William Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont

William Henry Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont, KP (5 August 1722 – 30 September 1806), was an Irish peer and politician.

He represented County Louth in the Irish House of Commons from 1745 to 1760 and subsequently the borough of Monaghan from 1761 to 1770.

In 1768 he sat briefly as Member of Parliament for Dundalk before opting to sit for Monaghan Borough, for which he had also been elected.

He was created Earl of Clermont in 1777 and a Knight Founder of the Order of St Patrick on 30 March 1795.

[3]He married Frances Cairnes Murray, a daughter and co-heiress of Colonel John Murray, MP for County Monaghan, by whom he had an only daughter: He died aged 85 at Brighton[7] on 29 September 1806, without male progeny, and was buried at Little Cressingham Church in Norfolk, in which parish was situated Clermont Lodge (now Clermont Hall), his shooting lodge.

William Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont (1722–1806), mezzotint engraving of portrait by Thomas Hudson (1701–1779). [ 1 ]
William Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont, 1802 caricature.
Arms of Fortescue: Azure, a bend engrailed argent, plain cotised or
Clermont Hall in the parish of Little Cressingham , Norfolk, originally built as a shooting lodge by the 1st Earl of Clermont and extended by his nephew Viscount Clermont.
44 Berkeley Square, London, townhouse of Lord Clermont. In the 1960s it became the first home of the Clermont Club , an exclusive gambling club. Until 2018, the basement was the location of the exclusive nightclub Annabel's , operated originally as part of the Clermont Club
44 Berkeley Square's theatrical stairs by William Kent
Lady Clermont by Joshua Reynolds c. 1761-1762
Mural monument to Lord Clermont in St Andrew's Church, Little Cressingham, Norfolk