Charles Dillon, 12th Viscount Dillon

Charles Dillon-Lee, 12th Viscount Dillon, KP, PC (Ire) (1745–1813) conformed to the established religion in 1767.

Birth and origins

Charles was born on 6 November 1745 in London. He was the eldest child of Henry Dillon and his wife Charlotte Lee. His father was the 11th Viscount Dillon. Charles's mother was the eldest daughter of George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield. His parents had married on 26 October 1744 in London.

He heads the list of siblings below as the eldest:

1. Charles (1745–1813), the subject of this article;
2. Frances (1747–1825), married Sir William Jerningham, 6th Baronet Baronet Jerningham;
3. Arthur (1750–1794), became a general in the French service and was guillotined after the French Revolution;
4. Charlotte (1755–1782), married Valentine, 1st Earl of Kenmare; and
5. Henry (1759–1837), became the last colonel of Dillon's Regiment.

Early life

In January 1766 the Pope abandoned his support for the Jacobites and recognised the Hanoverian Dynasty as the rightful rulers of England.

On 4 December 1767, in Dublin, Charles conformed to the established church.

In that same year he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1770 he was elected M.P. for the Westbury constituency in England.

In 1776 Charles changed his surname from Dillon to Dillon-Lee and quartered his arms accordingly to comply with the will of his maternal uncle George Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield. In that same year his mother inherited the Lichfield estate at the death of her uncle the fourth Earl, who died childless.

Marriages and children

Charles married twice. He married firstly on 19 August 1776 in Brussels Henrietta-Maria Phipps, daughter of Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave and his wife Lepel Hervey. She was illegitimately descended from James II.

He had two children by Henrietta Maria:

1. Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee (1777–1832), succeeded him as the 13th Viscount; and
2. Frances Charlotte Dillon-Lee (1780–1819), married Thomas Webb, Baronet.

His first wife died in 1782. In 1787 he married, secondly, Marie Rogier of Mechelen, most likely a Catholic. They at least three children:

1. James William Dillon-Lee (1792–1812), seems to have died unmarried;
2. Henrietta Dillon-Lee (died 1811), seems to have died unmarried; and
3. Charlotte Dillon-Lee (died 1866), married in 1813 Frederick Beauclerk (1773–1850), a younger son of Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans and an early cricketer.

Later life

On 4 November 1776 Robert Lee, the 4th Earl of Lichfield died and the earldom went extinct. The nearest relatives of the last earl were his nieces. Charles's mother inherited the estate as she was the eldest of these nieces.

In 1787 he served as High Sheriff of Mayo. On 3 November 1787, his father, Henry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon, died and Charles succeeded as the 12th Viscount Dillon. He was solemnly confirmed in the Viscountcy in 1788 by the Irish House of Lords. He was invested as a Knight of the Order of St. Patrick in 1798.

In 1794 Charles inherited the Lichfield estate from his mother. Ditchley became the seat of the Viscounts Dillon and remained in the possession of the family until 1934.

During the passing of the Acts of Union 1800 Lord Dillon supported the union.

In 1802 Lord Dillon sold the manor of Quarendon, where the seat of the Lee family had once stood, to James Du Pré of Wilton Park. Quarendon was of course part of the land inherited from his mother. In 1806 Lord Dillon raised a regiment, namely the 101st Regular, recruited from the inhabitants of his Irish lands and surrounding areas near Loughglinn, County Roscommon.

Death and succession

Lord Dillon died at Loughglinn, on 9 November 1813. Despite his conversion, he was buried in the Dillon Family Vault in the Cemetery at the Augustinian Friary, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland. His widow died in London in 1833. He was succeeded by his only son, Henry Augustus, as the 13th Viscount Dillon.