Alexander Stewart (1746–1831)

Alexander Stewart (1746–1831), known as Alexander Stewart of Ards, was an Irish landowner and member of parliament.

Alexander Stewart
Born	26 March 1746
Died	1831
Occupation	High sheriff, MP and landowner

Birth and origins

Alexander was born on 26 March 1746 in Ireland.[1] He was the fifth son of Alexander Stewart and his wife Mary Cowan. His father's family was Ulster Scots and came from County Donegal. His father had bought the Newtownards and Comber estates in County Down in 1743[2] and lived at Mount Stewart, near Newtownards. His father also still was an alderman of Londonderry (or Derry) in 1760. His grandfather, Colonel William Stewart, had commanded one of the two companies of Protestant soldiers that Derry admitted into town when Mountjoy was sent to Derry by Tyrconnell before the start of the siege.[3] Alexander's mother was a daughter of John Cowan, alderman of Derry and sister of Robert Cowan, Governor of Bombay. Her family also was Ulster Scots. His parents had married on 30 June 1737 in Dublin.[4]

Family tree

Alexander Stewart with wife, parents, and other selected relatives. William Stewart Colonel John Cowan Alderman of Derry Alexander 1699–1781 Mary Cowan d. 1788 Robert Cowan d. 1737 Governor of Bombay Sarah Frances Seymour- Conway 1747–1770 Robert 1st Marquess 1739–1821 Frances Pratt c. 1751 – 1833 Alexander of Ards 1746–1831 Mary Moore 1772–1842 Robert 2nd Marquess 1769–1822 Castlereagh Charles 3rd Marquess 1778–1854 Alexander Robert 1795–1850 Caroline Pratt d. 1827 Frederick 4th Marquess 1805–1872 George 5th Marquess 1821–1884 Alexander John Robert 1827–1904 Legend XXX Alexander Stewart XXX Marquesses of Londonderry First wife on the left, second on the right. Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Alexander listed among his siblings
He appears among his siblings as the sixth child: Anne (1738–1781);[5] Robert (1739–1821), became the 1st Marquess of Londonderry;[6] William (1741–1742), died an infant;[7] Francis (born 1742);[8] John (1744–1762), died young;[9] Alexander (1746–1831); and Mary (born 1747), died young.[10]

Ards House

In 1782, after his father's death in the preceding year, Alexander Stewart, probably using some money from the inheritance, bought the Ards House and some surrounding lands near on the shores of Sheephaven Bay near Dunfanaghy, County Donegal, for £13,250 from William Wray and started to live there.[11][12] He and his heirs were therefore known as the Stewarts of Ards.[13] The Ards House was demolished in the early 1960s, but the wooded park in which it stood still exists and is known as the Ards Forest Park.[14]

Marriage

On 2 October 1791 Alexander Stewart of Ards, as he was now, married Mary Moore, daughter of Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda and granddaughter of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford.[1] Mary was the niece of Sarah Frances Seymour-Conway, the first wife of Alexander's eldest brother Robert, Lord Londonderry.[15]

Their children who reached adulthood included three sons:

1. Alexander Robert Stewart (1795–1850), succeeded him;[16]
2. Charles Moore (1799–1831),[17] became a minister of a church, probably Presbyterian;[18] and
3. John Vandeleur (1802–1872) of Rock Hill (near Letterkenny).[19]

Politics and later life

Stewart was appointed High Sheriff of Donegal for 1791–92.[20]

Stewart sat as member of parliament (MP) in the Irish Parliament in 1800–1801. He was elected for the Londonderry County constituency of the Irish Parliament in 1800, sat for Londonderry County for one month and then exchanged it for the borough of Thomastown for which he sat until Irish Parliament was abolished due to the Acts of Union in 1801.[21]

Stewart also sat for the and for the UK Parliament in 1814–1818. On 19 July 1814 he was elected for the Londonderry constituency of the U.K. Parliament to replace his nephew Sir Charles Stewart who had on 1 July 1814 been raised to the peerage as Baron Stewart.[22] He thus served as "a family stopgap" who "supported [the Earl of Liverpool's Tory] government silently". He sat for the constituency for four years until the 1818 general election, when his son Alexander-Robert was elected, having come of age.[23]

Alexander Stewart of Ards died in 1831.[24]

Notes

1. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 42: "Alexander, b. 26 March 1746, m. Mary Moore, 3d da. of Charles, marquess of Drogheda (by Anne, eldest da. of Francis Seymour, 1st marquess of Hertford,) and has issue ..."
2. Bew 2012, p. 7, line 16: "Alexander retired from business and bought into the landed gentry in 1743, with the acquisition of sixty townlands and a large estate in County Down ..."
3. Bew 2012, p. 6: "His son, Colonel William Stewart, had raised a troop of horse during the siege of Londonderry by James II in 1689, making them the archetypal Ulster Scots settlers."
4. Watson 2004, p. 752, right column: "Mary Cowan married (Dublin, 30 June 1737) her cousin Alexander Stewart (1700–1781)."
5. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 51: "Anne, b. 27 Sept. 1738, d. 21 April 1781."
6. Debrett 1828, p. 635: "ROBERT, eldest son, was created baron Stewart, 1789; viscount Castlereagh, 1795; earl of Londonderry, 1796; and marquess of Londonderry 1816."
7. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 40: "William, b. 11 April 1741, d. in 1742."
8. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 52: "Francis, b. 26 Oct. 1742."
9. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 43: "William, b. 3 July 1744, d. 1762."
10. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 53: "Mary, b. 15 April 1747, d. young."
11. Trench 1945, p. 139: "... the transaction executed between William Wray and Alexander Stewart, brother to the 1st Marquis of Londonderry by which the entire estates passed to the said Alexander Stewart ... sum of £13,250 to be paid by Alexander Stewart ..."
12. Burke 1879, p. 1525, right column, line 2: "... purchased the estate of Ards from the Wray family and settled there 1782."
13. Johnston 1906, p. 80: "ALEXANDER STEWART of Ballylawn and Mount Stewart, great-great-grandson of John Stewart of Ballylawn castle said to be a cadet of Garlies, was born 1699, and died 1781, leaving two sons:- (a) Robert (number 242) (b) Alexander, ancestor of the Stewart of Ards, Lourencetown and Rockhill. Arms of Stewarts of Ards: 1 and 4. Gold, a bend counter compony silver and blue between two red lions rampant. 2 and 3. Red, a silver saltire. CREST: a golden dragon standing. MOTTO: 'metuenda corolla draconis' (Burke)."
14. Trench 1945, p. 145: "In the centre of all this bewitching beauty Ards House gleamed white from amongst the dark woods ..."
15. Debrett 1828, p. 635, line 3: "The marquess m. 1st 3 June 1766, Sarah-Frances Seymour, 2nd daughter of Francis, 1st marquess of Hertford ..."
16. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 44: "Alexander-Robert, M.P. co. Londonderry, b. 12 Feb. 1795 ..."
17. Debrett 1828, p. 634, line 46: "Charles-Moore, b. 5 March 1799 ..."
18. Burke 1879, p. 1525, right column, line 9: "Charles Moore (Rev.) b. 5 March 1799 ..."
19. Burke 1879, p. 1525, right column, line 12: "John Vandeleur, of Rock Hill, co. Donegal, J.P. and D.L., b. 4 Oct. 1802, m. 18 Dec. 1837, Lady Helen Toler, 3rd daughter of Hector John, 2nd Earl of Norbury, and d. 24 June 1872 ..."
20. "Stewart, Alexander II (1746–1831), of Ards, Letterkenny, co. Donegal". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 2 August 2013. Sheriff, co. Donegal 1791–2.
21. "Stewart, Alexander II (1746–1831), of Ards, Letterkenny, co. Donegal". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 2 August 2013. Stewart was the younger brother of Robert, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, Castlereagh's father, on whose interest he sat for a month in the Irish parliament for county Derry in 1800, before transferring to lord Clifden's borough of Thomastown.
22. House of Commons 1878, p. 271: "Alexander Stewart of Kilres, county Londonderry, vice Sir Charles William Stewart, knt. of the bath, called to the Upper House as Baron Stewart / 19 July 1814 / ditto [Londonderry County]"
23. "Stewart, Alexander II (1746–1831), of Ards, Letterkenny, co. Donegal". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 19 November 2017. ... when Stewart was returned for county Derry in 1814 it was as a family stopgap, a replacement for his nephew Charles William Stewart. He retained the seat only until the dissolution, when he was replaced by his son Alexander Robert who had meanwhile come of age.
24. Burke 1879, p. 1525, right column, line 29: "Mr. Stewart d. 1831 and was s. by his eldest son ..."

References

• Bew, John (2012), Castlereagh: A Life, London: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199931590
• Burke, Sir Bernard (1879), A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 (6th ed.), London: Harrison
• Debrett, John (1828), Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 (17th ed.), London: F. C. and J. Rivington – Scotland and Ireland
• House of Commons (1878), "Members of Parliament", Parliamentary Papers, London: H. M. Stationery Office, 62
• Johnston, G. Harvey (1906), The Heraldry of the Stewarts, Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnston
• Trench, Charlotte Violet (1945), The Wrays of Donegal, Londonderry and Antrim, Oxford: Oxford Univeersty Press
• Watson, I. B. (2004), "Cowan, Sir Robert (d.1737)", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 13, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 752–753, ISBN 0-19-8613636

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Alexander Stewart
• Stewart of Ards family papers at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland