Charles Dillon
Viscount Dillon
Charles Dillon-Lee Martin.jpg
Detail from the portrait below
Tenure1787–1813
PredecessorHenry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon
SuccessorHenry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon
Born6 November 1745
London
Died9 November 1813
Loughglynn, Ireland
Spouse(s)
  • 1. Henrietta-Maria Phipps
  • 2. Marie Rogier
Issue
Detail		Henry, & others
FatherHenry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon
MotherCharlotte Lee

Charles Dillon-Lee, 12th Viscount Dillon, KP, PC (Ire) (1745–1813) conformed to the established religion in 1767 and inherited Ditchley in England from his mother.

Birth and origins

Charles was born on 6 November 1745 in London.[1][2] He was the eldest child of Henry Dillon and his wife Charlotte Lee. His father was the 11th Viscount Dillon.

Charles's mother was the eldest daughter of George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield. His parents had married on 26 October 1744 in London.[3]

He was one of seven siblings, who are listed in his father's article. His two younger brothers, Arthur and Henry, were colonels of Dillon's regiment in France.

Early life

In January 1766 Pope Clement XIII ended the Catholic Church's support for the Jacobites and recognised the Hanoverian Dynasty as the rightful rulers of England. On 4 December 1767, in Dublin, Charles conformed to the established church.[4] In that same year he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[5]

Charles, in his youth, liked racing and gambling and made huge debts.[6] He moved to Brussels to avoid his debtors.

In 1770 he was elected MP for the Westbury Borough constituency in Wiltshire, England.[7]

In 1776 Charles changed his surname from Dillon to Dillon-Lee and quartered his arms accordingly to comply with the will of his maternal uncle George Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield. In that same year, his mother inherited the Lichfield estate at the death of her uncle the fourth Earl, who died childless.

Family tree
Charles Dillon-Lee with his two wives, his parents, and other selected relatives.[lower-alpha 1]
Theobald
7th Viscount
d. 1691
Jacobite		Mary
Talbot
d. 1691
Henry
8th Viscount
d. 1714		Arthur
1670–1733
French
General		Christina
Sheldon
1684–1757
Richard
9th Viscount
1688–1737		Charles
10th
Viscount
1701–1741		Henry
11th
Viscount
1705–1787		Charlotte
Lee
d. 1794
Henrietta-
Maria
Phipps
1757–1782		Charles
12th
Viscount
1745–1813		Marie
Rogier
d. 1833		Arthur
1750–1794
French
General
Henry
Augustus
13th
Viscount
1777–1832		Henrietta
Browne
Charles
Henry
14th
Viscount
1810–1865		Theobald
Dominick
15th
Viscount
1811–1879		Arthur
Edmund
16th
Viscount
1812–1892		Ellen
Adderly
1809–1896
Legend
XXXSubject of
the article		XXXViscounts
Dillon

First marriage and children

Charles married twice. He married firstly on 19 August 1776 in Brussels Henrietta-Maria Phipps, daughter of Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave and his wife Lepel Hervey.[9] She was illegitimately descended from James II.

Charles and Henrietta Maria had two children:

  1. Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee (1777–1832), succeeded him as the 13th Viscount
  2. Frances Charlotte Dillon-Lee (1780–1819), married Thomas Webb, Baronet[10]

Lichfield inheritance

On 4 November 1776 Robert Lee, 4th Earl of Lichfield, died and his earldom became extinct.[11] The nearest relatives of the last earl were his nieces. Charles's mother, née Lee, inherited the estate as she was the eldest surviving of these nieces.

Second marriage and children

His first wife died in 1782.[12] In 1787 he married, secondly, Marie Rogier of Mechelen.[13] She had been an actress in Brussels and had been his mistress in the time before his first marriage.[14]

Charles and Marie had at least three children:

  1. James William Dillon-Lee (1792–1812), seems to have died unmarried[15]
  2. Henrietta Dillon-Lee (died 1811), seems to have died unmarried[16]
  3. Charlotte Dillon-Lee (died 1866), married in 1813 Frederick Beauclerk (1773–1850), a younger son of Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans and an early cricketer[17][18]

Later life

In 1787 he served as High Sheriff of Mayo, Ireland. On 3 November 1787, his father, Henry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon, died and Charles succeeded as the 12th Viscount Dillon.[19] He was solemnly confirmed in the Viscountcy in 1788 by the Irish House of Lords.[20] He was invested as a Knight of the Order of St. Patrick in 1798.[21]

In 1794 Charles inherited the Lichfield estate from his mother. Ditchley became the seat of the Viscounts Dillon. It would remain in the possession of the family until 1934.

During the passing of the Acts of Union 1800 Lord Dillon supported the union.[22]

In 1802 Lord Dillon sold the manor of Quarendon, where the seat of the Lee family had once stood, to James Du Pré of Wilton Park. Quarendon was of course part of the land inherited from his mother. In 1806 Lord Dillon raised a regiment, namely the 101st Regular, recruited from the inhabitants of his Irish lands and surrounding areas near Loughglinn, County Roscommon.

Ditchley House, the seat of the Lee family

Death, succession, and timeline

Lord Dillon died at Loughglinn, on 9 November 1813.[23][24] Despite his conversion, he was buried in the Dillon Family Vault in the Cemetery at the Augustinian Friary, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland. His widow died in London in 1833. He was succeeded by his only son, Henry Augustus, as the 13th Viscount Dillon.

A 3/4-length painted portrait of Donough MacCarty, probably 2nd Viscount Muskerry at the time, showing a clean-shaven man with long curly hair or such a wig, wearing a lace jabot and clad in armour with a yellow sash with two tassels around his waist, standing in front of some drapery opening on a distant landscape with a palace and a French garden in front of it
Charles Dillon, 12th Viscount Dillon in parliamentary robes
Timeline
AgeDateEvent
01745, 6 NovBorn in London[1]
141760, 25 OctAccession of King George III, succeeding King George II[25]
221767, 4 DecConformed to the established religion[4]
301776, 19 AugMarried, 1stly, Henrietta Maria Phipps, in Brussels[9]
301776, 4 NovMother inherited from Robert Lee, the 4th Earl of Lichfield.[11]
361782, 1 AugFirst wife died.[12]
41–421787Married, 2ndly, Marie Rogier[13]
411787, 3 NovSucceeded his father as the 12th Viscount Dillon'.
421788, 18 MarConfirmed as Viscount by the Irish House of Lords.
48–491794Inherited the Lichfield estate from his mother
681813, 9 NovDied at Loughglinn, County Roscommon, Ireland[23]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ This family tree is partly derived from the Dillon family tree pictured in La Tour du Pin.[8] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Debrett 1828, p. 749, line 3. "... [Charles] b. [born] 6. Nov 1745 ..."
  2. ↑ O'Callaghan 1854, p. 50, footnote. "... the former [Charles] in London, in November, 1745."
  3. ↑ Cokayne 1916, p. 360, line 22. "He m. [married], 26 Oct. 1744, at the Portuguese Embassy Chapel, Charlotte, 1st da. [daughter] and eventually h. [heir] of George Henry [Lee], 2nd Earl of Lichfield ..."
  4. 1 2 Brown & Power 2005, p. 284. "... the succession of the title and lands of the Dillons in Ireland was assured by the conversion of Henry's eldest son Charles Dillon (later twelfth Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen) in Dublin of 4 December 1767 ..."
  5. ↑ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  6. ↑ La Tour du Pin 1913b, p. 162, line 11. "... Charles Dillon, était joueur et accablé de dettes."
  7. ↑ House of Commons 1878, p. 145. "Charles Dillon, esq., vice Sir William Blackstone, knt., appointed one of the Puisne Justices of the King's Bench / 21 Feb. 1770 / ditto [Westbury Borough]"
  8. ↑ La Tour du Pin 1913a, pp. 14–15. "Note généalogique sur la Maison des Lords Dillon"
  9. 1 2 Cokayne 1916, p. 361, line 10b. "He m. [married], 1stly, 19 Aug. 1776 at Brussels, Henrietta Maria, da. [daughter] of Constantine John (Phipps) 1st Baron Mulgrave [I. [Ireland]] by Lepell da. of John (Hervey) Baron Hervey of Ickworth. She, who was b. [born] 26 Mar. 1757, d. [died] 1 Aug. 1782.
  10. ↑ Debrett 1838, p. 609, line 11. "Frances-Charlotte, b. [born] 17 Feb. 1780, m. [married] 14 March 1799, sir Thomas Webb, of Oddstock, co. Wilts, bart., and d. [died] 27 April 1819."
  11. 1 2 Burke 1883, p. 317, right column, bottom. "His lordship d. [died] 4 November 1776, when the earldom of Lichfield and minor honours became extinct."
  12. 1 2 Cokayne 1916, p. 361, line 13a. "She [Henrietta-Maria], who was b. 26 Mar. 1757, d. 1 Aug. 1782."
  13. 1 2 Cokayne 1916, p. 361, line 13b. "He m. [married], 2ndly, in 1787, Marie Rogier, of Malines, in Belgium.
  14. ↑ La Tour du Pin 1913b, p. 162, line 3. "... elle avait toutes les apparences de ce qu'elle était en réalité: une vieille actrice. Mon oncle l'avait eue comme maitresse avant d'épouser Miss Phipps, fille du Lord Mulgrave."
  15. ↑ Burke & Burke 1915, p. 647, left column, line 26. "James William, Ensign, Gren. Guards, b. [born] 1792, d. [died] 10 Oct. 1812."
  16. ↑ Burke & Burke 1915, p. 647, left column, line 27. "d. [died] 11 April 1811."
  17. ↑ Debrett 1838, p. 609, line 18. "Charlotte, m. [married] 3 July 1813, lord Frederick Beauclerk."
  18. ↑ Burke & Burke 1915, p. 647, left column, line 28. "Charlotte, m. [married] 1813, Rev. Lord Frederick Beauclerk, D.D., 4th son of the 5th Duke of St. Albans, and d. [died] 26 Sept. 1866."
  19. ↑ Debrett 1828, p. 748, last line. "The viscount d. 3 Nov 1887, and was succeeded by his only son."
  20. ↑ Debrett 1828, p. 749, line 1. "Charles, 12th viscount, whose claim to the viscountcy was established by the house of lords in Ireland, after a solemn hearing, 18 March 1788;"
  21. ↑ Cokayne 1916, p. 361, line 10a. "K.P. 19 Mar. 1798."
  22. ↑ MacDougall 1799, p. 77. "Lord Dillon. This nobleman is the brother of the celebrated 'Arthur Dillon,' so well known at the court of France, who was guillotined, and of the handsome Dillon, the favourite of the Queen of France, who was massacred. He possesses considerable property, power and influence, which he exerts in favour of the union."
  23. 1 2 Debrett 1828, p. 749, line 11. "The viscount d. [died] 9 Nov 1813, and was succeeded by his only son ..."
  24. ↑ Cokayne 1916, p. 361, line 14. "He d. [died] 9 Nov. 1813 at Loughglin House, County Roscommon, aged 68.
  25. ↑ Fryde et al. 1986, p. 46, line 35. "George III … acc. 25 Oct. 1760;"

Sources

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