Earl of Rosse
Irish Earl
Earl of Rosse is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland, both times for the Parsons family. "Rosse" refers to New Ross in County Wexford.
History
The Parsons were originally an English family from Dishworth (Diseworth) Grange in Leicestershire; there having been five brothers who settled in Ireland during the late 16th century. One of the brothers, William Parsons, was created a Baronet in the Baronetage of Ireland of Bellamont in the County of Dublin in 1620 by James VI & I. The third Baronet was created Viscount Rosse in the Peerage of Ireland in 1681, and the second Viscount was created Earl of Rosse in the Peerage of Ireland in 1718; these titles of the first creation became extinct on the death of the second Earl in 1764.
Sir Lawrence Parsons, the younger brother of Sir William Parsons, 1st Baronet, settled in Birr, King's County, later known as Parsonstown, and was the ancestor of the younger (Birr) branch of the family. His grandson Laurence Parsons was created a Baronet, of Birr Castle in King's County, in the Baronetage of Ireland in 1677, but was attainted by King James II's Parliament in 1689 and sentenced to death. The sentence was never carried out, however. His great-grandson, the third Baronet, and great-great-grandson, the fourth Baronet, both represented King's County in the Irish House of Commons. The latter's half-brother Laurence Harman Parsons was in 1792 raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Oxmantown, with remainder to his nephew Sir Lawrence Parsons, 5th Baronet, who had succeeded his father the fourth Baronet in 1791.
In 1795 he was made Viscount Oxmantown in the Peerage of Ireland, with normal remainder to the heirs male of his body, and in 1806 he was even further honoured when he was created Earl of Rosse in the Peerage of Ireland, with similar remainder as for the barony.
“Earl of Rosse” enters the record as irish Earl. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Earl, Rosse and Irish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1277395. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1620, 1681, 1718 and 1764.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earl of Rosse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.