William Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty

Who was William Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty?

William Power Keating Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty was an Irish aristocrat and politician and later United Kingdom statesman at the time of the Act of Union. His family, through his son Richard, became prominent and hereditary members of the Netherlands' nobility.

He was a son of Richard Trench and Frances Power.

William was an Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons, and supporting the Whigs. He represented Galway County from 1768 until 1797. He served as High Sheriff of County Kilkenny for 1777. He was advanced to the Irish House of Lords as Baron Kilconnel, and to the position of Viscount Dunlo as a reward for his continuing support of the Whig Party. On 12 February 1803 he became Earl of Clancarty. His choice of the former title is said to have been derived from a tenuous link to the Munster Earls of Clancarty, who had been deprived of the title by the English Crown. He therefore became the first Earl of Clancarty in its second creation. He was succeeded by his son Richard.

The Trench family seat was at Garbally in Ballinasloe.