THE ANNUAL BIOGRAPHY AND OBITUARY, OF 1822. PART I. : MEMOIRS OF CELEBRATED PERSONS, WHO HAVE DIED WITHIN THE YEARS 1821-1822. No. I. THE RIGHT HONORABLE ROBERT STEWART, K. G. MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY, VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH; LATE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. THE Right Honorable Robert Stewart, Marquis of Londonderry, Viscount Castlereagh, was the eldest son of the late Marquis, by his first wife, Lady Sarah Frances Seymour, sister to the late Marquis of Hertford. His Lordship's family, which was originally Scotch, first settled in Ireland in the reign of James I., who granted to his kinsman, the Duke of Lenox, and his relations, that large tract of land in the county of Donegal, lying between Loch Foil and Loch Swilly, forfeited during his reign and that of Queen Elizabeth. This the King divided into eight manors, and granted two of them to the Duke, and a third, by the name of the manor of Steward's Court, otherwise Ballylaun, together with the territory and precincts of Ballyreach, to John Stewart, Esq. (the ancestor of the Castle reagh family, and the Duke's relation,) and his heirs for ever, and which manor, together with the whole of the land annexed to it, descended in regular lineal succession to Robert, first Marquis of Londonderry, father of the illustrious subject of the present memoir. On this manor the said John Stewart erected the castle of Ballylawn, and settled it with Protestant inhabitants, whereby he became entitled to hold a court-baron, together with other ample privileges. The great-grandson of this John Stewart, and great-grandfather of the above Robert, the first Marquis, (who died in 1821,) was Colonel William Stewart, of Ballylawn Castle, who raised a troop of horse at his own expense, during the siege of the city of Londonderry by King James II., and was of essential service to the Protestants, by protecting those who were well affected to King William III., and checking the depredations of James's army, whose supplies he completely cut off on that side, and considerably cramped the operations of the siege. And we accordingly find, that in the parliament held in Dublin by King James, he was expressly attainted by name, and his estates declared forfeited, but which estates, however, descended unimpaired to his heir. This Colonel William Stewart married the daughter of William Stewart, of Fort Stewart, in the county of Donegal, and died leaving issue - 1. Thomas, his heir; 2. Alexander; 3. Martha, who married John Kennedy, Esq., of Caltra, in the county of Down. Thomas, the elder, succeeded at Ballylawn castle, and served as a captain in his relation's, Lord Mountjoy's, regiment. This Thomas married Mary, the second daughter of Barnard Ward, Esq., ancestor of the Viscount Bangor, and dying without issue in 1740, was succeeded by his second brother, Alexander, (born in 1700,) who represented the city of Londonderry in parliament, and purchased the estate of Mount Stewart, in the county of Down, (formerly the Mount-Alexander estate,) from the Colville family. He married, June 30, 1737, his cousin Mary, only daughter of John Cowan, of Londonderry, Esq., died April 2. 1781, and was succeeded by his eldest son Robert. Robert Stewart, first Marquis of Londonderry, was born September 27. 1739.; represented the county of Down in two parliaments; was sworn of the Privy Council, and appointed a trustee of the Linen Board, during the administration of the Marquis of Lansdown, and governor and custos rotulorum of the counties of Down and Londonderry, in 1801 and 1803. He was advanced to the dignity of Baron of Londonderry, November 18.1789; of Viscount Castle• reagh, October 6.1795; of Earl of Londonderry, August 9. 1796; and of Marquis of Londonderry, January 22. 1816. He married first, Lady Sarah Frances Seymour Conway, daughter to Francis, first Earl of Hertford, who died July 17. 1776, and by whom he had issue, two children, viz.: 1. Alexander Francis, who was born 1767, and died in 1769; and 2. Robert, Viscount Castlereagh, the recently deceased Marquis; and secondly in 1755, he married Frances Pratt, 1775 daughter of the great Lord Chancellor Camden, and sister to the present Marquis of Camden, by whom he had issue eleven children, viz.: -1. Charles William, late Lord Stewart ; 2. Alexander John, born February 28. 1783, who was an officer in the navy, fought at the battle of St. Vincent, and died in 1810.; 3. Frances Ann, born June 24. 1777, and who married, in 1799, Lord Charles Fitzroy, second son of Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton; 4. Thomas Henry, who served under the Duke of Wellington, and died in Portugal in 1810; 5. Elizabeth Mary, born 1779, who died unmarried in 1798; 6. Caroline, born 1781, wife of Colonel Wood, son of Thomas Wood, Esq., of Littleton, and M. P. for the county of Brecon; 7. Georgiana, married to George Canningby, now Lord Garvagh, who was born in 1785, and died in 1804; 8. Selina Sarah Juliana, born 1786, married to David Kerr, Esq., of the county of Down, and M. P. for Athlone; 9. Matilda Charlotte, born 1787, married to E. Ward, Esq., of Bangor Castle; 10. Emily Jane, born 1789, married 1814, to the late John James, Esq., secretary of legation at the Court of Munich, and son of Sir Walter James, Bart., of Langley Hall, Berks, secretary of embassy at the Court of the King of the Netherlands; and 11. 1969 Catherine Octavia, born 1792, and married in 1813, to the present Lord Ellenborough, but since dead. ; The Right Honourable Robert Stewart, Marquis of Londonderry, Viscount Castlereagh (the subject of this memoir) was born June 18. 1799. He received his early education at Armagh, under Archdeacon Hurrock, and at seventeen (1786) was entered at St. John's College, Cambridge. In his youth, his lordship is said to have been distinguished by a remarkable intrepidity of character. It is recorded of him, that in an aquatic excursion with his tutor, to whom he was much attached, the latter having fallen accidentally into the water, his pupil, careless of the danger, rushed in after him, and was the means of saving the unfortunate man from death. After remaining the usual time at college, and making the grand tour (which was at that time looked upon as an indispensable adjunct to the education of a young nobleman) he began to evince an ardent desire to engage in political affairs. His noble father determined to afford him every facility in his power to attain the object of his wishes; and at the age of twenty one years Mr. Stewart was induced to offer himself a candidate to represent the county of Down, in which his father's estates were principally situated, and where his influence could be exerted with the greatest probability of success. The election was fiercely contested, but ended in his favour, although his success on this occasion is said to have cost the Marquis his father upwards of 30,000l. That he was popular may be inferred from the circumstance of his having given a written pledge on the hustings, that he would support the cause of parliamentary reform; but the extent to which he desired to carry reform has not been ascertained. He has himself declared, that the concession of the right of voting to Catholics accomplished all that he had ever looked for in the way of parliamentary reform; at all events it is probable that his wishes on this subject were not as extravagant as some older politicians of the present day. Our young senator took an early opportunity of evincing to the honourable house of which he was a member, that it was by no |