Earl of Normanton is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for Charles Agar, 1st Viscount Somerton, Archbishop of Dublin. He had already been created Baron Somerton, of Somerton in the County of Kilkenny, in 1795 and Viscount Somerton, of Somerton in the County of Kilkenny, in 1800, also in the Peerage of Ireland. Lord Normanton sat in the House of Lords from 1800 to 1809 as one of the 28 original Irish representative peer.
Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, PC, FRS was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 53 years from 1741 to 1794 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Mendip. He held a number of political offices, including briefly serving as Secretary for the Colonies in 1782 during the American War of Independence.
Viscount Clifden, of Gowran in the County of Kilkenny, Ireland, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 12 January 1781 for James Agar, 1st Baron Clifden. He had already been created Baron Clifden, of Gowran in the County of Kilkenny, in 1776, also in the Peerage of Ireland. The Viscounts also held the titles of Baron Mendip in the Peerage of Great Britain from 1802 to 1974 and Baron Dover from 1836 to 1899, when this title became extinct, and Baron Robartes from 1899 to 1974, when this title became extinct, the two latter titles which were in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The interrelated histories of the peerages follow below.
Gowran is a town located on the eastern side of County Kilkenny, Ireland. The historic St. Mary's Collegiate Church is located in the centre of Gowran close to Gowran Castle. Gowran Park race course and Golf Course are located one km from the centre of Gowran. Gowran is located on the R448 regional road where it is crossed by the R702 regional road. The town is in a townland and civil parish and barony of the same name.
James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden, was an Irish peer and politician and held the office of one of the joint Postmasters General of Ireland.
Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton, was an Anglo-Irish clergyman of the Church of Ireland. He served as Dean of Kilmore, as Bishop of Cloyne, as Archbishop of Cashel, and finally as Archbishop of Dublin from 1801 until his death.
Gowran was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until 1800.
William Flower, 1st Baron Castle Durrow PC (Ire) was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician.
Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough, was a British politician and peer. He was the son of William Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Duncannon, and Mary Moore. He was an active politician from 1705 to 1757 in Great Britain and Ireland. He represented Newtownards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons. He inherited his father's viscountcy in 1724 and was made Earl of Bessborough in the Peerage of Ireland in 1739. He is buried in Fiddown, County Kilkenny, Ireland.
Ellis Bermingham (1708-1789) was born in 1708 as Ellis (Elizabeth) Agar, daughter of James Agar MP of Gowran Castle, County Kilkenny and his second wife Mary Wemyss. She married, first (1726), Theobald Bourke, 7th Viscount Mayo, and after his death in 1742 married secondly (1745) Francis Bermingham, 14th Baron Athenry (1692–1750). She had no issue by either marriage.
Welbore Ellis (1651?–1734) was an English bishop of Kildare, bishop of Meath and Irish privy councillor.
Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden SA, styled The Honourable Henry Agar between 1776 and 1789, was an Irish politician.
The High Sheriff of County Kilkenny was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kilkenny, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kilkenny 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 County Kilkenny unless stated otherwise.
George Agar, 1st Baron Callan PC was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
St. Mary’s Collegiate Church Gowran, also known as the Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption, is a church in the centre of the town of Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland. The site is a National Monument in the care of the Gowran Development Association (GDA) and the Office of Public Works (OPW). The church and its family connections have been of huge importance to Gowran and further afield over the centuries. The church is a collegiate church, which means that the priests or chaplains attached to it lived in community together. The present church was not a monastery or an abbey; however experts believe the church was built on the site of an earlier monastery. The presence of an Ogham stone on the site, which is on display in the chancel, suggests there was a place of worship here dating back 2000 years to Celtic times or beyond.
Gowran Castle is located in the centre of Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland. The castle is a manor house and was fully restored between 2013 and 2014.
Henry Agar (1707–1746) was an Irish politician, and the father of the 1st Viscount Clifden and the 1st Earl of Normanton.
James Agar was an Irish politician. He was a litigious and hot-tempered man, whose bitter feud with a rival political faction led to his being killed in a duel. He was the father of the first and last Baron Callan.
Welbore Ellis Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton was an Irish peer and landowner, of Anglo-Irish origins, who spent most of his life in England, where he acquired the Somerley estate in 1825.
Welbore Ellis Agar FRS was an Anglo-Irish gentleman, senior officer of HM Revenue and Customs, and art collector, who lived most of his life in Mayfair, Westminster.
