Once part of a 30,000-acre estate owned by the Butler
Dynasty, Mount Wolseley, or Mount Aaron, as it was then known, came into
the possession of the Wolseley family in 1725. Having been torched by
insurgents during the 1798 Rebellion, the house was rebuilt in 1864.
The
200-acre property was sold to the Patrician Brothers in 1925 and was
purchased by the Morrissey family in 1994, whose decision to develop a
luxury hotel and championship golf course heralds a new era in the
history of the property. At Mount Wolseley, the visual delights of
the setting are something to behold. Set just a few hundred yards from
the meandering River Slaney, its rich population of trees and lakes are
set against the backdrop of the magnificent views of Mount Leinster and
the Blackstairs to the South and glimpses of the Wicklow Mountains to
the East.
The first of the Wolseley family
to come to Ireland was William Wolseley who hailed from Staffordshire in
England and who fought alongside King William at the Battle of the
Boyne. William purchased the 2,500 acre estate of Mount Arran (later
renamed Mount Wolseley) from Sir Charles Butler, Earl of Arran around
1725. William died unmarried and his nephew Richard Wolseley came to
Ireland to claim the estate of his uncle. Richard was M.P. for the
Borough of Carlow between 1703 and 1713 and was succeeded in this
position by his son, also Richard who inherited his father’s estate at
Mount Wolseley and enjoyed a long tenure there.
The house was reconstructed by Sir
Thomas Wolseley in 1864 and the estate was sold to the Patrician Order
for £4,500 in 1925 by the daughters of Sir John Richard Wolseley. When
Sir John died aged forty, he was succeeded in the title by his brother
Sir Clement James Wolseley who was probably the last of the family to
occupy Mount Wolseley.
In 1994 Mount Wolseley was
purchased by the Morrissey family and has since been developed into a
four star, quality hotel and 18-hole championship golf course with a
range of activities on its doorstep offering guests plenty of things to
do on their stay. When Sir Clement James Wolseley died without an heir
in 1889, the baronetcy first created over 150 years earlier began to
move in an ever widening circle of distant cousins. In all five
successive holders of the title died without heirs and having been held
by family members in various positions in the church, the army and the
diplomatic service, the title devolved to its present owner in 1950,
Garnet Wolseley, a cobbler from Cheshire, England who is now retired and
living in Canada.
Probably the most famous of all
the Wolseley’s was Frederick York Wolseley, who along with Herbert
Austin created the world’s first mechanical sheep shears and in 1895
started production of one of Britain’s most famous car marques – the
Wolseley – whose name dominated the British motor industry for 8 decades
until 1975, when the last car bearing the famous Wolseley marque was
produced.
Source: http://www.mountwolseley.ie/welcome-1.html
