Showing 794 results

Daughter of Sir Cecil Lister-Kaye, 4th Baronet, and Beatrice Adeline Lister-Kaye, she married William, 5th Earl of Rosse in 1905, with whom she had three children, Michael, Bridget and Desmond. Following Lord Rosse's death from injuries sustained in the Great War, she subsequently married Major de Vesci of Abbeyleix. During the war years at Birr Castle she organised a prisoner of war parcel service, mainly for soldiers from the Irish Guards, her husband's regiment.

Laurence Michael Harvey Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse, Baron of Oxmantown, 9th Baronet of Birr Castle, was born 28 September 1906 to Lord William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse, and Lady Francis Lois Lister-Kaye. He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a member of the Railway Club. Laurence Parsons succeeded his father in 1918 as the 6th Earl of Rosse. On 19 September 1935, he married Lady Anne Messel, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Charles Rudolph Messel. Lady Anne Messel was previously married to Ronald Armstrong-Jones, and was the mother of Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, who in 1960 married the Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The 6th Earl of Rosse died on 5 July 1979 and was succeeded by his son, Sir William Brendan Parsons.

Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse, Baron of Oxmantown, 7th Baronet of Birr Castle, was born 17 November 1840 to William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, and Mary Field. Like his father, he pursued astronomy and is known for his attempt to design a truly flat mirror to use in a telescope. Lord Rosse succeeded his father as the 4th Earl of Rosse in 1867. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. From the year of 1867-68, Lord Rosse served as a Justice of the Peace for King’s County, and was appointed High Sheriff of King’s County. On 1 September 1870, he married Lady Frances Cassandra Hawke, daughter of Lord Edward Harvey-Hawke, 4th Baron of Hawke, and Lady Frances Fetherstonhaugh. From 1881-87 Lord Rosse was the Vice-President of the Royal Society. From 1885 to 1908 he serves as the 18th Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin. He also was the Lord Lieutenant of King’s County, and Custos Rotulorum of King’s County from 1892 until 1908. In 1896 he was elected President of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1902 he received the honorary degree of Legum Doctor from the University of Wales, sharing the ceremony of the instalment of the Prince of Wales as Chancellor of the University of Wales. The 4th Earl of Rosse died on 29 August 1908, and was succeeded by his son, William Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse.

Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse, Baron of Oxmantown, 5th Baronet, was born on 21 May 1758 to Sir William Parsons, 4th Baronet, and Lady Mary Clere. From 1782-1790. Laurence Parsons represented Dublin University in the Irish House of Commons. In the following years of 1791-1801, he sat as a Member of Parliament for King's County. In May 1797
Laurence Parsons married Lady Alice Lloyd, and they had five children. After the Act of Union in 1801, he sat for King's County in the British House of Commons until 1807, when he succeeded his uncle as the 2nd Earl of Rosse. He soon after became one of the Postmasters General of Ireland, in 1809. From 1809-1841 he sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer, and served as Custos Rotulorum of King's County from 1828 until his death on the 24th of February 1841. The 2nd Earl of Rosse was succeeded by his son, William Parsons.

Lord Laurence Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, Viscount of Oxmantown, Baron of Oxmantown, was born 26 July 1742 to Sir Laurence Parsons, 3rd Baronet of Birr, and Lady Anne Harman. As a second son he did not inherit the baronetcy, which instead passed to his half-brother William, in 1749. He married Lady Jane, the eldest daughter of Lord Edward, 1st Earl of Kingston, and they had one daughter, Frances. On 25 September 1792 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron of Oxmantown, a title which would pass on to his nephew, William’s Son, Sir Laurence Parsons. On 6 October 1795 he was elevated to the peerage again, and given the Viscounty of Oxmantown. In February 1806, he was created the Earl of Rosse. On the 20th April 1807, Lord Laurence died without any sons, his viscounty expired, but the title of Earl of Rosse was passed on to Sir Laurence, 5th Baronet of Birr Castle.

The present line of the Earls of Rosse (of the 2nd creation) is descended from Sir Laurence Parsons, one of four sons of James Parsons and Catherine Fenton of Diseworth Grange, Leicestershire, who had moved to Ireland by the late 16th century. The elder brother, William, was the ancestor of the Earls of Rosse of the 1st creation but the line died out in 1764. The younger brother, Sir Laurence lived in Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co. Cork where he held several Munster-based government positions. He was knighted in 1620, the same year that he moved to Offaly, having exchanged his interest in a property at Leiter Lugna near Cadamstown with Sir Robert Meredith for the latter’s 1000 acres at Birr. In 1677, his descendent, Sir Laurence Parsons was created baronet, and successive generations of the Parsons Baronets have lived at Birr Castle since this time. The earldom of Rosse was inherited by Sir Laurence Parsons, 5th baronet, from his uncle Laurence Harman Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, of County Longford, who died in 1807 without male issue.

Sir Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse (1758-1841), was an Irish peer, agitator against the Act of Union, an Irish parliamentarian and later joint postmaster-general of the Irish post office. His son, Sir William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800-1867), was an astronomer and in 1845 built the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’, the world’s largest telescope until the early twentieth century. Sir Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse (1840-1908) was also an astronomer and a keen photographer like his mother, Mary Rosse. Sir William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse (1873-1918), was a solider in the Irish Guards. He fought in the First World War and died in 1918 of injuries received in action two years previously. His son, Sir (Laurence) Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse (1906-1979) was heavily involved in Irish cultural affairs and a keen dendrologist. The present Earl of Rosse, and 10th baronet, Sir (William) Brendan Parsons was an officer in the Irish Guards from 1955–57 and worked for the United Nations from 1963-80. He lives at Birr Castle and has overseen the creation of the Historic Science Centre celebrating the scientific legacy of the Parsons family, and, with the assistance of Dr A. P. W. Malcomson of PRONI, has gathered together the archives of the Parsons family, now published as The Calendar of the Rosse Papers.

Born in Croghan, County Tipperary, to William and Mary Perkinson, William emigrated to England with his wife and lived in Widnes, Lancashire. They had three children, William (b. 1866), Michael (b. 1869) and Richard (b. 1871).