Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth

Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth was an Anglo-Irish politician and writer.
Molesworth came from an old Northamptonshire family. He married Hon. Letitia Coote, daughter of Coote, 1st Baron Coote, and Mary St. George. His father Robert was a Cromwellian who made a fortune in Dublin, largely by provisioning Cromwell's army; Robert Molesworth the younger supported William of Orange and was made William's ambassador to Denmark. In 1695 he became a prominent member of the Privy Council of Ireland. The same year he stood for County Dublin in the Irish House of Commons, a seat he held until 1703. Subsequently, he represented Swords until 1715. In the following year, he was created Viscount Molesworth, of Swords, in the Peerage of Ireland.

Life and career

Robert Molesworth was born on 7 September 1656, four days after the death of his father; his mother Judith Bysse later remarried Sir William Tichborne of Beaulieu. He was probably raised by his mother's family, the Bysses, at Brackenstown, near Swords, County Dublin. In 1689 he was proscribed by James II's Patriot Parliament and fled from Ireland to London. William III made him the English ambassador to Denmark partly to secure Danish mercenaries and to break Denmark's alliance with France, first in a private mission and from 1692 as envoy extraordinaire He had to leave Denmark quickly.
On his return animosity from William III meant he was unable to secure any position despite backing from influential Whig ministers. Instead he became the center of the more radical Commonwealthmen faction of the Whigs and the Earl of Shaftesbury regarded him as a mentor. He was regarded as the most quoted liberal Whig of his lifetime.
Queen Anne did make him an Irish Privy Councillor but he had to resign from that when in 1713 a convocation of the Church of Ireland recommended prosecution for "an indictable profanation of the holy scriptures", after he had quoted Scripture in the course of an insult to Church of Ireland representatives at a viceregal levée.
In 1720, Molesworth and his grandson lost a significant investment in the South Sea Bubble. In Parliament, since his colleagues suggested there was no law under which to punish the perpetrators, he called for the Commons to "upon this occasion follow the example of the ancient Romans, who, having no law against parricide, because their legislators supposed no son could be so unnaturally wicked as to embrue his hands in his father's blood, made one to punish so heinous a crime as soon as it was committed; and adjudged the guilty wretch to be thrown alive, sewn up in a sack, into the Tiber". He concluded that he would see the same punishment applied to the directors of the South Sea Company, calling them the parricides of their country.

Works

Molesworth's An Account of Denmark, as it was in the Year 1692 was somewhat influential in the burgeoning field of political science in the period. He made a case for comparative political analysis, comparing the political situation of a country to the health of an individual; a disease, he reasoned, can only be diagnosed by comparing it to its instantiation in other people.
He also translated from French Franco-Gallia, which argued for an elective monarchy and that sovereignty rested in representative institutions.
Caroline Robbins in her book The Eighteenth Century Commonwealthman argues that Molesworth was the center of a group of dissident Whigs known as the Commonwealthmen.

Family

With his wife Hon. Letitia Coote, Molesworth had eleven sons and six daughters:

John Molesworth, 2nd Viscount Molesworth of Swords. Ambassador at the Court of Tuscany and Sardinia in 1710 and 1720. He married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Middleton Esq. of Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, by whom he had a posthumous daughter Mary, who married Frederick Gore Esq., M.P.
Field Marshal Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth of Swords. Aide-de-Camp to the John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Ramilles, where he saved the Duke's life. He later became a General and rose to Fieldmarshal.
The Hon. Robert Molesworth I
Captain The Hon. William Molesworth, MP for Philipstown. His son Robert became 6th Viscount Molesworth. Married Anne, eldest daughter of Robert Adair Esq. of Holybrook, County Wicklow.
Major The Hon. Edward Molesworth. Married firstly, in Sept 1718 Catherine Middleton, daughter of Thomas Middleton, with whom he had a son Robert. Edward married as his second wife Mary Renouard and had a son John. John's son was the Rev. John Molesworth, whose sons included Sir Guildford Lindsey Molesworth and solicitor John Molesworth, the grandfather of Margaret Patricia Molesworth who is the grandmother of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. Another son was the Rev. Rennell Molesworth, grandfather of Lady Mogg née Margaret Molesworth.
The Hon. Coote Molesworth I
The Hon. Robert Molesworth II
The Hon. Walter Molesworth. He left children.
The Hon. Coote Molesworth II M.D.
The Hon. Bysse Molesworth. Married 7 Dec 1731, Elizabeth Cole, sister of John Cole, 1st Baron Mountflorence and widow of Edward Archdall Esq. of Castle Archdall, County Fermanagh.
The Hon. Robert Molesworth III
The Hon. Juliana Molesworth
The Hon. Margaret Molesworth
The Hon. Mary Molesworth, a celebrated beauty and poet. Married George Monk Esq. of Dublin.
The Hon. Letitia Molesworth I
The Hon. Charlotte Amelia Molesworth. Married Capt. William Tichborne, younger son of Robert Molesworth's half brother Henry Tichborne, 1st Baron Ferrard making him her cousin on the Bysse side
The Hon. Letitia Molesworth II. Married Edward Bolton Esquire of Brazeel, County Dublin. In 1760, their son Robert Bolton translated the charter and statutes of Trinity College, Dublin from which he had graduated with an A.B.

Robert also appears to have had a natural son:

John Phillips of Swords, a surgeon, County Dublin, married to Henrietta Eccleston, herself a talented painter, daughter of John Eccleston of Termonfekin, and his wife Elizabeth. John was the son of William Eccleston of Drumshallon, High Sheriff of Louth and his wife, Rose Brabazon, daughter of Captain James Brabazon. They had a son and two daughters:
* Brevet-Major Molesworth Phillips of Swords, a marine officer and adventurer who sailed to Pacific Ocean with Captain Cook. He married Susannah Elizabeth Burney, an English letter and journal writer, daughter of Charles Burney, a music historian by his first wife, Esther Sleepe. Molesworth thus became brother-in-law of Charles Burney, a clergyman and chaplain to George III and Fanny Burney, Madame d'Arblay, an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. He inherited entailed land in Swords, and from his maternal great-grandfather, William Eccleston, and his uncle, William Eccleston, he inherited the estate of Belcotton and the townland of Termonfeckin, County Louth. The couple left issue.
* Magdalene Dorothea, married in June 1780 to George Kiernan of Blackhall, Dublin. They had issue.
* Henrietta Maria Phillips, married on 26 August 1766 to Rev Walter Shirley, Rector of Loughrea, co. Galway

Death and succession

The 1st Viscount died in Dublin on 22 May 1725 at the age of sixty-nine and was buried in Swords. His widow, Letitia, died "of a great cold" on Saint Patrick's Day 1729 and was buried privately in St. Audoen's Church in Dublin. Their eldest son, John, succeeded as 2nd Viscount Molesworth in 1725. John, in turn, was succeeded by his younger brother Richard a year later in 1726.