Francis Mathew, 2nd Earl Landaff

Francis James Mathew, 2nd Earl Landaff KP (20 January 1768 – 12 March 1833), styled The Honourable Francis Mathew from 1783 to 1797 and Viscount Mathew from 1797 to 1806, was an Irish peer and politician.

Viscount Mathew and his brothers by Gillray, 1803: The Three Mr Wiggins's

Mural memorial tablet erected 1987 in Llandaff Cathedral: "In memory of Thomas James Mathew son and heir of Francis James Mathew second Earl of Landaff born in London 1798 died in Cape Town 1862". The arms are blasoned: Or, a lion rampant sable. Crest: A heathcock proper. Supporters: Two unicorns rampant silver maned tufted hooved collared and chained or. Motto: A Fynno Duw a Fydd ("What God wills will be")

Mathew sat for Tipperary in the Irish House of Commons from 1790 to 1792. He represented Callan between May and November 1796 and subsequently again Tipperary until the Act of Union in 1801. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 24 November 1831.[1]

Mathew succeeded his father in the earldom in 1806 and also took his father's place as an Irish Representative Peer in the House of Lords, while his younger brother Montague James Mathew (1773–1819) succeeded him as one of the two members of the UK parliament for County Tipperary.

As Lord Landaff, he was an opponent of the Union and a supporter of Catholic Emancipation, who was also "a personal enemy of George IV" and gave evidence in favour of Queen Charlotte regarding her conduct at the Court of Naples during her famous trial.

Lord Landaff married Gertrude Cecilia, a daughter of John la Touche, of Kildare. The marriage was childless. He died of syncope in Dublin on 12 March 1833, aged 65, when the titles became extinct. Dying intestate, his estates went to his sister, Lady Elizabeth Mathew, who died in 1842 leaving the fortune to a cousin, the Vicomte de Chabot, the son of her mother's sister Elizabeth Smyth.[2]

References

1. Rayment, Leigh. "Knights of the Order of St Patrick". Retrieved 13 December 2008.
2. Sir Bernard Burke, A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British empire (1866), p. 361

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Henry Prittie Daniel Toler	Member of Parliament for Tipperary 1790 – 1792 Served alongside: Daniel Toler	Succeeded by Daniel Toler John Bagwell
Preceded by Nathaniel Warren William Meeke	Member of Parliament for Callan 1796 Served alongside: William Meeke	Succeeded by Charles Kendal Bushe William Meeke
Preceded by Daniel Toler John Bagwell	Member of Parliament for Tipperary 1796 – 1801 Served alongside: John Bagwell	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of Ireland	Member of Parliament for County Tipperary 1801 – 1806 Served alongside: John Bagwell	Succeeded by Montague Mathew Francis Aldborough Prittie
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Francis Mathew	Earl Landaff 1806–1833	Extinct