William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington

William Richard Arthur Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington (7 October 1813 – 25 July 1863) was a British nobleman.

Long-Wellesley, the son of the notorious spendthrift William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley (later fourth Earl of Mornington) and Lady Catherine Tylney-Long, was born on 7 October 1813 at Wanstead House, Essex.

His father's spending wreaked havoc on the family estate, but upon his mother's death in 1825, he inherited the remaining estates at Wanstead, also Tylney Hall, Athelhampton and the Draycot estate. A bitter custody battle took place after his mother's death, with his mother's sisters endeavouring to have him placed under the guardianship of the Duke of Wellington, his great-uncle.

In 1836 he took his father to court, after his father had sold furniture and pictures belonging to Draycot House, to cover a ₤3,000 debt. These were passed out of a window after the sales agent was refused admission to the house. William jnr maintained that these items belonged to him as heirlooms by the will of Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet. [The Times 2 May, 1836; Issue 16092]

His father succeeded as Earl of Mornington in 1845, after which William was styled Viscount Wellesley. In 1848, despite opposition from his father, he sold Athelhampton which had been purchased by Sir Robert Long, 1st Baronet, in 1665. He succeeded his father as Earl of Mornington on 1 July 1857.

Mornington died unmarried in Paris on 25 July 1863 from cancer of the tongue, and is buried at Draycot Cerne in Wiltshire. Having originally made his will bequeathing all his estates to his only sister Lady Victoria, (who died unmarried in 1897), he made another will three weeks before his death, leaving all his landed property to his father's cousin Earl Cowley, then ambassador at Paris. In dismay Lady Victoria wrote to her cousin Walter Long (MP) of Rood Ashton House: 'my wish would have been that after our own immediate heirs, all Long property should have returned to your family as the elder branch'.

He was succeeded as sixth Earl of Mornington by his cousin, the second Duke of Wellington.

References

Reflist

Sources

*Wiltshire Record Office, Cat. 947 Papers of Viscount Long
*Hand of Fate. The History of the Longs, Wellesleys and the Draycot Estate in Wiltshire. Tim Couzens 2001 ISBN 1 903341 72 6
*The Lady Victoria Tylney Long Wellesley - A Memoir, Octavia Barry 1899