WINGFIELD, Edward, 2nd Visct. Powerscourt [I] (1729-64), of Powerscourt, co. Wicklow.

Henry Fox wrote to the Duke of Devonshire, 20 Nov. 1756:Devonshire mss. ‘I have set up Lord Powerscourt for Stockbridge. He was recommended to me some months ago by Lord Kildare, and I know his firm attachment to your Grace.’ In fact Fox returned him against the wishes of the Devonshire-Pitt Government.See HAY, George and STOCKBRIDGE constituency. In a letter to the Duke of Bedford, 23 Nov., Fox says that Powerscourt ‘has a good estate in Hampshire as well as in Ireland’.Bedford mss. On 19 May 1757 Lady Kildare wrote to her husband:Leinster Corresp. i. 36.

Lord Powerscourt ... has made the best speech, Mr. Fox says, and the most to the purpose, he ever yet heard from so young a speaker. I am glad of it, for it justifies your opinion and mine of his understanding; which, you know, was contrary to that of most people. I am afraid he won’t marry Louisa [her sister]; they say he is looking out for a fortune.

In the summer of 1760 Powerscourt was ‘in a very bad way’, and on 24 Oct. Lady Caroline Fox wrote to her sister, Lady Kildare:

I don’t like your account of Lord Powerscourt. Mr. Fox has had I think a melancholy letter from him, declining coming in for Stockbridge again. Pray ... assure him of my best wishes for the recovery of his health.Ibid. 287, 293, 299.

He died 6 May 1764.