Edward Southwell Sr.


Edward Southwell Sr. PC (Ire) was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and politician.

Early life

He was the second but only surviving son of Sir Robert Southwell of Kings Weston, near Bristol.
He was educated at Kensington School, Lincoln's Inn and Merton College, Oxford.

Career

He served in a number of high public offices including Chief Prothonotary of the Common Pleas in Ireland, clerk of the Privy Council, judge of the Admiralty court and vice-admiral of Munster. He was several times joint commissioner of the Privy Seal. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1692 and twice served on their council.
He sat in the Irish House of Commons for Kinsale from 1692 to 1699, for Dublin University from 1703 to 1713 and then again for Kinsale from 1713 to his death.
In 1702 Southwell succeeded his father as Principal Secretary of State (Ireland) and was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland the same year. Both appointments were for life.
He sat in the House of Commons of England and the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1702 and 1715 as MP for Rye, Tregony and Preston.

Personal life

He had married Elizabeth Cromwell, 8th Baroness Cromwell, the daughter and heiress of Vere Essex Cromwell, 4th Earl of Ardglass and Catherine Hamilton. Before her death in 1709, they were the parents of:
In 1712 he commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh to build Kings Weston House in Kingsweston, Bristol. After the death of his first wife, he married Anne Blathwayt, daughter of William Blathwayt of Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire, in 1716. Sadly, she died the following year.
He died in 1730 and was buried at Kingsweston. His son Edward from his first marriage, succeeded in turn to the Secretaryship and to the Kings Weston estate.

Descendants

Through his son Edward, he was a grandfather of Edward Southwell, who later became the 20th Baron de Clifford.