Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet
Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet (2 May 1656 – 13 July 1724) was an Irish politician and judge, who played a leading part in Irish public life for more than 30 years.
Background
Levinge was born at Leek, Staffordshire, the second son of Richard Levinge of Parwich Hall, Derbyshire, Recorder of Chester, and Anne Parker, daughter of George Parker of Staffordshire and his wife Grace Bateman. The Levinges (the name is sometimes spelt Levin) were a long-established Derbyshire family with a tradition of public service. Through his mother he was a first cousin of Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.[1]
Career
He was educated at Audlem School,
He was one of the first to declare for
He later represented Longford Borough from 1698 to September 1713 and Kilkenny City from 1713 to November 1715 in the Irish Parliament. In 1713 he was also returned for Gowran, but chose to sit for Kilkenny.[5]
He also served as
He had expressed his interest in being appointed to the English Bench, but met with no success in his efforts to achieve office in England. Under George I of Great Britain, despite being of the "wrong" political persuasion, and his growing age, his famous moderation, and his 30 years experience of Irish public life made him acceptable as an Irish judge to the Government, in which he had a powerful supporter in his cousin Lord Macclesfield. In 1721 he became
Levinge was created a Baronet, of High Park in the County of Westmeath, in the
Family
He married firstly in 1683 Mary Corbin, daughter of Gawin Corbin, a wealthy London leather and linen merchant, and had three sons and three daughters. Henry Corbin, the prominent Virginia politician, was a close relative, possibly an elder brother, of Mary's father. Her portrait, by the Swedish painter Michael Dahl, still exists. She died in 1720.[9]
He married secondly in 1723 (though by his own account he was already "old and sick") Mary Johnson, daughter of Robert Johnson, former Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) and his wife Margaret Dixon, daughter of Sir Richard Dixon, of Calverstown, County Kildare, and had one further son, also named Richard, who was born only a few months before his father's death.[9] Her father was one of her husband's oldest friends, and Levinge had pleaded strongly but without success for his reappointment to the Bench, to sit with him in the Common Pleas.[10] Margaret remarried in 1732 Charles Annesley, a grandson of the Earl of Anglesey, who died in 1746; she died in 1757.
Of the children of his first marriage, Richard and Charles both in turn inherited the baronetcy. Mary married
Sir Richard divided his time between his ancestral home, Parwich Hall, which he bought from his childless elder brother, and his newly acquired property
Notes
- ^ Ball p. 195
- ^ a b c d Ball pp. 195-6
- ^ Ball p. 92
- ^ Ball p. 22
- ^ Leigh Rayment's historical List of Members of the Irish House of Commons. Cites: Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary (2002). The History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (6 volumes). Ulster Historical Foundation.
- ^ Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. , [page needed]
- ^ Leigh Rayment's list of baronets – Baronetcies beginning with "L" (part 2)
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 1)
- ^ a b Ball p. 196
- ^ Ball pp. 93–4
References
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Ball, F. Elrington "The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921" London John Murray 1926