Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty

The Right Honourable The Earl of Clancarty GCB GCH PC
President of the Board of Trade
In office 29 September 1812 – 24 January 1818
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	The Earl of Liverpool
Preceded by	The Earl Bathurst
Succeeded by	Hon. F. J. Robinson
Personal details
Born	19 May 1767
Died	24 November 1837 (aged 70) Kinnegad, County Westmeath
Nationality	British
Political party	Tory
Spouse(s)	Henrietta Margaret Staples (c. 1770–1847)
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge

Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty, 1st Marquess of Heusden GCB GCH PC (19 May 1767 – 24 November 1837), styled The Honourable from 1797 to 1803 and then Viscount Dunlo to 1805, was an Irish peer, a nobleman in the Dutch nobility, and a diplomat. He was an Irish, and later British, Member of Parliament and a supporter of Pitt. Additionally he was appointed Postmaster General of Ireland, and later, of the United Kingdom.

Background and education

Clancarty was the son of William Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty and Anne, daughter of Charles Gardiner and his seat was Garbally Court in Ballinasloe, East County Galway where he was associated with the Great October Fair.^[1] His brother was Power Le Poer Trench (1770–1839), archbishop of Tuam. He was educated at Kimbolton School and St John's College, Cambridge.^[2]

Political career

Trench represented Newtown Limavady in the Irish House of Commons from 1796 to 1798. He sat further for Galway County from 1798 to a short time before the Act of Union, when he was replaced by "Humanity Dick" Martin.

He was credited with resolving various border disputes in Holland, Germany and Italy at the Congress of Vienna, 1814–1815, and in his role as Ambassador to the Netherlands. For his service as ambassador to The Hague, he was awarded the hereditary title of Marquess of Heusden in the peerage of The Netherlands on 8 July 1815^[3] by William I of the Netherlands, following the defeat of Napoleon in Brabant in that same province's southern reaches. Trench was elected one of the 28 representative peers of Ireland on 16 December 1808. His seat in the House of Lords became hereditary when he was created Baron Trench (4 August 1815) and Viscount Clancarty (created 8 December 1823), in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, his older peerages being Irish peerages. He was a Commissioner for the Affairs of India and Custos Rotulorum of County Galway.

In the same Royal Decree that awarded the Marquessate of Heusden, K.B. of 8 July 1815, numbers 13 en 14, another Irishman, Arthur Wellesley was granted the Netherlands' Kingdom hereditary nobility-title Prince of Waterloo, following his recent exploits at that place in modern-day Kingdom of Belgium.

Postmaster General

Between 1807 and 1809 Trench was one of the joint Postmasters General of Ireland^[4] and he was appointed Postmaster General of the United Kingdom being one of the last joint holders of that office from 1814–1816.^[5]

Family

On 6 February 1796 he married Henrietta Margaret Staples, daughter of John Staples and Harriet Conolly. They had the following children:

1. Lady Lucy Le Poer Trench (d. 1839), married Robert Maxwell
2. Lady Louisa Augusta Anne Le Poer Trench (b. 23 December 1796, d. 7 February 1881), married Reverend William Le Poer Trench
3. Lady Harriet Margaret Le Poer Trench (b. 13 October 1799, d. 1885), married Thomas Kavanagh "the MacMurrough", a descendant of Art mac Art MacMurrough-Kavanagh
4. Lady Emily Florinda Le Poer Trench (b. 7 November 1800), married Giovanni Cossiria
5. Lady Frances Power Le Poer Trench (b. 22 January 1802, d. 28 December 1804)
6. William Thomas Le Poer Trench, 3rd Earl of Clancarty (b 21 September 1803, d. 26 April 1872), married Lady Sarah Juliana Butler, daughter of Somerset Richard Butler, 3rd Earl of Carrick
7. Hon. Richard John Le Poer Trench (b. 1805)
8. Commander Hon. Frederick Robert Le Poer Trench (b. 23 July 1808, d. April 1867), married Catherine Maria Thompson

Ancestry

Ancestors of Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty

Frederick Trench of Garbally               Colonel Frederick Trench of Garbally                       Elizabeth Warburton               Colonel Richard Trench of Garbally                             John Eyre of Eyre Court or Eyrecourt Castle               Elizabeth Eyre                       Margery Preston               William Power Keating Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty                                   John Power               David Power of Coorheen, Loughrea                       Sarah Bowen               Frances Power                             William Keating of Lissenhall               Elizabeth Keating                       Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty                                         Rt Hon Luke Gardiner                       Rt Hon Charles Gardiner of Dublin                             Hon. Alexander Stewart               Anne Stewart                       Mary Tighe               Anne Gardiner                                   Samuel Norman               Robert Norman                       Elizabeth Gage               Florinda Norman                             John Bolton               Sarah Bolton

References

1. Lally, Barry (2015). "Story of the Great October Fair". Ballinasloe Fair. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
2. "Trench, Richard Power Keating (TRNC785RP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Hoge Raad van Adel, Wet op Adeldom 1994; Netherlands' Law of Nobility, Article 1 (in Dutch)
4. Haydn, Joseph (1851). The Book of Dignities. London: Longmans, Brown, Green and Longmans. p. 461.
5. Thorne, R. G. (editor) (21 April 2006). "TRENCH, Hon. Richard (1767–1837), of Garbally, Co. Galway". The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790–1820. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-043-6521-010. Retrieved 4 October 2013.

• Urban, Sylvanus. "The Earl of Clancarty." The Gentleman's Magazine. Obituary Vol. IX, January to June, London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nickols and Son, 1838. (pp. 93–94) googlebooks Retrieved 17 October 2008
• thepeerage.com Accessed 9 March 2008
• Lodge, Edmund. The Peerage of the British Empire As at Present Existing: Arranged and Printed from the Personal Communications of the Nobility, by Edmund Lodge, to Which Is Added a View of the Baronetage of the Three Kingdoms. London: Saunders and Otley, 1834. (p. 96) googlebooks Accessed 9 March 2008

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Clancarty