People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 22 October 1908, Page 28

People We Hear About

Sir Thomas "Grattan Esmonde, Bart., M.P., was forty-six on September 20. He might have be*n Lord Esmonde, Baron! of Limerick (says a Home exchange). Sir Lawrence Esmonde obtained la\rge grants of confiscated land in Ireland in the reign of James 1., and was created Lord Esmonde. During a military, expedition into Connaught he married a /fair .daughter ' of 'Flaherty. The bride was a Catholic, the bridegVo'om'a Pro^ testant. A son was born to them, but Lady Esmonde, fearing that, the boy was to be brought up a Protestant, fled with h\,r, into hiding. Her husband then • took action and s repudiated his marriage as being between a Protf-stant and a Catholic, and married again. He had no further issue, and on his death-bed he left his estates to his only son. The poeiage could not descend, but the son was made a baronet. The London correspondent of the Otago Daily Times states that ' Lord Camoys and his brother, the Hon. Edward Maurice Stonor (heir to the barony), may be expected in New Zealand before very long. They l'iave just left England for the East, and will spent! some time in the Dominion. Lord Camoys is only twenty-four years of age.' He is only the fifth baron, although the peerage was created so long ago as the thirteenth century, h fell into abeyance from the fifteenth century till the last, when Queen Victoria revived it in favor of the present peer's father, two years after she came to the throne. Lord Camoys succeeded to the title while he was a minor, and came of age a couple of years ago. Stonor Park, the family seat, is a beautiful house, situated in undulating wooded country near Henle). The place is very rich in historical associations, as is also the old Irish home of the Stonors, known as Lough Cutra, in County-Galway, now the property of Viscount Gough. Sir Gerald Strickland, K.C.M.G., Governor of Tasmania since 190-f, who has just resumed his ofncial duties after a short holiday spent in England and at his family seat, Sizergh Castle which is situated in the picturesque IfJ.-r district in Westmoreland. Sir Gerald is in his forty-seventh year. He is .1 member of ar old English county family, and received his early education at Oscott College, whence he proceeded to the University of Malta, and to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he is a gradual. Besides his English knighthood, Sir Gerald holds the rank and title of a Maltese Noble, having succeeded his great-uncle a-; sixth Count Delia Catena, of the ancient nobility of Malta, of the creation of 1745. He has had -a vci ; distinguished diplomatic career in various countries, and was formerly Chief Secretary of the Government of Malta, and Governor of the Leewari Island. In the former capacity he- displayed a tactful discretion and delicacy in the happy settlement of cot tain questions affecting the interests of the Church which aro^c betweeß the authorities in England and those in Malta. Sir Gerald is married to th» Lady Evelina Sackville, eldest daughter of the seventh Earl de la Warr. A London correspondent (says the Glasgow Observer) give* some particulars regarding Baron De Forest, a young noblema.i possessing an Austrian title, and having a Royal license to us* it in the United Kingdom. Born in 187,,, the Baron is still a young man, and is yet comparatixdy unknown to his fellow Catholics in Great Britain, so that the paragruph may s<»rv.to introduce him more . widely to his co-religionists :— ' Baroi De Forest, who has become the tenu.it >for a term of year* of Londesborough Pa.k, the Yorkshire scat of Lord Londes--borough, is- the young heir of the .late Baron Hhsch. \ foreigner, he has married an English wife* the sister of Lord Gerard, and has ambitions for Parliamentary honors. Should he secure ajeat in the House of Commons, he will be one of the richest— if nol the .ri< hest— member of Parliament, as he inherite.l a very considerable portion of Baicn Hirsch's enormous wealth, besides having large estates abroad. The Baron is a Liberal.' If the Baron should sue, cod in •entering Parltem*,* he will fee a notable recruit to the company of Catholic Liberals already there. These v include Colorel Sir Ivoc Herbert. MP for Gloucestershire; Mr. Ernest H. Lamb, M.P. for Herefordand Mr. Hilaire Belloc, M.P. for, South Salford ;and tc th!< category may be added Messrs. T. P. O;Connor, C, J. O'Dorfnell", and James O'Grady, representing Liverpool, Walworth, and Leeds respectively. - The Consenative members arc two- Lord Edmund Talbot, who represents Sussex, and M-. * Rowland Hunt, who sits for South -Shropshire. -• • •