John Luttrell-Olmius, 3rd Earl of Carhampton

Captain John Luttrell-Olmius, 3rd Earl of Carhampton (11 December 1739 – 19 March 1829), styled The Honourable John Luttrell between 1768 and 1787 and as The Honourable John Luttrell-Olmius between 1787 and 1829, was an Irish naval commander and politician.

Background

Born John Luttrell, he was the second son of Simon Luttrell, 1st Earl of Carhampton by Judith Maria Lawes, daughter of Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica. He was the grandson of Colonel Henry Luttrell and the brother of Henry Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton, James Luttrell and Lady Anne Luttrell. He was a member of the Irish branch of the ancient family of Luttrell and a descendant of Sir Geoffrey de Luterel, who established Luttrellstown Castle, County Dublin in the early 13th century.^[1]

Naval and political career

Luttrell was a captain in the Royal Navy but retired in 1789. He was returned to Parliament for Stockbridge in 1774, a seat he held until 1775, and again between 1780 and 1785. Between 1785 and 1826 he was a Commissioner of Excise. He succeeded his elder brother in the earldom in 1821. This was an Irish peerage and did not entitle him to an automatic seat in the House of Lords.

Family

Lord Carhampton married the Honourable Elizabeth Olmius, daughter of John Olmius, 1st Baron Waltham, in 1766. He assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Olmius in 1787 after the death of his brother-in-law, Drigue Olmius, 2nd Baron Waltham. In 1798 he sold the Olmius family seat of New Hall to the founding nuns of New Hall School. There were three children from Lord Carhampton's first marriage (however only one of his daughters would survive to adulthood):^[2]

• Lady Frances Maria Luttrell Stuart (b. 1768), married Sir Simeon Stuart, 4th Baronet.
• James Luttrell (d. 1772).
• John Luttrell (d. 1769).

His first wife died in 1797. He married secondly Maria Morgan, daughter of John Morgan, in 1798. They had one child:

• Lady Maria Anne Luttrell (1799–1857), married Lieutenant-Colonel Hardress Robert Saunderson.

Lord Carhampton died in March 1829, aged 89, when the earldom became extinct. Maria, Countess of Carhampton, died in January 1857.

References

1. Enchanting Ireland
2. A. F. Blackstock, ‘Luttrell-Olmius, John, third earl of Carhampton’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008