Bligh, John, 4th Earl of Darnley (1767 -1831)

John Bligh, 4th Earl of Darnley, was the son of John, 3rd Earl of Darnley, and Mary, daughter and heir of John Stoyte, of Street in Westmeath. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he succeeded his father in 1781. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, and a Captain of the Athby Volunteers, with a taste `for antient music' and good modern dinners. He married, 26 August 1791, Elizabeth, third daughter of William Brownlow of Lurgan. The town library of his son Edward, the 5th Earl, was sold by auction at B. Wheatley's 191 Piccadilly on the 20 July 1836, and a further sale of the property of the Earl of Darnley from Cobham Hall, Kent took place at Sotheby's 13 November 1957.