Landed families of Britain and Ireland

This site, which was short-listed for the Society of Architectural Historians (GB) Colvin Prize in 2019, presents my research into the landowning families of the British Isles and the country houses which they owned. Comments, especially in the form of corrections, additional information or new illustrations, are very welcome. Please use the Contact Form in the right hand side bar to contact me privately or the comments facility at the bottom of the page to make a public comment.

Showing posts with label Wicklow. Show all posts

Sunday, 30 April 2023

(544) Bellew, later Grattan-Bellew of Mount Bellew, baronets

Grattan-Bellew baronets

The Bellews of Mount Bellew are a cadet branch of the Bellews of Barmeath Castle (Co. Louth), founded by Christopher Bellew (c.1640-1709), who was the third but perhaps the favourite son of the John Bellew (1605-79) who established his family at Barmeath. When John wrote his will he bequeathed his estates in Co. Louth and Co. Galway to his eldest son, and most of his younger sons were left only small capital sums. The exception was Christopher, for whom a small part of the Galway estate at Corgarrowes (some 133 acres) was carved out as an independent patrimony, on which a house had been built by 1700. Christopher and his son Michael (d. 1742) progressively enlarged this property (which became known as the Mount Bellew estate), so that by the time of the latter's death it amounted to some 1,000 acres, and it grew further in the later 18th century, under Christopher Bellew (d. 1769) and more particularly under his son Michael Bellew (c.1735-97). Michael was evidently in possession of Mount Bellew before his father's death, for he was reported to be completing a new house there in 1767. He and his brother Francis Bellew (d. 1773) - a merchant in St. Kitts - bought land in Domenica in 1767 but it is not clear whether this was a profitable speculation, as it was evidently sold fairly soon afterwards. If Michael did show a profit on the deal, it seems to have been ploughed into the expansion of the Mount Bellew estate, where he inherited an adjoining 1,000 acres from his father-in-law in 1782 and bought 2,400 acres from Sir Patrick Bellew of Barmeath in 1784. Further purchases of land followed in the 1780s and 1790s, so that by the time of Michael's death in 1787 the estate was said to be approaching 10,000 acres. All this expansion was cleverly achieved despite the operation of the penal laws, one intention of which was to prevent Catholic families from acquiring freehold land or passing it from one generation to the next. It was made possible by a combination of forward planning, collaborative arrangements with Protestant neighbours who could act as Trustees, and the co-operation of younger sons who did not challenge the transmission of the estate intact to the eldest son.

In 1797 the estate descended to Christopher Dillon Bellew (1763-1826), an able and intelligent man who played a prominent role in Catholic politics in the years around 1800 and was noted as an improving landlord. In about 1805 he turned his attention to improving the house and estate at Mount Bellew, adding wings and remodelling the interior to the designs of Sir Richard Morrison, and going on to enhance the grounds with an enlarged lake and picturesque planting. Christopher died just before the final achievement of Catholic emancipation, but his son, Matthew Dillon Bellew (1796-1855) was able to take full advantage of it, becoming the first Catholic high sheriff of Galway in 1830, and a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant. In 1838 he was raised to a baronetcy. He and his wife had a large family of twelve children, of whom the eldest son was Christopher Bellew, who was sent to Trinity College, Dublin and then travelled extensively on the Continent. When the Great Famine struck the west of Ireland with such devastating effect, however, he was in Galway, doing all he could alleviate the privations of the family's tenants and neighbours. Some years later, while visiting Vienna (Austria), he felt the call of the Catholic priesthood, and he eventually became a Jesuit priest based in Dublin. Although he succeeded to his father's baronetcy and family estates in 1855 they were probably managed by his younger brother, Thomas Arthur Bellew (1820-63), who was Liberal MP for County Galway, 1852-57.

Thomas married, in 1858, Pauline Grattan (c.1833-1908), the granddaughter of the Irish statesman, Henry Grattan (1746-1820) and heir to his estate at Tinnehinch (Co. Kilkenny), and they took the surname Grattan-Bellew in 1859. The couple's only son, Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1860-1942), 3rd bt., inherited both Tinnehinch and Mount Bellew, where the estate, now extending into Co. Roscommon, was almost 12,000 acres. Sir Henry retained these acreages until the early 20th century, but by March 1916 had accepted an offer from the Congested Districts' Board for over 1,000 acres of the estate, and he sold the remainder to the Land Commission in 1937, which promptly demolished Mount Bellew House. He spent his last years at Tinnehinch, which after his widow's death passed to their son, Lt-Col. Sir Charles Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1887-1948), 4th bt., who did not long survive his father. In about 1950, Tinnehinch was sold to an English property developer called David Harris, who demolished most of it in 1953, although the surviving ruins were incorporated into a new house (now Grattan House) after 1999. By a curious coincidence, the same story of partial demolition and rebirth occurred at Jenkinstown, the secondary seat of the Bellews of Barmeath. After the sale of Tinnehinch, Sir Henry Charles Grattan-Bellew (1933-2022), 5th bt., moved abroad, and pursued a varied career as a colonial administrator, sports administrator, journalist and broadcaster, before returning to Ireland in his last years; his son, Sir Patrick Charles Grattan-Bellew (b. 1971), is the current baronet.

Mount Bellew, Co. Galway

A house on the estate is first recorded in 1700, but it was rebuilt by Michael Bellew (d. 1797), who was said to be 'now employed in finishing [the] house' in 1767, although his father did not die until two years later. The house is depicted on an estate map of 1767 as a square block with two canted bays, which stood either side of a single bay with the entrance doorcase. There was a Venetian window on the top storey of the central block, while the entrance doorcase was surmounted by an urn. Little is known of the interiors at this date: the house was taxed on only five hearths in 1769, which seems unreasonably low. The house already had a library at this date, and at least one fireplace was supplied by a Dublin statuary. In 1793 a new detached chapel was built, replacing an existing one on the demesne, which was allowed to fall into ruin: the ruins are presumably those which can be seen on the banks of the lake in Neale's view of the house, published in 1820.

Mount Bellew House: a photograph showing the house in the early 20th century.

The house was enlarged and remodelled for for Christopher Dillon Bellew (1763-1826). His architect at first seems to have been the local Dominick Madden, but here as elsewhere he failed to impress and was quickly replaced by the fashionable Sir Richard Morrison. The works seem to have taken place between about 1806 and 1812, for 30 masons were engaged in stone-cutting in 1806-08 and expensive furnishings were being bought for the house in Dublin in 1810-12. Morrison extended the facade by adding three-bay links to one-bay pedimented wings, refaced the exterior of the existing central block, and remodelled the interiors. The wings had tripartite windows under relieving arches. Inside, the house was given a long (63 ft) hall divided by screens of Ionic columns, reminiscent of Morrison's hall at Fota (Co. Cork), and created in the same way by opening up the original narrow entrance hall into the rooms to either side. The hall led by way of ante-rooms to a large gallery on one side and a dining room on the other. There was a handsome library, which in the early 19th century was said to contain one of the finest collections of books in Ireland.

Mount Bellew: the library in 1885.

Mount Bellew House: J.P. Neale's engraving of the house, published in 1820, showing the grounds as improved in 1817.

The grounds were also landscaped in the late 18th century, apparently to the designs of Thomas Leggatt, and the lake, created in 1790 and extended by Hely Dutton in 1817, still survives. Dominick Madden made designs for gate lodges (of which three were built), bridges and a substantial greenhouse in the park in 1817, so attention probably moved, after the completion of work on the house, to the further improvement of the grounds. He also built a dower house (later called Bellew's Grove) which became the residence of Christopher Dillon Bellew's widow after his death in 1826. In the 19th and early 20th century the combined effects of the Agricultural Depression and land reform legislation in Ireland made the estate unviable, and Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1860-1942), 3rd bt., sold the house and estate to the Land Commission in 1937, which predictably totally demolished the house soon afterwards. The former porch was rebuilt as a Marian shrine at Athleague (Co. Roscommon).

Descent: probably built for Christopher Bellew (c.1640-1709); to son, Michael Bellew (d. 1742); to son, Christopher Bellew (d. 1769); to son, Michael Bellew (c.1735-97), who rebuilt the house; to son, Christopher Dillon Bellew (1763-1826), who enlarged and remodelled the house; to son, Sir Michael Dillon Bellew (1796-1855), 1st bt.; to son, Fr. Sir Christopher Bellew (1818-67), 2nd bt.; to nephew, Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1860-1942), 3rd bt., who sold 1937 to the Land Commission, which demolished it c.1938.

Tinnehinch, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow

The house was originally a wayside inn built in a romantic situation in the valley of the River Dargle by Lord Powerscourt for the convenience of travellers on the road south from Dublin. In the 18th century it was regarded as one of the finest inns in County Wicklow, and was a staging point for coaches, and for this reason became well-known to the statesman, Henry Grattan, who as early as 1770 had marked it down as a desirable spot.

Tinnehinch: a drawing of the house c.1800. Image: National Library of Ireland.

When the Irish parliament voted £50,000 for the purchase of lands to thank him for achieving its legislative independence from Westminster in 1782, he chose to purchase the inn (as well as lands at Stradbally (Co. Leix)) and made it his home. The house had a three storey, five bay centre with projecting one-bay wings that were the same height but only of two storeys. In the centre was a round-headed doorway with a blocked surround. The wings had tripartite windows, with those on the ground floor being set under relieving arches. At first the wings were just three bays deep, with a further three single-storey bays projecting behind, but later the rear part of the wings became two-storey as well.

Tinnehinch: a photograph of the house published in 1939.

Grattan spent his later years in retirement at Tinnehinch and improved the grounds, which were drawn and engraved a number of times in the 19th century. The house seems to have been little altered before it was sold by Grattan's descendants to an English property developer in c.1950, after which a demolition sale was held in 1953 and the house was taken down except for parts of the ground floor. There seems to be no evidence to support Mark Bence-Jones' story that the house was burned down. The surviving ruins of the building became a garden feature for a house that was formed out of the stables of its predecessor.

Grattan House: the rebuilt house which incorporates the ruins of Tinnehinch.

In 1999 Adrian and Mary Murphy purchased the property and rebuilt the ruined house as a two storey building, keeping as faithfully as possible to the external appearance of the original building, although it has a completely new interior that draws inspiration from a number of classic Irish Georgian houses. The rebuilt house is now known as Grattan House.

Descent: sold 1782 to Henry Grattan MP (1746-1820); to son, James Grattan (1783-1854); to daughter, Pauline (c.1833-1908), wife of Thomas Arthur Bellew (later Grattan-Bellew) (1820-63); to son, Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1860-1942), 3rd bt.; to son, Lt-Col. Sir Charles Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1887-1948), 4th bt.; to son, Sir Henry Charles Grattan-Bellew (1933-2022), 5th bt., who sold it c.1950 to David Harris, who demolished it... sold 1999 to Adrian & Mary Murphy; sold 2013...

Bellew and Grattan-Bellew family of Mount Bellew

Bellew, Christopher (c.1640-1709). Third son of John Bellew (1605-79), and his wife Mary, daughter of Robert Dillon of Clonbrock, born about 1640. He was an officer in King James II's army in Ireland in 1689-90 (Capt.), but fell within the articles of Limerick and avoided outlawry or confiscation of his estates. He married Susanna Hill (fl. 1705) and had issue*:

(1) Michael Bellew (d. 1742) (q.v.).

He inherited his father's lands at Corgarrowes (Co. Galway), which amounted to some 133 acres, and added further property to this, creating what would become known as the Mount Bellew estate.

He died in 1709. His wife was living in 1705, but her date of death is unknown.

* He had only one son, but there may have been daughters as well.

Bellew, Michael (d. 1742). Only son of Christopher Bellew (c.1640-1709). He married 1st, [forename unknown] Barnewall and 2nd Mary Kelly, of Mount Kelly, and had issue including:

(1.1) Christopher Bellew (d. 1769) (q.v.);
(1.2) Nicholas Bellew (d. c. 1788); probably the man of this name who married, 1734, Lucy Kelly (fl. 1786), and had issue at least two daughters; will proved 17 February 1788;
(2.1) Dominick Bellew (d. 1787) of Mount Kelly; notorious for his bad temper and profligate lifestyle; he married and had issue at least three sons (of whom one was murdered by a gang that included some of his servants) and one daughter; died 'in or about' 1787.

He inherited Mount Bellew (Co. Galway) and further enlarged the property to the east and south, so that it was around 1,000 acres by the time of his death.

He died in 1742; administration of his goods was granted to his sons, 2 February 1742/3. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

Bellew, Christopher (d. 1769). Elder son of Michael Bellew (d. 1742), and his first wife [forename unknown] Barnewall. He married Barbara (fl. 1769), eldest daughter of the Hon. Lucas Dillon of Holywell (Co. Mayo) and widow of John Dillon of Mannin, and had issue:

(1) Michael Bellew (c.1735-97) (q.v.);
(2) Luke Bellew (b. c.1740; fl. 1769), born about 1740; merchant in Dublin; married and had issue at least three sons; living in 1769;
(3) Patrick Bellew (c.1742-89), born about 1742; merchant in Cadiz (Spain) as a partner in Lynch and Bellew, and from the 1770s in Dublin; married 1st, Jane Lynch and had issue at least one son (who continued his business); probably married 2nd, Mary (fl. 1789) [surname unknown], and had further issue one daughter; died July 1789 and will proved in Dublin, 1789;
(4) Francis Bellew (d. 1773), merchant in Cork and (by 1765) in St Kitts; he purchased a plantation of 190 acres in Domenica, probably as a speculation, for he seems to have remained living in St Kitts until shortly before his death; probably died in Cork, 1773; will proved 28 January 1773;
(5) Julia Bellew (d. 1813?); married, November 1763, Edmond Taaffe (d. 1792) of Woodfield (Co. Mayo), third son of James Taaffe of Woodfield, and had issue at least three sons and four daughters; possibly the Julia Taaffe whose will was proved in 1813.

He inherited Mount Bellew from his father in 1742.

He died in late June 1769; his will was proved 2 February 1770. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bellew, Michael (c.1735-97). Eldest son of Christopher Bellew (d. 1769) and his wife Barbara, eldest daughter of the Hon. Lucas Dillon of Holywell (Co. Mayo) and widow of John Dillon of Mannin, born about 1735. In 1776 he joined with Sir Patrick Bellew of Barmeath in establishing flour mills at Mountbellew, and in the following year he obtained the grant of a weekly market and four annual fairs at Mountbellew. He married, August 1760 at Kinclare (Co. Galway), Jane (d. c.1820), daughter of Henry Dillon of Kinclare, and had issue:

(1) Christopher Dillon Bellew (1763-1826) (q.v.);
(2) Fr. Luke Bellew (d. 1819?); educated at St Gregory's College and the English College, Douai, where he trained for the priesthood; he was still in France at the time of the revolution and was imprisoned several times; for a time he sought refuge with Irish Franciscans at Louvain before returning to Douai; acting President of the Irish College, Douai, before its temporary closure and President on its restoration in 1802; living in 1814 and said to have died in 1819;
(3) Henry (k/a Harry) Bellew; educated at the Irish College, Douai and later St Gregory's College, Douai, and then studied medicine at Paris, but his studies were interrupted by the French revolution and after being imprisoned several times he escaped to Ireland;
(4) Patrick Bellew; educated at the Irish College, Douai, and later St Gregory's College, Douai and at a seminary in Paris, where he may have trained for the priesthood;
(5) Francis Bellew (fl. 1769); mentioned in his grandfather's will but may have died young;
(6) Mary Catherine Bellew (1776-1855), born in 1776; married, about November 1794, William Thomas Nugent (1773-1851), 5th Baron Riverston*, and had issue at least two sons and one daughter; died 1855.

In the 1760s he purchased 227 acres on the island of Domenica, where his brother also had a plantation of 190 acres which came to him in 1773; the property was probably sold soon afterwards and part may have been sold by 1770. He inherited Mount Bellew from his father in 1769 having already rebuilt the house c.1767. He inherited the Kinclare estate (about 1,000 acres) from his father-in-law in 1782 and purchased further land at the same time. In 1786 he bought the Galway lands of Sir Patrick Bellew, 5th bt., of Barmeath (some 2,400 acres), and further smaller purchases followed in the 1790s.

He died in 1797; his will was proved in Dublin, 5 July 1797. His widow died about 1820; her will was proved in 1821.

* See the footnote below the next entry.

Bellew, Christopher Dillon (1763-1826). Eldest son of Michael Bellew (c.1735-97) and his wife Jane, daughter of Henry Dillon, born 1763. Educated at St Omer's College, Bruges (admitted 1773), the English Academy in Liège (admitted 1773) and St Gregory's College, Douai (admitted 1774), and finally at St Vaast College, Douai, 1779-81. He was regarded as an able and intelligent man, and played a leading role in the Catholic Convention of 1792, being one of the delegates selected to present a petition to the king seeking Catholic relief. He was noted as an improving landlord. He married, 27 October 1794 at Pallas (Co. Galway), Olivia Emily (c.1775-1856), only daughter of Anthony Nugent of Pallas, 4th Baron Riverston*, and had issue:

(1) Sir Michael Dillon Bellew (1796-1855), 1st bt. (q.v.).

He inherited Mount Bellew from his father in 1797. From about 1805 he employed Dominick Madden (soon replaced by Sir Richard Morrison) to remodel and add wings to the house.

He died 23 April 1826; his will was proved 1826. His widow died 19 September 1856; administration of her goods was granted 14 July 1859 (effects under £2,000).

* This peerage (sometimes Baron Nugent of Riverston) was created by King James II on 3 April 1689, after he had fled England but while he was still de facto King of Ireland. The title seems to have been recognised by the Williamite forces in Ireland at the time, but came into question later. However, the 1st Baron's descendants all claimed and used the title down to 1871, when the 6th Baron proved his claim to the Earldom of Westmeath and the matter ceased to have any practical significance.

Bellew, Sir Michael Dillon (1796-1855), 1st bt. Only recorded son of Christopher Dillon Bellew (1763-1826) and his wife Olivia Emily, only daughter of Anthony Nugent of Pallas, self-styled 4th Baron Nugent, born 29 September 1796. He was a member of the New Catholic Association of Ireland from 1825 and Chair of its Galway branch. He was High Sheriff of Co. Galway, 1830-31, being the first Roman Catholic to hold this office following Catholic Emancipation, and also a JP and DL for Co. Galway. In 1831 he was associated with Thomas Bermingham in his proposed scheme for the colonising of Connemara. He was raised to a baronetcy, 15 August 1838. He married, 5 November 1816 at St Mary's R.C. church, Haddington Rd., Dublin, Helena Maria (d. 1865), eldest daughter of Thomas Dillon of Mount Dillon (Co. Dublin) and Eadestown (Co. Kildare), and had issue:

(1) Mary Bellew (b. 1817), baptised at St Andrew's R.C. Church, Dublin, 27 August 1817; probably died in infancy;
(2) Fr. Sir Christopher Bellew (1818-67), 2nd bt. (q.v.);
(3) Olivia Mary Bellew (1819-74), born in September and baptised at St Mary's R.C. Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 29 September 1819; married, 22 June 1848 at Mountbellew, Capt. Walter Blake Lawrence (1815-63) of Lisreaghan and had issue one daughter; died in Dublin, 10 January 1874; will proved 29 February 1874 (effects under £300);
(4) Thomas Arthur Bellew (later Grattan-Bellew) (1820-63) (q.v.);
(5) Jane Mary Bellew (1822-48), baptised at St Mary's R.C. Church, Haddington Rd., Dublin, 3 February 1822; a nun with the Sisters of Charity, Harolds Cross, Dublin; died 20 February 1848;
(6) Marcella Bellew (1823-67), baptised at St Mary's R.C. Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 3 March 1823; married, 15 October 1845 at Mountbellew, Maj. Patrick Crean-Lynch (1813-81) (who m2, Elizabeth Minna Daubeney (1841-1902)) of Clogher House and Hollybrook (Co. Mayo) and had issue four daughters; died 7 January 1867; will proved 15 March 1867 (effects under £800);
(7) Fr. Michael Bellew (b. 1825), born 27 June and baptised at Westland Row R.C. church, Dublin, 29 June 1825; a Roman Catholic priest, he entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1845, and was ordained in 1858, taking his final vows in 1865; President of St. Ignatius' College, Galway; died unmarried and without issue at St Francis Xavier's, Dublin, 29 October 1868, and was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery;
(8) Barbara Mary Bellew (1826?-1906), probably the daughter born 27 November 1826; married, 2 March 1867 at St Michan RC church, Dublin, as his second wife, Vesey Daly (c.1804-80) of Dublin, solicitor, but had no issue; died at Biarritz (France), 21 January 1906; will proved 19 June 1906 (estate in Ireland, £9,460) and 27 July 1906 (estate in England, £2,994);
(9) Marianne Bellew (1828-62), baptised at St Mary's R.C. Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 14 January 1828; married, 17 July 1851 at Mountbellew, Joseph Kelly (c.1819-95) of Newtown (Co. Galway), third son of James Kelly, and had issue at least one daughter; died 21 April 1862;
(10) John Bellew (1829-47), baptised at St Mary's R.C. Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 29 March 1829; died of a fever at Dalkey (Co. Dublin), 15 October 1847;
(11) William Bellew (1830-55), baptised at St Mary's R.C. Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 23 September 1830; an officer in the 1st Royals (Ensign, 1850; Lt., 1853); who served in the Crimean war and was severely wounded in the capture of some quarries near Sebastopol on 7 June 1855; after the battle his arm was amputated but he died of his wounds in late June 1855;
(12) Helena Maria Bellew (d. 1889); died unmarried at Lourdes (France), 22 March 1889; administration of goods granted 8 November 1890 (effects £55).

He inherited Mount Bellew from his father in 1826 and also owned Greenville Lodge, Rathmines (Co. Dublin).

He died at Rathmines, 3 July 1855; his will was proved in 1855 (effects under £14,000). His widow died 30 April 1865; her will was proved 21 August 1865 (effects under £2,000).

Bellew, Fr. Sir Christopher (1818-67), 2nd bt. Eldest son of Sir Michael Dillon Bellew (1796-1855), 1st bt., and his wife Helena Maria, eldest daughter of Thomas Dillon of Mount Dillon (Co. Dublin) and Eadestown (Co. Kildare), born 25 July 1818. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1838*), after which he travelled extensively on the Continent. During the famine years he is said to have exerted himself to his maximum ability in the relief of distress on and around the Mountbellew estate, but it was not until a visit to Vienna in 1850 that he felt called to join the priesthood. He entered the Society of Jesus at Issenheim, Alsace (France) in 1850 and was ordained at Montaubin (France) in 1856, taking his final vows in 1866. After ordination he spent two years teaching at the Jesuit College in Limerick and thereafter was attached to St Francis Xavier, Dublin. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Mount Bellew from his father in 1855.

He died in Dublin, 18 March 1867, and was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery.

* His obituary says he graduated, but I can find no record to support this.

Bellew (later Gratton-Bellew), Thomas Arthur (1820-63). Second son of Sir Michael Dillon Bellew (1796-1855), 1st bt., and his wife Helena Maria, eldest daughter of Thomas Dillon of Mount Dillon (Co. Dublin) and Eadestown (Co. Kildare), born 1820. Educated at Stonyhurst. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1842; Lt., 1845; Capt. 1850; retired 1852) and in the 5th Royal Lancashire militia (Capt., 1855). JP for Co. Galway. Liberal MP for County Galway, 1852-57. He took the additional name Grattan by royal licence, 19 March 1859, having married, 1 September 1858 at Rathmines RC church (Co. Dublin), Pauline Costiglione Mary (c.1833-1908), second daughter and co-heir of James Grattan MP (1783-1854) of Tinnehinch, Enniskerry (Co. Wicklow), son of the Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan, statesman, and had issue:

(1) Mary Helena Grattan-Bellew (1859-1940), born 25 May 1859; married, 7 July 1885 at St Paul, Wilton Place, Westminster (Middx), Brig-Gen. Alexander William Frederick Fraser CMG (1851-1933), later 18th Lord Saltoun, and had issue four sons and one daughter; died 8 October 1940 and was buried with her husband at Fraserburgh (Aberdeens.); will proved 24 February 1941 (estate £13,602);
(2) Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1860-1942), 3rd bt. (q.v.).

He inherited Tinnehinch, Enniskerry (Co. Wicklow) on his marriage in 1858.

He died 24 July 1863; his will was proved 10 September 1863 (effects under £10,000). His widow died in Dublin, 17 July 1908; her will was proved 18 December 1908 (estate £25,306).

Sir Henry Grattan-Bellew, 3rd bt.
Grattan-Bellew, Sir Henry Christopher (1860-1942), 3rd bt. Only son of Thomas Arthur Bellew (later Grattan-Bellew) (1820-63) and his wife Pauline Costiglione Mary, daughter and co-heir of Henry Grattan MP, born 1 June 1860 and baptised at St Andrew's RC church, Dublin. Educated at Beaumont College, Windsor and Downside. He succeeded his uncle as 3rd baronet, 18 March 1867, and came of age in 1881. An officer in the 5th Dragoon Guards (Lt., 1882; resigned 1886) and later in the territorial battalion of the Connaught Rangers (2nd Lt., 1896; Lt., 1896; Capt., 1900; Hon. Maj., 1907; retired as Hon. Lt-Col.). High Sheriff of Co. Galway, 1887-88. He married, 11 February 1885, Lady Sophia Maria Elizabeth (1862-1942), daughter of George Arthur Hastings Forbes (1833-89), 7th Earl of Granard, and had issue:

(1) Herbert Michael Grattan-Bellew (1886-1906), born 17 June 1886; educated at The Oratory School, Birmingham; died unmarried as the indirect result of a fall while hunting, 11 November 1906;
(2) Sir Charles Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1887-1948), 4th bt. (q.v.);
(3) Helena Barbara Grattan-Bellew (b. 1889), born 4 April 1889; living in 1911; probably died unmarried, but death not traced;
(4) Moira Jane Grattan-Bellew (1891-1971), born 8 May 1891; married, 8 January 1920 at Mountbellew, James d'Arcy (1880-1958), eldest son of Hyacinth D'Arcy (1830-1912) of New Forest (Co. Galway), and had issue one son and two daughters; died 20 October 1971;
(5) William Arthur Grattan-Bellew (1893-1917), born 15 September 1893; an officer in the Connaught Rangers (2nd Lt, 1915) seconded to Royal Flying Corps (Pilot Offr, 1915; Fl/Cdr., 1916; Sq/Cdr., 1916) who served in the First World War, and died unmarried from injuries received on active service, 24 March 1917; buried at Avesnes-le-Comte, Pas de Calais (France);
(6) Angela Mary Grattan-Bellew (1894-1966), born 11 November 1894; dog breeder and trainer; lived at Greystones (Co. Wicklow); died unmarried, 1 February 1966;
(7) Thomas Henry Grattan-Bellew (1901-67) of Mount Loftus (Co. Kilkenny), born 9 May 1901; educated at Downside and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA), a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; married, 1 June 1933 at Graignamanagh Abbey, Bettina Idrone Dorothy (1906-95), eldest daughter of Maj. John Edward Blake Loftus of Mount Loftus (Co. Kilkenny) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 3 December 1967;
(8) Sir Arthur John Grattan-Bellew (1903-85), born 23 May 1903; educated at Downside, Christ's Coll, Cambridge (BA 1924) and Lincoln's Inn (called 1925); barrister-at-law (QC) in London, 1925-35; with Egyptian Government legal service, 1936-38 and colonial legal service, Malaya, 1938-41, 1946-48; served in Indian Army, 1941-45, and was a Prisoner of War, 1942-45; Attorney General of Sarawak, 1948-52 and Tanganyika, 1952-56; Chief Secretary, Tanganyika, 1956-59; appointed CMG, 1956 and knighted, 1959; with Legal Advisers Dept. of Foreign & Commonwealth Office and retired 1963; chairman of Bellew, Parry and Raven Group of companies; lived latterly at Pledgdon Green, Henham (Essex); married, 22 July 1931 at St Mary, Cadogan St. Westminster, Winifred Mary (d. 1979), second daughter of Edmund Ronayne Mahony of Marysborough, Glanmore (Co. Cork), and had issue one son and one daughter; died 5 January 1985 and was buried at Little Chishill (Cambs); will proved 7 May 1985 (estate £192,182).

He inherited Tinnehinch, Enniskerry (Co. Wicklow) from his father in 1863 and Mount Bellew, from his uncle in 1867, and came of age in 1881. The Mount Bellew estate was sold to the Irish Land Commission in the late 1930s, and the house was demolished shortly afterwards. He lived latterly at Tinnehinch, Enniskerry (Co. Wicklow), which survived until 1953.

He died 20 January 1942; his will was proved 28 January 1943 (estate £12,864). His widow died 7 November 1942; her will was proved 7 July 1943 (estate £993).

Lt-Col. Sir Charles Grattan-Bellew, 4th bt.
Grattan-Bellew, Lt-Col. Sir Charles Christopher (1887-1948), 4th bt. Second, but eldest surviving, son of Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew (1860-1942), 3rd bt., and his wife Lady Sophia Maria Elizabeth Forbes, daughter of 7th Earl of Granard, born 23 August and baptised at St Kevin RC church, Harrington St., Dublin, 29 August 1887. Educated at Oratory School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. An officer in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps (2nd Lt., 1908; Lt., 1911; Capt., 1915; Maj., 1918; Hon. Lt-Col., 1921; retired 1922), who served in the First World War and was awarded the MC. He married, 21 April 1923 at the University Church, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, Maureen Peyton (1893-1978), niece and adopted daughter of Sir Thomas George Segrave CBE (1864-1941) of Shenfield (Essex), and had issue:

(1) Deirdre Maureen Grattan-Bellew (1924-2003), born 21 March 1924; married, 11 April 1946 at St Kevin's RC church, Dublin, Gerard John Patrick Kiernan, son of Patrick Kiernan, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 23 September 2003 and was buried at Blackrock (Co. Dublin);
(2) Sir Henry Charles Grattan-Bellew (1933-2022), 5th bt., born 12 May 1933; educated at Ampleforth; succeeded his father as 5th baronet, 6 November 1948; joined colonial service and served in Kenya, 1953-55; later sports administrator, journalist, radio and television broadcaster, publisher and company director; author of A Pictorial Memoir of Mountbellew/Moylough and Environs; 1888-1988 (2010); lived at Tinnehinch, Enniskerry (Co. Wicklow), which he sold c.1950, and later in Canada, Rhodesia and South Africa before returning to Ireland in his later years; married 1st, 27 April 1956 in Dublin (div. 1966), Naomi (1916-2001), younger daughter of Dr Charles Cyril Morgan of White Friars, Chester (Ches.) and formerly wife of Joseph Kopel Zimmerman (1906-2003) and Hugh C. Ellis (1916-59?); married 2nd, 1967 (div. 1973), Gillian Hulley (d. 2011), and had issue one son and one daughter; married 3rd, 1978 (div. 1993), Elzabé Amy, only daughter of Henry Gilbert Body of Utrecht, Natal (South Africa) and widow of J.B. Westerveld of Pretoria (South Africa); died 3 June 2022, when he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, Sir Patrick Charles Grattan-Bellew (b. 1971), 6th bt.

He lived latterly at Malahide (Co. Dublin).

He died 6 November 1948 and was buried at Deansgrange Cemetery (Co. Dublin); his will was proved in Dublin, 21 October 1949 and in London, 28 November 1949 (estate in Ireland £11,877; estate in England, £4436). His widow died 12 July 1978 and was also buried at Deansgrange Cemetery.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 334-35; Mrs R. Bellew, 'John Bellew of Willistown, 1606-79', Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, vol. 6, no. 4 (1928), pp. 229-237; K. Harvey, The Bellews of Mount Bellew, 1998; H. O'Sullivan, John Bellew: a 17th century man of many parts, 1605-79, 2000; P. Melvin, Estates and landed society in Galway, 2012, pp. 49-50; K.V. Mulligan, Rich specimens of architectural beauty: John Preston Neale's Irish country houses, 2020, pp. 32-33, 92-93, 163.

Location of archives

Bellew of Mount Bellew, baronets: family, estate and legal papers, 1640-1916 [National Library of Ireland, Bellew papers]

Coat of arms

Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Sable fretty or a crescent argent in chief (for Bellew); 2nd and 3rd, Per saltire sable and ermine a lion rampant or (for Grattan).

Can you help?

Can anyone provide additional drawings or photographs of Mount Bellew House, especially any views of the interior?
Can anyone provide additional information about the ownership history of Tinnehinch after 1950?
Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 30 April 2023 and was updated 29 April 2024 and 6 March 2025. I am grateful to Margaret McKeown for a correction and additional information.

Thursday, 12 January 2023

(533) Beit of Russborough House, baronets

Beit of Russborough, baronets

The Beits were a prosperous middle-class Jewish family of merchants from Hamburg (Germany); an account of their earlier generations can be found here. However, Siegfried Beit (1818-81) and his wife Laura Hahn became Christians soon after their marriage. Their eldest son, Alfred Beit (1853-1906), founded the family fortune through diamond and gold mining activities in southern Africa. He moved to London in 1888 and built a mansion on Park Lane (Aldford House, designed by Eustace Balfour and Thackeray Turner), for which he accumulated an important art collection. In the 1890s he acquired a country house in Hertfordshire, Tewin Water, which he leased from the Cowper family. He was unmarried and most of his wealth passed to his younger brother, Sir Otto John Beit (1865-1930), who had followed him to South Africa and also settled in London, where he had a house in Belgrave Square. He sold Aldford House in 1912, but retained Tewin Water, buying the freehold in 1919. Like his brother, Otto was a philanthropist across a wide field, and in 1920 he was knighted and in 1924 raised to a baronetcy for his services to charity. He married and had two sons and two daughters. His eldest son joined the Dragoon Guards in 1916 but shot himself the following February, apparently because of apprehension about bullying by his fellow officers.

The younger son, Sir Alfred Lane Beit (1903-94), 2nd bt., succeded his father in 1930, and was MP for St. Pancras, 1931-45. He bought a large Victorian house in Kensington Palace Gardens, London, which he had remodelled by Gerald Wellesley and Trenwith Wells in 1939. After losing his seat in the landslide general election of 1945, Sir Alfred moved to South Africa and made his home there until 1952, when the distaste he and his wife felt for the Apartheid policies of the South African government caused him to move back to Europe. Sir Alfred had been made aware of Russborough House in Co. Wicklow by the Country Life article about it of 1937, and he had copied some features of it in his remodelling of his London home. Coincidentally, it came on the market at just the time when he decided to leave South Africa, and he bought it in 1952 and carried out an extensive restoration over the next few years. Neither Sir Alfred nor his wife, Lady Clementine, had any close Irish connections, but they remained at Russborough until their deaths in 1994 and 2005 respectively, undeterred by two daring art robberies from the house, in the first of which they were badly maltreated. In 1976 the house and its surrounding land were made over to the Alfred Beit Foundation, a charitable trust charged with preserving the house and its collections for the benefit of the people of Ireland. The Foundation is the present owner of Russborough, although its stewardship has occasionally been controversial.

Tewin Water, Hertfordshire

From the late 13th century the manor of Tewin belonged to St Bartholomew's Priory, Smithfield, London, but soon after the priory was dissolved in 1540 the estate was sold to the Wrothe family, who probably had a house of some consequence here. After they sold it, c.1623, the owners were apparently non-resident until the time of James Fleet, 'a gentleman of great fortune' and the son of a Lord Mayor of London, who acquired the estate in 1713, 'repaired and beautified the capital messuage', and created a formal landscape around the house, the chief feature of which was an ornamental canal that extended eastward from the house, leading the eye to 'a very fine dove house' placed so as to act as an eyecatcher.

Fleet died in 1733 and left the estate to his widow, who married next Gen. Joseph Sabine (for whom Tewin House was built), then Charles Cathcart, 8th Lord Cathcart, and finally in 1745 an unscrupulous Irish soldier of fortune, Robert Maguire, who, when she refused to hand over her jewels and the deeds of her properties to him, imprisoned her in his house in Ireland for more than twenty years. This remarkable and romantic story sounds like the plot of a novel, which is what it became at the hands of Maria Edgeworth, who based her Castlerackrent (1800) on the story. Lady Cathcart survived the ordeal and returned to Tewin Water, where she died aged 97 in 1789.

Tewin Water: view of the house in c.1790 from the Oldfield Collection [Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies, DE/Of/6/226]

The house then passed to her neighbour, the 3rd Earl Cowper, who had bought the reversion of the property in 1785. He is said to have pulled the old house down and built another, but the dates don't work as the 3rd Earl died in December 1789 - just a few months after he gained possession - leaving as his heir a son of 13. The new 4th Earl was in the guardianship of his kinsman, Henry Cowper (1758-1840), a lawyer who was deputy clerk of the parliaments 1785-1826. In his view of c.1790, Oldfield shows a three storey house with a front of seven bays and narrow projecting wings at either end, which must have been the remodelling of the Tudor/Jacobean house carried out for James Field in the early 18th century and perhaps a little updated later: the porch in particular is likely to have been late 18th century.

When the 4th Earl Cowper came of age in 1797 he gave the Tewin Water estate to his former guardian, who promptly called in John Thomas Groves to remodel it in Greek Revival style. This was a radical scheme which totally transformed the appearance of the house. Humphry Repton, who was brought in to remodel the grounds in 1799, remarked that the alterations to the house 'may almost be deemed an entire new building', although 'he [i.e. Groves] was confined by the old house to the present level of his floors'. Repton produced one of his famous 'Red Books' for Tewin Water in 1799, which includes several views of the house as altered by Groves. A modern plan of the house suggests it may still preserve elements of its 16th or 17th century predecessor, such as the large chimney-stack at the back of the entrance hall, but no fabric earlier than the 1790s is now visible. The narrow wings depicted by Oldfield seem to have been incorporated in the larger blocks either side of the portico. The east front now has seven wide bays, with a recessed centre adorned by two pairs of coupled giant Ionic columns, while the wings have Ionic angle pilasters, with an entablature between then and the low attic storey. The ground-floor windows are set in shallow segmental-headed recesses. A new three-bay south front was also created, overlooking the River Mimram, with two shallow bow windows between pilasters and attached coupled giant Ionic columns in front of a recess in the centre, which was later made into a new entrance.

Tewin Water: drawing by Humphry Repton, 1799, showing the house after its remodelling by J.T. Groves
[Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies, DZ/42]

Tewin Water: the house in the early 20th century, after enlargement and remodelling for Lord Limerick and Alfred Beit.

The estate was tenanted in the second half of the 19th century, but in 1892-96 extensive repairs and improvements were made by the 7th Earl Cowper for his tenant, the Earl of Limerick. Later it passed into the hands of Alfred Beit (1853-1906), for whom further alterations were made. Between them, Lord Limerick and Beit moved the entrance to the west side and enlarged and renovated the house so thoroughly that hardly a single earlier fitting remains inside. Alfred Beit also laid out a riverside walk along the River Mimram, with a series of small waterfalls made of artificial rock (probably Pulhamite). The house became a County Council school for deaf children in 1953 and after this closed, was sold and converted into flats in 1997-2001.

Descent: Crown granted by 1544 to John Cock of Broxbourne, who sold 1544 to his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Wrothe (d. 1572/3); to widow, Mary and then to son Robert Wrothe (d. 1606); to son, Robert Wrothe (d. by 1617); to ?brother, John Wrothe; sold 1620 to Beckingham Butler; sold c.1623 to Richard Hale; sold to William Cecil (1591-1668), 2nd Earl of Salisbury; to younger son, Hon. William Cecil (fl. 1687); to son, Robert Cecil; to son, William Cecil, who sold 1713 to James Fleet (d. 1733); to widow, Lady Cathcart (c.1692-1789); reversion sold 1785 to George Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper; to son, George Augustus Clavering-Cowper (1776-99), 4th Earl Cowper; given 1797 to his cousin and former guardian, Henry Cowper (1758-1840); to kinsman, George Augustus Frederick Cowper (1806-56), 6th Earl Cowper; to son, Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper (1834-1905). The house was tenanted in the late 19th century by Lord Limerick and, from c.1895, by Alfred Beit (1853-1906), whose younger brother, Sir Otto John Beit (1865-1930), 1st bt., bought the freehold; to widow, Lilian Beit (1873-1946); sold after her death for use as a country club; sold c. 1952 to Hertfordshire County Council for use as a School for the Deaf; sold 1997 and converted to flats.

Russborough House, Blessington, Co. Wicklow

Russborough is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and important houses in Ireland, both because of the richness of its internal decoration and because it has survived with remarkably little alteration since it was built. Fires in 1965 and 2010 caused significant damage to the saloon and the rooms above, and to the west wing, but the damage has been reinstated. The house was built for Joseph Leeson (1711-83), the son of a wealthy Dublin brewer and property developer, who inherited his father's wealth in 1739 and acquired the estate in 1741. He was MP in the Irish parliament for Rathcormack, 1743-56, when he was raised to the peerage as Lord Russborough, and he was subsequently advanced to a viscountcy in 1760 and to the Earldom of Milltown in 1763. Russborough was a remarkably pretentious house for him to build as a commoner, but was more in keeping with his eventual status as an earl: clearly he was a man who thought ahead and was determined to climb the social ladder.

Russborough House: the vast extent of the main front of the house

The designer of Russborough was Richard Cassels or Castle (d. 1751), an engineer and architect who made his career in Ireland, but who was born David Riccardo and was brought up in Dresden (Germany) as one of the four sons of an English-born military engineer of Jewish extraction called Joseph Riccardo. After serving for some years as a military engineer in Germany, France and the Netherlands, Castle came to England to study architecture and waterworks, and evidently had some contact with Lord Burlington's circle. By 1728 he was in Ireland, reputedly having been brought over by Sir Gustavus Hume to design Castle Hume (Co. Fermanagh). He was subsequently employed as a draughtsman and assistant by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, and after Pearce's untimely death in 1733 he took over some of the latter's contracts for public works and rapidly built a private practice as an architect. By the 1740s he was the most fashionable architect in Ireland, and the obvious person for a rich and socially ambitious client like Leeson to employ.

Unfortunately, no documentation of the building process at Russborough survives, so very little is known for certain about its construction and decoration, although the importance of the house means that architectural historians have pored over the stylistic evidence for clues with great care. Work seems to have begun fairly soon after Leeson acquired the property, perhaps in 1742 or 1743, and to have proceeded quite slowly, as the house was still incomplete in 1748, when it was said that 'artificers from most parts of Europe...[are] employed in this great new work' and it was called 'a noble new house now forming into perfection'. Leeson made two long visits to Italy in 1744 and 1751, largely for the purpose of acquiring art works to decorate the house. It was reported in 1745 that a ship containing sculpture and pictures he had bought on his first visit had been captured by the French, but not all of his treasures were lost, for his portrait by Pompeo Batoni, painted in 1744, was at Russborough later. Leeson's second visit to Italy in 1751 was probably occasioned by the need to acquire further works to replace those he had lost. While he was abroad, Castle died suddenly, and it is thought that the completion of the house thereafter was in the hands of Francis Bindon (1690-1765), a gentleman amateur architect who was associated with several of Castle's later works. Close analysis of the interior decoration of the house suggests that it is the product of several different hands, but only the decoration of the saloon can be attributed with any confidence to an identifiable name - in this case the Lafranchini brothers.

Russborough House: engraving by J.P. Neale, 1826

Castle and Leeson obviously believed that first impressions were important. The house is approached down a straight avenue set not on the axis of the main south front but to one side, with the result that immense width of the mansion bursts upon the eye suddenly as one enters the parade-ground sized forecourt. In fact, the house proper - the central block of seven bays by six - is not unusually large, but the Palladian layout with curved Doric colonnades linking it to pavilion wings of seven broadly-spaced bays is undeniably impressive, and beyond the wings there are arched entrances to the former farm and stable courts which extend the total width of the building to some 700 feet (for comparison, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, often called the longest house in England, is only 606 feet). The front commands a fine view south to the Wicklow mountains and the Poulaphouca reservoir, best appreciated from the broad flight of steps leading up to the front door on the piano nobile.

Russborough House: the entrance front of the main block.

The central block has a fairly high basement storey surmounted by the piano nobile and an attic storey set above the cornice; a parapet with urns partially conceals the hipped roof. The centrepiece of the facade frames the central three bays of the principal floor and has a pediment supported on Corinthian pilasters set against the attic storey. Perhaps deliberately, the centrepiece is not visually strong enough to dominate the composition, so that the eye darts away to the framing colonnades and is constantly reminded of the wider context of the central block. On the north front of the house there are no flanking wings and the backs of those on the entrance front are cleverly concealed, so that from this side the house appears as a modest and demure seven-bay block with a somewhat attenuated Ionic portico and a flight of steps bridging the area around the basement for central emphasis.

Russborough House: garden front. Image: Irish Historic Houses

Russborough House: piano nobile plan of the main block, colonnades and wings.

The main block of the house is a triple pile, with the spinal walls running north to south. On the principal floor, the centre is occupied by just two large rooms, the entrance hall facing south and the saloon facing north. The west and east sides of the house are divided into three: on the west side the drawing room, tapestry room and music room; and on the east the dining room, staircase and library. The rooms are all about twenty feet high, although several of them have coved ceilings which make them feel rather less Brobdingnagian, and have panelled dados which at about four feet high are much taller than usual. Throughout the house there are splendid mahogany doorcases and fine sculpted fireplaces. The house was designed and decorated to provide a setting for the collection of pictures and sculpture which Leeson brought back from his visits to Italy in 1744 and 1751, and although the collection is no longer in the house (having been bequeathed to the Irish National Gallery by the last Lady Milltown in 1901), a series of photographs of the main rooms in the 1860s show how it was originally arranged. Today the walls are occupied by the Beit collection, which despite some recent sales remains an impressive assembly of old masters.

Russborough House: entrance hall.

The entrance hall has a massive fireplace of black Kilkenny marble (now slightly lower than originally intended after alteration in the 1950s) and five niches, intended to hold antique sculptures and casts after the antique collected by Leeson. The ceiling is very similar to an unexecuted design by Castle for Leinster House in Dublin, and so can confidently be attributed to him. This accounts for the contrast between its controlled and Palladian style and the more riotous Rococo forms found elsewhere in the house.

Russborough House: the dining room in 1937, with the Kentian picture frames
for Barret's classical landscapes still in place. Image: Country Life.

To the right (east) of the hall is the dining room, which as constructed had Kentian-style rectangular stucco frames on the walls containing a series of nine classical landscapes by the Irish painter, George Barret. These frames were regrettably removed in the 1950s, but the coved ceiling survives. The rectangular centre of the ceiling is surrounded by a plain Greek key motif, within which is a single plaster wreath of shells and ribbons; but the coving has more elaborate decoration comparable with that in the drawing room on the other side of the hall. The plasterwork of both rooms is attributed by Joseph McDonnell to an unidentified continental stuccadore who worked at St Peter's church, Drogheda and on several houses in Dublin, and whose work is to be distinguished from that of the Lafranchini brothers in the saloon and elsewhere by its more baroque character, even though it is likely to be later in date than the Lafranchini work at Russborough.

Russborough House: drawing room with the Vernet paintings in the frames made for them.

The drawing room is now the only room in the house to have rich plasterwork on both the walls and the ceiling. The wall decoration here consists of four vigorously-modelled baroque stucco frames, designed to accommodate a set of four landscapes symbolising the times of the day by Claude Joseph Vernet, which were commissioned in Rome on Leeson's behalf in December 1749. The Vernets were sold in the early 20th century, but happily Sir Alfred Beit was able to buy them back and return them to their original stucco frames in 1971. The room also has the other rich coved ceiling which is attributed to the 'St Peter's Drogheda stuccodore'. The other rooms on the west side of the house are the Tapestry Room and Music Room, both of which have ceilings with rich plasterwork decoration. The Tapestry Room (also known as the Tea Room and Small Drawing Room), has a coffered barrel vault and a white marble chimneypiece, while the Music Room has a somewhat simpler ceiling with a coffered saucer dome. The plasterers working in these rooms have not been identified, but the greater formality of their design suggests that they may also have been designed by Richard Castle, like the entrance hall ceiling.

Russborough House: tapestry room ceiling. Image: Steve Shriver (art+works)

Russborough House: music room ceiling. Image: Steve Shriver (art+works)

The great saloon is widely regarded as one of the most impressive rooms of its time anywhere in Britain or Ireland. The elaborate Rococo decoration of the coved ceiling is attributed to the Lafranchini brothers, and is both more delicate and more sparing than in many of the other rooms. The walls are hung with crimson cut velvet (formerly also used in several other rooms but preserved only here), which makes a good background for the display of pictures.

Russborough House: the saloon.

Russborough House: saloon ceiling. Image: Steve Shriver (art+works)

Russborough House: detail of carved panel on the chimneypiece.

The fireplace has a relief of Androcles and the Lion and is similar to a fireplace supplied to Uppark (Sussex) by Thomas Carter the younger of London. His client at Uppark was Sir Matthew Featherstonhaugh, who was one of Joseph Leeson's companions in Rome, so it seems overwhelmingly probable that Carter supplied the chimneypiece at Russborough too.

The north-east corner of the house is occupied by the Library (formerly the Small Dining Room but made into a library for the Beits in the 1950s). Here again there is a coved plaster ceiling with elaborate decoration on the cusp between the baroque and rococo styles. However, the palate of motifs is rather different to that in the other rooms, and includes a form of diapering not seen elsewhere in the house, so it may be the work of yet another stuccodore.

Russborough House: the former dining room was converted into a library for Sir Alfred Beit in the 1950s.

Russborough House: library ceiling, attributed to the Lanfranchini brothers. Image: Steve Shriver (art+works)

Next to the library and opposite the Tapestry Room is the principal staircase. This rises in two flights to the first-floor landing in a narrow space just twelve feet wide. The sober mahogany balustrade has balusters in the form of Doric columns, typical of Richard Castle's work, but contrasts strongly with the joyous Rococo plasterwork on the walls.

Russborough House: staircase balustrade.
Image: Steve Shriver (art+works)

Russborough House: staircase hall.
Image: Elle Decor.

The stuccowork here feels very different to that in the other rooms, not so much because of an variation in the quality of execution but because of the unrestrained exuberance with which the walls are decorated. It has been suggested that it might be the work of assistants - perhaps Irish assistants - to the Lanfranchini brothers, who were here allowed to show what they could do, but although this sounds rather improbable, it must surely be by a different hand to the other rooms in the house. The staircase rises to an upper landing which fills the centre of the house on the upper floor and is lit by an oval lantern, the idea of which probably came from Edward Lovett Pierce's Bellamont Forest (Co. Cavan). The ceiling here was originally unsupported, but in the 19th century structural weaknesses became evident and two iron columns were inserted to support the lantern. These were encased in the present Ionic columns after the Beits acquired the house in 1952.

Russborough House: the first floor landing. The columns were introduced for structural support in the 19th century and clad in Ionic dress
by Sir Alfred Beit in the 1950s. Image: Steve Shriver (art+works).

The landscape around Russborough was developed alongside the construction and decoration of the house; indeed the house stands on an artificial terrace partly formed of clay dug out to create the lakes. John Rocque's map of 1760 shows a formal layout with an irregular lake south of the house, a formal pond north of the house and on axis with it, woodland cut through with rides or walks, and a geometrical arrangement of the landscape near the house. Analysis of aerial photographs shows that these features were set amongst extensive terracing, which was no doubt intended to be decorated with sculpture and decorative buildings, but it would seem that these elements of the project were never carried out, perhaps because tastes were beginning to change before work on the house was complete.

The Poulaphouca waterfall and bridge
on the Russborough estate, 1839.
Image: National Library of Ireland

By the end of the 18th century it was not the rather flat surroundings of the house which attracted attention, but the romantic Poul-a-phouca waterfall near the source of the River Liffey in the Wicklow Mountains, which lay on the estate. Already in 1791 the 2nd Earl had created 'walks and palings in the most dangerous passages... moss-houses, caves and grottoes'. In 1822-27 a dramatic bridge across the Poul-a-phouca ravine was designed by Alexander Nimmo, with an elegant pointed arch and flanking crenellated turrets. By the 1840s, the amenities provided for visits by the 4th Earl and his neighbour, Col. Wolfe, who owned the opposite bank of the ravine, included 'covered seats, cool walks, grottoes [and] a ballroom', the latter being used for dancing in the season. The bridge survives, but all these picturesque amenities have disappeared, and the once-famous cataract has been reduced to a trickle by the construction of the Poulaphouca reservoir for water supply and hydroelectric purposes in 1937-47.

Descent: built for Joseph Leeson (1711-83), 1st Baron Russborough, 1st Viscount Russborough and 1st Earl of Milltown; to son, Joseph Leeson (1730-1801), 2nd Earl of Milltown; to brother, Brice Leeson (1735-1807), 3rd Earl of Milltown; to grandson, Joseph Leeson (1799-1866), 4th Earl of Milltown; to son, Joseph Henry Leeson (1829-71), 5th Earl of Milltown; to brother, Edward Nugent Leeson (1835-90), 6th Earl of Milltown; to widow, Geraldine Evelyn (1841-1914), Countess of Milltown for life and then to his nephew, Sir Edward Russborough Turton (1857-1929), 1st bt.; to widow, Clementina (1859-1934), who sold 1931 to Capt. Denis Bowes Daly (1894-1964); sold 1952 to Sir Alfred Beit (1903-94), 2nd bt., who gave it in 1976 to the Alfred Beit Foundation.

Beit family of Russborough, baronets

Alfred Beit (1853-1906)
Beit, Alfred (1853-1906). Eldest son of Seigfried Beit (1818-81) of Hamburg (Germany), silk merchant, and his wife Laura Caroline Hahn (1824-1918), born 15 February 1853. Apprenticed to Jules Porgès et Cie, diamond merchants of Amsterdam (Netherlands), where he developed a talent for examining and evaluating stones. In 1875, he was sent to Kimberley (South Africa) by his firm to buy stones, but once there he teamed up with Cecil Rhodes to buy out other prospectors and became one of a group of financiers who gained control of the diamond-mining claims in the Central, Dutoitspan, and De Beers mines, and he rapidly developed the Kimberley Central Company. In 1886 he extended his activities to the Witwatersrand goldfields, establishing the Robertson syndicate and (with Julius Wernher), Wernher Beit & Co., and bringing in American mining expertise to enable deep-level gold mining. He became life Governor of the De Beers Mining Company and a director of many other concerns, such as Rand Mines, Rhodesia Railways and the Beira Railway Company. In 1888 he moved to London, where he felt he was better able to manage his financial empire and to support his friend Cecil Rhodes' political ambitions. His South African assets were later structured around the so-called Corner House Group, which through its holdings in various companies controlled 37 per cent of the gold produced at the Witwatersrand's goldfields in Johannesburg in 1913. In 1895 he was involved with Rhodes in the planning and financing of the Jameson Raid, a disastrous attempt to trigger a coup in the Transvaal, and after a subsequent enquiry by the House of Commons he was obliged to resign as a director of the British South Africa Company, although he was re-elected a vice-president a few years later. He became a British subject in 1898. During his lifetime he made generous donations for scientific work and education in England and Germany, notably to the Royal School of Mines and the Universities of Oxford and Hamburg. Through his will he endowed the Beit Trust for infrastructure and later educational projects in Zimbabwe, Zambria and Malawi. He was unmarried and without issue.

He built Aldford House, Park Lane, as a London residence in 1894-97 and leased Tewin Water near Welwyn (Herts) from the Earl Cowper as a country seat. At his death his property was bequeathed to his younger brother Otto.

He died 16 July 1906 and was buried at Tewin (Herts); his will was proved 28 July 1906 (estate in England & Wales £3,000,000), but his total wealth, including his South African interests, has been calculated as £8,049,886.

Sir Otto John Beit (1865-1930), 1st bt.
Image: National Portrait Gallery
Beit, Sir Otto John (1865-1930), 1st bt. Third son of Seigfried Beit (1818-81) of Hamburg (Germany), silk merchant, and his wife Laura Caroline Hahn (1824-1918), born 7 December 1865. After completing his education he joined the London branch of Jules Porgès & Co. in 1888, which from 1890 became Wernher, Beit & Co. He was sent to Kimberley (South Africa) to learn the diamond business and then to Wernher Beit's Johannesburg branch, H. Eckstein & Co., to handle the firm's share business. He was a member of the Johannesburg stock exchange and was elected its deputy chairman in March 1896. He became a naturalised citizen of the Cape of Good Hope in 1895 but returned to London the following year and became a British subject in 1905. He was made a partner in the stockbroking firm L. Hirsch & Co. which represented Wernher Beit on the Paris bourse. Surprisingly, he never became a partner in his brother's company nor a director of its successor, the Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd, despite being a major shareholder. Like his brother Alfred, Beit was a staunch supporter of Cecil Rhodes and a close friend of Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917), prime minister of the Cape Colony. However, he was not implicated in the Jameson raid which occurred while he was staying with Rhodes. He succeeded his brother as a Rhodes trustee as well as director of the British South Africa Company and of Rhodesia Railways Ltd, and in 1925 succeeded Lord Milner as chairman of the Rhodes Trust. In 1906 he inherited the fortune and picture collection of his brother Alfred and retired from business to devote himself to the management of the Beit Trust in South Africa and enhancing the family's collection of European paintings. He was a benefactor and governor of Imperial College, London, and founded the Beit Memorial Fellowships for Medical Research. In recognition of his philanthropy he was appointed KCMG, 1920, and created a baronet, 25 February 1924. He was awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Edinburgh (LLD) and Cape Town (LLD), and was made an Officer of the Order of St John and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 1924. He married, 27 May 1897 at the Church of the Annunciation, Chislehurst (Kent), Lillian (1873-1946), daughter of Thomas Lane Carter of New Orleans (USA), and had issue:

(1) Theodore Hamilton Beit (1898-1917), born 29 April 1898; an officer in the Dragoon Guards (2nd Lt., 1916); committed suicide, 27 January 1917;

(2) Alice Angela Beit (1899-1982), born 30 September 1899; Master of the Hertfordshire Hunt, 1926; married, 2 June 1927 at St Paul, Knightsbridge (Middx), Arthur Clifford Howie Bull MBE (1899-1982), schoolmaster and later stockbroker, of Brynderwen Court, Bettws Newydd, Usk (Mon.), younger son of Rev. Reginald Bull of Heatherlands, East Grinstead (Sussex), schoolmaster, and had issue one son and three daughters; died 23 April 1982; will proved 16 July 1982 (estate £648,515);
(3) Sir Alfred Lane Beit (1903-94), 2nd bt. (q.v.);
(4) Lilian Muriel Beit (1904-76), born 25 June 1904; married, 22 March 1934, as his second wife, Sir (Richard) Gordon Munro KCMG MC (1895-1967), High Commissioner for Southern Rhodesia, son of Richard Gordon Munro, and had issue two sons; lived at Wepham Lodge, Burpham (Sussex); died 16 May and was buried at Burpham, 21 May 1976; will proved 31 August 1976 (effects in England & Wales £258,528).

He lived at 49 Belgrave Sq., London. He inherited Aldford House and the lease of Tewin Water (Herts) from his brother in 1906, but sold Aldford House in 1912 and bought the freehold of Tewin Water in 1919. It was sold after the death of his widow in 1946.

He died 7 December 1930 and was buried at Tewin (Herts); his will was proved 26 January 1931 (estate in England & Wales, £3,784,342). His widow died 7 November 1946 and was also buried at Tewin; her will was proved 26 February 1947 (estate £601,315).

Sir Alfred Lane Beit (1903-94), 2nd bt.
Beit, Sir Alfred Lane (1903-94), 2nd bt. Younger, but only surviving, son of Sir Otto John Beit (1865-1930), 1st bt., and his wife Lillian, daughter of Thomas Lane Carter of New Orleans (USA), born 19 January 1903. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (MA 1933). He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet, 7 December 1930, and inherited a fortune and an impressive art collection. He obtained a private pilot's licence in 1932 and served as an officer in the RAF Volunteer Reserve (Sq. Ldr.); Conservative MP for St Pancras South-East, 1931-45; PPS to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1944-45; Trustee of Beit Trust; director of Nyasaland Hotels and Brewery Ltd. He continued to have strong links with Africa through the 1950s and 1960s and paid for schools, libraries and health clinics in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana, although much of his investment was squandered by the post-colonial governments of those countries. After settling in Ireland he became a significant patron of the arts, but robberies at Russborough in 1974 (by the IRA) and 1986, in the former of which he and Lady Beit were ill-treated, led him to donate seventeen important paintings to the National Gallery of Ireland, of which he and his wife were trustees, in 1987; the Beit wing of the gallery was named in his honour. Although all but two of the stolen paintings were eventually recovered, the robberies understandably made the Beits nervous, and it says much for their strength of character that they remained at Russborough. He was awarded honorary degrees by the National University of Ireland, 1979 and Trinity College, Dublin, 1993, and in 1993 Sir Alfred and Lady Beit were made honorary Irish citizens. Sir Alfred married, 20 April 1939 at Northaw (Herts), Clementine Mabel Kitty (1915-2005), younger daughter of Maj. the Hon. Clement Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford DSO, but had no issue.

He lived at 49 Belgrave Sq., London and later at 15 Kensington Palace Gardens until 1945. After the war he moved to Wynberg (South Africa) but decided to leave South Africa because of the government's racial policies and bought Russborough House in 1952 and restored it. In 1976 he established the Alfred Beit Foundation to continue his work and to care for Russborough House, which was opened to the public. There were further art robberies from the house in 2001 and 2002, prompting the move of some of the more valuable pictures to the National Gallery in Dublin. The Foundation sold bronzes from the collection in 2006; Chinese porcelain in 2013; and a number of important pictures including two works by Rubens in 2015; the latter sale proving particularly controversial.

He died at Mount Carmel Hospital, Dublin, 12 May 1994 and was buried at Blessington (Co. Wicklow); the baronetcy became extinct on his death. His widow died 17 August 2005.