Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/473

 PONSONBY. 469 has been, added to character, talents, and favourable opportunities, could not fail to attain honours, and power, and high connexions, for the possessors: and accordingly, two peerages, Besborough and Imokilly; the Speaker's chair in the Irish House of Commons; the Irish chancellorship; alliances with the ducal houses of Devonshire and St. Albans, as well as the noble ones of Spencer, Grey, and Westmoreland, in England; and of Shannon, Loftus, Kilworth, and Mountnorris, in Ireland, have a l l contributed t o render the Ponsonby family wealthy, eminent, and powerful. Mr. George Ponsonby, the subject o f this memoir, was born on the 5th o f March, 1755. He was the third son o f the Honourable John Ponsonby, soon afterwards elected Speaker o f the Irish House o f Commons, i n which h e succeeded Mr. Boyle. He was brother t o the late, and uncle t o the present Earl o f Besborough, b y Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter o f William, the third Duke o f Devonshire, and great aunt t o the present duke. He was, virtute officii, a privy counsellor, and six several times one o f the lords justices, a commissioner for administering the chief government, i n the absence o f the viceroy. On the demise o f the then late Lord Shannon, his heir and successor, who had married the Speaker's daughter, joined his political influence with those o f his father-in-law, and the Ponsonby family: and such was the strength o f this alliance, that they not only vanquished the rival house o f Beresford, then a formidable and ruling junto, but i n a great degree counterbalanced the royal prerogative itself, which was very powerful i n Ireland. Mr. Ponsonby resigned the speaker's chair i n 1769, from his decided reluctance t o carry up, officially, t o Lord Townsend, then viceroy, a n address, which was voted b y the House, contrary t o his decided opinion. This sacrifice o f his situation greatly raised the popularity o f a gentleman who was long con sidered t o possess and t o exercise a greater degree o f patronage and influence i n the government o f the country, than any commoner o r peer ever had before him.