Brice Leeson, 3rd Earl of Milltown

Brice Leeson, 3rd Earl of Milltown (20 December 1735 – 10 January 1807) was an Anglo-Irish peer.

He was the second son of Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown and Cecilia Leigh. He became Earl of Milltown on the death of his brother, Joseph Leeson, 2nd Earl of Milltown on 27 November 1801.

He married (25 October 1765) Maria Graydon (died: 25 July 1772), dau. of John Graydon, of Dublin, by his wife Cassandra Tahourdin, daughter of Gabriel Tahourdin, of Wanstead, co. Essex,^[1] a Huguenot refugee from Anjou who became a merchant of the City of London.^[2] Gabriel's wife Gabrielle was a daughter of René Baudouin, another Huguenot refugee and wealthy Silk Merchant who came from Tours and also became a merchant in the City of London. A memorial to him survives inside the church of St Mary Aldermary, in the City of London, recording the history of his arrival from Tours.^[3][4]

Brice Leeson's home was the family's seat Russborough, Blessington, Co. Wicklow. He was succeeded by his grandson Joseph Leeson, 4th Earl of Milltown, son of Brice's eldest son Joseph Leeson who died in 1800. His widow Maria died in Dublin in 1842 at the age of 100.^[5]

References

1. Crackcrofts Peerage
2. Protestant exiles from France in the reign of Louis XIV : or, The Huguenot refugees and their descendants in Great Britain and Ireland (1871), Volume: 2., Chapter XXII, page 258. Author: Agnew, David Carnegie A.
3. Memorial to René Baudouin inside St Mary Aldrmary church. Photograph.
4. Londinium Redivivum or an Antient History and Modern Description… Vol 2, page 334, by James Peller Malcolm
5. The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 171 (page 341)