Lord Viscount Castlereagh, and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten, by the Name Stile and Title of Earl of Londonderry, of the County of Londonderry
84. Fryde et al. 1986, p. 47, line 12. "George IV ... acc. 29 Jan. 1820;"

Sources

• Alison, Archibald (1861). Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir Charles Stewart the second and the third Marquesses of Londonderry. Vol. 1. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons. OCLC 456774545.
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Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Roger Hall Bernard Ward	Member of Parliament for County Down 1771–1783 With: Roger Hall 1771–1776 Arthur Hill, Viscount Kilwarlin 1776–1783	Succeeded by Arthur Hill, Viscount Kilwarlin Hon. Edward Ward
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New title	Representative peer for Ireland 1800–1821	Succeeded by The Viscount Powerscourt
Peerage of Ireland
New creation	Marquess of Londonderry 1816–1821	Succeeded by Robert Stewart
	Earl of Londonderry 1796–1821
	Viscount Castlereagh 1795–1821
	Baron Londonderry 1789–1821