Robert Clements, 4th Earl of Leitrim


Robert Bermingham Clements, 4th Earl of Leitrim DL was an Irish soldier and nobleman.

Early life

Clements was born on 5 March 1847. He was the only son of the Rev. Hon. Francis Nathaniel Clements, Vicar of Norton and Canon of Durham and the former Charlotte King. He had six sisters, Lady Anne Clements, Lady Caroline Clements, Lady Elizabeth Emily Clements, Lady Louisa Frances Clements, Lady Selina Charlotte Clements, and Lady Mary Clements. After his mother's death, his father remarried to Amelia Verner, the eldest daughter of Sir William Verner, 1st Baronet, in 1870.

Career

He served in the Royal Navy, gaining the rank of Lieutenant. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant.
When his unmarried uncle, William Clements, 3rd Earl of Leitrim was murdered on 2 April 1878, he succeeded as the 3rd Baron Clements of Kilmacrenan, the 4th Viscount Leitrim, the 4th Earl of Leitrim, the 4th Baron Leitrim, of Manor Hamilton. His uncle, however, left as much as he could away from him and, instead, chose as his principal heir his Ashfield second cousin, the next Colonel H. T. Clements. Lord Leitrim had a long dispute with Trinity College Dublin, over the headrents of part of his Donegal estates. His heirs sold the Newtowngore estate in the 1930s.

Personal life

On 2 September 1873, he was married to Lady Winifred Coke, the fifth daughter of Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester and, his first wife, the former Juliana Whitbread. Together, they were the parents of eight children, three sons and five daughters, including:
Lord Leitrim died 5 April 1892 and was buried at Carrigart near Mulroy in County Donegal. His widow lived another forty-eight years before her death on 22 March 1940.