Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim

Who was Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim?

Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim, KP PC, styled The Honourable from 1783 to 1795, and then Viscount Clements to 1804, was an Irish nobleman and politician.

Born in Dublin, he was educated at a private school in Portarlington and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1788. Two years later he was elected to the Irish House of Commons as Whig member for Roscommon Borough as well as Carrick, but chose to sit for the latter. In 1798, as Viscount Clements, he was returned for both Cavan Borough and Leitrim. He represented the latter constituency until the Act of Union in 1801, and was then elected for Leitrim at Westminster until 1804.

He was appointed Custos Rotulorum of Leitrim in 1795 and Custos Rotulorum of Donegal in 1804. Having served as High Sheriff of Leitrim in 1796, Clements that same year became Colonel of the Donegal Regiment until its disbandment in 1802. Two years later, he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Leitrim, but subsequently failed in his attempts to be elected to the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer. In 1831, as well as becoming Lord Lieutenant of Leitrim for life, Lord Leitrim was created Baron Clements in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Three years later he was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick, and later that year he became a member of the Irish Privy Council.