Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere

Marriages and ordeals

He married, firstly, Elizabeth Tenison, daughter of Richard Tenison and Margaret Barton, on 16 December 1731, and she died a year later in 1732 from smallpox. He married, secondly, Hon. Mary Molesworth, daughter of Field Marshal Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth and Jane Lucas, on 7 August 1736. Despite his fairly rapid rise at court and in politics, Rochfort is probably most well remembered for his treatment of his second wife Mary, who he married in 1736 when he was 28 and she 16. Around 1743, he heard rumours that Mary had been unfaithful to him with his brother, Arthur. As punishment, Robert had her locked up in the family house at Gaulstown, alone apart from her servants, for the rest of his life (thirty-one years). After twelve years of this captivity she had attempted to escape, but was caught and subjected to even harsher treatment. When she was finally released by order of her son after his father's death, she apparently took to wandering the house and talking to portraits as if they were real people. Her voice had assumed a peculiar quality (like a shrill whisper) and she was obviously profoundly damaged by her experience. She did not survive long after her release. She was not the only one to suffer though, as Robert took his brother Arthur to court for criminal conversation and was awarded the then huge sum of £2,000 in damages. Arthur, unable to pay, fled the country, but on his return to Ireland he was thrown into Marshalsea debtors' prison, where he died. Lord Belvedere was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son from his second marriage, George Rochfort. He had two other sons, Richard and Robert, and a daughter Jane who married firstly Brinsley Butler, 2nd Earl of Lanesborough and secondly John King.