Abbeyleix House | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Private dwelling house |
Type | House |
Architectural style | Georgian, Classical |
Address | Abbeyleix, County Laois |
Town or city | Abbeyleix |
Country | Ireland |
Coordinates | 52°53′46″N7°22′30″W / 52.8962°N 7.3750°W |
Elevation | 100 m (330 ft) |
Groundbreaking | 1773 |
Owner | John Collison |
Technical details | |
Material | Originally brick front and later rendered over |
Floor count | 4 |
Floor area | 2,500 m2 (27,000 sq ft) |
Grounds | 453.24 ha (1,120.0 acres) |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | James Wyatt and Sir William Chambers |
Developer | DeVesci Family |
Abbeyleix House, sometimes called Abbeyleix Castle, is an Irish country house that was the residence of the Viscounts de Vesci in County Laois, Ireland. It was designed by architect James Wyatt and built by Sir William Chambers in 1773. The de Vesci family lived at Abbeyleix House until it was sold in the mid-1990s. Abbeyleix is the oldest planned estate town in Ireland. [1]
The house was near the original Abbeyleix, that was built by the O'Mores near the River Nore where there was a Cistercian Monastery, founded in 1183. On the dissolution of the monasteries, 1,500 acres (610 ha) of land were granted to the 10th Earl of Ormond. In 1675, Denny Muschamp, a wealthy landowner, bought the old abbey lands, these were inherited in 1699 by his daughter, who married Sir Thomas Vesey, 1st Baronet, who moved to Abbeyleix when he was created a baronet. In 1770, their grandson Thomas Vesey, 2nd Baron Knapton – later, in 1776, created Viscount de Vesci – commissioned the English architect James Wyatt to build him a new house in an elevated position. [2] The area was prone to flooding and de Vesci, wishing to improve the view from his new mansion, relocated the dwellings of his estate workers and tenants to a new site farther east on higher ground alongside the coach road, as a planned estate town, with the estate and mansion 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the southwest of the town. [3] [4]
Recently owned and restored by the businessman Sir David Davies, Abbey Leix House and estate was placed on the market in 2019, continuing into 2020, for a region of €20 million. [5] In June 2021, John Collison purchased the estate for a sum in the region of the advertised €11.5 million. [6]
The large rectangular, three-storey house, with 117 windows, is considered to be one of the finest in Ireland. The property includes 1,000 acres (400 ha) of grounds, including walled gardens and farmland, and ten estate houses and cottages. [7]
County Laois is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Historically, it has also been known as County Leix.
Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII presented Wilton Abbey and its attached estates to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. The house is linked by some with the premiere of Shakespeare's As You Like It, and an important literary saloon culture under its occupation by Mary Sidney, wife of the first Earl.
James Wyatt was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Viscount de Vesci, of Abbeyleix in the Queen's County, now called County Laois, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1776 for Thomas Vesey, 2nd Baron Knapton and 3rd Baronet. The title Baron Knapton was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1750 for the first Viscount's father, John Vesey, 2nd Baronet, who had earlier represented Newtownards in the Irish House of Commons. The baronetcy, of Abbeyleix in the Queen's County, was created in the Baronetage of Ireland on 28 September 1698 for the first Baron's father, Reverend Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Killaloe (1713–1714) and Bishop of Ossory (1714–1730).
Abbeyleix is a town in County Laois, Ireland, located around 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of the county town of Portlaoise. Abbelyleix is in a civil parish of the same name.
Combermere Abbey is a former monastery, later a country house, near Burleydam, between Nantwich, Cheshire and Whitchurch in Shropshire, England, located within Cheshire and near the border with Shropshire. Initially Savigniac and later Cistercian, the abbey was founded in the 1130s by Hugh Malbank, Baron of Nantwich, and was also associated with Ranulf de Gernons, Earl of Chester. The abbey initially flourished, but by 1275 was sufficiently deeply in debt to be removed from the abbot's management. From that date until its dissolution in 1538, it was frequently in royal custody, and acquired a reputation for poor discipline and violent disputes with both lay people and other abbeys. It was the third largest monastic establishment in Cheshire, based on net income in 1535.
Pixton Park is a country house in the parish of Dulverton, Somerset, England. It is associated with at least three historically significant families, successively by descent: Acland, amongst the largest landowners in the West Country; Herbert, politicians and diplomats; and Waugh, writers. The present grade II* listed Georgian mansion house was built circa 1760 by the Acland family and in 1870 was altered by Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon (1831–1890). Although Pixton Park is situated within the manor of Dulverton, the manorial chapel relating to Pixton is situated not at Dulverton but within the Church of St Nicholas, Brushford, across the River Barle, as the lordship of the manor of Dulverton was held from 1568 by the Sydenham family seated at Combe House, on the opposite side of the River Barle to Dulverton and Pixton.
Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Vesey, 3rd Viscount de Vesci and 4th Baron Knapton, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Conservative politician.
Sir Thomas Vesey, 1st Baronet (1668?–1730), was an Anglo-Irish clergyman. He was Bishop of Ossory from 1714 to 1730.
The High Sheriff of Queen's County was the British Crown's judicial representative in Queen's County, Ireland, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Offaly County Sheriff. The sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. However, the sheriff retained his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in the county. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed his choice as High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Sometimes a sheriff did not fulfil his entire term through death or other event and another sheriff was then appointed for the remainder of the year. The dates given hereunder are the dates of appointment. All addresses are in Queen's County unless stated otherwise.
Thomas Vesey may refer to:
Robert Thomas Flower, 8th Viscount Ashbrook was an Anglo-Irish peer, Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, and inventor.
John Vesey was a Church of Ireland clergyman.
John Denny Vesey, 1st Baron Knapton, was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
The Rt Hon. Thomas Vesey, 1st Viscount de Vesci and 2nd Baron Knapton, was an Anglo-Irish peer.
The Rt Hon. John Vesey, 2nd Viscount de Vesci and 3rd Baron Knapton, was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
The Rt Hon. John Robert William Vesey, 4th Viscount de Vesci, 5th Baron Knapton and 1st Baron de Vesci, "Yvo", was an Anglo-Irish peer and British Army officer.
William Brownlow PC (I) of Lurgan, County Armagh was an Anglo-Irish politician.
John Eustace Vesey, 6th Viscount de Vesci, was an Irish peer.
The Rt Hon. Thomas Eustace Vesey, 7th Viscount de Vesci and 8th Baron Knapton, is the son of the 6th Viscount de Vesci and the former Susan Anne Armstrong-Jones, sister of the 1st Earl of Snowdon. He sold Abbeyleix Castle, saddled with £1.5 million in death duties, in 1994 to the financier Sir David Davies. In addition to being a nephew of the 1st Earl of Snowdon, he is a grand-nephew of the 6th Earl of Kenmare.'