ROBINSON, John Robert. The Last Earls of Barrymore 1769-1824.

Illustrated. London: Sampson Low, 1894. Octavo. pp. xiv, 272. Blue and beige pictorial cloth, title in gilt on upper cover and spine. Ex lib with neat circular stamps. A very good copy.

When John R. Robinson created his chronicle The Last Earls of Barrymore, the author pointed out that his aim was not to glorify the behaviour of the infamous earls but rather to provide an exposé of what he called their “disastrous example of extravagance and folly”. As part of the Prince of Wales’ Carlton House Set, the last Earls of Barrymore epitomized the indulgence of England’s Regency Period (c.1811-1821); in an aristocratic world of privilege, debauchery and extravagance, they came to be known as some of the most notorious rakes of their age.

One of the earliest known members of this notorious family was a nobleman of the early 12th century named William de Barry who married Hangaret the daughter of Gerald of Windsor by his wife Nesta, the beautiful princess of South Wales. In 1169, members of the Barry family participated in the invasion of Ireland and became so powerful that they were called “the Great Barrys” or Barry more. The chief of this family held the titles Lord of Olethan, Viscount of Buttevant and in 1627 advanced to the dignity of Earl of Barrymore.

The family of Richard, 6th Earl of Barrymore, moved to London after their father’s death in 1773 and as part of the Regency Rakes (so named after the swearing in of George, Prince of Wales, as Regent in 1811) earned the following nicknames: Richard “Hellgate” Barry, who was notorious for racing teams of horses through London streets and squares, and who, dying at the early age of twenty-four, squandered over 300,000 pounds in six short years; Augustus “Newgate” Barry, so named because Newgate was the only penitentiary he had never been incarcerated in; Lady “Billingsgate” Barry, whose obscene language resembled the kind associated with the Billingsgate Fish Market and Henry “Cripplegate” Barry who, after the death of his more famous elder brother Richard, became the 8th and last Earl of Barrymore. In 1795, contrary to acceptable practice, Earl Henry “Cripplegate” Barry married a commoner, Anne Coghlan, the extremely beautiful daughter of a tavern keeper (Melville, 71). Twenty-eight years later, the last Earl of Barrymore died of stroke related symptoms on December 18, 1823 in Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris at the age of fifty-four. He was penniless.

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