John Stratford, 1st Earl of Aldborough

File:Stratford EarlOfAldborough Arms.svg

John Stratford, 1st Earl of Aldborough (1697/1698{{snd}}29 May 1777){{cite web | url = http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersA2.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080608021930/http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersA2.htm | archive-date = 8 June 2008 | title = Leigh Rayment — Peerage | url-status = usurped | access-date = 8 May 2009 }} was an Irish peer and politician and member of the Noble House of Stratford.

Background

John was born either on 10 August 1697,Stratford, Gerald "A History of the Stratford Family" Chapter 11. The Extinct Earldom. [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Colin/Misc/Stratfords/Stratfords11.html] or in 1698 at Ormond.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}} He was the third son of Edward Stratford a wealthy landowner, and his first wife Elizabeth Baisley, daughter of Euseby Baisley of Ricketstown, Rathvilly, County Carlow. His father quarrelled with

his two elder sons and disinherited them, so that the estate passed to John.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}} He was a descendant of the English House of Stratford. He matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin on 8 May 1716.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}}{{sfn|Cokayne|1998|p=13}}

Career

In 1721, he entered the Irish House of Commons for Baltinglass. He was said to have been a notably inactive MP, whose great ambition was to acquire a peerage.{{cite web | url = http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/irelandcommons.htm | title = Leigh Rayment — Irish House of Commons 1692-1800 | access-date = 8 May 2009 | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090601105535/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/irelandcommons.htm | archive-date = 1 June 2009 }} He was appointed High Sheriff of Wexford in 1727, High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1736 and High Sheriff of Wexford in 1739.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}}

Stratford sat for Baltinglass until 21 May 1763, when he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Baltinglass, of Baltinglass, in the County of Wicklow.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}}{{ London Gazette | issue = 10311 |page=1 | date = 7 May 1763 }} On 22 July 1776, he was advanced to the dignity of Viscount Aldborough, of Belan, County Kildare{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}} or the Palatinate of Upper Ormond,{{ London Gazette | issue = 11679 |page=1 | date = 29 June 1776 }} part of a series of promotions carried out by Earl Harcourt, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to secure support for the British ministry in the Parliament of Ireland.{{cite book | title=The Making of Modern Ireland 1603-1923 |last=Beckett |first=J. C. |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2011 |isbn=9780571280896 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIfrNx85zZcC&pg=PT211}} and on 9 February 1777, Stratford was further honoured when he became Viscount Amiens and Earl of Aldborough, of the Palatinate of Upper Ormond.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}}{{ London Gazette | issue = 11739 |page=1 | date = 25 January 1777 }} The title of "Viscount Amiens" was apparently adapted on the strength of a fictitious pedigree detailing Stratford's descent from a companion of William the Conqueror originating in Amiens.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=98}}

Family

He married Martha O'Neale, daughter of Venerable Benjamin O'Neale, Archdeacon of Leighlin.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|pp=98–99}} They had six sons and nine daughters. In his old age, gouty and irritable,

he quarrelled with most of his children.{{cite book | last = Lodge | first = John | editor = Mervyn Archdall | title = The Peerage of Ireland or A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom | volume = III | location = Dublin | publisher = James Moore | year = 1789 | pages = 337–339 }} Stratford was succeeded in his titles successively by his oldest son Edward, his second son John and then his fourth son Benjamin.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=99}} His daughter Martha married Morley Saunders, of the well-known family of Saunders Grove, County Wicklow, and had issue.

Notes

References

{{cite book | last=Cokayne | first=George E. | author-link=George Cokayne |editor-last=Gibbs |editor-first=Vicary |editor-link=Vicary Gibbs (St Albans MP) | title=The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant | volume=I, Ab-Adam to Basing | publisher=St. Catherine Press | location=London | year=1910 |pages=98–101 | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066332571 }}
{{cite book | last=Cokayne | first=George E. | author-link=George Cokayne |editor-last=Hammond |editor-first=Peter W. | title=The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant | volume=XIV, Addenda and Corrigenda | publisher=St. Catherine Press | location=London | year=1998 |page=18 | url=https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/568116-redirection }}

{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Baltinglass

| with = Edward Stratford 1721–1727

| with2 = Daniel Falkiner 1727–1759

| with3 = Edward Stratford 1759–1763

| years = 1721–1763 }}

{{s-aft| after = Hon. John Stratford |after2=Hon. Edward Stratford }}

{{s-ttl| title = Earl of Aldborough

| years = January–May 1777 }}

{{s-ttl| title = Viscount Aldborough

| years = 1776–1777 }}

{{s-ttl| title = Baron Baltinglass

| years = 1763–1777 }}