Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris

Who was Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris?

Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris FRS was an Irish peer.

He was the son of Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey, and the Countess Juliana Donovan, who belonged to the junior sept of the O'Donovans of Clan Loughlin, the Donovans of Ballymore in County Wexford. She was initially rumoured to be of lower birth, the ancient pedigrees of some Irish families not being widely known in the English-speaking world at that time, and hers deriving from a remote region of Ireland, the Barony of Carbery. The Countess Juliana was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Donel Oge na Cartan O'Donovan, the 1st Lord of Clan Loughlin to hold his territories from the Crown, from 1616.

He married, Lucy Lyttelton, daughter of George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley, and Lucy Fortescue, on 10 May 1767. They had, among other children:

George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris

He next married Sarah Cavendish, daughter of Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet, and Sarah Bradshaw, 1st Baroness Waterpark, on 20 December 1783. They had, among other children:

Catherine Annesley - married John Thomas Somerset, a younger son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, and had issue.