John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne

John Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Shelburne PC (Ire) (1706 – 14 May 1761), known as John FitzMaurice until 1751 and as The Viscount FitzMaurice between 1751 and 1753, was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician. He was the father of William Petty FitzMaurice, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1782-1783).

Background and education[]

Born John FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne was the second son of Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry, and Anne, daughter of Sir William Petty (1623-1687). He was the younger brother of William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry, and the nephew of Charles Petty, 1st Baron Shelburne and Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne. He was educated at Westminster School and was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1727.^[1]

When William Petty died December 16, 1687, his widow, Lady Elizabeth Petty, "was made Baroness Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland, and his eldest son, Charles, Baron of Shelburne, by a simultaneous creation, December 31st, 1687. The barony of Shelburne became extinct by the death of Charles, Lord Shelburne, without children in 1696. It was revived in favour of his brother Henry, October 26th, 1699, who was further created Viscount Dunkerron and Earl of Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland, April 29th, 1719. These titles became extinct on his decease without male issue April 17th, 1751, when his estates and property passed under the term of his will—to John Fitzmaurice, the fifth and second surviving son of Anne Petty, daughter of Sir William Petty, by her marriage with Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry, on condition of his using the name and bearing the arms of Petty. John Fitzmaurice was in the same year raised to the Peerage of Ireland under the titles of Baron Dunkerron and Viscount Fitzmaurice. In 1753 the earldom of Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland was conferred upon him, and in 1760 he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Wycombe."^[2]

Political career[]

FitzMaurice was High Sheriff of Kerry in 1732.^[1] In 1743 he entered the Irish House of Commons as one of two representatives for County Kerry, a seat he held until 1751.^[1][3]

The latter year he succeeded to the estates of his uncle the Earl of Shelburne (who had died childless) and assumed by Act of Parliament the surname of Petty in lieu of his patronymic.^[4] Later the same year he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Dunkeron and Viscount FitzMaurice. Two years later the earldom of Shelburne was revived in his favour when he was made Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, in the Irish peerage. He bought Bowood Park, in Studley, Wiltshire and rebuilt the mansion there.

He was Governor of County Kerry in 1754^[1] and the same year he was returned to the British House of Commons for Wycombe, a seat he held until 1760.^[5] He was sworn of the Irish Privy Council in 1754^[1][6] and in 1760 he was created Lord Wycombe, Baron of Chipping Wycombe, in the County of Buckingham, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which entitled him to a seat in the English House of Lords.^[7]

Family[]

Lord Shelburne married his first cousin, Mary, daughter of the Hon. William FitzMaurice, in 1734. Their younger son the Hon. Thomas FitzMaurice married Mary O'Brien, later suo jure Countess of Orkney. Lord Shelburne died in May 1761 and was buried in Bowood, Wiltshire. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, William, who became Prime Minister of Great Britain and was created Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784. The Countess of Shelburne died in 1780.^[1]

References[]