QUESTION 102: Did Sir Hugh Luttrell of Dunster have a son, Robert, in Ireland?
ANSWER 102- A
From Dunster and Its Lords 1066 - 1881, by H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, 1882. p. 54.
"Sir Hugh Luttrell had two sons, John and William* and four daughters, Elizabeth, Ann, Margaret and Joan."
* "Robert Luttrell, ancestor of the Luttrells of Luttrellstown, co. Dublin, is stated by Lodge and Burke to have been a younger son of Sir Hugh Luttrell of Dunster. This however is extremely doubtful. Mr. Stapleton suggests that the Irish Luttrells were descended from an illegitimate son of Geoffrey Luttrell, the minister of King John. When Simon Luttrell, of Luttrellstown, was raised to the peerage in the reign of George III, he chose as his titles Baron Irnham and Earl of Carhampton, as if he were connected with the Luttrells of Lincolnshire and of Somersetshire."
From A History of Dunster, by H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, Appendix D, "The Luttrells of Luttrellstown Near Dublin".
"In the reign of George the Third, and possibly earlier, there was an idea that the Irish Luttrells were cadets of the old English family of that name. When Simon Luttrell of Luttrellstown near Dublin was raised to the peerage of Ireland in 1768, he was created Baron Irnham. So again when further honours were conferred upon him, he became Viscount Carhampton in 1781, and Earl of Carhampton in 1785. The titles selected imply that he was descended not only from the original stock of the Luttrells in Lincolnshire, but also from the branch of the family established in West Somerset.
Anne, the beautiful daughter of this nobleman, married, in 1771, Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, brother of King George the Third, and, in the same year, Joseph Edmondson, Mowbray Herald Extraordinary, compiled a genealogical table professing to trace her descent from the time of William the Conqueror, by means of records, family deeds and the like. It is an elaborate and sumptuous document, written on a roll of fine vellum more than sixteen feet in length, and adorned with eighty shields richly illuminated.** For the last three centuries covered, this pedigree has every appearance of being authentic; the early part of it is less satisfactory. The really critical point, however, comes where the genealogist attempts to connect the Irish Luttrells, who bore for arms a chevron between three otters, with the English Luttrells who bore a bend between six martlets. He does it by making a bold statement that the first Sir Hugh Luttrell of Dunster had a younger son Robert, who settled in Ireland and assumed a new shield. No evidence whatever is offered in support of this story.
It might be sufficient to observe that a Herald of the time of George the Third cannot be accepted as an authority with regard to persons who lived in the first half of the fifteenth century, and that the Dunster muniments, so rich in respect to Sir Hugh Luttrell and his children, contain no allusion to a son named Robert. But there is more to be said, of a less negative character, as to the ancestry of the Earl of Carhampton and the Duchess of Cumberland.
It has been seen above (pp. 60, 61) that Geoffrey Luttrell, the first recorded member of the English family of that name, was a minister of King John in Ireland, and acquired land in that country. Robert Luttrell, who may have been related to him, was a Canon of St. Patrick's, Dublin, in 1228, and for a time the King's Chancellor in Ireland.** At the close of that century, Michael Luttrell had property near Lucan, in the county of Dublin, at or close to the place afterwards known as Luttrellstown.** In 1349, there is mention of a certain Simon Luttrell in the same neighbourhood, and it may be noted that his Christian name recurs in the pedigree of the Irish Luttrells.** Lastly, a certain Robert Luttrell, son of John Luttrell, occurs in the reign of Henry the Fifth as owning the land that had belonged to Simon Luttrell some sixty years before.** This is, apparently, the very Robert whom Edmondson and others following him have chosen to describe as a younger son of Sir Hugh Luttrell of Dunster."
**Footnotes in original writing, not reproduced here.
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See Also, Answer to Question 101.
