Wednesday 22 April 2020

Lambay Castle

JOHANN BARING (1697-1748), of Larkbeer, Devon (son of Franz Baring, minister of the Lutheran Church at Bremen, Germany), married Elizabeth, daughter of John Vowler, of Exeter, and had issue,
John (1730-1816);
THOMAS;
FRANCIS, of whom hereafter;
Charles;
Elizabeth, m John Dunning, created BARON ASHBURTON.
The third son, who founded the London branch of the family,

FRANCIS BARING (1740-1810), an eminent London merchant, was created a baronet in 1793, designated of Larkbeer, Devon.

He married, in 1767, Harriet, daughter of William Herring, of Croydon, cousin and co-heir of the Most Rev Thomas Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury, and had issue,
Thomas, his successor;
Alexander, created BARON ASHBURTON (2nd creation);
HENRY, of whom we treat;
William;
George;
Harriet; Maria; Dorothy Elizabeth; Frances; Lydia.
Sir Francis's third son,

HENRY BARING (1777-1848), of Cromer Hall, Norfolk, founder of Baring's Bank, espoused firstly, in 1802, Maria Matilda, daughter of William Bingham, and had issue,
Henry Bingham;
William Drummond;
Anna Maria; Frances Emily.
He married secondly, Cecilia Anne, eldest daughter of Vice-Admiral William Lukin Windham, and had further issue,
William Windham (1826-76);
EDWARD CHARLES, of whom we treat;
Robert;
Richard;
Thomas;
Evelyn, created EARL OF CROMER;
Walter.
The second son by Mr Baring's second marriage,

EDWARD CHARLES BARING (1828-97), of Membland Hall, and Revelstoke Manor, both in Devon, espoused, in 1861, Louisa Emily Charlotte, daughter of John Crocker Bulteel, by his wife, the Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, and had issue,
Arthur, died in infancy;
JOHN, 2nd Baron;
CECIL, 3rd Baron;
Everard;
Maurice;
Hugo;
Rupert;
Elizabeth; Margaret; Susan.
Mr Baring was elevated to the peerage, in 1885, in the dignity of BARON REVELSTOKE, of Membland, Devon.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

JOHN, 2nd Baron (1863-1929), GCVO PC, Lord-Lieutenant of Middlesex, 1926, who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his brother,

CECIL, 3rd Baron (1864-1934), who wedded, in 1902, Maude Louise, daughter of Pierre Lorillard IV, and had issue,
RUPERT, his successor;
Daphne; Capypso.
His lordship was succeeded by his son,

RUPERT, 4th Baron (1911-94), 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Armoured Corps (during the 2nd World War), who espoused, in 1934, Flora Breckenridge, daughter of Thomas, 1st Baron Hesketh, and had issue,
JOHN, his successor;
JAMES CECIL, 6th Baron.
His lordship was succeeded by his elder son,

JOHN, 5th Baron (1934-2003), who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his brother,

JAMES CECIL, 6th Baron (1938-2012), who married firstly, in 1968, Aleta Laline Dennis, daughter of Erskine Arthur Hamilton Fisher, and had issue,
ALEXANDER RUPERT, his successor;
Thomas James, b 1971.
He wedded secondly, in 1983, Sarah, daughter of William Edward Stubbs, and had further issue,
Flora Aksinia, b 1983;
Miranda Louise, b 1987.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

ALEXANDER RUPERT, 7th Baron (1970-), of Lambay Castle.


LAMBAY CASTLE, Lambay Island, Rush, County Dublin, is a small, late-16th century fort with castellated gables, on Lambay Island, a square mile in extent, less than three miles off the coast of north County Dublin and inhabited since ancient times.

Shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion, Lambay Island was granted to the archbishops of Dublin.

The large broad-ditch enclosure, still visible on the landscape today, was constructed in the medieval period.

In 1467, the island was given to John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, Lord Deputy of Ireland, thus enabling him to build a fortress to prevent pirates harbouring there, and plundering traffic between Ireland and England.

This fortress, with its four projecting corner bastions added in Tudor times, was later incorporated by Edwin Lutyens as an essential part of his design for the present castle.

The island was granted to John Challoner, Mayor of Dublin and Secretary of State for Ireland in 1560.

Challoner was ordered to build a fortified place of refuge and to re-establish a colony to guard against smugglers and pirates.

Challoner still owned Lambay in Elizabethan times, but in 1611 the island was granted to Sir William Ussher and his heirs.

Dr James Ussher (1581-1656), Lord Archbishop of Armagh, lived on Lambay in 1626, but by 1650 he was resident in London.

His Grace was highly respected by Cromwell and is interred in Westminster Abbey.

The Ussher family held the Island for 200 years.

In the early years of the 17th century, Dirrick Huiberts Verveer, a wealthy Dublin merchant and shipowner, was granted a licence to keep taverns and to sell wine and spirits in the Skerries area and on Lambay.

Petty’s census of 1659 recorded a population of just nine islanders.

During the Williamite war, the island was used as an internment camp for 780 Irish soldiers and 260 rapparees.

In 1805, Lambay passed to Sir William Wolseley, an Ussher descendent.

In 1814, Margaret Talbot, widow of Richard Talbot (1735-1788), and then living in Eccles Street, agreed to purchase the island and the fishing rights from Wolseley for £6,500.

during the mid-19th century the island population rose to 100.

Richard, 5th Baron Talbot de Malahide (at his own expense but at the instigation of a Father Henry Young), built a two-roomed, mud-walled thatched school in 1834.

Nothing, however, remains of the thatched school nowadays.

Throughout much of the second half of the 19th century the island was a popular destination for steamer excursions.

James Considine, of Portrane House (brother of the late Heffernan Considine DL), purchased Lambay in 1888.

Count Considine set about developing the island as a hunting estate and was the first man to introduce deer onto the island.

Cecil, 3rd Baron Revelstoke, purchased Lambay in 1904.

While working in America he fell in love with Maud, daughter of the tobacco millionaire Pierre Lorillard.

She divorced her husband, the couple married and together they chose Lambay as their refuge from the world.

From 1907 onwards they restored and enlarged the small ruined fort as their principal residence, transforming the building “into a romantic castle” and placing it in the centre of a majestic circular enclosure beneath a canopy of Sycamore trees.

Lutyens Wing

The result is one of the few important Edwardian country houses in Ireland and the only Irish country house by the distinguished architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The three-bay centre of the northwest front, which faces a bastioned gateway in the Rampart Wall, is flanked by two full-height projecting bays, each with crow-stepped gables and tall chimneys.

Lutyens attached a wing to provide guest accommodation at the northeastern corner and "regarded the link between the two buildings as one of his most brilliant architectural coups" since the castle, which appears single storied on this front, continues to dominate the two-storey wing.

Along with the enlarged garden and farm buildings these additions were built in grey-green Lambay stone with grey pantile roofs to form a sequence of courts, walled gardens and enclosed yards that give the impression of a small hamlet nestling for protection beneath the castle’s walls.

Lambay is exposed to the elements and the castle is “constructed with small doors and small casements so that the inhabitants seem, on rough days, to be sheltering like monks.”

The interior has vaulted ceilings, stone fireplaces and a curved stone staircase, while much of the furniture and fittings chosen by Lutyens is still arranged just as he intended.

He also adapted and enlarged a number of other early structures and integrated them into an ingenious layout for the whole island estate, including the farm, gardens and plantations, all designed in collaboration with the horticulturalist and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.

The walled kitchen garden pierces the Rampart Wall to the south with the mausoleum in memory of the Revelstokes, designed by Lutyens in 1930, on the opposite side of the enclosure.

He also designed The White House, overlooking the harbour on the western shores of the island, as a holiday home for the couple’s two daughters.

Alongside is a row of old Coastguard cottages and an open-air Real Tennis court, one of only two still in existence.

In the mid 1900s Lambay was home to more than eighty islanders, but today it is maintained by a handful of hardy individuals.

Cecil and Maud’s numerous descendants still own the island where their great-grandson Alex, 7th Lord Revelstoke, is the resident guardian and curator, making this the only one of Lutyens’ and Jekyll’s joint collaborations that still belongs to the family that first commissioned the work.

Lambay Island is a haven for wildlife and a National Bird Sanctuary.

Resident fauna includes a herd of fallow deer, a thriving colony of Atlantic grey seals, which pup on Lambay’s sheltered beaches, and, most unusually, a troop of wild wallabies.

The diverse bird life is of far greater significance, for this is an important seabird colony and their cries can be heard throughout the island.

Nesting birds include Fulmars, Guillemots, Herring Gulls, Kittiwakes, Manx Shearwaters and Puffins, while Greylag Geese are common winter visitors.

First published in November, 2017.  Revelstoke arms courtesy of European Heraldry.

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