Viscount Palmerston

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Viscount Palmerston was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created on March 12, 1723, along with the subsidiary title Baron Temple of Mount Temple (County Sligo). Upon the death of the third Viscount (who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), the title became extinct.

The Irish branch of the Temple family, from which Lord Palmerston was descended, was very distantly related to the great English house of the same name, and these Irish Temples were not without distinction. In the reign of Elizabeth they had furnished a secretary to Sir Philip Sidney and to Essex in Sir William Temple (1555-1627), afterwards provost of Trinity College, Dublin, whose son, Sir John Temple (1600-1677), was Master of the Rolls in Ireland. The latter's son, Sir William Temple, figured as one of the ablest diplomatists of the age. From his younger brother, Sir John Temple (1632-1704), who was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Lord Palmerston was descended. The eldest son of the speaker, Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673-1757), was created a peer of Ireland on March 12, 1723, and was succeeded by his grandson, Henry the second viscount (1739-1802), who married Mary Mee (d. 1805), a lady celebrated for her beauty.