Abstract: 1779: an annus mirabilis for Armar Lowry Corry, heir to the Lowry Corry estates and political power in Fermanagh and Tyrone when he moved up in the heady world of Irish society and
politics as Baron Belmore with marriage arranged to a beautiful young wife and heiress, Henrietta Hobart of Blickling Hall, Norfolk, eldest daughter of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the
Earl of Buckinghamshire. To celebrate he built a great fashionable house. One year later his life was in despair; his marriage over, leaving him with a baby girl and a sickly son. The expense
of building and politicking made him ‘poor as a rat’ He joined his son in a bitter but frustrated challenge to the Union with England resulting in their exclusion from political power for
many years. His son, Somerset the 2nd Earl, an extravagant Regency figure furnished Castle Coole in the latest style, refitted a captured American schooner as a 14 gun brig, the Osprey and
took his whole family for several years around the Mediterranean, up the Nile and into the Holy Land. His was the first noble family to reach the 2nd cataract up the Nile, and to dig for
antiquities and to associate with larger-than-life figures such as Lady Hester Stanhope and Giuseppe Belzoni. As Governor and Captain General of Jamaica he faced the bigotry of settlers and
the great slave rebellion of 1832, clashing with the personality of the Colonial Secretary Goderich who had him recalled. But his administration was publicly vindicated. His extravagance and
death in 1841 left the family facing bankruptcy and contributed to the 3rd Earl’s early death. Somerset Richard, the 4th Earl, took advantage of the Encumbered Estates Act and with help from
his mother and grandmother was able to keep Castle Coole and its domain. The needs of his large family forced him out of politics. He accepted the governorship of New South Wales and was
almost immediately faced with an attempted assassination in Sydney of the Queen’s son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Social change and, eventually, ill health, forced the 4th Earl into
virtual retirement at Castle Coole where he turned his considerable energies to the study of antiquities and archaeology and to work for the Church of Ireland. Eminent family members included
two Admirals; the father of the House of Commons, Henry Corry, first Lord of the Admiralty; and Montagu Corry, Lord Rowton, Disraeli’s private secretary and close friend..
