Pakenham, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Longford (1774 -1835)

Thomas Pakenham was the eldest son of Edward Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford, by Catherine Rowley, daughter of Hercules Rowley. Thomas’s sister, the Honourable Catherine Pakenham, became the wife of the Duke of Wellington. One of his younger brothers was the Honourable Sir Edward Pakenham, a British Army officer who served under Wellington in the Peninsular War Pakenham succeeded his father, becoming the 3rd Baron Longford in 1792. Two years later he succeeded his grandmother, Elizabeth Pakenham, 1st Countess of Longford, as the second Earl of Longford. Longford was one of the original 28 Irish representative peers elected to the 1st Union Parliament on 2 August 1800. From 1821 he was also a member of the House of Lords until his death. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 17 December 1813. In 1821 he was created Baron Silchester, of Silchester in the County of Southampton, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him and his descendants an automatic seat in the House of Lords. Lord Longford married Lady Georgiana Emma Charlotte Lygon, daughter of William Lygon, 1st Earl Beauchamp, in 1817. They had several children. Their third son the Honourable Thomas Alexander Pakenham was a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy and the father of Admiral Sir William Pakenham. Their seventh and youngest son the Honourable Sir Francis Pakenham was a diplomat who notably served as Ambassador to Sweden. Thomas Longford died in May 1835, aged 61, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Edward, as 3rd Earl. Longford's second son, William, who eventually succeeded in the earldom as 4th Earl, was a general in the British Army. The Countess of Longford survived her husband by over forty years, and died in February 1880.