He was an important leader in the Orange Order, eventually rising to the rank of Grand Master, and was described as a "diehard Unionist".

[1] However, in 1849 a clash took part between Orangeman and Roman Catholics at Dolly's Brae, near Castlewellan, in which several people were killed after he had invited the Orangemen onto his estate and addressed them, urging them to "do their duty as loyal, Protestant men".

Maria Frances Catherine (c. 1793 – 25 February 1861), daughter of Thomas Stapleton, 12th Baron le Despencer, on 9 January 1813.

After Roden's first wife's death on 25 February 1861, he married secondly Clementina Janet, daughter of Thomas Andrews, of Greenknowes, and widow of Captain Robert Lushington Reilly, of Scarva, County Down, on 16 August 1862.

He died there in March 1870, aged 81, and was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson Robert, son of the late Viscount Jocelyn.