Francis Thomas-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Earl of Kerry
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Francis Thomas-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Earl of Kerry (9 September 1740 – 4 July 1818) was an
He was the only son of
In 1768 he married Anastasia Daly, younger daughter and co-heiress of Peter Daly of Queensbury,
Others who knew the couple took a more jaundiced view: Horace Walpole called Lord Kerry "a simple young Irish peer that has married an elderly Irishwoman, who was divorced on his account, and wasted a vast estate on the idlest ostentation". The Earl's cousin, whose son was his heir, William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne wrote uncharitably that "he fell in love with a married lady twenty years older than himself, the daughter of an eminent Roman Catholic lawyer, and she having obtained a divorce, married her; [she was] an extraordinarily vain person. Having their way to fight up into good society, and having no children, they sold every acre of land that had been in our family since Henry II's time".
Lady Kerry died on 9 April 1799. Her husband died in 1818 and was buried in the same tomb in Westminster Abbey. He had no children and the title became an additional title of the Marquess of Lansdowne, descendants of his uncle John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne.
References
- Cokayne Complete Peerage 13 volumes (1910-1959) Reprinted Gloucester 2000 Vol VII, p. 215
- Collins, Arthur Peerage of England 12 volumes London 1812 Vol. II, p. 437
- National University of Ireland Galway Landed Estates Database Estate: Fitzmaurice (Earl of Kerry)