William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy

Who is William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy?

William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, was an Anglo-Irish peer and soldier.

Stewart was born in 1653, the son of Sir Alexander Stewart, 2nd Baronet, of Ramelton. He married the Honourable Mary Coote, daughter of Richard Coote, 1st Baron Coote. They had six sons and two daughters.

He was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance and colonel of a regiment of foot and in 1682 was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Viscount Mountjoy and Baron Stewart for services during the Irish Rebellion. In 1686 he served in Hungary at the siege of Buda, where he was twice dangerously wounded, and on his return to Ireland was made a brigadier-general. Macaulay styled him "a brave soldier, an accomplished scholar." In Dublin he was the centre of a small circle of learned and ingenious men, who had, under his presidency, formed themselves into a Royal Society.

In 1688 he commanded a portion of the royal army of the Catholic King James II stationed at Londonderry.