Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue

Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue (12 March 1753 – 16 June 1841) was a British peer, created Earl Fortescue in 1789.

Heraldic achievement of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue, showing arms of Fortescue impaling Grenville, c.1800, Possibly from a bookplate: Baron: Azure, a bend engrailled argent plain cottised or; Femme: Vert, on a cross argent five torteaux. The Latin motto of Fortescue is shown beneath: Forte Scutum Salus Ducum ("A Strong Shield is the Salvation of Leaders")[1]

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaumaris from 1784 to 1785.[2]

Origins

He was the son of Matthew Fortescue, 2nd Baron Fortescue, younger half-brother of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clinton (1696–1751), 1st Baron Fortescue and 14th Baron Clinton.

Residences

Earl Fortescue's residences were as follows:

Marriage and progeny

Lord Fortescue married Hester Grenville (1767–1847), daughter of the Prime Minister George Grenville, on 10 May 1782. They had nine children:

  • Lady Hester Fortescue (1784-1873[3]), married Peter King, 7th Baron King and had issue.
  • Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue (1783–1861)
  • Captain Hon. George Mathew Fortescue (1791–1877), married Lady Louisa Ryder, daughter of Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby and had issue.
  • Lady Mary Fortescue (15 September 1792, Filleigh, Devon – 12 August 1874, London). Married 15 February 1823 to Sir James Hamlyn Williams of Edwinsford, Carms., and Clovelly, Devon. Buried at Talley, Carms., in the family vault at her special request).
  • Rev. Hon. John Fortescue (1796–1869)
  • Lady Elizabeth Fortescue (1801–1867), married William Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon and had issue.
  • Lady Catherine Fortescue (1787 – 20 May 1854), said to have been deaf and dumb. She married in 1820 (as his second wife) her lifelong friend Hon. Newton Fellowes (1772 – January 1854), of Eggesford House, Devon, who became in the last year of his life 4th Earl of Portsmouth.[4] They had issue, 1 son (the 5th Earl of Portsmouth b. 1825, from whom all later earls are descended) and three daughters. Her husband's two sons by his first wife both died young and/or unmarried before their father inherited the title.
  • Lady Anne Fortescue (died 1864), married George Wilbraham and had issue.
  • Lady Eleanor Fortescue (1798–1847), chest tomb in Weare Giffard Church, Devon.

References
  1. Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 461
  2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)
  3. Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
  4. Axe, Matthew, Chapman, Lesley & Miller, Sharon. The Lost Houses of Eggesford, Eggesford, 1995, pp. 18–21
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