Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart


Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart KT, styled Lord Huntingtower from 1712 to 1727, was a Scottish nobleman.
Lionel's father, a namesake in 1712 predeceased his father Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart — on the latter's death in 1727, Lionel inherited the earldom and five main estates: Ham House in Surrey, Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, Harrington and Bentley in Northamptonshire, and in Cheshire. The following year he went on a Grand Tour.
In 1729, he was elected High Steward of Ipswich, a post he held for 41 years.
Also in 1729 he married Lady Grace Carteret, daughter of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, by whom he had sixteen children, nine of whom did not reach age 17:
Lady Halliday was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1779. She married secondly David George Ferry on 24 March 1802.
In 1743 he was made Knight of the Thistle. He was apparently very parsimonious towards his eldest son, who married Charlotte Walpole in 1760 without his father's knowledge.

Memorials and succession

Grace, Lady Dysart, died at the Earl's new house in New Burlington Street, St James's. Dysart died in 1770, aged 72 and was buried in Helmingham. He was succeeded as earl by his eldest son, Lionel who erected no memorial to either parent and left no legitimate children. The title came for eight years to the next surviving son, Wilbraham who outlived his older, childless sister and then passed to the second of three surviving daughters who inherited the title after her brothers and died aged 95.