[JONES, Richard, Viscount and Earl of Ranelagh]

The Case of the Lord Coningsby's Two Infant Daughters, with respect to the Bill now Passing the Honourable House of Commons, for Sale of the Estate of the Late Earl of Ranelagh at Chelsea and Cranborne, in the County of Middlesex and Berks [caption title]

London: 1713. Broadsheet, 15 x 11 inches. [1]p., plus printed docket title on verso. Ornamental initial. Disbound. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Small portion of inner margin excised, with no loss to text. Mild foxing.

Richard Jones, 3rd Viscount and 1st Earl of Ranelagh (1641-1712), was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, Irish politician, and Member of Parliament in the English House of Commons (his peerage was Irish, which did not disqualify him) from 1685 to 1703. In 1702, discrepancies were discovered in his accounts as paymaster-general of the army; his resignation from that position was interpreted as an admission of guilt, and he was expelled from Parliament in 1703 and convicted of having misappropriated more than £900,000. The scandalous nature of Ranelagh's life in both political and personal realms led the DNB to note, "Perhaps the only redeeming feature in Ranelagh's character was the unaffected pleasure he took in building and gardening." He helped design and build the structures and gardens of an architecturally celebrated pair of estates in Chelsea and Cranborne Chase, near Windsor. In the present leaflet, advocates of Ranelagh's two granddaughters, Margaret and Frances Coningsby, petition Parliament to ensure that, if any property remains from Ranelagh's estates after being sold to pay off his substantial debts, it be given to them, as per his wish. A scarce and early example of lobbying literature, which first began proliferating during the major changes in British government in the mid-1710s. ESTC records copies at four locations in the U.K. and one in the U.S., the University of Kansas.

DNB X, pp.1042-4.

Item #21203

Price: $425.00