Richard Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington

Richard Colley Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington (c. 1690 – 31 January 1758) was an Irish peer, best remembered as the grandfather of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.

Biography

Richard Colley (as he was christened), was born around 1690, the son of Henry Colley (died 1700) and Mary, daughter of Sir William Ussher. He graduated from the Trinity College, Dublin with an BA in 1711 and an MA in 1714 and an N.F.P. on July 6, 1740 as Richard Colley (Not Wesley). In the intervening year he held the office of Chamberlain of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland).

On 23 September 1728 Colley inherited the estates of Dangan and Mornington, in County Meath, on the death of his cousin, Garret Wesley. Less than two months later on 15 November 1728 he legally changed his surname to Wesley.

Between 1729 and 1746 Wesley represented Trim in the Irish House of Commons. He was High Sheriff of Meath in 1734 and he was created Baron Mornington in the Peerage of Ireland on 9 July 1746.

Character

Wellington's biographer described him as "a civilised and eccentric country gentleman". The diarist Mary Delany, (who was Garret's godmother) visiting Dangan in 1748 after a 17-year gap, found him "the same good-humoured, agreeable man he was on my last visit", and praised him as the man with most merits and fewest faults of anyone she knew, valuing wealth only as a means to make others happy. He was proud of, and fostered, his son's musical talent: he was also extravagant, and died in debt, beginning the cycle of indebtedness which led to his eldest grandson Richard selling Dangan 40 years later.

Family

The Colley or Cowley family had come to Ireland from Glaston , Eng. and Rutland about 1500; Sir Henry Colley (died 1584)elevated to the Peerage as Lord Glaston By Henry VII married the daughter of Thomas Cusack Lord Chancellor of Ireland , Catherine Wellesley Cusack (d.1598) whose Mother was a Wellesley.( Ancestors of the Duke of Wellington) Upon the death of his cousin, Garret Wesley (Wellesley) 1st Lord Mornington in 1728 and the inheritance of the Estates of Dangan and Mornington, Richard Colley (d.1758) and his wife Elizabeth Sale(d.17June 1738)daughter of John Sale, (married 1719) Registrar of the Diocese of Dublin, on 23 December 1719.adopted the name Wellesley (from both Elizabeth's maternal family side from Catherine Wellesley Cusack her Mother) and through her Husband's Family, his cousin( above)Garret Wesley (Wellesley)1st Lord Mornington.

 They had one son and two daughters: 

• Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington. Garret Wesley's ( Wellesley's) offspring included, Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, William Wellesley-Pole, 2nd Earl of Mornington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and [[Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley (or Colley)]]
• Frances, who married William Francis Crosbie
• Elizabeth, who married Chichester Fortescue

• burkes
• The Peerage
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• ^ Lundy 2011, p. 10645 § 106449 cites Mosley 1999, p. 2971

Ancestry