Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt

{{Short description|Irish peer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Mervyn Edward Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KP|PCi}} (13 October 1836 – 5 June 1904) was an Irish peer. He became Viscount Powerscourt in 1844 on the death of his father Richard Wingfield, 6th Viscount Powerscourt. Through this Wingfield line he was a maternal descendant of the Noble House of Stratford. His mother was Lady Elizabeth Frances Charlotte, daughter of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden.

{{Infobox noble

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100% |KP|PCi}}

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = Viscount Powerscourt

| image = File:Viscount Powerscourt in 1903 from his catalog descriptionhisto00powe 0010.jpg

| caption = Portrait of Viscount Powerscourt from his catalog in 1903

| birth_name = Mervyn Edward Wingfield

| birth_date = 13 October 1836

| death_date = 5 June 1904

| death_place = London, England

| spouse = Lady Julia Coke

| issue = 5 children, including Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt

| noble family = Wingfield family

| father = Richard Wingfield, 6th Viscount Powerscourt

| mother = Lady Elizabeth France Charlotte

| occupation = Peer, Military Officer, Art Collector

| predecessor = Richard Wingfield

| successor = Mervyn Wingfield

| other_titles = Baron Wingfield (UK)

}}

Biography

On 26 April 1864, Wingfield married Lady Julia Coke, the daughter of Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester. They had five children:{{cite web | url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p3376.htm#i33751 | title=thePeerage.com|accessdate=2008-12-14}}

He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the part-time Wicklow Militia on 26 November 1870, promoted to Captain on 31 March 1871, and retired on 12 October 1871.[https://books.google.com/books?id=u0IIAAAAQAAJ Maj E.B. Evans, An Outline of the History of The County Wicklow Regiment of Militia, published by the Officers of the County Wicklow Militia, 1885, pp. 44–5.]

Powerscourt was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 2 August 1871.{{cite web|url=http://www.leighrayment.com/orders/patrick.htm|title=Knights of the Order of St Patrick|last=Rayment|first=Leigh|accessdate=2008-12-13|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190301214021/http://www.leighrayment.com/orders/patrick.htm|archive-date=2019-03-01}} He was created Baron Powerscourt in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1885, enabling him to sit in the House of Lords.{{London Gazette |issue=25486 |date= 3 July 1885|page=3060}}

He owned 53,000 acres with 40,000 of these in Wicklow and 11,000 in Wexford and the remainder in Dublin.[https://archive.org/details/greatlandownerso00bateuoft/page/367/mode/1up The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland]

=Art collection=

Lord Powerscourt collected paintings as a hobby and published a catalog in 1903 called A description and history of Powerscourt.[https://archive.org/stream/descriptionhisto00powe A description and history of Powerscourt], by Powerscourt, Mervyn Edward Wingfield, Viscount, 1903 He sometimes included details about his purchases in his list.

File:Jan Steen - The Interior of an Inn ('The Broken Eggs') NG NG NG5637.jpg|The painting of 'The Broken Eggs' by Jan Steen, according to Lord Powerscourt, shows "portraits of Jan Steen and his friend Van Goyen".

References

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