#11611, Francis Jack NEEDHAM

Francis was known as Viscount Newry from 1822 to 1832 when he inherited the title on his father's death.  He was renowned for being a very eccentric and colourful person and this lead his father to leave the Mourne Park estate to his three trustees.  As a result Kilmorey became an absentee landlord, with little interest in spending time in Ireland.  The trustees were all married to three of his sisters.  He had been elected to the House of Commons for Newry in 1819, a seat which he held until1826.  He succession to the Earldom 6 years later did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords as it was an Irish peerage.  He served as High Sheriff od Down for 1828.   Francis Needham and Jane Cunninghame had five children including Francis Jack Needham, his heir apparent who died before him.  This meant that Francis Charles Needham, Francis Jack's grandson became the 3rd Earl of Kilmorey.  In November after Jane's death he married Martha Foster, daughter of John Foster of Leoham, Kent.

Francis jack was the last Needham to reside at Shavington in Shropshire, living there from 1831 to 1839.  The eccentric Earl who had a passion for purchasing and selling lands was said to have built a 7-mile wall round the park.  Following his departure the estate was deserted for nearly half a century.  He scandalised Victorian society by eloping with his ward, Priscilla Anne Hoste when he was in his late fifties and she was twenty.  Priscilla was the daughter of Admiral Sir William Hoste and his wife Lady Harriet Walpole.  her father had died when she was a small child and her mother allegedly was careless of her relations with Lord Kilmorey.  A year after their elopement, in July 1844, they had a child, Charles who Lord Kilmorey acknowledged as his son and to whom he gave his surname.  He is said to have set up his mistress in an adjoining house with an underground tunnel between the two.

After Priscilla's death Jack married his housekeeper/carer, Martha from Kent who died 6th May 1908.