Armar Lowry-Corry , MP for co. Tyrone. Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore It was the inheritance of three family estates which made Lowry-Corry an important and wealthy magnate and a potential political power. Politics, indeed, was part of his inheritance, as his father, his two uncles and his maternal grandfather had all been members of the Irish House of Commons. At the general election of 1768 Galbraith Lowry decided not to stand for re-election for Co. Tyrone, recommending that his son seek election in his place. Armar Lowry-Corry was indeed elected, though at a cost of over £3,000, and sat for Co. Tyrone until his elevation to the peerage in 1781. As well as enabling him to win and retain a seat for the county where the bulk of his property lay, Lowry-Corry's inheritance also entitled him to look for an advantageous marriage. In 1772 he had made an aristocratic, but otherwise unremarkable, match in the person of Lady Margaret Butler, daughter of Somerset, 1st Earl of Carrick. This marriage was happy but short, Lady Margaret dying in April 1775. The one lasting consolation from it was a son and heir, Somerset, subsequently 2nd Earl Belmore. By 1780 Lowry Corry was again thinking of marriage, this time to Lady Harriet Hobart, daughter of the reigning Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire. It seemed the perfect match, for the bride, as well as being well-connected politically and a member of the English aristocracy, also brought with her a large marriage portion of £20,000 (D/3007/A/14/4). However, the marriage was not destined to last. On 21 July 1780 Lord Buckinghamshire wrote jocularly: 'Lady Harriet Corry and Lady Emilia Hobart are all subdued by the naked hocks of Lord Strathaven, a blooming Highlander' (PRONI, T/3429/1/62). The remark, though jocular, was prophetic of her future liaison with another Scot, the 6th Marquess of Lothian, whom she married in 1793. On 6 January 1781 Lowry-Corry was raised to the peerage as Baron Belmore, and on 15 June 1781 his wife and he entered into a deed of separation by which he agreed to pay her £1,000 a year. They were never reconciled and the marriage was finally dissolved by divorce in April 1793 (at a cost to Belmore in legal and parliamentary fees of well over £4,000 - see D/3007/B/5/8/3A). During the separation Lady Belmore's misconduct' so 'distracted' Belmore that he 'almost entirely secluded himself from society' (PRONI, D/623/A/136/24). Only in his third marriage to a local Co. Fermanagh lady of small fortune (some £2,000 - see D/3007/A/14/8), Mary-Anne Caldwell of Castle Caldwell, did he find a contentment which lasted from their marriage in 1794 to his death in 1802. [Go to top of page]
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