Francis Nathaniel Conyngham Sr, 2nd Marquess Conyngham, Earl Conyngham, Earl of Mount Charles, Viscount Conyngham, Viscount Slane, Viscount Mount Charles, Baron Conyngham, Baron Minster

==WIKIPEDIA==

General Francis Nathaniel Conyngham, 2nd Marquess Conyngham, Earl Conyngham, Earl of Mount Charles, Viscount Conyngham of Mount Charles, Viscount Mount Charles, Viscount Slane, Baron Conyngham of Mount Charles, Baron Minster of Minster Abbey, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Member of Parliament (Westbury & Donegal), Lord of the Treasury, Postmaster General, Privy Counselor, Lord Chamberlain of the Household, Vice-Admiral of Ulster, Lord-Lieutenant of County Meath, Major-General, Lieutenant-General, Page of Honour to the Prince Regent (later George IV), Groom of the Bedchamber, Master of the Robes, KP, GCH, PC.

Background and education: Born in Dublin, Lord Francis Conyngham was the second son of General Henry Conyngham 1st Marquess Conyngham, and Elizabeth daughter of Joseph Denison, and the brother of Henry Conyngham Earl of Mount Charles and Albert Denison 1st Baron Londesborough. He was educated at Eton. He became known as Lord Francis Conyngham in 1816 when his father was created Marquess Conyngham and gained the courtesy title of Earl of Mount Charles in 1824 on the early death of his unmarried elder brother.[1]

Political career: Conyngham was returned to Parliament for Westbury in 1818, a seat he held until 1820,[1][2] and later represented Donegal (succeeding his deceased elder brother the Earl of Mount Charles) between 1825 and 1831.[1][3] He served under the Earl of Liverpool as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1823 and 1826 and under Liverpool, George Canning, Lord Goderich and the Duke of Wellington as a Lord of the Treasury between 1826 and 1830. In 1832 he succeeded his father in the marquessate and entered the House of Lords.[1]

In July 1834 Lord Conyngham joined the Whig government of Lord Melbourne as Postmaster General, a post he retained until the government fell in December of the same year, and briefly held the same post under Melbourne again between April and May 1835.[1] The latter month he was sworn of the Privy Council[4] and appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household. He remained in this position until 1839,[1] when he was succeeded by his brother-in-law the Earl of Uxbridge.

Lord Conyngham was also Vice-Admiral of Ulster between 1849 and 1876 and Lord-Lieutenant of County Meath between 1869 and 1876. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Hanoverian Order in 1830[1] and a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1833.[5]

Military career[edit]

On 21 September 1820, Conyngham purchased a cornetcy in the 22nd Light Dragoons,[6] but this appointment did not take place, and he was replaced by his brother Lord Albert Conyngham,[7] after he was appointed, without purchase, to be cornet and sub-lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards on 23 April 1821.[8] He purchased a lieutenancy in the 9th Light Dragoons on 24 October 1821,[9] and on 13 December, he exchanged from the half-pay of the 9th Light Dragoons into the 1st Regiment of Life Guards.[10] He exchanged again, into the 17th Light Dragoons, on 3 April 1823,[11] and purchased an unattached captaincy on 12 June 1823.[12] Mount Charles, as he then was, entered the Ceylon Regiment, and purchased an unattached majority on 2 October 1827.[13] He became a Major-General in 1858, a Lieutenant-General in 1866 and a full General in 1874.[1]

In his youth Lord Conyngham was a Page of Honour to the Prince Regent (later George IV). Between 1820 and 1830 he was a Groom of the Bedchamber and Master of the Robes to George IV.[1] As Lord Chamberlain, upon the death of King William IV, he and the Archbishop of Canterbury had the bittersweet responsibility to go to Kensington Palace at 5 a.m. on 20 June 1837 to inform Princess Victoria that she was now Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland. Lord Conyngham would be the first to address her "Your Majesty".[17][18]

Family:

Lord Conyngham married Lady Jane Paget, daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, on 23 April 1824. They had six children:

George Henry Conyngham, 3rd Marquess Conyngham (1825–1882) Lady Jane Conyngham (1826–1900), married Francis Spencer, 2nd Baron Churchill and had issue. Lady Frances Caroline Martha Conyngham (1827–1898), married Gustavus Lambart and had issue. Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Conyngham (1829-1904), married George Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea. Lady Cecilia Augusta Conyngham (1831-1877), married Sir Theodore Brinckman, 2nd Baronet and had issue. Lord Francis Nathaniel Conyngham (1832–1880), politician.

Lady Conyngham died at Folkestone, Kent, in January 1876, aged 77. Lord Conyngham only survived her by five months and died in London in July 1876, aged 79, after an operation for lithotomy. He was succeeded in the marquessate by his eldest son, George.[1]

References[edit]

1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j thepeerage.com General Sir Francis Nathaniel Conyngham, 2nd Marquess Conyngham 2.Jump up ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Waterloo to West Looe 3.Jump up ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Devizes to Dorset West 4.Jump up ^ "No. 19272". The London Gazette. 22 May 1835. p. 980. 5.Jump up ^ "No. 19034". The London Gazette. 29 March 1833. p. 617. 6.Jump up ^ "No. 17638". The London Gazette. 30 September 1820. p. 1848. 7.Jump up ^ "No. 17697". The London Gazette. 14 April 1821. p. 838. 8.Jump up ^ "No. 17708". The London Gazette. 19 May 1821. p. 1082. 9.Jump up ^ "No. 17769". The London Gazette. 1 December 1821. p. 2343. 10.Jump up ^ "No. 17778". The London Gazette. 1 January 1822. p. 1. 11.Jump up ^ "No. 17915". The London Gazette. 19 April 1823. p. 626. 12.Jump up ^ "No. 17935". The London Gazette. 28 June 1823. p. 1050. 13.Jump up ^ "No. 18401". The London Gazette. 2 October 1827. p. 2033. 14.^ Jump up to: a b c d "The Famine--"The Times"--and Donegal: Part III". Vindicator. 5 December 2015. 15.^ Jump up to: a b "Famine Times in Donegal". Irish Famine Pots. 5 December 2015. 16.Jump up ^ "Beaver Island and Arranmore Island". We Love Donegal. 5 December 2015. 17.Jump up ^ St Aubyn, Giles (1991) Queen Victoria: A Portrait, London: Sinclair-Stevenson, ISBN 1-85619-086-2, pp. 55–57 18.Jump up ^ * Woodham-Smith, Cecil (1972) Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times 1819–1861, London: Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0-241-02200-2, p. 138

External links[edit] Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess Conyngham