Earl of Desart was a title in the Peerage of Ireland

Peerage of Ireland

The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...

. It was created in 1793 for Otway Cuffe, 1st Viscount Desart. He had already succeeded his elder brother as third Baron Desart in 1767 and been created Viscount Desart, in the County of Kilkenny, in the Peerage of Ireland in 1781. He was also made Viscount Castlecuffe in the Peerage of Ireland at the same time as he was granted the earldom. He later sat in the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 between 1800 and 1804 as one of the 28 original Irish Representative Peers

Representative peer

In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords...

. Lord Desart was the younger son of John Cuffe, who represented Thomastown

Thomastown (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Thomastown was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until 1800. Following the Act of Union 1800 the borough was disfranchised.-1692–1801:-See also:*Thomastown, a town in County Kilkenny*Irish House of Commons...

 in the Irish House of Commons

Irish House of Commons

The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords...

 between 1715 and 1727. In 1733 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Desart, in the County of Kilkenny.

The first Earl was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He sat as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Bossiney

Bossiney (UK Parliament constituency)

Bossiney was a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall, one of a number of Cornish rotten boroughs, and returned two Members of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1552 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

 between 1809 and 1817. On his early death the titles passed to his son, the third Earl. He served as Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

The Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies....

 between March and December 1852 in the Earl of Derby's

Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, PC was an English statesman, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and to date the longest serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley...

 first administration

Conservative Government 1852

After the fall of Lord John Russell's Whig government in early 1852, the Tory leader Lord Derby formed a government. The Conservatives had been weakened by the defection of the Peelites, and many of the new Cabinet ministers were men of little experience. The government became known as the Who?...

. His younger son, the fifth Earl (who succeeded his elder brother in 1898, was a prominent lawyer and notably served as Queen's Proctor between 1894 and 1909 and as Director of Public Prosecutions

Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales)

The Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales is a senior prosecutor, appointed by the Attorney General. First created in 1879, the office was unified with that of the Treasury Solicitor less than a decade later before again becoming independent in 1908...

 between 1894 and 1908. In 1909 he was created Baron Desart, of Desart in the County of Kilkenny, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Peerage of the United Kingdom

The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...

. Lord Desart had no sons and on his death in 1934 all his titles became extinct. His daughter Lady Sybil Cuffe was the mother of the writer Iris Origo

Iris Origo

Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa of Val d'Orcia, DBE , née Cutting, was an Anglo-Irish writer, who devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, near Montepulciano, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s.-Origins and upbringing:Origo was the daughter of...

 through her first husband William Bayard Cutting

William Bayard Cutting

William Bayard Cutting, Esq. , a member of New York's merchant aristocracy, was an attorney, financier, real estate developer, sugar beet refiner and philanthropist. He was born to Fulton Cutting and Elise Justine Bayard...

.

The family seat was Desart Court, County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...

, in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. The manor house itself was burnt down in the early 1920s as a result of an IRA

Irish Republican Army

The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...

 attack.

The title should not be confused with the title Earl of Dysart

Earl of Dysart

Earl of Dysart is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1643 for William Murray, who had earlier represented Fowey and East Looe in the English House of Commons. He was made Lord Huntingtower at the same time, also in the Peerage of Scotland. He was succeeded by his daughter, the...

, created in the Peerage of Scotland

Peerage of Scotland

The Peerage of Scotland is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. With that year's Act of Union, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England were combined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was...

.

Barons Desart (1733)

• John Cuffe, 1st Baron Desart (d. 1749)
• John Cuffe, 2nd Baron Desart (1730–1767)
• Otway Cuffe, 3rd Baron Desart (1737–1804) (created Viscount Desart in 1781 and Earl of Desart in 1793)

Earls of Desart (1793)

• Otway Cuffe, 1st Earl of Desart (1737–1804)
• John Otway Cuffe, 2nd Earl of Desart (1788–1820)
• John Otway O'Connor Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart
  John Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart
  John Otway O'Conner Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart , styled Viscount Castlecuffe until 1820, was an Irish Conservative politician...
  
   (1818–1865)
• William Ulick O'Connor Cuffe, 4th Earl of Desart (1845–1898)
• Hamilton John Agmondesham Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart
  Hamilton Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart
  Hamilton John Agmondesham Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart, KP, KCB, PC was an Irish peer and solicitor.-Early life:...
  
  (1848–1934)