Francis Jack Needham, 2nd Earl of Kilmorey (12 December 1787-20 June 1880), known as Viscount Newry from 1822 to 1832, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Member of Parliament.
Kilmorey was the son of General Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey. He was elected to the House of Commons for Newry in 1819 (succeeding his father), a seat he held until 1826. In 1832 he succeeded his father in the earldom but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords. He served as High Sheriff of Down for 1828.
Lord Kilmorey married Jane Gun-Cuninghame in 1814. He died in June 1880, aged 92, and was succeeded in his titles by his grandson Francis, his eldest son Francis Needham, Viscount Newry, having predeceased him.
Lord Kilmorey scandalised Victorian society by eloping with his ward, Priscilla Anne Hoste, when he was in his late fifties and she was 20.[1] They had a child called Charles a year later in July 1844 which Lord Kilmorey acknowledged as his and gave his surname to, and he set his mistress up in an adjoining house with an underground tunnel between the two. [2]
Priscilla Hoste was the daughter of Admiral Sir William Hoste and his wife Lady Harriet Walpole. Her father died when she was a small child and her mother allegedly was careless of her relations with Lord Kilmorey. Priscilla died of heart disease on 21 October 1854, and she was buried in a mausoleum which had been specially commissioned by Lord Kilmorey for them both with the inscription "Priscilla, the beloved of Francis Jack, Earl of Kilmorey'.
When he himself eventually died in 1880 he was buried beside her in the mausoleum underneath a bas-relief showing the dying Priscilla on a couch surrounded by her lover and ten year old son. The mausoleum, now a Grade II listed monument which cost £30,000 to build in an ancient Egyptian design, was moved several times between Lord Kilmorey's homes and is now located in Twickenham and maintained by the Environment Trust for Richmond upon Thames.[3] Kilmorey Mausoleum Home Page St Margarets Community Website
Charles Needham, despite being illegitimate, was said to be his father's favourite - the 'apple of his eye'. He was two years younger than his half-nephew, the eventual 3rd Earl of Kilmorey. He married a Dutch heiress called Hendrika Amelie Charlotte Vincentia de Tuyll de Serooskerken (known as Amy), the third daughter of Baron Vincent de Tuyll, who had made a fortune out of the tin concessions on the island of Billiton in the Dutch East Indies. [4] Charles and Amy had two daughters, Evelyn and Violet.
Violet Needham (1876-1967) was the author of 19 books for children published between 1939 and 1957. Although she came to writing late — she was 63 when her first book, The Black Riders, was published — her books achieved immediate and lasting popularity with young readers.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Francis Needham |
Member of Parliament for Newry 1819–1826 |
Succeeded by John Henry Knox |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Francis Needham |
Earl of Kilmorey 1832–1880 |
Succeeded by Francis Charles Needham |