Viscount Clifden - Viscount Clifden

Viscount Clifden

James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden was the son of Henry Agar and the elder brother of Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton. His mother was Anne Ellis, daughter of Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath, and sister of the politician Welbore Ellis, who in 1794 was created Baron Mendip in the Peerage of Great Britain with remainder to his three nephews Lord Clifden, the future Lord Normanton and another brother of theirs. Lord Clifden was succeeded by his son, the second Viscount. He represented County Kilkenny in the Irish House of Commons and Heytesbury in the British House of Commons.

In 1802 he succeeded his great-uncle Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip as second Baron Mendip according to the special remainder. The titles were to remain united until the extinction of the barony and viscountcy of Clifden in 1974. Lord Clifden's only son George James Welbore Agar-Ellis was created Baron Dover in 1831 (see below), but predeceased his father. He was therefore succeeded by his grandson, the third Viscount, who had already succeeded his father as second Baron Dover in 1833. His only son, the fourth Viscount, died unmarried at an early age, when the titles passed to his uncle, the fifth Viscount. He had previously represented County Kilkenny in Parliament as a Liberal.

On his death the barony of Dover became extinct, while he was succeeded in the other titles by his kinsman the second Baron Robartes, who became the sixth Viscount. He was the son of Thomas James Agar-Robartes, who was created Baron Robartes in 1869 (see below), son of Hon. Charles Bagenal-Agar, youngest son of the first Viscount Clifden. The sixth Viscount had earlier represented Cornwall East in Parliament as a Liberal and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from 1906 to 1915. His eldest son Captain the Hon. Thomas Agar-Robartes sat as Liberal Member of Parliament for Bodmin and St Austell, but was killed in the First World War, predeceasing his father, unmarried.

Lord Clifden was therefore succeeded by his second son, the seventh Viscount. He sat as a Liberal in the House of Lords and served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip) from 1940 to 1945 in the war-time coalition of Winston Churchill. On the death of his younger brother, the eighth Viscount, the barony and viscountcy of Clifden and barony of Robartes became extinct, while he was succeeded in the barony of Mendip according to the special remainder by his distant relative the sixth Earl of Normanton.