Rosse, Mary, Countess of

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Rosse, Mary, Countess of

• Rosse, Mary

• Field, Mary

1813-1885

Mary, Countess of Rosse, was born Mary Field, daughter of John Wilmer Field, in 1813. She married Lord William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse on 14 April 1836, moving from Yorkshire to Birr Castle, King’s County. She and Lord Rosse shared an interest in astronomy, and with significant financial investment on Lady Mary’s part they built the largest telescope in the world at the time, the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown.’ Along with her interest in astronomy, Mary Rosse was an accomplished blacksmith, and aided in construction of the telescope. Her scientific interests brought her to become close friends with the cousin of the 3rd Earl, Mary Ward, who was a frequent visitor at Birr Castle. As the Countess of Rosse, she carried out significant renovations to Birr Castle under the advice of her uncle, Richard Wharton Myddleton. Through her many projects, she managed to employ over 500 men during the Great Famine of 1845-47. Overshadowing her renovations of Birr Castle, and aid in building the Leviathan of Parsonstown, Mary Rosse is best known for her work in early daguerreotype and glass plate photography. Her work was praised by a family acquaintance, William Henry Fox Talbot, and she joined the Dublin Photographic Society. In 1859 her work won her a silver medal for the best paper negative from the Photographic Society of Ireland. Mary Rosse had four children who survived to adulthood: Laurence (1840-1908), Randal (1848-1936), Richard Clere (1851-1923), and Charles (1854-1931). She died in 1885.

Heaton Hall, Yorkshire.
Birr Castle, King's County [County Offaly].

Mary, Countess of Rosse, was born Mary Field, in the year 1813 to John Wilmer Field, son of Joshua Field, and Anne Myddelton, daughter of Robert Wharton Myddelton of Grinke Park, North Riding.
Mary Rosse’s grandfather, Joshua ‘Squire Field,’ married an heiress of £180,000, the daughter of Randal Wilmer of Helmsley, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Their son, John Wilmer Field succeeded to the Field family estate in 1819, and inherited land in Heaton and in Shipley on the outskirts of Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He had also acquired large amounts of land, in both the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, through his marriage and pocketbook. The Act of 1780 added an additional 330 acres of land to the Field Family’s estate. Their proximity to Bradford made them a significant source of materials such as stone during the industrial revolution and expansion of Bradford. The Field’s lived in Heaton from the beginning of the seventeenth century, Heaton |Hall was renovated in 1765-74 in order to reflect the Field’s growing wealth and status. It is here that John Wilmer Field lived with his wife Anne, and their two daughters, Mary and Delia. Anne Field passed away a year after the birth of her second daughter, Delia, leaving John Wilmer Field to raise his two daughters. He employed a governess, Susan Lawson, to help raise the girls as he was often absent.
In April 1836, Lady Mary married William Parsons, Lord Oxmantown, and later 3rd Earl of Rosse. Their wedding was followed closely by the death of John Wilmer Field in January 1837, who left both Mary and Delia large sums of money and portions of his estate. The Earl and Countess of Rosse had elven children, four survived to adulthood: Lawrence (1840-1908), Randal (1848-1936), Richard Clere (1851-1923), and Charles (1854-1931). Countess Mary of Rosse died in 1885.

Ward, Mary (1827-1869)

Parsons, Laurence, 4th Earl of Rosse (1840-1908)

Parsons, William, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800-1867)

Parsons, William, 5th Earl of Rosse (1873-1918)

ISAAR (CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, 2nd edition (2011).

Jennifer Lee, May 2018.

Burke, John Bernard. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage of the British Empire. London: Henry Colburn, 1851.
Mollan, Charles Editor. William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse Astronomy and the Castle in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014.