Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/499

 COWLEY 479 COWLEY and COWLEY OF WELLESLEY BARONY. I. Henry Wellesley, 7th (5th surv.) and yst. s. of Garret (Wesley), ist Earl of Mornington [I.], by Anne, I. 1828. 1st da. of Arthur (Hill), 1st Viscount DuNGANNON [I.], and was, consequently, yr. br. of the celebrated Duke of Wellington. (^) He was b. 20 Jan. 1773; an officer in the ist regt. of Foot Guards 1791-94; Sec. of Legation at Stockholm, 1792; M.P. for Trim [I.], 1795, ^'■"1 (Tory) for Eye, 1 807-09 ;('') Sec. to Lord Malmes- bury's Embassy to Lille, July 1797; Private Sec. to his br., Lord Morn- ington, then Gov. Gen. of India, 1798-1805; Envoy to Lucknow, 1801, concluding a treaty whereby the Nawab of Oude ceded to the East India Co. certain districts yielding a million sterling annually, and was, 1801 to 1 802, Lieut. Gen. of these ceded districts. He left India in 1 803, was a Lord of the Treasury May to Aug. 1804; one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, 1807-09; P.C. 21 Dec. 1809; Envoy to the Court of Spain, 3 Jan. 1 8 10, and Ambassador, i Oct. 181 1 to 3 Mar. 1822, being, as such. Pleni- potentiary for the investiture of King Fernando VII with the Order of the Garter ("=) at Madrid, 17 May 1815; K.B. 10 Mar. 18 12; G.C.B. after 2 Jan. 1815. Ambassador to the Court of Austria, 3 Feb. 1823 to 27 Aug. 1831. On 21 Jan. 1828, he was cr. BARON COWLEY (<») OF WEL- LESLEY, CO. Somerset. Ambassador to the Court of France, 13 Mar. 1835 (retiring in Apr. or May following, owing to the change of Govt.), and (*) Of the five brothers who survived infancy, no less than 4 held separate Peer- ages (i) Richard, the eldest br., was Marquess Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, l^c. [I.], and Baron Wellesley [G.B.]; (2) William, the 2nd br., was Baron Maryborough [U.K.], and afterwards Earl of Mornington [I.]; (3) Arthur, the 3rd br., was the well-known Duke of Wellington; while (4) Henry, the 5th br., was Baron Cowley as above. Had the 5th and only remaining br., Gerald Valerian Wellesley, D.D. (who d. 24. Oct. 1848, aged 78), obtained a Bishopric, all five brothers might have had seats together in the House of Lords. For similar instances of several brothers sitting together in the House of Lords, see vol. ii, p. 264, note " a." ('") He was elected for Athlone at the same time, but chose Eye, for which place he had also been elected at a bye-election 9 days before the dissolution. V.G. (■=) See an account of these special Garter missions, in vol. ii. Appendix B. (<^) The paternal name of this family was Colley or Cowley, formerly of Castle Carbery, co. Kildare; but the name of Wesley was assumed, 15 Nov. 1728, by his Lordship's grandfather, Richard Colley of Dublin (afterwards [1746] cr. Baron Mornington [I.]), in compliance with the will of that gentleman's cousin. Garret Wesley, then "late of Dangan and Mornington, co. Meath, Esq." (who i. 23 Sep. 1 7 2 8), whose estates he inherited upon that condition. Testator's mother was Elizabeth Colley, aunt to Richard Colley, the devisee, who thus, though inheriting the Wellesley estates, in no way represented that family. He had, indeed, a descent in the Sth degree (not one involving any representation) from Sir Wm. Wellesley, of Dangan (who d. about 1495), through Sir William's daughter Alison, who m. John Cusack, and was grandmother of Katherine Cusack, who m. Sir Henry Colley, and d. I 597. In virtue of this descent, he would be yth cousin to the testator, a relationship of which not im- probably they were unaware.