[1] The total estates came to over £120,000, the majority of which was inherited by Robert, including a house in Merrion Square, Dublin.
[4] French-Brewster was elected to Parliament in a February 1883 by-election in the small Irish borough of Portarlington, after the incumbent member, Bernard FitzPatrick, succeeded to his father's peerage and entered the House of Lords.
[1] The seat was generally Conservative and had a very small electorate; he was elected with 70 votes against a Liberal challenger with 57.
In 1889 both sued for divorce, each alleging adultery on the other's part; the court case was a high-profile one, lasting six days at the High Court, with Robert represented by Edward Clarke MP, the Solicitor-General; Geraldine by Charles Russell MP, a future Attorney-General and Lord Chief Justice; and Henry Gore, the co-respondent, by H. H. Asquith MP, a future Prime Minister.
After an extensively reported six-day hearing, a divorce was granted on the grounds of desertion and adultery by Robert but not Geraldine, and she was awarded a decree nisi.