Earl of Westmeath
title in the peerage of Ireland
Earl of Westmeath is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1621 for Richard Nugent, Baron Delvin. During the Tudor era the loyalty of the Nugent family was often in question, and Richard's father, the sixth Baron, died in prison while awaiting trial for treason, a crime for which other members of the family had already been condemned. Richard himself when young was suspected of plotting rebellion and was imprisoned, but in later life, he was a staunch supporter of the Crown, which rewarded him richly for his loyalty.
The fifth Earl was a Major-General in the British Army. The sixth Earl was sworn of the Irish Privy Council in 1758. His son by his first wife, Richard Nugent, Lord Delvin, was killed in a duel at an early age. Lord Westmeath was succeeded by his second son by his second wife, the seventh Earl. He sat in the House of Lords as one of the original 28 Irish representative peers; he was also involved in a much-publicised divorce following an action for criminal conversation against his wife and her lover. He was succeeded by his son, the eighth Earl.
“Earl of Westmeath” enters the record as title in the peerage of Ireland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Earl, Westmeath and title can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earl of Westmeath” 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.