FORTESCUE, Thomas (1815-1887), of Ravensdale Park, Newry, co. Armagh

Fortescue was a ‘young gentleman of large possessions’ from a family of ‘very ancient lineage’.1Examiner, 19 July 1840, quoting Dublin Evening Post; Belfast News-letter, 30 July 1887. He had inherited the former estates of William Henry Fortescue, 1^st earl of Clermont, through a distant cousin, Sir Henry James Goodricke, in 1833. Then ‘an orphan of eighteen’, he had been brought up by an aunt, the wife of William Ruxton, of Ardee, co. Louth.2O.W. Hewett (ed.), ‘… and Mr. Fortescue’. A Selection from the Diaries from 1851 to 1862 of Chichester Fortescue, Lord Carlingford, K.P. (1958), 1. The owner of more than 20,000 acres in counties Louth and Armagh, which included Clermont Park, near Dundalk, and Ravendale Park, near Newry, he enjoyed a rental of £12,000 per annum. He was therefore the largest proprietor in Louth and said to be one of the wealthiest commoners in Ireland.3Morning Chronicle, 21 July 1840; Freeman’s Journal, 4 Oct. 1876. In 1883 the Louth estate consisted of 20,369 acres at an annual value of £15,262. He also owned a small residential estate at Ravensdale, co. Armagh, and 8,500 acres of land let on perpetual leases: J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain (4th edn., 1883), 94. His father had been brought into the Irish parliament for Hillsborough in 1800 by Lord Downshire, for the purpose of opposing the Union.4E. Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (2002), iv. 210. Fortescue’s mother was the daughter of a Cork barrister: H.C.G. Matthew, ‘Fortescue, Chichester Samuel Parkinson-’, Oxf. DNB, xx. 449-52. Yet despite belonging to a ‘high Tory family’, he had been ‘a steady supporter’ of Catholic emancipation when it was, according to his near contemporary, Sir Patrick Bellew MP, ‘far from fashionable to be so’. Fortescue therefore entered public life as a ‘thorough Liberal’.5Freeman’s Journal, 3 Aug. 1840; Examiner, 19 July 1840, quoting Dublin Evening Post.

Fortescue was appointed high sheriff of county Louth in 1839. He attended the great reform meeting in Dublin in January 1840 and signed the Leinster and Charlemont declarations in support of the Whig ministry that May.6Freeman’s Journal, 11 Feb. 1839, 3 Aug. 1840. In July 1840 he was brought forward at a by-election at Louth prompted by the resignation of the sitting Liberal member. Although a resident landlord, he had some difficulty securing the support of the county’s reformers. His avowed approval of the Irish policies of the Whig ministry and his refusal to state his position on repeal dissatisfied some members of the Louth Liberal Club and he was accused by local radicals of being ‘a Conservative in disguise’.7Morning Chronicle, 24 July 1840; Standard, 31 July 1840. The Freeman’s Journal complained that his address had dealt in ‘unmeaning generalities’ and cautiously avoided ‘any thing like a declaration of principle’.8Freeman’s Journal, 30 July 1840. However, in spite of threats to start ‘a furious Repealer’ against him, Fortescue was returned unopposed as a supporter of national education and ‘the decided opponent of any curtailment of the elective franchise’ under Lord Stanley’s Irish registration bill.9Standard, 31 July 1840; Freeman’s Journal, 3 Aug. 1840; The Times, 4 Aug. 1840. His large fortune was offered as a guarantee that he was free from ‘any mercenary or corrupt motives’. He went to parliament ‘unpledged to any particular views or principles’ and, as the Morning Post put it, ‘unshackled by any of the obligations imposed on [Daniel O’Connell’s] Tailers’.10Morning Post, 25 July 1840.

Regarding himself as ‘a very indifferent orator’, Fortescue told electors that he hoped he might ‘learn to speak’ during his first months at Westminster.11Freeman’s Journal, 3 Aug. 1840. However, he appears to have remained silent and did not serve on any select committees or introduce any bills. He first divided in favour of a bill to amend the law of copyright, 29 Jan. 1841, but thereafter voted in only 10 divisions during his short time in Parliament. He divided in favour of the first and second reading of Lord Morpeth’s Irish registration bill, 2 Feb. 1841, and supported the measure against Conservative amendments that April. He backed the government against Lord Sandon’s motion condemning the reduction of duty on foreign sugar, 18 May, and gave his final vote in favour of the Whig ministry against Sir Robert Peel’s confidence motion, 4 June 1841.

Fortescue, regarded by some as ‘a hypocondriac’, considered himself ‘far too delicate’ to take any further part in politics. He retired at the 1841 general election in favour of a fellow Liberal, whom he nominated at the hustings.12Freeman’s Journal, 14 July 1841. In September 1840 he had married the daughter of the marquess of Ormonde, who nurtured his ambition to become a peer. Convinced that ‘his future coronet’ depended upon his youngest brother, Chichester Samuel Parkinson, entering politics, Fortescue is believed to have ‘bullied’ him into accepting the nomination for County Louth in 1847, when he spent £5,000 upon securing his return.13Hewett, ‘… and Mr. Fortescue’, 1-2; Matthew, ‘Fortescue, Chichester Samuel Parkinson-’, Oxf. DNB, 449; Morning Post, 30 June 1847.

His brother’s rising status within the Liberal ranks helped Fortescue to have the Clermont peerage revived and he was given an Irish barony in February 1852.14Morning Chronicle, 14 Feb. 1852. These were not, however, happy years for the new peer. Shortly beforehand his life had been threatened by local ribbonmen and he was subsequently required to travel accompanied by armed guards. Two years later he was greatly disappointed by the marriage of his sister Harriet to David Urquhart, the maverick MP for Stafford, 1847-52.15Hewett, ‘… and Mr. Fortescue’, 27, 64, 70. He then became involved in a libel case against the proprietor of the Dundalk Democrat after his liberal principles were called into question during a hard-fought contest to have his brother re-elected upon taking office as a lord of the treasury in February 1854.16Freeman’s Journal, 21 Feb., 28 Sept. 1854. Although Fortescue succeeded in having the newspaper closed down, his action, along with ‘several very ill-advised’ Bible meetings at which he employed anti-Catholic rhetoric, was thought to have damaged the family influence in county Louth.17Freeman’s Journal, 28 Sept., 29 Nov. 1854; Hewett, ‘… and Mr. Fortescue’, 61. He subsequently joined the Protestant movement in favour of national education: Morning Chronicle, 14 Oct. 1859. In September 1856 he resigned as chairman of the Dundalk board of guardians over the body’s decision to discuss the land question.18Belfast News-letter, 9 Sept. 1856.

Fortescue nevertheless remained an influential member of the gentry in the neighbourhoods of Newry and Dundalk and became involved in the promotion of the Irish North-Western Railway.19Freeman’s Journal, 7 Nov. 1862. A largely resident landlord and a significant employer of labour, he played an active part in a number of Irish agricultural and horticultural societies and operated a large farm at Clermont Park, where he bred prize-winning livestock. He was also a generous donor to the lifeboat service at Dundalk and, as the owner of a town house in Mayfair, helped to organise the London Irish rifle volunteers in 1859.20Daily News, 23 Sept. 1858; Morning Post, 3 Jan. 1860. Largely due to the efforts of his brother, by then the Irish chief secretary, Fortescue’s barony was upgraded to a peerage of the United Kingdom in May 1866.21Hewett, ‘… and Mr. Fortescue’, 29; Bradford Observer, 3 May 1866.

Fortescue died after a ‘long and protracted’ illness at his seat near Newry in July 1887 and was buried in Jonesborough churchyard.22Morning Post, 30 July 1887; The Times, 30 July 1887; Belfast News-letter, 4 Aug. 1887. The barony of Clermont then became extinct, while his Irish peerage devolved on his brother Chichester, who had been ennobled as Lord Carlingford in 1874.23G.E.C., Complete Peerage, iii. 278.