Wellesley, Richard Colley, Marquess Wellesley (1760 -1842)

Richard Colley Wellesley was the eldest son of Garrett Wellesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and Anne, eldest daughter of Arthur Hill Trevor, 1st Viscount Dungannon. He succeeded his father in 1784. He was educated at a private school at Trim, at Harrow School, Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 24 December 1778. In 1780 he won the Chancellor's Prize for Latin verse and was elected a Student. However, his father dying in 1781, he left Oxford without a degree and returned to Ireland where he put the estates in order. He was Governor General of India from 1797 to 1805, and was responsible for the destruction of the Empire of Mysore. Twice Viceroy of Ireland, and one of the original Knights of St Patrick, he surrendered that order on being made a Knight of the Garter 31 March 1812. He was created Marquess Wellesley in 1799. He married, firstly, 29 November 1793, Hyacinthe Gabrielle, only daughter of Pierre Roland of Paris. She died in 1816, and he married secondly, 29 October 1825, Marianne, daughter of Richard Caton, of Baltimore, and widow of Robert Paterson. On his death in 1842, the Marquessate became extinct and he was succeeded in the Earldom by his brother, William. The Marquess was a good classical and Italian scholar and the author of a number of Latin poems. His library was sold at auction by R.H., T. and C. Evans in London on 17 January 1843.