(Jenico) Nicholas Dudley Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston (born 19 November 1939), is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and British hereditary peer, who sat in the House of Lords (as Baron Gormanston) until 1999. [1]
Lord Gormanston is the premier viscount in the Peerage of Ireland (title created 1478). [2]
The only son and heir of Captain the 16th Viscount Gormanston (1914–1940) [3] and Pamela Hanly, daughter of Captain Edward Hanly and Lady Marjorie Feilding (daughter of the 9th Earl of Denbigh), he succeeded to the family titles before his first birthday; the 16th Viscount (Captain Jenico Preston, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry) was killed in action [4] during the Battle of France in 1940. [5]
His maternal great-grandfather was General Sir William Butler, of Bansha Castle, County Tipperary, and his great-grandmother was the celebrated Victorian painter, Elizabeth Thompson (later Lady Butler). The 14th Viscount Gormanston GCMG, a diplomat, was his paternal great-grandfather.
A Roman Catholic like his forebears, Lord Gormanston attended the Benedictine school of Downside, Somerset. He is a connoisseur of art.
The ancestral seat, Gormanston Castle in County Meath, Ireland, was sold to the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM) in 1947, becoming Gormanston College. [6]
In 1974, Viscount Gormanston married, firstly, Eva-Antonie Landzianowski (1955–1984), [7] [8] having two sons: [9]
Viscount Gormanston married, secondly, on 2 November 1997 Lucy Arabella Fox (born 1960), daughter of Edward Fox and Tracy Reed. [16]
Lord and Lady Gormanston live in Kensington, London.
Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, in the County of Aberdeen, in the County of Meath and in the County of Argyll, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 January 1916 for John Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen.
Earl of Cork is a title in the Peerage of Ireland, held in conjunction with the Earldom of Orrery since 1753. It was created in 1620 for Richard Boyle, 1st Baron Boyle. He had already been created Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghal, in the County of Cork, in 1616, and was made Viscount of Dungarvan, in the County of Waterford, at the same time he was given the earldom. These titles are also in the Peerage of Ireland.
Earl of Carlisle is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England.
Earl of Gosford is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for Arthur Acheson, 2nd Viscount Gosford.
Earl Annesley, of Castlewellan in the County of Down, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 17 August 1789 for Francis Annesley, 2nd Viscount Glerawly, with special remainder to his younger brother the Honourable Richard Annesley. He had previously represented Downpatrick in the Irish House of Commons. The titles of Baron Annesley, of Castlewellan in the County of Down, and Viscount Glerawly, in the County of Fermanagh, were created in the Peerage of Ireland on 20 September 1758 and 14 November 1766 respectively for his father William Annesley, who sat as Member of the Irish Parliament for Midleton. Annesley was the sixth son of the Honourable Francis Annesley, fourth son of Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia.
Viscount Gormanston is a title in the Peerage of Ireland created in 1478 and held by the head of the Preston family, which hailed from Lancashire. It is the oldest vicomital title in the British Isles; the holder is Premier Viscount of Ireland.
Viscount Lifford is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1781 for James Hewitt, 1st Baron Lifford, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He had already been created Baron Lifford, of Lifford in the County of Donegal, in 1768, also in the Peerage of Ireland. He was succeeded by his son, the second Viscount, who was Dean of Armagh from 1796 to 1830. His grandson, the fourth Viscount, sat in the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer from 1856 to 1887. His younger son, the sixth Viscount, was a captain in the Royal Navy. His son, the seventh Viscount, fought in both the Second Boer War and the First World War. He was succeeded by his cousin, the eighth Viscount. He was the son of the Hon. George Wyldbore Hewitt, seventh son of the fourth Viscount. As of 2014 the titles are held by his son, the ninth Viscount, who succeeded in 1987.
Viscount Tenby, of Bulford in the County of Pembroke, is a hereditary title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1957 for former Home Secretary, the Hon. Gwilym Lloyd George, second son of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor.
Baron Carrington is a title that has been created three times, once in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Ireland and once in the Peerage of Great Britain.
Alexander Edward Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore was a British Army officer and peer. He was the son of George Murray, 5th Earl of Dunmore.
James Duff, 5th Earl Fife, was a Scottish nobleman and politician.
Jenico William Joseph Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston,, was an aristocratic Anglo-Irish colonial administrator.
William Annesley, 1st Viscount Glerawly was an Irish politician and noble.
William Ernest Duncombe, 1st Earl of Feversham, known as The Lord Feversham between 1867 and 1868, was a British Conservative politician.
Earl of Carrick, in the barony of Iffa and Offa East, County Tipperary, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland.
Jeffrey Richard de Corban Evans, 4th Baron Mountevans,, is a British hereditary peer and shipbroker, who served as Lord Mayor of London from 2015 to 2016.
Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston (1435–1503) was an Irish peer and statesman of the fifteenth century who held the offices of Deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Peter Arthur Edward Hastings Forbes, 10th Earl of Granard, is an Irish peer.
Nicholas Preston, 6th Viscount Gormanston (1606–1643) sat in the House of Lords of the Irish Parliament of 1634–1635 and sided with the insurgents after the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
Jenico Preston, 7th Viscount Gormanston, was an Irish peer, Jacobite soldier and landowner.
