Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Lewis Fitzgerald

Awarded a share in the compensation of the Hyde estate in St Thomas-in-the-Vale Jamaica in right of his wife Jane Fitzgerald (q.v.), one of the daughters of Richard Welch, the former Chief Justice of Jamaica.

1. Richard Welch had left the Hyde estate to secure legacies of £2500 to each of his younger children after the payment of an annuity to his wife (who died in 1813, their son Richard having died in 1809).  A daughter Favell died intestate, and her remaining sisters each received £500 from her portion. The youngest daughter Georgiana died unmarried, her property went equally to each of the two surviving sisters, so each had £4500 [sic] on which interest was paid at 5% until 1831. The two surviving sisters were married to Sir William Lewis George Thomas and Rear Admiral Sir Robt. Lewis Fitzgerald (each of whom q.v.).

2. Robert Lewis Fitzgerald married Jane Welch at Melcombe Regis 28/08/1800. Knighted 1835; died 17/01/1844 at Bath in the 68th year of his age, Vice Admiral of the Red. 'This officer is descended from a younger branch of the very ancient and noble house of Leinster, in the kingdom of Ireland, and nearly related to the Earl of Kingston.' 5 sons and 4 daughters survived of 11 children, including Maria Phillipa (1813-1845), Georgina Favell (1817-1841), Charlotte Mary (1819-1823), James Lewis (1806-1835) and George Milner (1816-1843).

T71/855 St Thomas-in-the-Vale No. 294.

1. Memorial from Sir William Lewis George Thomas and Robert Lewis Fitzgerald 09/04/1835. The arithmetic does not seem quite to work in the Memorial. The two mens' claims in right of their wives including arrears of interest were £4204 15s.

2. Ancestry.com, Dorset, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; Edinburgh Gazette 4439 04/12/1835 p. 1; Wigtownshire Free Press Death Notices http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~leighann/wfp/deaths/6.html [accessed 06/02/2012]; John Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, or Memoirs of the Service of all the Flag-Officers (London, Longman, 1828), Vol. 2 p. 181. Transcription of the family memorial in Bath, St Swithins church, sent by email by Susan C Smith, 26/05/2014.

We are grateful to Susan C. Smith for her assistance with compiling this entry.