(207) Ashley (later Ashley-Cooper) of Wimborne St. Giles, Earls of Shaftesbury - part 1

Ashley-Cooper, Earls of Shaftesbury

The first part of this post provides an introduction to the Ashley and Ashley-Cooper families and their estates, and describes the houses they owned. Part 2 gives the detailed genealogy of the family.

Many of the families I write about in these pages derive their wealth and property from one or two talented and successful individuals who prospered in business, the professions or public affairs, and bequeathed to their descendants a patrimony which subsequent generations have preserved or dissipated as the case may be. The Ashleys are not like that. Over some six hundred years they have been actors on the national stage and most generations have thrown up one or more figures who added lustre to the family reputation by their achievements. Above all, they have been a political dynasty from the time of that Robert Ashley who was MP for Wiltshire in 1419, down to Wilfrid Ashley, Minister for Transport 1924-29, and Edwina, Countess Mountbatten, last Vicereine of India in 1947. Indeed, the political tradition may not be over yet, as the present 12th Earl has recently sought election to one of the 91 seats in the House of Lords reserved for hereditary peers. And amongst the political high achievers there have been others of equal note, including one of England's most influential philosophers and a great 19th century social reformer. What follows is a rich and fascinating story.

The Ashley family are said to have come originally from 'Ashley' in Wiltshire, probably the hamlet of Ashley near Box. Their association with Wimborne St. Giles goes back to the early 15th century, when Robert Ashley (fl. c.1410) married Gillian, the daughter and heiress of Sir John Hamely (d. 1398) and the widow of John Plecy. The Wimborne property was intended for their son Robert, but he died before his mother and in due course it passed to his brother Edmund Ashley. From him it descended from father to son to Sir Henry Ashley (1519-88), kt., who made rather more of a figure in the county than his predecessors, serving as High Sheriff, an MP, and as Vice-Admiral of Dorset 1551-82. He was a courtier through several reigns, married one of Anne of Cleves' English attendants, and was knighted at the coronation of Queen Mary in 1553. He may have been the first of the family to feel the pinch as he sold the family's property at Trowbridge in 1571. His son, another Sir Henry Ashley (1548-c.1605), was more seriously financially embarrassed, and in 1589 it was claimed that his estates were encumbered to the tune of £8,000. He fell foul of the Privy Council and the Court of Star Chamber on several occasions in the 1590s as a result of his efforts to recoup his position, but in the end he was forced to sell his property to his cousin, Sir Anthony Ashley (1552-1628), kt. and 1st bt., who as Clerk of the Privy Council must have found him an embarrassing relation.

Sir Anthony was himself no stranger to controversy, since he was accused of murder in 1609 (an allegation that ended his career with the Privy Council although he was cleared) and had a reputation for homosexuality. Despite his personal predilections, he seems to have been determined to continue the Ashley dynasty at Wimborne, though his only child was a daughter, Anne Ashley (d. 1628). He ensured her marriage contract provided that her firstborn son should be christened Ashley, and that if he should be made a baron, would take the title Baron Ashley. She was married in 1617 to John Cooper, a young man noted chiefly for his open hospitality and his addiction to gambling. In 1622 Sir Anthony, who had recently remarried to a sister-in-law of the King's favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, bought himself a baronetcy, and at the same time he also secured one for his son-in-law, thus ensuring that not only his name but also his title would be secured to his successors at Wimborne St. Giles.

Sir John Cooper (1597-1631), 1st bt. and his wife Anne (d. 1628) both died young, and left their three children as orphans. The eldest boy, duly named Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-83) was the first great figure in the family history, and one of the great political survivors of the age. Having commenced the Civil War as an officer in the Royalist army he switched sides in 1644 and became a leading figure in the Commonwealth regime. He undertook the first two big phases of rebuilding of the ancient house at Wimborne St. Giles, in c.1651 and 1672. When it became likely that Charles II would be invited to return to England he manoeuvred himself into the party which conveyed the invitation to him, and was quickly pardoned for his part in the Civil War and Commonwealth. He became one of Charles II's closest advisers and rose to high office in the 1660s and early 1670s as a member of the CABAL, becoming Lord Ashley in 1661 and Earl of Shaftesbury in 1672. When he fell from power and moved into opposition and conspiracy he lived dangerously but avoided the worst consequences of his actions and died in bed, albeit in exile. His legacy to the country was a new and rapidly very powerful political force, the Whigs, who shaped the British constitution and political discourse for well over a century to come.

In this notable family, the 2nd Earl (1652-99) was the exception that proves the rule: a dullard who disappointed his father and his wife so much that the 1st Earl secured the guardianship of his eldest grandson to ensure that he was properly brought up. The 3rd Earl (1671-1713) was educated under the influence of his grandfather's friend, the philosopher John Locke, and turned out to be a philosopher himself, who was widely read in the 18th century. Although he had a taste for politics his asthmatic constitution made it dangerous for him to live in London and he divided his time between a literary and contemplative life in Dorset and restorative trips to the Continent; he died in Naples in 1713 leaving a young widow and an infant son.

The 4th Earl (1711-71) is in many ways the central figure in the architectural narrative of St. Giles House, employing Flitcroft to remodel the house and give the interior much of its present character, and laying out the grounds in a Rococo style of which more survives here than in most places. He inherited his father's literary and artistic interests, and was a friend of Handel, who visited St. Giles House on several occasions. His first wife, to whom he was married when they were both about thirteen, fortunately proved to share his interests, but they had no children. After she died in 1758 he married for a second time, and produced two sons (who inherited in turn) and a daughter. The 5th Earl (1761-1811), who seems to have shared some of his father's interests in art and landscaping, married a Catholic. This might have been the end of the family's low church tradition, but the couple had only a daughter, and the 5th Earl was succeeded by his only brother, Cropley Ashley Cooper (1768-1851), 6th Earl of Shaftesbury who adhered to the family tradition.

The long-lived 6th Earl was very different: he comes across as effective but stubborn, cocksure, and hard to like. He held strong Tory views in contrast to most of his family, and adhered to the Church of England. Despite being the younger son, he married the daughter of a Duke (his Catholic brother had married a baronet's daughter) and he produced a large family of six sons and four daughters. Before he succeeded his brother, he filled his time with being both an MP and a clerk in the Royal Ordnance, but he really blossomed after he inherited the earldom and took his seat in the upper house, where he became Chairman of Committees in 1814 and deputy speaker in 1829; his career culminated in being Lord Steward of the Royal Household for the coronation of William IV in 1831.

The eldest of his six sons, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1801-85), succeeded as 7th Earl in 1851. He was thought exceptionally handsome in his youth, and in the 1830s was described as a ‘complete beau idéal of aristocracy’, a comment on his appearance which might also be applied to his whole outlook and career. He entered Parliament at twenty-five and although he held Government office intermittently until 1841 he was fundamentally independent in his outlook, not a party man. He was progressive where his father was reactionary, and in 1843 his support for the repeal of the Corn Laws brought about a lasting breach between them. Through patient argument and unremitting hard work he drove through Parliament a series of social reforms in the care of lunatics, employment law and public health that earned him the nickname of 'the poor man's earl' and ultimately brought thousands to his funeral. He seems to have been motivated by paternalistic humanitarian concerns and from the 1830s increasingly by an evangelical Christian zeal for human dignity. He was deeply conscious of rank and opposed to the extension of democracy, but it seems too cynical to suggest (as left-wing historians have) that he worked for social reform only to avert revolution, so that the class he represented could sustain its social and political position.

The Angel of Christian Charity (Eros) by Alfred Gilbert
at Piccadilly Circus, London, erected as a monument
to the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Not only did he have a real social conscience, he was motivated by a belief in the imminent second coming of Christ, an expectation which drove him to reform national life so as to mitigate the impact of the forthcoming divine judgement and to save souls. When he died he was commemorated by a monument in Westminster Abbey and more popularly and more publicly by the statue known as 'Eros' at Piccadilly Circus.

The 7th Earl found time in his long and busy life to considerably alter and extend St. Giles House to the designs of P.C. Hardwick, and also to father as many children as the 6th Earl. His favourite was reputedly his second son, Francis, who died while a schoolboy at Harrow. His eldest son, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1831-86), 8th Earl, was not academically gifted and joined the navy at seventeen. After the Crimean War he joined the British delegation to the coronation of the new Russian Czar, Alexander II, and over the next thirty years occupied himself with commissions in militia regiments. In 1857 he married the only daughter and heiress of the 3rd Marquess of Donegall (d. 1884), from whom he and his wife eventually inherited the extensive and valuable Belfast Castle estate in Co. Antrim, as well as property in Co. Donegal. These estates, which included a sizeable chunk of Belfast, were worth two and a half times as much as the family's Dorset estate. When he came into the Dorset property as well in 1885 the family was at the apogee of its fortunes, despite the impact of the Agricultural Depression over the last ten years. It is therefore deeply ironic that when the 8th Earl became depressed in the months after his father's death he convinced himself that he was utterly ruined, and shot himself in a cab travelling through London.

His only son, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1869-1961), 9th Earl, thus inherited unexpectedly at the age of sixteen. He is perhaps the most underrated and unjustly forgotten of the Earls. After a decade of soldiering in the 1890s he married a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Westminster and settled at Belfast Castle in Northern Ireland (an account of the Castle, which was begun by Lord Donegall and finished for the 8th Earl of Shaftesbury while he was Lord Ashley, is reserved for a future post on the Chichester family, Marquesses of Donegall). He seems to have stepped fully into the life of Belfast, becoming Lord Lieutenant, Chancellor of the University, Colonel of the Northern Ireland Horse, and even, in 1907, Lord Mayor. But in the years just before and during the First World War, when he returned to active service, English affairs progressively reclaimed him. The decisive step was probably when he became Chamberlain of Queen Mary's household in 1910 and needed to attend the court regularly; he remained in Her Majesty's service until 1936. St. Giles House was at this time occupied by his spinster aunt and widowed uncle, but after they died in 1913 and 1914 he settled in Dorset, becoming Lord Lieutenant in 1916 and Chairman of the County Council in 1924. His arrival in Dorset coincided with a withdrawal from Belfast: he gave up the Lord Lieutenancy of Antrim in 1916 and the Chancellorship of Queens University in 1923 and in 1934 he presented Belfast Castle and the remainder of the estate to the city. How far his shift from Belfast to Dorset was due to the 'push factor' of the Irish troubles is not clear, but his association with the royal family and his high profile roles would inevitably have made him a target, so prudence may have played its part in his decision.

St. Giles House was requisitioned for military use in 1939 and the family moved into the dower house in the village of Wimborne St. Giles. After the war, the house was let to a school but maintenance of the building was neglected and there was an outbreak of dry rot in the west wings. When the 9th Earl died in 1961 he was succeeded by his grandson, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1938-2004), the 10th Earl, who decided that the only way to save the house was to drastically reduce its size. Work began in 1971 on a scheme to remove the towers and rear wings added by Hardwick in the 19th century and remove the cement render from the rest of the house. Unfortunately, the work stopped short of making good the exposed and scarred walls and the problems of decay accelerated while the 10th Earl turned his attention to the estate and planted 1,000,000 trees. In 2000 the Earl abandoned his responsibilities in England for a playboy lifestyle on the continent and his tragic death in 2004 was quickly followed by the sudden death of his elder son and heir in New York the following year. This brought to the earldom and the estate his younger son, Nick Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, who has risen splendidly to the many challenges his inheritance provided. Most particularly, he has succeeded in restoring the house and returning it to use as both his own home and as a base for business ventures. In 2015 he won the Sotheby's/HHA Restoration Award for his progress so far, and although much remains to be done, the fabric of the house and the decoration of the principal rooms of the house are once more in sound condition.

The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury married Lady Emily, officially the daughter of the 5th Earl Cowper but generally understood to be a love-child of Lady Cowper and the 3rd Viscount Palmerston. When Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister he took as his private secretary the 7th Earl's fourth son, the Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (1836-1907), who was thus probably his own grandson. This was the start of a literary and political career in Liberal circles which showed Evelyn as the most gifted member of the family in his generation and the only one to maintain the strong political tradition of the family. He benefited further from his maternal family in 1888 when he was left the heir to his uncle, William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple, who bequeathed him Lord Palmerston's great house in Hampshire, Broadlands, and the Classiebawn estate in Co. Sligo. He was succeeded in both by his son Wilfrid William Ashley (1867-1939), who also had a political career that culminated in five years as Minister of Transport in the 1920s, and who was created 1st Baron Mount Temple of Lee on his retirement in 1932. His first wife was the daughter of the immensely rich financier, Sir Ernest Cassel, whose fortune was eventually divided between Lord Mount Temple's two daughters, Edwina (1901-60) and Mary (1906-86). Their wealth, glamour and social skills placed them at the centre of the haut monde in the mid 20th century. Edwina, who inherited Broadlands and Classiebawn, married Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-79), the present Queen's cousin, who was made 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma in recognition of his role in British India during the Second World War and as the last Viceroy. Although they had a stormy and reputedly open marriage they stayed together until her unexpected death in 1960. Lord Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA on his yacht while sailing from the Classiebawn estate in 1979. Broadlands is now the property of his grandson, the 8th Baron Brabourne.

Note: From the time of the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, the family surname was usually given as Ashley Cooper. The 7th Earl seems to have been the first to routinely hyphenate the name and his successors have continued this practice. However, while the Earls and their heirs apparent have always used the two names in full, whether hyphenated or not, some of the younger sons and daughters in several generations have chosen to drop the second element. One example of this was the 7th Earl's fourth son, Evelyn Melbourne (1836-1907), who was always Ashley not Ashley-Cooper.

St. Giles House, Wimborne St. Giles, Dorset

St Giles House: the east front before the reduction of the house and the removal of the render, 1964.
Image: Historic England (BB82/2248)

Already in 1542, when John Leland came through Wimborne St. Giles, he was able to record that "Mr. Ashley has a fair manor house and park", but only a moulded Gothic doorway in the cellar of c.1500 seems to survive from the house of this time, which may have been an L-shaped building occupying part of the site of the later north and west ranges, and with a detached service, stable or lodging block to its west. In the late 16th century the west range was extended to the south, and after Sir Henry Ashley sold the estate to his cousin, Sir Anthony Ashley in 1600, there were two further phases of construction that involved the rebuilding of the part of the house where the north and west ranges joined and the construction of a surviving stable block north-east of the house.

St Giles House: the early 17th century stable block.
Image: Mike Searle. Some rights reserved.

This forms the south side of an informal stable court and has four gables with kneelers and small obelisks, four-light windows with ovolo-mouldings and rather old-fashioned arched lights. 

Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-83), 2nd bt. (later 1st Baron Ashley and 1st Earl of Shaftesbury), who inherited as a child in 1631, began work on a new house after the Civil War, recording on 19 March 1650/1 'I laid the first stone of my house at St Giles'. Whether or not he ever intended the complete replacement of the existing building is uncertain, but by the time of the earliest illustration of the house - a small representation on an estate map of 1659 - what he had done was to build a new two-storey east-facing block seven bays by five, which remains substantially intact.    

St Giles House: the house on the 1659 estate map: north at the top.
Image: Historic England (AA71/4087). From Dorset History Centre....

 

The new house, aptly described by Tim Mowl as "an expression of joyless Puritan Republicanism" is an austere and astylar classical block, faced in brick with large raised brick quoins and regular fenestration. It is an early example of a type which was to become extremely common for smaller country houses in the mid to late 17th century, although to say that it was influential is to assert the existence of mechanisms for dissemination of the design which may not have existed. The stone window surrounds, with the probable exception of the rusticated surround to the central first-floor window, are likely to be original, as are the keystones, but the extensions of the latter on the ground floor to link with the 18th century stucco plat band are later. The doorcase with its scrolled pediment is also later, and probably contemporary with the window above. As first built, the piano nobile stood above a basement, the window embrasures of which survive within the present vaulted cellar, and there is clear structural evidence of a flight of steps leading up to the east entrance. This would have given the range much more of the vertical emphasis of other houses of its date; something that would have been emphasised by the hipped roof with rows of dormer windows and three formally arranged chimneystacks. No architect's name is securely associated with St. Giles House, but as a member of the inner circle of the Cromwellian regime Ashley Cooper was in a position to command the services of the best workmen in the land. In 1935 Arthur Oswald stated that the architect was Richard Ryder but gave no source for this statement. Ryder, who had been a Captain of the Parliamentarian militia in London, was responsible for rebuilding the west wing of nearby Cranborne Manor (Dorset) after Civil War damage in 1647-50 in an advanced classical style. On political, geographical and stylistic grounds he is thus quite a likely contender, but one cannot say more than that.

St Giles House: plan showing the phased development of the building.
Reproduced by kind permission of Mike Hill.

Internally, the 1651 block was divided into five rooms: large dining and drawing rooms facing east and behind them two smaller square rooms and the staircase. One of the small rooms was referred to as the 'cabanett', and the room below this in the basement was fitted up as a 'bathing room'; presumably a cold plunge bath. Later alterations have removed most of the interiors of this period, but a stone fireplace with an enriched frieze of bold garlands, acanthus brackets and floral drops survives in the former dining room (now the North Drawing Room), while the South Drawing Room retains its compartmented ceiling with rich decorative platerwork wreaths within the panels and enrichment on the beams.

By 1672, when a further estate map shows how work on the house had progressed, a new south-facing range had been built, extending westward from the south end of the new east range to join up with the older part of the house and thus completing the enclosure of a central courtyard. According to Lord Shaftesbury's notes on a building agreement for this work, it was entrusted to Thomas Glover (c.1639-1707), a mason who was capable of making designs himself, but who was here probably working to the plans of William Taylor, an architect much employed by others in Lord Shaftesbury's circle, and who must be the 'Mr Taylor' whose design for the staircase Glover was required to follow.

St Giles House: ceiling of the South Drawing Room.
Image: Crown Copyright. Licenced under the Open Government Licence.

The next changes to the house of which anything is known were made for the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury, who came of age in 1732. His architect, attested by surviving accounts, was Henry Flitcroft. Although the documentary evidence relates only to interior work, and to the creation of the Great Dining Room on the north front, it would seem likely that the external changes of this period are also by Flitcroft. The chief of these were the removal of the hipped roof of the 1651 block and the substitution of what were probably lead-flat roofs and battlemented parapets to all the main ranges of the house; the demolition of the 16th century buildings west of the house and their replacement by a long new service range projecting west from the house; and the reconstruction of part of the north range. There were also some elaborations of external detailing, such as the addition of plat bands, shaped window aprons and a new doorcase on the east front, designed to give the 17th century block a more fashionable air, although not, it is interesting to note, a Palladian one. Flitcroft also seems to have retained the exposed basement storey, with the raised terrace around the south, east and north fronts being formed later, but when the house was drawn for Hutchins' History and Antiquities of Dorset in 1774 only the perron of steps to the door was shown.

St Giles House: elevation of the east front after Flitcroft's work in the 1740s.
Engraving by W. Pryce from Hutchins' History and Antiquities of Dorset, 1774.

Three new interiors on the piano nobile are identified in the accounts: the Great Dining Room in the section of the north front which was rebuilt at this time and the 'New Hall' (now the Tapestry Room) to its east; and the 'Musick Room' which is believed to be the present White Hall in the west range. Payments relating to the fitting up of these rooms are dated 1740-44, and the finest of them is the Grand Dining Room, which, with its high coved ceiling, gilded cornice and vine-scroll enriched frieze, is related to the state saloon which Flitcroft designed at Woburn Abbey, both being based on the double-cube room at Wilton. Later alterations to the 'New Hall' have left only the pedimented doorcases of this date, while the 'Musick Room' retains its fine ceiling amid later changes. 

St Giles House: the White Hall created by Henry Flitcroft, 1740-44. 
Image: Crown Copyright. Licenced under the Open Government Licence.

The 5th Earl, who inherited in 1771 and came of age in 1782, made few changes to the house but was responsible for applying a coat of render to the exterior which significantly changed its appearance (and not for the better). In 1793-94 he engaged Sir John Soane to prepare plans for improving the house, but nothing seems to have been done before the Earl died in 1811. His brother, who succeeded to the estate as 6th Earl, commissioned Thomas Cundy in about 1816 to create a new 70-foot library out of three smaller rooms on the south side of the house, to replace the staircase in the 1651 block, and to roof over the central courtyard to form what became known as the Stone Hall. This has a plaster rib-vaulted ceiling, the pendentives of which support an oval dome above a glazed drum. There are columned galleries at either end of the hall with a linking iron-balustraded landing.

St Giles House: watercolour of the south front by an unknown artist, made after the 7th Earl's additions of 1853-54.
Image: Government Art Collection. Licenced under the Open Government Licence.

St Giles House: north front in 1970. The pavilion roofs on the towers were removed ...
Image: Historic England (NMR BB71/3353).

When the 6th Earl died in 1851, his successor was the great social reformer, the 7th Earl. He promptly engaged P.C. Hardwick to make further changes to the house. In line with his concern for the welfare of workers, in 1853 he built a new north-west service wing containing kitchens to improve conditions for his own servants. He also remodelled the south-west wing so that the inner elevations were matching, parallel and aligned more carefully on the west front of the house. In the following year two strikingly incongruous towers were added to the house, set at either end of the main west range; that to the north was an entirely new structure and was fronted by an arcaded porch leading into a new entrance vestibule. Both towers had an Italianate balustraded parapet and tall French pavilion roofs crowned with decorative ironwork. At the same time, new pitched roofs with dormer windows were erected over all the main ranges, replacing the 18th century lead flats, and a start was made on replacing the 18th century battlemented parapets with widely spaced ball finials, although this was never completed. Finally, a two-storey canted bay window was added to the south end of the east range. By contrast with the scale of these external works, the internal changes were minor.

From the death of the 7th Earl in 1885 the house entered a long slow decline. The only addition to it in the 20th century was the construction of a private chapel within the south-west for the 9th Earl in 1905-07. Rather surprisingly, for a family with such a low-church tradition, the job went to the Anglo-Catholic Sir Ninian Comper, who later also refitted the parish church after a fire.

The house remained the home of the 9th Earl until 1939, when it was requisitioned by the War Office, and the family moved to a dower house in the village. After the War, the house was let as a school, but the fabric of the building deteriorated, allowing an outbreak of dry rot to occur in one of the west wings.  The challenge of maintaining such a vast house, coupled with the death duties that arose on the death of the 9th Earl in 1961, led his grandson and heir to plan a drastic reduction in the size of the house, focusing on the removal of the Hardwick additions and the removal of the external render from the whole house. Work began in 1971 with the demolition of the north-west kitchen wing and the following year the towers were taken down, together with the majority of the south-west wing. This work involved the removal of the 19th century entrance under the north tower. The Comper chapel in the south west wing was retained, although the part of the house in which it stood was pulled down, and it is now a separate building.

St Giles House: north front after the demolition of the north tower and north-west wing.
Image: Trish Steel. Some rights reserved.

Unfortunately, having pulled down significant parts of the house the 10th Earl did not finish the job by tidying up the scarred walls. Furthermore, where the late 18th century cement render had been removed to expose the brickwork, the bricks proved to let in the damp. As a result, the decay of the house accelerated and the problem it posed became bigger, so that by 2002 some parts of the house were in danger of collapse. Eventually, overwhelmed by the challenge, the 10th Earl withdrew to France, where he was tragically murdered in 2004. The unexpected death of his elder son and heir the following year brought to the estate Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, who has devoted the last decade to reviving the fortunes of the house. He and his family live in a private apartment created within the house, while the rest of the restored rooms are used for weddings and corporate events. Much remains to be completed, but the biggest challenges have been addressed and many of the best rooms have been restored or conserved, and in 2015 the house received the prestigious HHA/Sotheby's Restoration Award.

St Giles House: the Philosopher's Tower
built by the 3rd Earl.

John Leland noticed the existence of a park at St. Giles House in the mid 16th century, but the development of it as a landscape setting for the house seems to have begun with the philosopher 3rd Earl. In about 1701 he built a two-storey domed pavilion on the edge of the park with views over Cranborne Chase now called the Philosopher's Tower, where he could enjoy "Ye Fields and Woods, my Refuge from the toilsom World of Business" and entreat the landscape to "receive me in your quiet Sanctuarys, and favour my Retreat and thoughtful Solitude". Shaftesbury was one of the most widely read English philosophers of his day, and even if his writing about garden aesthetics was intended to be understood metaphorically, as modern revisionists have suggested, it seems likely that his readers understood it literally when he wrote:

"I shall no longer resist the Passion growing in me for Things of a natural kind; where neither Art nor the Conceit nor Caprice of Man has spoil'd their genuine order, by breaking in upon that primitive state. Even the rude Rocks, the mossy Caves, the irregular unwrought Grotto's and broken Falls of Waters, with all the horrid graces of the Wilderness it-self, as representing NATURE more, will be the more engaging, and appear with a Magnificence beyond the formal Mockery of Princely Gardens".

and were moved to incorporate these principles in their approach to gardening.

St Giles House: the 'Great Arch' of 1748 formed part of an intricate Rococo layout. 
Image: Mike Searle. Some rights reserved

In the 1740s, the 4th Earl and Countess laid out a Rococo garden based around a carriage drive through the park, of which some elements survive. Bishop Pococke visited in 1754 and described how:

"The gardens are very beautifully laid out, in a serpentine river, pieces of water, lawns &c., and very gracefully adorn'd with wood. One first comes to an island in which there is a castle, then near the water is a gateway, with a tower on each side, and passing between two waters there is a fine cascade from one to the other, a thatch'd house, a round pavilion on a mount, Shake Spear's house, in which is a small statue of him, and his works in a glass case; and in all the houses and seats are books in hanging glass cases. There is a pavilion between the waters, and both a Chinese and a stone bridge over them... There is a most beautiful grotto finished by Mr. Castles of Marybone; it consists of a winding walk and an anti-room. These are mostly made of rock spar &c, adorn'd with moss. In the inner room is a great profusion of the most beautiful shells, petrifactions, and fine polished pebbles, and there is a chimney to it which is shut up with doors covered with shells, in such a manner that it does not appear. The park also is very delightful, and there is a building in it."

St. Giles House: the grotto. Image: SSH Conservation.

St. Giles House: the restored grotto interior. Image: SSH Conservation.

The sham castle has gone but 'The Great Arch', which was being constructed by a mason called Barrett in 1748, has recently been restored, as has the grotto, decorated in 1749, which is a miraculous survival given the 20th century history of the estate. The grotto is reputed to have cost the 4th Earl £10,000, and used exotic shells imported from Jamaica with the assistance of the Earl's neighbour, Alderman William Beckford of Fonthill. The composer Handel, who was a frequent visitor to St. Giles House, took tea at the grotto after a voyage on the lake on one of his visits.

Later in the 18th century a longer carriage drive was laid out around the margins of the 5,000 acre estate, but if, as seems likely, this was associated with a further phase of landscaping by the 5th Earl, it did not result in the removal of the Rococo layout nearer to the house, even if some of the more ephemeral structures vanished through neglect over the years. The last major change affecting the park was the construction of a great terrace around the north, east and south sides of the house in the 1850s, which finally concealed the basement storey of the east range.

St. Giles House: north front in 1862. The new terrace wall is apparent on the left.

Descent: Robert Ashley (d. 1432/3); to son, Edmund Ashley (fl. c.1460-80); to son, Hugh Ashley (d. 1493); to son, Henry Ashley (d. 1549); to son, Sir Henry Ashley (1519-88), kt.; to son, Sir Henry Ashley (1548-c.1605), kt., who sold 1600 to his cousin, Sir Anthony Ashley (1551-1628), kt. and 1st bt.; to daughter Anne (d. 1628), wife of Sir John Cooper (1597-1631), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-83), 2nd bt., 1st Baron Ashley and 1st Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley Cooper (1652-99), 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley Cooper (1671-1713), 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley Cooper (1711-71), 4th Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley Cooper (1761-1811), 5th Earl of Shaftesbury; to brother, Cropley Ashley Cooper (1768-1851), 6th Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1801-85), 7th Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1831-86), 8th Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1869-1961), 9th Earl of Shaftesbury; to grandson, Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1938-2004), 10th Earl of Shaftesbury; to son, Anthony Nils Christian Ashley-Cooper (1977-2005), 11th Earl of Shaftesbury; to brother, Nicholas Ashley-Cooper (b. 1979), 12th Earl of Shaftesbury.

Broadlands, Hampshire

Broadlands from an early 19th century engraving

When Celia Fiennes visited Broadlands in about 1696 she described it as 'halfe a Roman H': that is a Tudor house with the wings projecting to the east, which had already been substantially altered for Sir John St. Barbe after 1661. This E-plan house remains the core of the present building, but the space between the wings has been filled in and a whole new west range has been built parallel to the original main block. 

Broadlands: the 17th century overmantel of the Oak Room
Image: Historic England (BB79/7990)

Almost the only survivor of the old house is a room on the first floor (the Oak Room) with late 17th century panelling including a very fine carved overmantel. The stables, north-east of the house, also survive from the late 17th century, but were altered in the 19th century. They have wooden cross-windows, vertically set oval windows and a hipped roof.

Various minor changes were made to the house by the 1st Viscount Palmerston between his purchase of the estate in 1736 and his death in 1757. The major remodelling of the house was done for the 2nd Viscount Palmerston by Capability Brown, who was working here on the house and landscaping the grounds between 1766 and 1779. He cased the old house with white brick and built a new range of rooms immediately to the west of the original main range. In 1788 his son-in-law, Henry Holland, filled in the gap between the 16th/17th century wings on the east front with a new entrance portico in antis. The result is a square house, nine by nine bays, mostly of two storeys above a basement, with a hipped roof and dormers.  The west-facing garden front, which seems to have been finished by 1771, has a giant portico with a pediment; the quoins at the angles are an addition of the 1850s. The south front is also pedimented over the central three bays, but there is no giant order on this more minor elevation. The north front is similar, but plainer still. 

Broadlands: west front. Image: Historic England (BB79/7962)

Broadlands: Capability Brown's design for the south front. Image: Southampton University/Broadlands Archive

Inside, it is hard now to be absolutely confident about which of the interiors are Brown's work and which were replaced or altered by Henry Holland. The entrance hall, which doubles as a sculpture gallery, is clearly of Brown's time, and was created out of the two-storey great hall of the Tudor house. 

Broadlands House: inner entrance hall, of the Brown period, with a colonnade inserted by Holland.

The main staircase is left of the entrance hall and has an iron balustrade of simple lyre-shapes; that could be Brown or Holland. Several rooms have good plasterwork ceilings thought to be by John Rose, which are probably of the Brown period, while the accompanying wall decorations may belong to the Holland alterations, but the two tie together a seamless way. 

Broadlands: the saloon

The climax of the house is the saloon in the centre of the west front, which has Adamish stucco; this now connects through a 20th century archway with the drawing room next door, where the decoration incorporates painted panels attributed to Angelika Kauffmann (who painted a portrait of Lord Palmerston).

Broadlands: east front, as altered by Henry Holland, 1788 and with the top storey added by T.L. Donaldson, 1850s
Image: Historic England (BB79/7972)

In 1788-92, soon after his second marriage, Lord Palmerston embarked on a further phase of work to designs by Henry Holland, who created a new entrance on the east front by building a three bay loggia of slender Ionic columns between the ends of the wings of the old house. The loggia leads into an octagonal lobby with a skylight which is typical of Holland's work, and then into Brown's entrance hall, which has become a kind of inner hall, and which is decorated with a collection of sculpture. The colonnade of three bays at the north end of the inner must be an addition by Holland. The dining room was also altered by Holland. By 1792 more than £7,000 had been spent on the alterations and on new furniture for the house. In the 1850s, T.L. Donaldson added the third storey to the east front, and the quoins to the angles of the other facades. He also built a service wing to the north of the house, which was demolished in the 1950s.

Broadlands: the Brown landscape from the west front.
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Celia Fiennes remarked on the formal gardens at Broadlands at the end of the 17th century, but the 1st Lord Palmerston had cleared these away in 1739, soon after acquiring the property, "giving away all the fine pyramid greens to those that will fetch them, of which many cartloards are gone already", as he wrote to his son.  Even before that, in 1736, Lord Palmerston wrote that he was making 'a fine gentle descent from the garden to the river, a little walk on each side, and a walk by the river half a mile long'. It is reputed that William Kent was involved in the redesign of the gardens at this time, but there seems to be no evidence to support this, and it is not clear how far the clearance of the formal gardens was followed up by the creation of new pleasure grounds before Brown arrived on the scene.

When Brown was appointed, the house was still approached axially from the east up a double avenue of trees, which he removed and replaced by clumps in the rather flat parkland. South of the house, he built (or perhaps extended an existing) orangery, and created a vista from it down to the River Test. On the west side, a simple lawn slopes gracefully down from the porticoed main front to the river, the course of which Brown altered to create an attractive curve at this point.

Broadlands: the Spursholt eyecatcher, 1944.
The Gothick part has since been demolished.
Image: Historic England

There was also originally a long view towards a Gothick eyecatcher on the skyline at Spursholt. Brown made three entrances to the park: the present main drive from the Romsey Lodge; another on the Southampton Road with a pair of lodges; and a third north-west of the house, from which a drive offering views of the house approached over an ornamental bridge designed by Robert Mylne in 1783. 

An extensive second phase of tree and shrubbery planting, which established the present character of the pleasure grounds, was begun in 1807 by the 3rd Viscount. Over the next few years he acquired land to the west and south of the original estate, which allowed him to extend the park to its present boundaries and continue its improvement by adding to Brown's work and by new planting in the same style in the areas added to the park. He also moved the Southampton Road from its original position (running due south from the Romsey Lodge) to a new alignment further east to enlarge the park on this side; as a result Brown's original lodges were demolished. After his death, the estate passed to his stepson, Lord Mount Temple, for whom W.E. Nesfield designed a new formal garden with a pool on the south front in 1868-75, and built a new lodge on the Southampton road (now Sunflower Lodge) as a picturesque red brick and half-timbered lodge with tile-hung gables and patterned pargetting.  The walls which enclose the present forecourt were built in 1899 by C.H. Nisbett. 

The Romsey by-pass was built along the northern edge of the park in the 1930s, destroying the lodge north-west of the house, and after the Second World War the Earl and Countess Mountbatten began planting asking their many distinguished visitors to plant commemorative trees in the eastern park. These were placed rather randomly and came to frustrate long views of the house on this side. After the loss of elms from the park in the 1970s and the damage caused by the Great Storm of 1987, the park has undergone comprehensive replanting to restore the structure of the Brown design as shown on estate maps of 1785 and 1787, and the additional area laid out in Brown's style in the 19th century.

Descent: Crown granted 1544 to Sir Thomas Seymour; sold 1547 to Sir Francis Fleming...to granddaughter, Frances, wife of Edward St. Barbe... 1661 to Sir John Barbe (d. 1723); to cousin, Humphrey Sydenham; sold 1736 to Henry Temple (d. 1757), 1st Viscount Palmerston;  to grandson (d. 1802), 2nd Viscount Palmerston; to 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865); to step-son, William Cowper-Temple (1811-88), 1st Baron Mount Temple; to nephew, Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (1836-1907); to son, Col. Wilfrid William Ashley (1867-1939), 1st Baron Mount Temple of Lee; to daughter Edwina (1901-60), wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-79), 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; to grandson, Norton Knatchbull (b. 1947), 8th Baron Brabourne.

Classiebawn Castle, Mullaghmore, Sligo

The Classiebawn estate belonged to the Temple family from the 17th century, but they seem not to have had a main residence here until the mid 19th century, when Henry John Temple (1784-1865), 3rd Viscount Palmerston, who was Prime Minister, 1855-65, decided to build a holiday home on the windswept western Irish coast north of Sligo. His architect was James Rawson Carroll (1830-1911) of Dublin, who had trained under George Fowler Jones of York. The first site chosen was on Dernish Island, a little to the south-west, but experiment showed that it would be impossible to construct a causeway linking the island to the mainland, and this site was abandoned for the present location on the clifftops close to Mullaghmore.

Classiebawn Castle against the spectacular backdrop of Benbulben. Image: Gerard Lovett. Some rights reserved.

The house was built of Donegal sandstone in a monumental Victorian Baronial style that opposes the Atlantic gales with an appropriate solidity. The house is composed of a gabled main range with a central tower and conical-roofed turret. The entrance front is decorated with carved coats of arms. Inside, the principal rooms are raised on a very high basement.

Classiebawn Castle in the early 20th century.

The house was unfinished when Lord Palmerston died, and his step-son and heir, William Cowper-Temple completed the house. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ashley family came here annually for the month of August, but in 1916, at the height of the Irish uprising, the house was cleared of its contents and the family stopped coming. However, it was neither unroofed by its owners nor burned by the Nationalists, perhaps because Wilfrid Ashley, then the owner, was popular and regarded as a fair-minded landlord. It remained unoccupied and decaying until the Second World War, when Lord Mountbatten visited the estate and was enchanted. 'You never told me how stupendously magnificent the surrounding scenery was', he wrote to his wife in 1941; 'No place has thrilled me more…'. Renovations began after the war, with electric light installed in 1947 and a programme of repairs and redecoration lasting until 1950, after which the family resumed their habit of spending August here. From 1976 the castle was leased to Hugh Tunney, with the proviso that Lord Mountbatten could return each year for August. However that regularity of habit was ultimately fatal, for the IRA chose his annual holiday as an opportunity to murder to him and other members of his party by blowing up his yacht in 1979.

Descent: built for Henry John Temple (1784-1865), 3rd Viscount Palmerston; to step-son, William Cowper-Temple (1811-88), 1st Baron Mount Temple; to nephew, Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (1836-1907); to son, Wilfrid William Ashley (1867-1939), 1st Baron Mount Temple of Lee; to daughter, Edwina (1901-60), wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-79), 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; leased 1976 to Hugh T. Tunney (1928-2011), who bought the freehold in 1991. 

Sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003; Debrett's Peerage, 2016; Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 2nd edn., 1841, pp. 18-19; VCH Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911, pp. 452-54; Country Life, 31 March 1923, pp. 434-41; 7 April 1923, pp. 466-73; 11 December 1980, pp. 2247-50; 18 December 1980, pp. 2334-37; Dorothy Stroud, Capability Brown, 2nd edn., 1957, pp. 122-23; Dorothy Stroud, Henry Holland, 1966, p. 133; Sir Nikolaus Pevsner & David Lloyd, The buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1967, pp. 144-45; John Newman & Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the buildings of England: Dorset, 1972, pp. 471-73; Timothy Mowl & Brian Earnshaw, Architecture without Kings, 1995, pp. 101-04; Roger Turner, Capability Brown and the Eighteenth-Century English Landscape, 1999, pp. 108-10; Timothy Mowl, Historic gardens of Dorset, 2003, pp. 68-73; Richard Hewlings, 'Architaphel's architect', Georgian Group Journal, 2008, pp. 3-4; Michael Hill, East Dorset Country Houses, 2013, pp. 282-93; ODNB entries on the 1st, 3rd and 7th Earls and on W.W. Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple and Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma.

Coat of arms

Quarterly, 1st and 4th, argent three bulls passant sable armed and unguled or (for Ashley); 2nd and 3rd, gules a bend engrailed between six lions rampant or (for Cooper).

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 3 March and was updated 11 March and 19 December 2016.

(182) Armstrong and Heaton-Armstrong of Farney Castle, Mount Heaton, Moyaliffe, and Chaffpool

 

Armstrong of Moyaliffe and
Chaffpool

Heaton-Armstrong of Farney Castle
& Mount Heaton

One finds in some Irish gentry families a cosmopolitanism that is far rarer in their English, Welsh or Scottish counterparts. In some cases it is supported by a Catholic heritage shared with our European neighbours, but most of the Armstrongs were protestants, so it is all the more remarkable that in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries they were consistently to be found in the drawing rooms of Europe. Although they never lost an Anglo-Irish identity, they perhaps did not have so close an identification with their homeland and estates as many gentry families, and whether for this reason or because of the innate qualities of the breed, they produced an exceptional number of adventurers, and several gamblers, prepared to stake all on a single turn of fate.

The founder of the family was Sir Thomas Armstrong, kt. (1603?-62), who came from a Scots border background and was perhaps fairly closely related to the forbears of the Armstrongs of County Offaly. Sir Thomas was an ardent Royalist soldier, who came to Ireland in about 1639 and was knighted by the Duke of Ormonde in 1644. He sat in the Irish Parliament in 1647 and had a grant of land in County Dublin, but was back in England in the 1650s, participating in Royalist conspiracies and being twice imprisoned in the Tower of London. At the Restoration in 1660 he resumed his post as a Colonel of Horse, but he died soon afterwards. His two sons followed in his footsteps. The elder, another Sir Thomas Armstrong, kt. (1633-84) made himself useful to King Charles II during the Commonwealth and was valued for his influence with the young Duke of Monmouth. He was hotheaded, however, and had to be pardoned three times for killing men in duels. In 1683 he was accused, seemingly without justification, of involvement in the Rye House plot to kill King Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, and fled to Holland, but he was captured and brought back to face trial by Judge Jefferys and execution in 1684, although he was later officially pardoned by King William III when the miscarriage of justice was recognised.

Sir Thomas's younger brother, William Armstrong (c.1635-90?) was also a soldier, but is of particular interest here as the man who laid the foundations of the family's Irish estates, through a series of grants from the Crown in the 1660s (recognising their losses and service during the Civil War and Commonwealth), and purchases in the 1670s. He made his home at Farney Castle near Thurles (Tipperary), and when he died he left a life interest in it to the widow of his executed brother. She died in 1693 and the estate passed to William's son, John Armstrong (d. 1707). John's heir was his eldest son, Col. William Armstrong (d. 1767), who married the heiress of the Heatons of Mount Heaton (Offaly) and subsequently made Mount Heaton his seat. In 1731 he made over Farney Castle to his younger brother, John Armstrong (fl. 1731-55), a merchant in Cork, who may have been responsible for adding a Georgian wing to the house in the mid 18th century, and the castle seems to have been sold later in the 18th or early 19th century.

Mount Heaton passed to Col. Armstrong's son, John Armstrong (1732-91), who funded a troop of horse in the army and was an MP in the Irish parliament. For these services he was twice offered and refused a baronetcy, but in 1790 he was induced to accept a peerage as Baron Dunamace. To the chagrin of subsequent generations of the family, however, he died suddenly before the patent for the peerage could pass the Great Seal, and so the peerage never came into being. It was probably John who built the present house at Mount Heaton, although no secure date seems to be known for the property.

John Armstrong was evidently the first of his family to take an interest in European affairs, and his son and heir, William Henry Armstrong (1774-1835) was born in Toulouse (France). When he came of age, William followed his father into the Irish parliament, where he opposed the union of England and Ireland in 1800, despite being offered the peerage intended for his father in exchange for his support of the measure. William seems to have been an inveterate gambler, and in 1817 he was obliged to sell Mount Heaton to pay his gambling debts. The rest of his estates went the same way in 1834, but from 1817 he chose to live on the Continent (mainly in France but at other times in Italy and Austria), where he produced a large family of eleven children. 

Larch Hill, Ennis (Co. Clare)

Most of his children made interesting marriages, often ones which took them back to Ireland (including Col. William Edward Armstrong, who through his marriage inherited New Hall, Ennis (Clare); and Charles Armstrong, who acquired Larch Hill, Ennis and Southville, Limerick), but his heir was John Armstrong (1815-91), who was a Lieutenant in the Austrian army 1831-39 and is said to have declined the honour of being made a Count of the Austrian Empire and Imperial Chamberlain. He spent the 1840s travelling in Australia and South America (which he is said to have crossed on foot). 

Schloss Weyer, Gmunden (Austria)

He then returned to Austria and settled at Schloss Weyer, Gmunden with his Austrian wife, Josephine Thérèse Mayr, although after she died in 1856 he perhaps travelled again. At the end of his life he honoured a clause in his grandfather's will and took the additional surname of Heaton. He is said to have spoken thirteen languages fluently, and his facility was evidently passed on to his sons, as the elder (who predeceased him) was working as a translator in London in 1881. 

John's younger son, William Charles Heaton-Armstrong (1853-1917) must have been a remarkable man. He ran away from school at the age of fourteen and joined the merchant navy, with which he travelled the world until 1881 (he later claimed to have visited almost every British colony), by which time he was a Captain, and had also seen military service with the Turkish and Chilean navies. He then went into business and seems to have made quite a lot of money from ventures as varied as building railways in Canada (where the town of Armstrong, British Columbia is named after him) to importing German beer. He then turned to British politics, and served as Liberal MP for Sudbury in 1906-10. After one term in the house he went back to business and set up a bank, which failed during the First World War and bankrupted him, although he did eventually pay off all his liabilities before he died in 1917. His interests were as varied as his career, from astronomy to big game hunting, and he found time to publish a technical manual for sailors on calculating the sun's meridian altitude and to petition Queen Victoria (unsuccessfully) for the creation of the baronetcy which had been offered to his great-grandfather. In 1885, after being reconciled with his father - who looked askance at his son's business career as unsuited to a gentleman, but changed his mind when his son was able to help him financially - he married an Austrian baroness, and they had two sons and a daughter, who had almost equally remarkable lives.

His elder son, Major William Duncan Francis Heaton-Armstrong (1886-1969) was not generally academic but had a facility for languages. He went straight from Eton into the Lancashire Fusiliers, but his language skills led to his being poached by the Foreign Office, who needed a young man with the right languages to act as Private Secretary to the German prince whom the Great Powers had just put on the Albanian throne, thus strengthening British influence in the Balkans. He took up this post in January 1914, and when the Prince was overthrown six months later he escorted the royal family to safety in Germany before himself being interned by the Germans. After the war he returned to Vienna where he was a businessman until the rise of Nazi Germany made it clear that he would have to leave, and he got out through Switzerland just in time. During the Second World War he ran a Prisoner of War camp for Italian prisoners in Herefordshire, and bought a property at Bosbury, where he ran a pig farm for the rest of his life.

His brother, Sir John Dunamace Heaton-Armstrong (1888-1967) had a more orthodox education and qualified as a barrister in 1912. After the First World War he joined the College of Arms, where he worked for forty-five years as Chester Herald and later Clarenceux King of Arms, as well as serving as Registrar and Librarian. Even his life was not without its excitements, however: his French wife was related to the von Trapp family whose life in, and escape from, Austria is fictionalised in The Sound of Music.  When the family reached safety in England it was with the Heaton-Armstrongs that they stayed while waiting for visas for the United States.

The second branch of the family treated in this post are the Armstrongs of Moyaliffe and Chaffpool. The younger son of Capt. William Armstrong (c.1635-90?), Thomas Armstrong (1671-1741), who is said to have been an MP in the Irish Parliament (although I have been unable to confirm this), bought the Moyaliffe estate near Thurles (Tipperary) in about 1695. He had a large family, but his heir was his eldest son, William Armstrong (1704-68), who never married and seems to have taken little care of estate matters. When he died, his brother and heir, Rev. John Armstrong (1708-81) found a complex and desperate state of affairs and had to go to law with several people who had taken advantage of his brother in order to put the estate back on a sound footing. His eldest son having predeceased him, his heir was Rev. William Carew Armstrong (1752-1839), who was rector of Moylough (Galway) and Chancellor of the diocese of Cashel. He had an interest in architecture and built the front range of Moyaliffe House in about 1810 as well as landscaping the grounds.  

William Carew Armstrong's heir was his son John Armstrong (1791-1846), who made his home at Chaffpool (Sligo), a property which his wife inherited along with extensive lands in Sligo and Mayo. During the 1840s he was one of few resident landlords in one of the areas most severely affected by the famine, and was much applauded for the relief he offered personally in the area and for his efforts as chairman of the Upper Leyny and Tubbercurry Relief Committees. His premature death is said to have been due to sitting in wet clothing through one such committee meeting and then driving home in the open air.  His estates in Tipperary, Sligo and Mayo passed in turn to four of his sons, who either did not marry or did not produce surviving children, although one of them, Capt. James Wood Armstrong (1827-89) was apparently responsible for altering Moyaliffe House and rebuilding Chaffpool. When Edward Marcus Armstrong (1829-99) died without issue, the estates passed to his first cousin once removed, Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1859-1923).

Like so many members of the family, Marcus had pursued a military career before settling down to farming and estate management.  The Sligo and Mayo estates were sold to the Congested Districts Board in 1904, and as his only son, Capt. 'Pat' Armstrong (1889-1917) was killed in the First World War, Moyaliffe passed to his second daughter, 'Jess' Armstrong (1893-1982).  She married the owner of the Ballinacor (Wicklow) estate in 1927 and they divided their time between the two properties until he died in 1965. In 1959 Jess broke the entail on the Moyaliffe estate and gave the property to her niece, Mrs. Bettyne Spencer, while endowing a trust to care for and manage the estate. In 1964, against Jess's wishes, Mrs. Spencer offered the estate for sale to the Land Commission, and this led to a family rift and a protracted legal battle, at the end of which Jess was able to buy back the house and twelve acres of grounds, but the sale of the estate to the Land Commission went ahead. When Jess died in 1982 her heir was a distant South African cousin, Robert George Carew Armstrong (1911-83), whose son finally sold Moyaliffe in 1999.

Farney Castle, Thurles, Tipperary

Farney Castle. Image: Mike Searle. Licenced under this CC licence

An old circular tower, reputedly built about 1495, with a later two-storey five-bay battlemented wing on a high basement, and an octagonal tower at the opposite end. The five bay block seems to date from the early to mid 18th century, and was perhaps built for John Armstrong (fl. 1731-55). It was gothicised with battlements, hoodmoulds and tracery in the windows when the octagonal tower was added. The octagonal tower has been attributed to Francis Johnston and is said to date from the 1790s, but the style suggests the building is much later and it seems to have been designed and built by Charles Frederick Anderson (1802-69) before he emigrated to America in 1849; he was also responsible for the design of Anner Castle (Tipperary) which has towers of similar appearance (although Anner was not completed until 1857 under the supervision of William Atkins). There is a battlemented terrace before the front door, with steps leading up to it. 

Descent: Capt. William Armstrong (c.1635-90); to sister-in-law, Katherine (nee Pollexfen) (d. 1693), widow of Sir Thomas Armstrong, kt. (1633-84); to nephew, John Armstrong (d. 1707); to son, Col. William Armstrong (1698?-1767); given to brother John Armstrong (fl. 1731-55); to son, Thomas Armstrong; perhaps to daughter Ellen (fl. 1819), wife of Rev. John Doyne of Old Leighlin (1791-1841)...Cyril Cullen (fl. 2016).

Mount Heaton, Offaly

Mount Heaton, photographed c.1890. Image: National Library of Ireland

A castellated two-storey Georgian house, rather similar in appearance to nearby Busherstown, and built c.1780, probably for John Armstrong MP. The five-bay entrance front is symmetrical except for the corner towers, one of which us round and the other polygonal; the end bays before the towers are stepped forward. In the centre is a porch with battlements and turrets, but with the traditional fanlight above the door. In the 19th century, the windows were given hood moulds and thin mullions in place of the original sashes. The interior is plain,

Mount Heaton, from the 1st edition 6" Ordnance map

with a handsome late 18th or early 19th century chimneypiece in one of the principal rooms. The house was sold by W. H. Armstrong in 1817 (according to local legend, he lost it at cards to the Prince Regent) and was subsequently bought by Count Arthur Moore of Mooresfort, who founded Mount St. Joseph Convent here. The house became the Abbey guest house, and was considerably altered c.1960, when a new attic storey was added, and the battlements, window labels and other Gothic features were removed.

Descent: Francis Heaton; to daughter Mary, wife of Col. William Armstrong (d. 1767); to son, Rt. Hon. John Armstrong MP (1723-91), who probably built the house; to son, William Henry Armstrong (1774-1835), who sold 1817..Miss Taylor (fl. 1828)...Taylor M. Read, sold 1858... Count Arthur Moore (1849-1904), who gave 1879 to Mount St. Joseph Convent.

Moyaliffe House, Thurles, Tipperary

Moyaliffe House: entrance front. Image: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

A rambling house of several periods and great character, incorporating some of the walls of an old Butler castle, remains of which can be seen on a mound immediately outside the windows of the garden front; a wing of the castle running towards the house is said to have been originally joined to it. The two-storey entrance front, on the opposite side to the castle, was rebuilt in the early 19th century and altered in 1864 by W. Ryan, who added the plate glass windows and the projecting two-storey gabled porch. 

Moyaliffe House c.1870. Image: University of Limerick.

The lower ranges extending at the back and side have windows with 18th century glazing bars, and enclose a courtyard with an old well in the centre of it. Inside, the long hall has low panelling around the walls, and there is a 19th century staircase in a separate hall at the back. 

Moyaliffe House: drawing room, c.1910. Image: University of Limerick

Moyaliffe House: smoking room, c.1910. Image: University of Limerick

There is a panelled dining room, and a charming drawing room and morning room en suite. Upstairs, a long corridor leads to the gallery of a two-storey music room at the far end of one of the wings. One of the family portraits is said to come down from the wall and deposit itself by the fireplace opposite at the time of the death of an important member of the family.

Descent: ...Thomas Armstrong (1671-1741); to son, William Armstrong (1704-68); to brother, Rev. John Armstrong (1708-81); to son, Rev. William Carew Armstrong (1752-1839); to son, John Armstrong (1791-1846); to son, William Armstrong (1816-49); to brother, George de la Poer Armstrong (1823-64); to brother, Capt. James Wood Armstrong (1827-89); to brother, Edward Marcus Armstrong (1829-99); to first cousin once removed, Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1859-1923); to daughter, Winona Rosalie (k/a Jess) Armstrong (1893-1982), wife of Capt. William Daryl Olphert Kemmis (d. 1965); to kinsman, Robert George Carew Armstrong (1911-83), of Natal, South Africa; to son, Graham Carew Armstrong (b. 1946), who sold 1999 to John Stakelurn.

Chaffpool, Ballymote, Sligo

Chaffpool House. Image: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

An unexpectedly small and simple two-storey L-shaped gabled house, built about 1880, presumably for Capt. James Armstrong, and now derelict. The main (east) front has a tripartite doorway, apparently once covered by a porch, and a single-storey canted bay window, but the north and west sides have almost no windows, just a single small lunette in the north wall, which is rather mysterious. The walls are covered in an unattractive unpainted roughcast, but the house is surrounded by extensive ranges of stone outbuildings and boundary walls, so the roughcast was presumably seen as a superior material at the time of construction.

Descent: Thomas Somers; to daughter, Catherine (d. 1868), wife of John Armstrong (1791-1846); to son, William Armstrong (1816-49); to brother, George de la Poer Armstrong (1823-64); to brother, Capt. James Wood Armstrong (1827-89); to brother, Edward Marcus Armstrong (1829-99); to first cousin once removed,  Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1859-1923), who sold 1904 to the Congested Districts Board.

Heaton-Armstrong family of Farney Castle and Mount Heaton

Armstrong, Col. Sir Thomas (1603?-62), kt. Perhaps the son of William Armstrong (1565-1649) of Gilnockie and his wife Margaret, daughter of Humphrey Elliot, born about 1603. He served in The Netherlands, 1633-38; Governor of Culmore Fort in Ireland, 1639; Quartermaster-General of Horse in Ireland, 1639-40, 1660; Col. of Horse, 1649-50, 1660-62; knighted in Ireland by the Duke of Ormonde, 1644; MP for County Dublin in Irish Parliament, 1647; a tireless Royalist conspirator during the Commonwealth, he was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London by Cromwell and was released on bail in 1659; granted a patent for coining copper token farthings, 1660. He married, c.1632 in Holland, Anne Jennchen Anderson (1614-58), a Dutch lady, and had issue:
(1) Sir Thomas Armstrong (1633-84), kt. (q.v.);
(2) Capt. William Armstrong (c.1635-90?) (q.v.);
(3) Susannah Armstrong (b. 1638), baptised 31 January 1638.
He received a grant of land at Corvellis (Co. Dublin), 1642, and had a pele tower at Wolivia, Lanercost (Cumbld) and a house in London.
He died in November 1662. His wife died in 1658.

Armstrong, Sir Thomas (1633-84), kt. Elder son of Col. Sir Thomas Armstrong (d. 1662), kt. and his wife Anna Anderson, born at Nijmegen (Holland), 27 December 1633. MP for Leicestershire, 1660 and for Stafford, 1679, 1681. Captain of 1st troop of Royal Horse Guards, 1661-73; Major in King's Life Guards, 1673-78; Lt-Col. of Queen's Horse, 1678-79; Gentleman of the Horse to the Duke of Monmouth; knighted 1667/8. A hot-headed man, he killed three men in duels but was pardoned on each occasion. He was wrongly accused of complicity in the Rye House Plot in 1683 and fled to the Netherlands, but he was caught, tried for treason, attainted and executed. Under King William III the attainder was reversed and his widow was granted £6,000 compensation from the estate of Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys. He married, 1656/7 (settlement 10 February 1656/7), Katherine (d. 1693), daughter of James Pollexfen of Stanstead (Essex) and had issue:
(1) Jane Armstrong; married Adm. Mathew (d. 1685);
(2) Catherine Armstrong; died unmarried;
(3) Mary Armstrong; married D. Pollexfen.
He was executed 20 June 1684. His widow died in 1693.

Armstrong, Capt. William (c.1635-90?). Younger son of Col. Sir Thomas Armstrong (d. 1662), kt. and his wife Anna Anderson, born about 1630. Commissioner for Poll Tax, 1669. Captain of a troop of horse in the Tipperary militia, 1688. He married, c.1669, Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Deane, and had issue, probably among others:
(1) John Armstrong (d. 1707) (q.v.);
(2) Thomas Armstrong (1671-1741) [see below, under Armstrong of Moyaliffe and Chaffpool].
He obtained a grant of Farney Castle from Charles II in 1660, and another, under the Act of Settlement, of Bohercarron and lands in Limerick, 1666. In the 1670s he added the former lands of Holy Cross Abbey and Ballycahill. At his death he was succeeded at Farney Castle by his widowed sister-in-law.
He died in about 1690.

Armstrong, John (d. 1707). Elder son of Capt. William Armstrong (c.1635-90?) and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Deane. Said to have been an MP in the Irish parliament. Commissioner for poll tax, 1696. He married, 1695, Juliana (c.1676-1737), second daughter of Robert Carew of Bally Boro (Wexford), and had issue:
(1) Col. William Armstrong (1698?-1767) (q.v.);
(2) Robert Armstrong (fl. 1731); died unmarried;
(3) John Armstrong (fl. 1731-55) (q.v.);
(4) Rev. James William Armstrong (b. c.1706; fl. 1731) of Clasbakeny; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1723; BA 1727); married Sarah, daughter of William Nicholson of Turtola (Tipperary) and had issue.
He inherited the Ferney estate on the death of his father in c.1690 and Ferney Castle when his aunt died in 1693.
He died 16 May 1707. His widow married 2nd, 1707, Thomas Way (d. by 1726) and died 27 November 1737, aged 61.

Armstrong, John (fl. 1731-55). Third son of John Armstrong (d. 1707) of Farney Castle and his wife Juliana, daughter of Robert Carew of Bally Boro (Wexford). A merchant in Cork. He married, 1740 (settlement 17 July), Anne, only daughter of Anthony Blunt, alderman of Kilkenny, and had, with other issue:
(1) Thomas Armstrong; married and had issue a daughter (Ellen, who m. 1819, Rev. John Doyne);
(2) Rev. Anthony Armstrong (c.1748-1832); educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1765; BA 1770); vicar of Emly, 1782-1817; prebendary of Cashel; lived at Newtown (Tipperary) and later at Duly House (Tipperary); married, 1772, Jane (d. 1828), daughter of Nicholas Sadleir of Golden Garden (Tipperary)  and widow of Richard Chadwick of Ballinard (Tipperary) and had issue one son; died 21 January 1832;
(3) A son;
(4) A son;
(5) A daughter;
(6) A daughter;
(7) A daughter.
He was given Farney Castle and some of the associated lands by his brother from 1731 onwards.
His date of death is unknown. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Armstrong, Col. William (1698?-1767). Eldest son of John Armstrong (d. 1707) of Farney Castle and his wife Juliana, daughter of Robert Carew of Bally Boro (Wexford), born 1 June 1698? [Burke's says 1688 but this must be wrong if his parents' dates are right]. High Sheriff of Tipperary, 1738; Col. of the Tipperary militia. He married, 6 March 1731, Mary, third daughter and co-heiress of Francis Heaton of Mount Heaton (Offaly) and formerly of Moorhouse (Yorks), and had issue:
(1) Rt. Hon. John Armstrong (1732-91) (q.v.);
(2) Mary Armstrong (d. 1795); married, 12 September 1755, Very Rev. George Thomas DD and had issue; died 27 March 1795.
He inherited Farney Castle from his father in 1707, but made it over to his brother John in 1731. Through his marriage he acquired Mount Heaton (alias Ballyskennagh) (Offaly), which became the seat of his descendants.
He died intestate, 1 January 1767. His wife predeceased him but her date of death is unknown.

Armstrong, Rt. Hon. John (1732-91). Only son of Col. William Armstrong (1698?-1767) and his wife Mary, third daughter of Francis Heaton of Mount Heaton (Offaly), born 1732. MP for Fore (Westmeath), 1768-74 and Kilmallock (Limerick), 1783-91; appointed to the Irish Privy Council, 1789. He raised and kept a troop of horse in the King's army, and for this and other services he was twice offered a baronetcy, which he declined. He was then offered an Irish peerage as Baron Dunamace, which he accepted, but he died before the patent had passed the Great Seal. He married, 17 July 1770, Letitia (c.1745-1820), daughter and co-heiress of Abraham Greene of Ballymacreece (Co. Limerick) and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Mary Armstrong (1773-80), born 20 January 1773; died young, 26 February 1780.
(2) William Henry Armstrong (1774-1835) (q.v.);
He inherited Mount Heaton from his father in 1767.
He died suddenly at Mount Heaton, 12 September 1791 and was buried at Ballycahill. His widow married 2nd, 1793, her son's tutor, Rev. James Hobson; she died at Sidmouth (Devon), 28 January 1820, aged 75, and was buried there.

William Henry Armstrong

Armstrong, William Henry (1774-1835). Only son of Rt. Hon. Armstrong (1732-91) of Mount Heaton, and his wife Letitia, daughter of Abraham Greene of Ballymacreece (Limerick), born in Toulouse (France), 21/26 June 1774. MP for Wicklow Borough in the Irish parliament, 1798-1800. He voted against the Union of Britain and Ireland, despite being offered the peerage which had been intended for his father as an inducement to support the proposal. He sold Mount Heaton and emigrated to the Continent in 1817 (living mainly in France, although he also spent time in Italy) and sold his remaining Irish and English property in 1834; the sales were reputedly required to pay his gambling debts. He married, 7 April 1809, Bridget (1790-1860), only daughter of Col. Charles Macdonnell MP of New Hall (Clare), and had issue:
(1) Letitia Mary Armstrong (1810-11), born 11 February 1810; died 11 July 1811;
(2) Letitia Charlotte Armstrong (1811/12-72), born 21 February and baptised 26 February 1811/2; amateur artist, who went on sketching holidays in Switzerland with her husband; married, 1 June 1841 at St Peter, Dublin, Charles William Hamilton JP (1802-80) of Hamwood, Dunboyne (Meath), and had issue five sons and two daughters (who were both accomplished artists); died in Dublin, 28 June 1872 and was buried at Dunboyne, 1 July 1872;
(3) Gertrude Catherine Armstrong  (1813-74), born 22 July 1813 and baptised at Roscrea; married, 17 October 1839 in Florence (Italy), as his second wife, John Bayly DL JP (1805-65) of Debsborough (Tipperary) and had issue one son, who died young; died in Dublin, 4 October 1874 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin; administration of goods granted 8 April and 10 June 1875 (effects in Ireland under £600 and in England under £200);
(4) Bridget Armstrong (1814-80), born at Mount Heaton, 21 February and baptised at Roscrea, 13 March 1814; married, 23 March 1849 at Genoa (Italy), James Bonamy Dobrée (1790-1868) of Rock Lodge (Devon) and later of St. Helier (Jersey), younger son of Peter Dobrée of London, Clapham (Surrey) and Ashford (Kent) and had issue one daughter; died 4 April 1880 at St. Helier (Jersey); administration of goods granted 27 April 1880 (effects under £1500);
(5) John Armstrong (later Heaton-Armstrong) (1815-91) (q.v.);
(6) Mary Armstrong (1816-85), born in London, 16 July 1816; married 12 July 1842 at St George, Dublin, Ven. John Evans Johnson DD, Archdeacon of Ferns and had issue four sons; died 8 March 1885; her will was proved 27 April 1885
(7) Emily Dorothea Armstrong (1817-36), born 21 December 1817; died unmarried in Paris, 5 February 1838 and was buried there 7 February 1838;
(8) Charles William Armstrong (b. & d. 1819), born at Abbeville (France), 19 April 1819 and died there, 31 May 1819;
(9) Louisa Armstrong (1821-91) of Ballykeale House, Holywood (Down), born in Paris, 22 October 1821; married, 21 December 1861 at St Mary, Dublin, as his second wife, Rev. Francis Henry Hall (1820-80), rector of Drumcullin (Down), eldest son of James Trail Hall, but died without issue, 14 November 1891; administration of her goods granted 25 April 1892 (effects £2,735);
(10) Col. William Edward Armstrong (later Armstrong-Macdonnell) (1826-83)  of New Hall, Ennis (Clare), born in Paris, 10 May 1826 and baptised at Fontainebleau (France); DL and JP for Co. Clare; High Sheriff of Co. Clare, 1853; Col. commanding Clare militia; Member of the Royal Irish Academy; assumed additional surname and arms of Macdonnell by royal licence, 1858, in recognition of his inheritance of his maternal family estates in Co. Clare; married, 20 July 1858 at Killnasoolagh (Clare), Hon. Juliana Cecilia O'Brien (1837-1925), eldest daughter of Lucius O'Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin, and had issue five sons and three daughters; died in Dublin, 11 November 1883; will proved 18 December 1883 (effects £5,780);
(11) Charles Armstrong (later Heaton-Armstrong) (1830-1906) of Larch Hill, near Ennis (Clare) and Southville, Limerick, born in Florence (Italy), 7 May 1830; JP for County Clare; assumed the additional name of Heaton, 1884; married, 26/29 March 1856 at St Anne, Dublin, Georgina Maria (1826-1905), eldest daughter of Richard John de la Zouche Stacpoole of Eden Vale (Co. Clare) and had issue three sons (including Charles Richard Beauchamp Heaton-Armstrong (1858-1917), later of Southville) and one daughter; died 18 February 1906; will proved 11 April 1906 (estate £7,454).
He inherited Mount Heaton from his father in 1791 but sold it in 1817 and moved to the Continent, where he lived at different times in France, Italy and Austria. He sold his remaining estates in Fermanagh, Limerick, Tipperary and England in 1834.  
He died at Passy near Paris (France), 21 September 1835, and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery, Paris, 25 September 1835; will proved in Dublin, 16 April 1836. His widow died at Kingstown, Dublin, 20 October 1860, and was buried at Killone Abbey (Clare); her will was proved 8 November 1860.

Armstrong (later Heaton-Armstrong), John (1815-91). Eldest son of William Henry Armstrong (1774-1835) and his wife Bridget, daughter of Col. Charles Macdonnell of New Hall, Ennis (Clare), born 1 May 1815. He was a Lieutenant in the Austrian army, 1831-39 and declined the honours of Count of the Austrian Empire and of Imperial Chamberlain; after leaving the army he spent ten years travelling extensively in South America and Australia, reputedly crossing South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific on foot. He is said to have spoken no less than thirteen languages fluently. He assumed the additional surname and arms of Heaton by royal licence, 1890, in accordance with the terms of his grandfather's will. He married, at the British embassy in Vienna, 29 May 1849, Josephine Thérèse (d. 1856), daughter of Franz Mayr of Leoben, Styria (Austria) and sister of the 1st Baron Mayr-Meinhof, and had issue:
(1) John Childe Armstrong (1850-86), born 1 January 1850; translator; married 21 November 1885, Lucy Ann (1851-1907), youngest daughter of Maj. Charles Henry Cobbe of 60th Regt. but died without issue in the lifetime of his father, 30 March 1886;
(2) William Charles Armstrong (later Heaton-Armstrong) (1853-1917) (q.v.);
(3) Bida Louisa Armstrong; probably died unmarried;
(4) Lucy Emily Armstrong; probably died unmarried.
He was lord of the manor of Roscrea (Tipperary) but may have had no other Irish lands. In the 1850s he owned Schloss Weyer at Gmunden (Austria).
He died at Gorz (Austria), 29 April 1891, and was buried there 1 May 1891. His wife died at Eagle House, Bath St., St. Helier, Jersey, 5 April 1858.

W.C. Heaton-Armstrong

Heaton-Armstrong, William Charles (1853-1917). Only surviving son of John Armstrong (later Heaton-Armstrong) (1815-91) and his wife Josephine Thérèse, daughter of Franz Mayr of Leoben, Styria (Austria), born 1 September 1853. A larger-than-life character, he was educated abroad but ran away from school aged 14 to join the merchant navy in which he served for about fourteen years, ending up as a Captain. He later claimed to have visited almost every British colony, and he also served with the Turkish navy in the Russo-Turkish war, 1876 and with the Chilians in the Chilian-Peruvian war of 1879-83. On leaving the merchant navy he went into business and was successful in various ventures, including the copper trade, Canadian railways (the town of Armstrong in British Columbia is named after him) and importing German beer into England. A strong supporter of the union of Ireland and England, he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative candidate for Mid-Tipperary in 1892, but later joined the Liberal party and was elected as MP for Sudbury (Suffolk), 1906-10. He did not stand again in 1910 and after retiring from politics he went into banking; the bank he founded did not survive the First World War and he was bankrupted, although all his liabilities were subsequently cleared in full before his death. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, Royal Zoological Society, Royal Botanic Society,Royal Statistical Society, and other learned Societies, and published Calculation of the Sun’s Meridian Altitude; his many and varied interests including motoring, big game shooting and billiards, and he was also an enthusiastic promoter of a Channel Tunnel. In 1892 he unsuccessfully petitioned Queen Victoria for the baronetcy which had been offered to his great-grandfather. He married, 7 September 1885, Baroness Bertha Maximiliana Zais Edelstein (1859-1949), only surviving daughter of Baron Zois Edelstein of Carniola (then Austria, now Slovenia), and had issue:
(1) Maj. William Duncan Francis Heaton-Armstrong (1886-1969) (q.v.);
(2) Sir John Dunamace Heaton-Armstrong (1888-1967) (q.v.);
(3) Bertha Grace Heaton-Armstrong (1893-1985), born 2 January and baptised 20 February 1893; served in WW1 and WW2 with Women's Auxiliary Police Corps; President of the Oxfordshire branch of the Distressed Gentlefolks Association, 1948; lived at Goring (Oxon) and Kitzbühel (Austria); married, 8 December 1923, Capt. Geoffrey Wyndham Wadham RN (1892-1942), son of Dr Frank Jesser Wadham of Emsworth (Hants) but had no issue; died 30 September 1985; her will was proved 14 February 1986 (estate £141,287).
He was lord of the manor of Roscrea (Tipperary) but appears to have had no Irish lands.
He died 22 July 1917; his will was proved 19 September 1917 (estate £16,405). His widow died 10 December 1949; her will was proved 16 February 1950 (estate £6,277).

Heaton-Armstrong, Maj. William Duncan Francis (1886-1969). Elder son of William Charles Heaton-Armstrong (1853-1917) and his wife, Baroness Bertha Maximiliana Zais Edelstein, born 29 September 1886 at Schloss Egg am Faaker See near Villach in Carinthia (Austria). Educated at Eton, 1900-03 and subsequently travelled in France and Italy to acquire the languages; he became fluent in English, French, German and Italian. An officer in the Lancashire Fusiliers, 1904-20 (Lt., 1904; Capt; Major); seconded under Foreign Office as Private Secretary and Comptroller of the Privy Purse to Prince William of Weid, briefly the sovereign prince of Albania in 1914, and given rank as Capt. in Albanian Army; interned in Germany, 1914-16 but released through an exchange of prisoners and rejoined his regiment as paymaster, 1917-20 (mentioned in despatches). Businessman in Vienna, 1920-38, when he fled to Switzerland and thence to Britain; during WW2 he ran a prisoner of war camp for Italian prisoners in Herefordshire. Gold Staff Officer at coronations of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II in 1937 and 1953. His memoir of his time with Prince William of Albania were published in 2005 as The six month kingdom: Albania 1914. He married, 29 December 1920, Thelma Eileen (d. 1967), youngest daughter of Hon. Robert Steele Scott MP of Launceston, Tasmania (Australia) and had issue:
(1) Griselda Nonee Heaton-Armstong (1922-2020) of Holly Mount Farm, Bosbury (Herefs), born 27 February 1922; served in WW2 with Women's Auxiliary Air Force; married G. Adam and had issue one daughter; died aged 98 on 29 April 2020; will proved 14 January 2021;
(2) Capt. Thomas Michael Robert Heaton-Armstrong (1925-2000) (q.v.).
He was lord of the manor of Roscrea (Tipperary) but seems to have had no Irish lands. He lived in Slovakia and later in Austria between the wars, and later at Holymount, Stanley Hill, Bosbury (Herefs).

He died 1 May 1969 and was buried at Bosbury; his will was proved 27 October 1969 (estate £64,889) and resealed in Tasmania, 26 January 1971. His wife died 16 December 1967 and was also buried at Bosbury; her will was proved 28 November 1968 (estate £12,877) and resealed in Tasmania, 24 March 1969.

Heaton-Armstrong, Capt. Thomas Michael Robert (1925-2000). Only son of Maj. William Duncan Francis Heaton-Armstrong (1886-1969) and his wife Thelma Eileen, daughter of Hon. Robert Steele Scott MP, born 30 March 1925. Educated at Eton. Served in WW2 as an officer with the Scots Guards, 1943-48, seconded to Military Intelligence. Farmer, 1948-64 at Bosbury (Herefs), Gilmerton (Perths) and Couligartan, Aberfoyle (Perths); founded and ran Armstrongs of Aberfoyle (Perths), a chain of small shops, 1964-87. He married, 23 February 1952, his cousin, (Helen Gabrielle Laura) Hazel (1924-2014), daughter of Sir John Dunamace Heaton-Armstrong MVO and had issue:
(1) Patricia Mary Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1952; fl. 2014), born 8 December 1952; married, Oct-Dec 1977, Stuart A.L. Robertson and had issue one son and two daughters;
(2) Jane Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1954; fl. 2014), born 18 April 1954; unmarried;
(3) Sheila Margaret Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1957; fl. 2014), born 12 March 1957; married, 1978, Colin Duncan M.C. Whyte;
(4) Christopher John Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1959; fl. 2014), born 14 February 1959; married, 1985, Karen Ramsay, daughter of Thomas George Ramsay Davidson Clark and had issue a daughter;
(5) Duncan Anthony Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1960; fl. 2014), of Ladywell House, Falkland (Fife), born 15 October 1960; tax consultant; married 1st, 1991 (div. 1999), Elaine Patricia Crichton and had issue two sons; married 2nd, 2003, Camilla Jane (b. 1972), daughter of David Wolseley Brinton and had issue one son and one daughter;
(6) William Geoffrey Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1962; fl. 2014), born 5 January 1962; married, 1985, Priscilla Eliza Paterson (d. 2010?).
He lived in Perthshire, 1955-87, after which he retired to Portugal.
He died in Portugal in March 2000. His widow died in Portugal, 17 May 2014, aged 89.

Sir John Heaton-Armstrong
in his herald's tabard

Heaton-Armstrong, Sir John Dunamace (1888-1967), Clarenceux King of Arms. Younger son of William Charles Heaton-Armstrong (1853-1917) and his wife, Baroness Bertha Maximiliana Zais Edelstein, born 21 February 1888. Educated at Eton, Trinity Hall, Cambridge (MA 1914) and Inner Temple (called to bar, 1912). Barrister-at-law. An officer of the College of Arms, 1922-67 (Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, 1922-26; Chester Herald, 1926-56; Clarenceux King of Arms, 1956-67; Registrar & Hon. Librarian, 1946-53). Served in WW1 as Capt. in 20th Deccan Horse, Indian Army reserve (wounded, retired) and in WW2 as Squadron Leader in RAF Volunteer Reserve, 1939-44 (retired). In 1938, when the Von Trapp family (on whom the musical, The Sound of Music was based) fled the Nazi occupation of Austria via Italy, they stayed with Heaton-Armstrong in London while awaiting visas for the United States, as his wife was connected by her first marriage with the family. Appointed MVO 1937 and knighted, 1953; awarded the Order of the Albanian Eagle (5th class), 1914. He married, 21 June 1919, Suzanne Laura (d. 1972), second daughter of Etienne Désiré Frédéric Béchet de Balan, of Sedan and Abbaye des Rosiers, Ardennes (France), and widow of John Robert Gobertus Whitehead RFC, and had issue:
(1) Bridget Almina Suzanne Heaton-Armstrong MBE (1920-2006), born 9 August 1920; lived in Chelsea (Middx) but died unmarried, 26 August 2006; her will was proved 12 December 2006;
(2) William Henry Dunamace Heaton-Armstrong (1922-2014) (q.v.);
(3) (Helena Gabrielle Laura) Hazel Heaton-Armstrong (1924-2014), born 14 July 1924; served in WW2 with Women's Royal Naval Service, 1941-45, in Orkney and Malta; partner, with her husband, in Armstrongs of Aberfoyle, 1964-87; married, 23 February 1952, her cousin, Capt. Thomas Michael Robert Heaton-Armstrong (q.v.) and had issue three sons and three daughters; died in Portugal, 17 May 2014, aged 89.
He lived in London.
He died 27 August 1967; his will was proved 26 January 1968 (estate £41,617). His widow died 28 February 1972; her will was proved 30 June 1972 (estate £80,638).

Heaton-Armstrong, William Henry Dunamace (1922-2014). Only son of Sir John Dunamace Heaton-Armstrong (1888-1967) and his wife Suzanne Laura, daughter of Etienne Desire Frederic Bechet de Balan of Sedan and Chateau des Rosiers, Ardennes (France) and widow of John Robert Gobertus Whitehead, born 2/7 February 1922. Educated at Eton and Reading Univ. (Dip. Ag.). Served in WW2 as a Capt. in Grenadier Guards (mentioned in despatches) and as part of British Military Mission to Netherlands, 1945-46; Gold Staff Officer at coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953. He married 1st, 8 July 1948 (div. 1956), Kathleen Idonea Creswell (b. 1927; fl. 2003), eldest daughter of Sir William Hugh Stobart Chance CBE DL of The Grange, Birlingham (Worcs) and 2nd, 2 September 1972 (div.), Avril, daughter of Derek Charles Parkes of Winterslow (Wilts) and had issue:
(1.1) Mary Suzanne Bertha Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1949), born 19 April 1949; living in Australia in 1976; married, 1977, John Beresford-Iles of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia);
(1.2) Anthony Eustace John Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1950), born 27 September 1950; educated at Ampleforth, Bristol Univ. and Grays Inn (called to bar, 1973); barrister-at-law; married 1st, 10 February 1973 (div. 1977), Susan Margaret, daughter of Ian Peter Allnutt of Maidenhead (Berks); married 2nd, 20 May 1982, Ann Frances, daughter of Mrs E.E.M. Robigo and formerly wife of Marcus Hugh Lecky, and had issue one son and two daughters;
(1.3) Bridget Cynthia Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1952), born 29 May 1952; had issue a daughter, born 1973; married, 1982 (div. 1991), Michael Roger David Dancey of Auckland (New Zealand) and had further issue two daughters;
(1.4) Rachel Catherine Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1954), born 28 August 1954; in 1997 she had a son (Theodore George Bassett Heaton-Davies) by Paul Bassett Davies;
(2.1) Sarah Sophia Suzanne Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1973; fl. 2014); married, 2000, Adrian C. Ditcham;
(2.2) Nicole Heaton-Armstrong (b. 1975; fl. 2014).
He was nominated heir to his cousin, Winona Rosalie Kemmis of Moyaliffe Castle, until 1972.
He died 22 July 2014, aged 92; his will was proved 23 February 2015. His first wife married 2nd, 31 March 1956 (div. 1965), Lt-Cdr. John Timothy Fetherston-Dilke (1926-2003), son of Beaumont Albany Fetherston-Dilke of Maxstoke Castle (Warks), and had further issue one son and one daughter; she married 3rd, 4 December 1965 (div. 1975), Colin Frederick Rogers, son of Frederick Arthur Rogers of Gorleston-on-Sea (Norfk), and 4th, 1992 (div. 1996), Martin Joseph Crossley; in 2003 she was living in Perthshire. His second wife married 2nd, 1980, Meyrick B. Stephens.

Armstrong family of Moyaliffe and Chaffpool

Armstrong, Thomas (1671-1741). Younger son of Capt. William Armstrong (c.1635-90?) and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Deane, born 1671. High Sheriff of Tipperary in the reign of Queen Anne, and said to have been an MP in the Irish Parliament. He married Mary (d. 1751), eldest daughter of Robert Carew of Castle Boro' (Wexford), whose sister married his brother, and had issue:
(1) William Armstrong (1704-68) (q.v.);
(2) Andrew Armstrong (1706-40), born 1706; apprenticed to a merchant and mariner in Cork, and afterwards set up in business as a merchant by his father; he joined with others in purchasing or building a ship, the Armstrong, which he sailed himself to the West Indies with stores for the King's forces there in 1740; died unmarried on the return journey when the ship was lost with all hands;
(3) Rev. John Armstrong (1708-81) (q.v.);
(4) Rev. Robert Carew Armstrong (1709-90) of Corolanty (Offaly), born 1709; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1729; MA 1732); rector of Shinrone (Offaly); married Jane, fourth daughter of Anthony Atkinson MP of Cangort (Offaly) and had issue one son; died 1790;
(5) Peter Armstrong (b. 1711); died in infancy;
(6) Charles Armstrong (1713-31);
(7) George Armstrong (1716-39), born 1716; apprenticed to a banker in Cork; died 1739;
(8) Alice Armstrong; married, 1719, James Ellard of Newtown (Limerick) and had issue;
(9) Anne Armstrong (d. 1731);
(10) Juliana Armstrong; died in infancy;
(11) Margaret Armstrong (d. 1788); married, 1738, James Dexter, Marshal of the Four Courts, Dublin, of Brannockstown (Kildare), eldest son of John Dexter of Brannockstown and Dublin and had issue four sons and four daughters; died 14 March 1788 and was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin;
(12) Elizabeth Armstrong; married Rev. John Smyth (d. 1749) and had issue two sons;
(13) Mary Armstrong; married Rev. Richard Lloyd of Castle Lloyd (Limerick), eldest son of Rev. Thomas Lloyd, and had issue;
(14) A daughter; married John Bettridge of Forest (Tipperary) and had issue two daughters.
He acquired the Moyaliffe estate in about 1695.
He died 20 July 1741. His widow died in 1751.

Armstrong, William (1704-68). Eldest son of Thomas Armstrong (1671-1741) and his wife Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Carew of Castle Boro' (Wexford), born 1704. Described as "a man who seldom refused a request", he was led into ill-advised bonds and unfavourable leases, and left his financial affairs under the dubious management of his brother-in-law, James Dexter; after his death the catastrophic state of his affairs led to extensive and lengthy litigation. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Moyaliffe Castle from his father in 1741. At his death it passed to his next surviving brother, Rev. John Armstrong.
He died in 1768.

Armstrong, Rev. John (1708-81). Third son of Thomas Armstrong (1671-1741) and his wife Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Carew of Castle Boro' (Wexford), born 1708. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1723; BA 1727; MA 1730). Ordained, 1734; curate of Kilfaird, 1734-37; rector of Tipperary, 1737-53 and headmaster of the Erasmus Smith Grammar School. In 1753 an armed gang broke into his church while he was conducting a service to abduct a young lady in the congregation, and he pleaded with them to desist, even though they threatened to shoot anyone who moved. On another occasion, it is said that he mistook Lord Townshend, the Lord Lieutenant (1767-72), for a mere aide-de-camp and invited him to stay at the rectory; and that Townshend was so impressed by his hospitality that he promoted the rector's eldest son in the army. He married Frances (fl. 1789), daughter of John Garnett, schoolmaster, of Tipperary, and had issue:
(1) Capt. Thomas Armstrong (1744-74), born 1744; Captain in 28th Regiment; died unmarried and without issue in the lifetime of his father, 1774;
(2) Frances Armstrong; died unmarried;
(3) Rev. William Carew Armstrong (1752-1839) (q.v.);
(4) Robert Carew Armstrong (b. 1753), born 1753; died young before 1758;
(5) Edward Harman Armstrong (1754-82), born 1754; an officer in the army (Lt. in 50th regiment, 1773); died unmarried, 1782;
(6) Rev. Robert Carew Armstrong (1758-1838); educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1781; MA 1784); curate of St John, Limerick, 1783 and later assistant to his brother at Moyaliffe; vicar of Moyaliffe, 1797; rector of Templemore (Tipperary); married, Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Cooke of Cardigan (Tipperary) and had issue five sons (one of whom was the great-grandfather of the Robert George Carew Armstrong who inherited Moyaliffe in 1982) and two daughters; died 6 January 1838 and was buried at Kiltillane, Templemore (Tipperary);
(7) George Carew Armstrong (1756-57); died in infancy;
(8) Anne Armstrong (b. 1760); married, 1793, William Bagwell of Shanrahan (Tipperary);
(9) Alicia Armstrong (1762-1830); died unmarried, 1830;
(10) Mary Armstrong (d. 1822); died unmarried; will proved 23 September 1822;
(11) Capt. Alfred Francis Armstrong (1766-1804), born 1766; an officer in 9th Lancers, 1787-1804 (Ensign, 1787; Lt., 1792; Capt); died unmarried after a few days' illness at Ipswich barracks, and was buried at St Matthew, Ipswich, 17 January 1804, where he is commemorated by a monument erected by his brother officers.
He inherited Moyaliffe Castle from his brother in 1768.
He died in 1781; his will was proved 20 February 1782. His widow was still living in 1789.

Armstrong, Rev. William Carew (1752-1839). Second, but eldest surviving son of Rev. John Armstrong (1708-81) and his wife Frances, daughter of John Garnett of Tipperary, schoolmaster, born 1752. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1768; BA 1773; MA 1778). Curate and later Vicar of Moyaliffe 1789-97; rector of Moylough; prebendary of Moylough, 1796-1818 and Chancellor of diocese of Cashel, 1814-39. He had an interest in architecture and built a new church at Killvalure [unidentified] as well as extending Moyaliffe House. His portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart c.1786-93 and hung in the dining room at Moyaliffe, where it was said to come down from the wall and cross the room when the deaths of senior members of the family were imminent. He married, 11 November 1789/91, Hon. Catherine Eleanor (d. 1837), eldest daughter of Most Rev. William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, and had issue:
(1) John Armstrong (1791-1846) (q.v.);
(2) Rev. Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1794-1850) (q.v.);
(3) George De La Poer Armstrong (1801-45), born 1801; Lieutenant in 60th Rifles but was obliged to resign his commission for drunkenness, 1836; died unmarried, October 1845;
(4) Rev. Alfred Thomas Armstrong (1805-87), born 1805; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1830; MA 1833); rector of Moyaliffe, 1832-39 and Cullen, 1838-52; prebendary of Cullen, 1841-87; perpetual curate of St James, Preston (Lancs), 1852-54 and Ashton-on-Ribble (Lancs), 1854-87; hon. canon of Manchester Cathedral, 1877-87; married, 1835 at Killenure Castle (Tipperary), Frances, daughter of William Cooper JP of Killenure Castle, and had issue one son; died 25 October 1887; will proved at Lancaster, 23 November 1887 (effects in England £10,613) and sealed in Dublin 16 January 1888 (effects in Ireland, £4,545);
(5) Elizabeth Armstrong; died unmarried;
(6) Frances Armstrong; who incurred the displeasure of her eldest brother John by a love affair in 1838; died unmarried;
(7) Clara Armstrong; died unmarried.
He inherited Moyaliffe Castle from his father in 1781, and is said to have built the new wing on the house and to have landscaped the grounds. An Inclosure Act for Mealiffe was passed in 1834.
He died in Dublin, 8 June 1839, aged 87. His wife died in November 1837.

Armstrong, John (1791-1846). Eldest son of Rev. William Carew Armstrong (1752-1839) and his wife Hon. Catherine Eleanor, daughter of Most Rev. William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, born 1791. Educated at Linton School (Cambs) and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (admitted 1810; gave two silver flagons to the college, 1814). DL and JP for Sligo and Tipperary.  In the 1830s he acted as a Conservative election agent and in the 1840s he was chairman of the Upper Leyny and Tubbercurry Relief Committees during the famine. He married, 1815, Catherine (c.1794-1868), daughter and heiress of Thomas Somers of Chaffpool (Sligo), and had issue:
(1) Capt. William Armstrong (1816-49), born 1816; an officer in 47th Regiment (Capt., 1844); served in the West Indies and Sind, 1846; married, 20 June 1848 at the Chateau de Varennes, Angers (France), Mathilde Rose (who m2, 1 May 1851 at Cullen, Thomas Armstrong, son of Capt. William Armstrong of Moyaliffe), daughter of Joseph Lucian Bousscan, Count de la Brosse, and had issue a son (John Armstrong (1849-54), who died at Varennes, 3 January 1854 aged 4); died 7 March 1849;
(2) Thomas Somers Armstrong (1822-47), born 1822; an officer in 60th Royal Rifles (1st Lt., 1841); died unmarried at Kurrachee, Bombay (India), 6/7 June 1847;
(3) George De La Poer Armstrong (1823-64) of Chaffpool, born 16 October 1823; DL (1861) and JP for Sligo; High Sheriff of Sligo, 1854; died unmarried, 2 June 1864; will proved in Dublin, 5 July 1864 (effects under £4,000);
(4) Marcus Alexander Armstrong (1824-29); born 1824; died young, 1829;
(5) Capt. James Wood Armstrong (1827-89) (q.v.);
(6) Henry Alfred Armstrong (b & d. 1827); died in infancy;
(7) Edward Marcus Armstrong (1829-99) (q.v.);
(8) Francis Henry Armstrong (1836-83); died unmarried in Dublin, 15 August 1883; will proved in Dublin, 24 December 1883 (effects £2,165);
(9) Elizabeth Armstrong (d. 1847); died unmarried in Torquay (Devon), 27 April 1847;
(10) Kathleen Eleanor Armstrong (d. 1875); died unmarried, 2 April 1875.
He inherited the Moyaliffe Castle estate from his father in 1839 and Chaffpool (Sligo) and estates in Mayo through his wife. After his death Moyaliffe passed to his eldest son and on his death in 1849 to his third, fifth and sixth sons in turn, all of whom died without issue.
He died 2 December 1846 (the cause of death is said to have been typhus fever, but also that he "got wet, sat in committee in half-dried clothes, and then went home on a jaunting car", which sounds more like a recipe for pneumonia). His widow died in Dublin, 21 April 1868, aged 74.

Armstrong, Capt. James Wood (1827-89). Fifth son of John Armstrong (1791-1846) of Moyaliffe and his wife Catherine, daughter of Thomas Somers of Chaffpool (Sligo), born 21 November 1827; an officer in the Royal Navy, 1841-77 (Commander, 1862; Captain, 1877); he served in HMS 'Duke of Wellington' and 'Bulldog' in the Baltic during the war with Russia and was awarded the Baltic medal; in 1857 he was involved on HMS 'Cyclops' in the laying of the Atlantic and Red Sea cables. JP (1864) and DL (1870) for Sligo; High Sheriff of Sligo, 1873. He was unmarried and without issue. He was taken ill while visiting the Perceval family at Templehouse (Sligo) in November 1889 and remained in their care until he died. The chancel of Tubbercurry parish church was built in his memory.
He inherited the Moyaliffe and Chaffpool estates from his elder brother in 1864 and is said to have added the Victorian front to Moyaliffe House in 1864. He probably also rebuilt Chaffpool House c.1880.
He died at Templehouse (Sligo), 19 December 1889; his will was proved at Ballina (Mayo), 17 June 1890 (estate in Ireland £10,011) and sealed in London, 2 July 1890 (estate in England £3,714).

Armstrong, Edward Marcus (1829-99). Sixth son of John Armstrong (1791-1846) of Moyaliffe and his wife Catherine, daughter of Thomas Somers of Chaffpool (Sligo), born 20 September 1829. An officer in 55th Regiment (Ensign, 1849; Lt., 1853; Captain, 1855); fought and was severely wounded at the Battle of Alma, 1854. JP and DL for Tipperary; High Sheriff of Tipperary, 1884. He married, 19 October 1863 at Tullemallan (Tipperary), Frances (c.1825-1904), youngest daughter of Walter Steele of Moynalty (Monaghan), but had no issue.
He inherited the Moyaliffe and Chaffpool estates from his brother in 1889. At his death they passed to his first cousin once removed, Capt. Marcus Beresford Armstrong.
He died 29 March 1899; his will was proved in Dublin, 4 July 1899 (estate in Ireland £10,947) and sealed in London, 19 July 1899 (estate in England £571). His widow died in Dublin, 3 December 1904; her will was proved in Dublin, 9 January 1905 (estate in Ireland £6,563) and sealed in London, 20 January 1905 (estate in England £3,170).

Armstrong, Rev. Marcus Beresford (1794-1850). Second son of Rev. William Carew Armstrong (1752-1839) and his wife Hon. Catherine Eleanor, daughter of Most Rev. William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, born 1794. Educated at Winchester, Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1812) and Trinity College, Oxford (admitted 1812; BA & MA 1821). Succeeded his father as rector and prebendary of Moylough (Galway), 1818-50, in which capacity he was in the forefront of the battle to collect tithes from the largely Catholic population of Ireland in the 1830s. He married, 1825, Emily, daughter of Rev. John O'Rorke, his curate at Moylough, and had issue:
(1) William Armstrong (1826-89) (q.v.);
(2) Joseph Armstrong (1828-55); said to have been an ensign in 11th Regiment but does not appear in the Army List for this regiment;
(3) George Armstrong (b. 1831); educated at Trinity College, Oxford (admitted 1849);
(4) Francis Armstrong (1833-60); said to have been a Capt. in the 11th Regiment but does not appear in the Army List for this regiment; died 1860;
(5) Catherine Eleanor Armstrong (d. 1850); died unmarried, 14 August 1850;
(6) A daughter; died unmarried;
(7) Clara Armstrong (d. 1869); died unmarried, 5 February 1869.
He died 28 November 1850. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Capt. William Armstrong
Image: Univ. of  Limerick

Armstrong, Capt. William (1826-89) of Ballydavid (Waterford). Eldest son of Rev. Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1794-1850) and his wife Emily, daughter of Rev. John O'Rorke, born about September 1826. An officer in 16th Foot (Ensign, 1845; Lt., 1849; Capt., 1855; retired, 1857). JP for Waterford, 1860. He married, 27 July 1853 at Birr (Offaly), Catherine, daughter of Richard Bernard Clark of Prospect Lodge, Rathgar (Dublin), and had issue:
(1) Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1859-1923) (q.v.);
(2) Elizabeth Catherine (k/a Elise or Disi) Armstrong (1864-1924); married, December 1897, Robert Gun Paul (1856-1918), younger son of Sir Robert Joshua Paul, 3rd bt., of Paulville and Ballyglan (Waterford), but had no issue; died 17 June 1924; will proved 18 December 1924 (estate in Ireland £11,541) and 7 January 1925 (estate in England £6,410);
(3) Eleanor Campbell Armstrong (b. c.1866); married, 3 August 1893 at Great Bookham (Surrey), Rev. James D. Forde of Cullen (Tipperary), son of Daniel Forde, gentleman, and had issue one son; lived latterly at Woodcliff, Dunmore East (Waterford); died 21 November 1940; will proved 21 December 1940 (estate in Ireland £423) and 10 July 1941 (estate in England £62);
(4) Grace Armstrong (c.1868-1905); died unmarried, Jan-Mar 1905, aged 36;

(5) Mildred Alice Armstrong (1876-1940); married, 1920, as his second wife, Robert Sandford Pakenham (1866-1959), son of William Sandford Pakenham, but died without issue, 17 February 1940; will proved 22 April 1940 (estate £914).

He acquired a lease of Ballydavid House, Passage East (Waterford). In 1876 he owned 52 acres in county Waterford, 2,260 acres in county Tipperary and 413 acres in county Limerick.
He died 5 March 1889; his will was proved 28 March 1889 (effects £2,032). His wife's date of death is unknown.

Marcus Beresford Armstrong
Image: Univ. of Limerick

Armstrong, Marcus Beresford (1859-1923). Only son of William Armstrong (1826-89) of Ballydavid (Waterford) and his wife Catherine, daughter of Gen. Clark, born 19 May 1859. A Captain in the 8th Brigade, Northern Irish Division, Royal Artillery. One of the founder members of the Achonry Co-operative & Dairy Society, 1897. DL for Tipperary and JP for Tipperary and Sligo; High Sheriff of Tipperary, 1905. He married, 11 April 1888 at Enniskillen (Fermanagh) (sep. c.1910), Rosalie Cornelia (1868-1956), daughter of Maurice Ceely Maude of Lenaghan Park, Enniskillen, and had issue:
(1) William Maurice (k/a Pat) Armstrong (1889-1917), born 10 August 1889; educated at Stoke House Prep School, Eton and RMC Sandhurst; a Captain in 10th Royal Hussars and later 2nd Cavalry Brigade; aide-de-camp to Gen. De Lisle of 1st Cavalry Division; served in WW1 (mentioned in despatches four times; MC 1916); on staff of Maj-Gen. Sir Beauvoir de Lisle at Mons and Gallipoli; but died unmarried when he was killed in action in France, 23 May 1917; buried in Faubourg d'Amiens Cemetery, Pas de Calais (France);
(2) Cornelia Ione Kathleen Armstrong (1891-1967), born at Achonry (Sligo), Oct-Dec 1891; married, September/October 1918 at St Peter, Eaton Square, London, Sir William Lindsay Everard MP (1891-1949), kt. of Ratcliffe Hall (Leics), brewer and pioneer aviator, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 30 October 1967; will proved 20 December 1967 (estate £22,746);
(3) Winona Rosalie (k/a Jess) Armstrong (1893-1982) (q.v.);
(4) Lisalie Maude (k/a Tommy) Armstrong (1897-1990), born at Achonry (Sligo), 16 February 1897; married, 8 June 1927 at St Peter, Eaton Square, Major Odo George Henry Russell (1899-1980) of Broadmead Manor, Folkestone (Kent), only son  of George William Henry Russell, but had no issue; died 17 May 1990; will proved 24 September 1990 (estate £369,378).
He inherited the Chaffpool estate from his first cousin once removed, James Wood Armstrong, in 1889, and Moyaliffe from James' brother, Edward Marcus Armstrong in 1899. The Mayo and Sligo estates were sold to the Congested Districts Board in 1904 and he moved into Moyaliffe.
He died in Dublin, 12 September 1923; his will was proved in London, 6 February 1924 (estate in England, £45,683) and in Dublin, 24 March 1924 (estate in Ireland £25, 463). His widow died 31 January 1956; her will was proved 25 September 1956 (estate £9,084).

Armstrong (later Kemmis), Winona Rosalie (k/a Jess) (1893-1982). Second daughter and heiress of Maurice Beresford Armstrong (1859-1923) of Moyaliffe and Chaffpool and his wife Rosalie Cornelia, daughter of Maurice Ceely Maude of Lenaghan Park, Enniskillen (Fermanagh), born at Achonry (Sligo), 25 September 1893. She married, 9 November 1927 at St Margarets, Westminster (Middx), Capt. William Daryl Olphert Kemmis MC (1892-1965) of Ballinacor (Wicklow), but had no issue.

She inherited the Moyaliffe estate from her father in 1923 and she and her husband divided their time between Moyaliffe and Ballinacor. After the death of her husband in 1965, Ballinacor passed to her husband’s maternal cousin, Major Richard Lomer. In 1959, she decided to break the entail on Moyaliffe and divide part of the capital between her two sisters and to use the remainder to set up a trust to run and maintain Moyaliffe Castle and estate. She then gave the property with all its contents to her niece, Bettyne Spencer (daughter of her eldest sister Ione, Lady Everard), unconditionally but with the understanding that Mrs Spencer would in time pass it on to her son, Richard Spencer, to retain the property in the family. In 1964, against Jess Kemmis’s wishes, Mrs Spencer offered the property for sale to the Land Commission. Following a protracted legal battle, Mrs. Kemmis succeeded in buying back Moyaliffe Castle and 12 acres of demesne while losing the farm to the Land Commission. She regained possession of her family home on 9 June 1966, although the repercussions of the dispute extended to 1969. When she died in 1982, her heir was her kinsman, Robert George Carew Armstrong (1911-1983), of Natal, South Africa, whose son sold the house in 1999.

She died 13 February 1982. Her husband died 5 January 1965.

Sources

Burke's Irish Family Records, 1976, pp. 35-38, 660-62; Visitation of Ireland, vol. 4, pp. 1-5; D. Watkins, 'William Charles Heaton-Armstrong', British Columbia History, 2006, pp. 2-6; University of Limerick, Catalogue of the Armstrong papers; R. Elsie, A biographical dictionary of Albanian history, 2012, pp. 198-200; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/armstrong-sir-thomas-1633-84; http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/97/ANDERSON%2C+CHARLES+FREDERICK#tab_works; http://longwaytotipperary.ul.ie/the-family/armstrongs/

Location of archives

Armstrong of Moyaliffe and Chaffpool: deeds, estate and family papers, 17th-20th cent. [Glucksman Library, University of Limerick: P6]; papers of W.G. Armstrong, 1840-1917 [National Library of Ireland, MSS.27660-27665]

Coat of arms

Armstrong: Gules, three dexter arms vambraced and embowed proper.
Heaton-Armstrong: Quarterly, 1st & 4th, gules, three dexter arms vambraced and embowed proper; 2nd & 3rd, vert, a lion rampant, argent.

Can you help?

Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch.

• Sadly, defects in Irish genealogical records and the lack of family papers for the earlier period mean that there are many gaps in the accounts given here of both the houses and the families. If you can supply or point me towards further information, please get in touch. Some particular queries are mentioned below.
• Is anyone able to provide details of the unnamed children of John Armstrong (fl. 1731-55) or about his son Thomas and the subsequent descent of Farney Castle?
• Does anyone know anything about the two daughters of John Heaton-Armstrong (1815-91), who were probably born in Austria in the 1850s?
• Can anyone supply any further information about the children of Rev. Marcus Beresford Armstrong (1794-1850)?

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 13 September 2015 and was revised 18 September 2015, 11 February 2016, 14 September 2016 and 17 June 2025. I am most grateful to Patrick Heaton-Armstrong for additional information and illustrations.