Viscount Ashbrook

Title in the peerage of Ireland

Viscountcy Ashbrook
Blazon Arms: Quarterly 1st and 4th, Argent two Chevronels between three Ravens each having an Ermine Spot in its beak Sable and between the chevronels three Pellets; 2nd and 3rd, Gules three Towers Argent.
Creation date	30 September 1751
Created by	King George II
Peerage	Peerage of Ireland
First holder	Henry Flower, 2nd Baron Castle Durrow
Present holder	Michael Flower, 11th Viscount Ashbrook
Heir apparent	Hon. Rowland Flower
Remainder to	Heirs male of the first viscount's body, lawfully begotten
Subsidiary titles	Baron Castle Durrow
Seat(s)	Arley Hall
Former seat(s)	Castle Durrow Beaumont Lodge Shellingford Manor
Motto	Nens Conscia Recti ("A mind conscious of rectitude")

Viscount Ashbrook is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1751 for Henry Flower, 2nd Baron Castle Durrow. The title of Baron Castle Durrow, in the County of Kilkenny, had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1733 for his father William Flower. He was a Colonel in the Army and also represented County Kilkenny and Portarlington in the Irish House of Commons. He was praised by Jonathan Swift as "a gentleman of very great sense and wit". As of 2022^[update], the titles are held by the eleventh Viscount, who succeeded his father in 1995.

The family seat is Arley Hall, near Arley, Cheshire.^[1] Until 1922, the principal seat of the family was Castle Durrow, near Durrow, County Kilkenny; in England they also owned Beaumont Lodge, near Old Windsor, Berkshire,^[2] and the manor of Shellingford in Shellingford, Berkshire (presently Oxfordshire).^[3]^[4]

Barons Castle Durrow (1733)

William Flower, 1st Baron Castle Durrow (1685–1746)
Henry Flower, 2nd Baron Castle Durrow (died 1752) (created Viscount Ashbrook in 1751)

Viscounts Ashbrook (1751)

Henry Flower, 1st Viscount Ashbrook (died 1752)
William Flower, 2nd Viscount Ashbrook (1744–1780)
William Flower, 3rd Viscount Ashbrook (1767–1802) buried at Shellingford
Henry Jeffrey Flower, 4th Viscount Ashbrook (1776–1847)
Henry Jeffrey Flower, 5th Viscount Ashbrook (1806–1871)
Henry Jeffrey Flower, 6th Viscount Ashbrook (1829–1882)
William Spencer Flower, 7th Viscount Ashbrook (1830–1906)
Robert Thomas Flower, 8th Viscount Ashbrook (1836–1919)
Llowarch Robert Flower, 9th Viscount Ashbrook (1870–1936)
Desmond Llowarch Edward Flower, 10th Viscount Ashbrook (1905–1995)
Michael Llowarch Warburton Flower, 11th Viscount Ashbrook (b. 1935)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hon. Rowland Francis Warburton Flower (b. 1975)
The heir apparent's heir apparent is his son Benjamin Warburton Flower (b. 2006).^[5]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Viscount Ashbrook

16. Henry Flower, 5th Viscount Ashbrook

8. Robert Flower, 8th Viscount Ashbrook

17. Frances Robinson

4. Llowarch Flower, 9th Viscount Ashbrook

18. Rev. Sewell Hamilton

9. Gertrude Hamilton

19. Selina Robinson

2. Desmond Flower, 10th Viscount Ashbrook

20. Gen. George Higginson

10. Sir George Higginson

21. Lady Frances Needham

5. Gladys Higginson

1. Michael Flower, 11th Viscount Ashbrook

24. Rowland Egerton-Warburton

12. Piers Egerton-Warburton

25. Mary Brooke

6. John Egerton-Warburton

26. John Saumarez, 3rd Baron de Saumarez

13. Hon. Antoinette Saumarez

27. Margaret Northey

3. Elizabeth Egerton-Warburton

28. William Legh, 1st Baron Newton

14. Thomas Legh, 2nd Baron Newton

29. Emily Wodehouse

7. Hon. Lettice Legh

30. William Bromley-Davenport

15. Evelyn Bromley-Davenport

31. Augusta Campbell

Notes

^ Giles, Juliet (2013). "The Guardians of Arley Hall". The English Home. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
^ The Court Magazine. Dobbs & Company. 1834. p. 116.
^ The Berkshire Archæological Journal. Berkshire Archaeological Society. 1932. p. 56.
^ Clark, Hugh; Wormull, Thomas (1779). The Peerage of the Nobility of England, Scotland, and Ireland. G. Kearsly, at No. 46, in Fleet-Street.
^ "Ashbrook, Viscount (I, 1751)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

References

Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, ^{[page needed]}
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source]} ^{[better source needed]}

Bibliography

Godson, Julie Ann, "The Water Gypsy. How a Thames fishergirl became a viscountess" (FeedARead.com, 2014). A biography of Betty Ridge (1745–1808) who married William Flower, 2nd Viscount Ashbrook (1744–1780), and history of the Ridge and Flower families