Rochfort

Family title

Earl of Belvedere

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Estate(s)

Name	Description
Hopkins (Baronet)	Sir Francis Hopkins (1756-1814), MP for Kilbeggan 1798-1800, was created a baronet in 1795. He was the son of Francis Hopkins and his wife Martha Burton. He was succeeded by his only son Sir Francis 2nd Baronet who in a report of 1839 stated that he had purchased two properties in county Westmeath since 1836 (Parliamentary Papers -Report from Select Committees of the House of Lords, (1780-1849) Vol 11, 234). One of these was Rochfort House and demesne. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (publ. 1854) the Hopkins estate was in the parishes of Moylisker, Mullingar and Dysart. His sister Anna Maria was married to Nicholas Loftus Tottenham of Glenfarne Hall, county Leitrim and inherited his estate as she is recorded in 1876 as the owner of 2,588 acres in county Westmeath.
Rochfort (Belvedere)	Robert Rochfort, Attorney General and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, purchased parts of the estates of King James and Denis Sheil or Geoghegan in county Westmeath in June 1703. Robert Rochfort, born 1652, married Hannah Handcock of Twyford, county Westmeath and they had two sons George and John. From John descend the Rochforts of Clogrenane, county Carlow. From George descend the Earls of Belvedere. George’s son Robert, born 1708, MP for county Westmeath was created Earl of Belvedere in 1756. He is best remembered for having locked up his second wife Mary Molesworth at Gaulstown for over thirty years for adultery with his brother. Their son George became the 2nd Earl but died in 1814 childless. His widow married Abraham Boyd in 1815 and had a son George Augustus Boyd of Middleton Park who inherited some of the Belvedere estates through his mother. Another portion, including Belvedere House, devolved on Charles Brinsley Marlay, a descendant of the 1st Earl’s daughter Jane, Countess of Lanesborough.