John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne

John Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Shelburne Anglo-Irish peer as alive as politician. He was the father of William Petty FitzMaurice, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1782 to 1783.

Life

Born John FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne was a second son of Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry, in addition to Anne, daughter of Sir William Petty 1623–1687. He was the younger brother of William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry, & the nephew of Charles Petty, 1st Baron Shelburne and Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne. He was educated at Westminster School and was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1727.

In 1751 he succeeded to the estates of his uncle the Earl of Shelburne who had died childless and assumed by Act of Parliament the surname of Petty in lieu of his patronymic. Later the same year he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Dunkeron and Viscount FitzMaurice. Two years later the earldom of Shelburne was revived in his favour when he was made Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, in the Irish peerage.

In 1754 he bought Bowood Park, an estate between Chippenham and Calne in Wiltshire, and rebuilt the mansion there.

FitzMaurice was High Sheriff of Kerry in 1732. In 1743 he entered the Irish multiple of Commons as one of two representatives for County Kerry, a seat he held until 1751.

He was Governor of County Kerry in 1754 and the same year he was talked to the British House of Commons for Wycombe, a seat he held until 1760. He was sworn of the Irish Privy Council in 1754 and in 1760 he was created Lord Wycombe, Baron of Chipping Wycombe, in the County of Buckingham, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which entitled him to a seat in the English House of Lords.