John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne

Born John FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne was the second son of Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry, and Anne, daughter of Sir William Petty (1623–1687). He was the younger brother of William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry, and the nephew of Charles Petty, 1st Baron Shelburne and Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne. He was educated at Westminster School and was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1727.[1]

In 1751 he succeeded to the estates of his uncle the Earl of Shelburne (who had died childless) and assumed by Act of Parliament the surname of Petty in lieu of his patronymic.[2] Later the same year he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Dunkeron and Viscount FitzMaurice. Two years later the earldom of Shelburne was revived in his favour when he was made Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, in the Irish peerage.

In 1754 he bought Bowood Park, an estate between Chippenham and Calne in Wiltshire, and rebuilt the mansion there.[3]

Lord Shelburne married his first cousin, Mary, daughter of the Hon. William FitzMaurice, in 1734. Their younger son the Hon. Thomas FitzMaurice married Mary O'Brien, later suo jure Countess of Orkney. Lord Shelburne died in May 1761 and was buried in Bowood, Wiltshire. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, William, who became Prime Minister of Great Britain and was created Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784. The Countess of Shelburne died in 1780.[1]