Francis Needham, 2nd Earl of Kilmorey
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Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
peer
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
and Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
.
Kilmorey was the son of General Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey
Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey
Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey , known as Francis Needham until 1818 and as The Viscount Kilmorey from 1818 to 1822, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Member of Parliament....
. He was elected to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
for Newry
Newry (UK Parliament constituency)
Newry was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland, returning one MP. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.-Members of Parliament:...
in 1819 (succeeding his father), a seat he held until 1826. In 1832 he succeeded his father in the earldom but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. He served as High Sheriff of Down
High Sheriff of Down
The High Sheriff of Down is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Down. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judicial importance, he has ceremonial and administrative...
for 1828.
Lord Kilmorey married Jane Gun-Cuninghame in 1814. He died in June 1880, aged 92, and was succeeded in his titles by his grandson Francis
Francis Needham, 3rd Earl of Kilmorey
Francis Charles Needham, 3rd Earl of Kilmorey KP , known as Viscount Newry from 1851 to 1880, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Conservative Member of Parliament.-Life:...
, his eldest son Francis Needham, Viscount Newry
Francis Needham, Viscount Newry
Francis Jack Needham, Viscount Newry , was an Anglo-Irish Member of Parliament.Newry was the eldest son of Francis Needham, 2nd Earl of Kilmorey, and Jane Gun-Cuninghame. He gained the courtesy title of Viscount Newry when his father succeeded as Earl of Kilmorey in 1832...
, having predeceased him.
Lord Kilmorey scandalised Victorian society by eloping with his ward, Priscilla Anne Hoste, when he was in his late fifties and she was 20. They had a child called Charles a year later in July 1844 which Lord Kilmorey acknowledged as his and gave his surname to, and he set his mistress up in an adjoining house with an underground tunnel between the two.
Priscilla Hoste was the daughter of Admiral Sir William Hoste and his wife Lady Harriet Walpole. Her father died when she was a small child and her mother allegedly was careless of her relations with Lord Kilmorey. Priscilla died of heart disease on 21 October 1854, and she was buried in a mausoleum which had been specially commissioned by Lord Kilmorey for them both with the inscription "Priscilla, the beloved of Francis Jack, Earl of Kilmorey'.
When he himself eventually died in 1880 he was buried beside her in the mausoleum underneath a bas-relief showing the dying Priscilla on a couch surrounded by her lover and ten year old son. The mausoleum, now a Grade II listed monument which cost £30,000 to build in an ancient Egyptian design, was moved several times between Lord Kilmorey's homes and is now located in Twickenham and maintained by the Environment Trust for Richmond upon Thames. Kilmorey Mausoleum Home Page St Margarets Community Website
Charles Needham, despite being illegitimate, was said to be his father's favourite - the 'apple of his eye'. He was two years younger than his half-nephew, the eventual 3rd Earl of Kilmorey. He married a Dutch heiress called Hendrika Amelie Charlotte Vincentia de Tuyll de Serooskerken (known as Amy), the third daughter of Baron Vincent de Tuyll, who had made a fortune out of the tin concessions on the island of Billiton in the Dutch East Indies. Charles and Amy had two daughters, Evelyn and Violet.
Violet Needham
Violet Needham
Violet Needham was the author of 19 popular children's books.She came to writing late in life, publishing her first book, The Black Riders, in 1939, at the age of 63. She was born in England to a privileged but chaotic family. Her father was a gambler and their finances fluctuated considerably...
(1876-1967) was the author of 19 books for children published between 1939 and 1957. Although she came to writing late — she was 63 when her first book, The Black Riders, was published — her books achieved immediate and lasting popularity with young readers.