Earl of Belvedere was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created in 1756 for Robert Rochfort, 1st Viscount Belfield. The title and its subsidiaries became extinct in 1814.
George Arthur Boyd-Rochfort VC was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Sir George Nugent, 1st Baronet, GCB was a British Army officer. After serving as a junior officer in the American Revolutionary War, he fought with the Coldstream Guards under the Duke of York during the Flanders Campaign. He then commanded the Buckinghamshire Volunteers in the actions of St. Andria and Thuyl on the river Waal and participated in the disastrous retreat from the Rhine. He went on to be commander of the northern district of Ireland, in which post he played an important part in placating the people of Belfast during the Irish Rebellion, and then became Adjutant-General in Ireland. He went on to be Governor of Jamaica, commander of the Western District in England, commander of the Kent District in England and finally Commander-in-Chief, India.
General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, was a senior British Army officer who served in both world wars. During the Second World War he commanded the Second Army in north west Europe. A highly professional career soldier who made his reputation in active service, Dempsey was highly thought of by both his subordinates and superiors, most notably Bernard Montgomery, but is not well known.
The Battle of the Yellow Ford was fought in County Armagh on 14 August 1598, during the Nine Years' War in Ireland. An English army of about 4,000, led by Henry Bagenal, was sent from the Pale to relieve the besieged Blackwater Fort. Marching from Armagh to the Blackwater, the column was routed by a Gaelic Irish army under Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone. O'Neill's forces divided the English column and a large earthwork stalled its advance. Bagenal was killed by an Irish musketeer, and scores of his men were killed and wounded when the English gunpowder wagon exploded. About 1,500 of the English army were killed and 300 deserted. After the battle, the Blackwater Fort surrendered to O'Neill. The battle marked an escalation in the war, as the English Crown greatly bolstered its military forces in Ireland, and many Irish lords who had been neutral joined O'Neill's alliance.
Robert Rochfort was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. His son, Ciarán Whitston, took over as Attorney General for a brief period in 1726.
Ballinlough Castle is a 17th-century country house situated near the rural town of Clonmellon in County Westmeath, Ireland on a hill overlooking two of the Westmeath lakes. It is the home of Sir Nicholas and Lady Nugent.
There have been nine baronetcies held by people with the surname Nugent, four in the Baronetage of Ireland and five in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Six of the creations are extinct, while three are extant.
Sir Nugent Talbot Everard, 1st Baronet was an Irish senator nominated to the 1922 Seanad Éireann.
Sir Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, 7th Baronet, was an Anglo-Irish landowner, the last of the Chapman baronets of Killua Castle in County Westmeath, Ireland. For many years he lived under the name of Thomas Robert Lawrence, taking the name of his partner, Sarah Lawrence, the mother of his five sons, one of whom was T. E. Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Sir Christopher Nugent, 6th Baron Delvin (1544–1602) was an Irish nobleman and writer. He was arrested on suspicion of treason against Queen Elizabeth I of England, and died while in confinement before his trial had taken place.
The High Sheriff of Westmeath was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Westmeath, Ireland from its creation under The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Westmeath 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. The following is an incomplete list: all addresses are in County Westmeath unless stated otherwise.
The Rochfort family came to Ireland in the thirteenth century and acquired substantial lands in counties Kildare, Meath and Westmeath. Several members of the family were prominent lawyers and politicians. They gained the title Earl of Belvedere, and gave their name to the village of Rochfortbridge. The main Rochfort line ended with the death of the 2nd Earl of Belvedere in 1814.
Richard Nugent, 2nd Earl of Westmeath was an Irish nobleman.
Thomas Nugent, 4th Earl of Westmeath was an Irish soldier and peer. He was the second son of Christopher Nugent, Lord Delvin and Mary Butler, daughter of Colonel Richard Butler. He was likely the resident of Coolamber Hall House.
Richard Tyrrell was an Anglo-Irish Lord of Norman ancestry who was a commander of rebel Irish forces in the Irish Nine Years War.
George Augustus Rochfort, 2nd Earl of Belvedere was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician.
James Rochfort was a leading lieutenant colonel in Oliver Cromwell's Army during the English Civil War. He was better known by the nickname Prime Iron Rochfort.
Sir John Dongan, 2nd Baronet (1603–1650) was a member of the Irish Parliament.
Gustavus Hume Rochfort was an Anglo-Irish politician.
