[1] He resided at Cobham Hall, near Gravesend in Kent, and was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the Chatham and Dartford Regiment of Local Militia in 1809.

He and his brother, the Honourable (later General) Edward Bligh, were staunch supporters of Kent cricket.

[3] The Bligh brothers, who originated from Athboy, County Meath, have been called "the first Irish first-class cricketers".

[4] On 26 August 1791, he married Elizabeth Brownlow (d. 22 December 1831), daughter of William Brownlow and his second wife Catherine Hall, by whom he had seven children:[5] Lord Darnley died at Cobham Hall on 17 March 1831 and was succeeded in the earldom by his son Edward.

[5] Darnley Bay in the Northwest Territories, Canada was named for him by John Richardson.