Christopher Fleming, 17th Baron Slane
Christopher Fleming, 1st Viscount Longford and 17th Baron Slane (1669–1726), was a member of the Irish parliament of 1689.
Lord Slane was a Roman Catholic who had been educated in France at University of Douai. He served as a colonel in the forces of James II during the 1689–1691 war in Ireland. He fought in such engagements as the Battle of Boyne and Battle of Aughrim, at the later of which he was taken prisoner. After being released he went abroad and served as a colonel in the French army. By 1704 he had joined the Portuguese army, where he served as a Lieutenant General. Through this service he was reconciled to the British Crown, and in 1713 he received a royal patent from Queen Anne naming him The 1st Viscount Longford.
Death & burial
Lord Longford (as he then was) died at Fleming Hall, Anticur, in 1726 and was buried in the MacDonnell family vault in Bun-na-Margy friary at Ballycastle, the burial place of the Earls of Antrim.
Progeny & succession
He left only one child, a daughter, Helen Fleming, who lived and died in Paris on 7 August 1748. She was unmarried and left no progeny. The heir to Fleming Hall and the barony was his nephew William Fleming, 23rd Baron Slane. He was the son of Thomas Fleming of Gillanstown in County Meath. William had a son Christopher Fleming, 24th and last Baron Slane, who lived at Fleming Hall and died there in 1771. He left as his sole heiress his daughter who married Felix O’Connor of County Donegal. Following her husband's death she sold Fleming Hall and moved to Craigs, Finvoy, and then to America.[1]
Fleming Hall
Fleming Hall was purchased by the Leslie family, and was sold by them in 1847 to the Richards family, from whom it descended to the present owners in 2012, the Wallace family.[2]
Sources
- G. E. C., ed. Geoffrey F. White. The Complete Peerage. (London: St. Chaterine Press, 1953) Vol. XII, Part 1, p. 19-21.