Edwin Wyndham Quin, 3rd Earl of Dunraven and Mount Earl

Family

The third Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl in the peerage of Ireland, and first Baron Kenry of the United Kingdom (1812–1871), born 19 May 1812, in London, was only son of Windham Henry, second earl. His grandfather, Valentine Richard Quin (1752–1824), as a staunch supporter of the union, was recommended by Lord Cornwallis for a peerage, with the title of Baron Adare (31 July 1800) (Cornwallis Correspondence, ed. Ross, iii. 25). He was further created Viscount Mount-Earl in 1816, and Earl of Dunraven in 1822.

Wyndham-Quin was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating BA in 1833.

He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1855.

The third earl's father, Windham Henry Quin, second earl of Dunraven (1782–1850), assumed in 1815 the additional name of Wyndham in right of his wife. He represented Limerick county in the imperial parliament from 1806 to 1820, and was a representative peer of Ireland from 1839 till his death.

The third earl's mother, Caroline, was daughter and heiress of Thomas Wyndham of Dunraven Castle, Glamorganshire. She inherited from her father property in Gloucestershire, as well as the Wyndham estate in Glamorganshire; she died on 26 May 1870.

Parliamentary and public service

As Viscount Adare, he sat as the Conservative MP for Glamorganshire from the General Election in July 1837 to 1851. While in the House of Commons he became a supporter of Catholicism. His political activity largely aimed at safeguarding religious education in Ireland (Hansard, 3rd ser. lxxx. 1142–3). He became subsequently one of the commissioners of education in Ireland. He succeeded his father as third earl in the Irish peerage in 1850, and retired from the House of Commons next year.

On 12 March 1866 he was named a knight of St. Patrick, and on 11 June of the same year was created a peer of the United Kingdom, with the title of Baron Kenry, of Kenry, County Limerick. He acted as lord lieutenant of County Limerick from 1864 till his death.

Academic pursuits

Dunraven was deeply interested in intellectual pursuits. For three years he studied astronomy under William Rowan Hamilton in the Dublin observatory, and acquired a thorough knowledge both of the practical and theoretical sides of the science. He investigated the phenomena of spiritualism, and convinced himself of their genuineness. His son, later, the fourth earl, prepared for him minute reports of séances which Daniel Dunglas Home conducted with his aid in 1867–8. The reports were privately printed as Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D. D. Home, with a lucid introduction by Dunraven, in 1869 and subsequently withdrawn.

Dunraven's chief interest was in archaeology. He was associated with George Petrie, Stokes, and other Irish archæologists in the foundation of the Irish Archaeological Society in 1840, and of the Celtic Society in 1845. In 1849 and 1869 he presided over the meetings of the Cambrian Archaeological Association held at Cardiff and Bridgend, and in 1871 was president of a section of the Royal Archæological Institute. In 1862 he accompanied Montalembert on a tour in Scotland, and five years later travelled in France and Italy, with the view of making a special study of campaniles. But Irish archæology mainly occupied him. He is said to have visited every barony in Ireland, and nearly every island off the coast. He was usually attended by a photographer, and Dr. William Stokes and Miss Margaret Stokes were often in his company.

After Petrie's death in 1866, Dunraven took it upon himself to complete his book, Notes on Irish Architecture. He spent four years traveling and working on Notes, two lengthy folios published after his death, under the editorship of Margaret Stokes, with a preface by the fourth Earl of Dunraven, and notes by Petrie and Reeves. The work was illustrated by 161 wood engravings, from drawings by G. Petrie, W. F. Wakeman, Gordon Hills, Margaret Stokes, Lord Dunraven, and others, besides 125 fine plates. The first part dealt with stone buildings with and without cement, and the second part with belfries and Irish Romanesque.

As an appendix to his mother's book, Memorials of Adare Manor, Dunraven compiled a minute and exhaustive treatise on architectural remains in the neighbourhood of Adare. Part of this, treating of the round tower and church of Dysart, was reprinted in vol. ii. of the ‘Notes.’ Many of these half-ruined buildings were, by Dunraven's munificence, made available for religious purposes. He also contributed some valuable papers to the Royal Irish Academy.

He was elected Fellow of the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1831, Fellow of the Society of Arts in 1836, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1837, and on 10 April 1834 became Fellow of the Royal Society.

Montalembert dedicated to him a volume of his Monks of the West.

Dunraven died at the Imperial Hotel, Great Malvern, on 6 October 1871, and was buried at Adare on 14 October.

He was a man of quick perceptions and great power of application, a zealous Roman Catholic, and a highly popular landlord.

Family and personal life

He married on 18 August 1836, Augusta Charlotte Goold (d. 1866), the third daughter of Thomas Goold, Esquire, of Rossbrien, Dromadda and Athea, a Master in the Irish Court of Chancery. They had at least eight children, two sons being stillborn. His first wife died in 1866.

The surviving issue of this marriage were:

Secondly, 27 January 1870, to Anne, daughter of Henry Lambert, esq., of Carnagh, Wexford, who, after his death, married Hedworth Jolliffe, 2nd Baron Hylton.

A portrait of his first wife, who died 22 November 1866, was painted by Hayter, and engraved by Holl. Their son, the fourth earl, under-secretary for the colonies in 1885–1886 and again in 1886–1887, became an active Irish politician and yachtsman.

There are portraits at Adare Manor of the first Earl of Dunraven by Batoni, and of the third earl and countess by T. Philipps, as well as busts of the first and second earls.

In 1855 Dunraven purchased "Garinish Island" near Sneem (County Kerry, Republic of Ireland) as a holiday retreat from the Bland family of Derryquin Castle. He commissioned the architect James Franklin Fuller (1835-1924) and the building contractor Denis William Murphy (1799-1863, father of William Martin Murphy) with the creation of a house, later called "Garinish Lodge", and a garden on the island. His son, the 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, developed the garden from 1900 onwards into a subtropical wild garden, which is still in existence today.