Arthur Annesley was born on 30 November 1785, the eldest son of Arthur Annesley, Member of Parliament for Oxford between 1790 and 1796, and his wife, Catherine Hardy, a daughter of Admiral Sir Charles Hardy. He married, on 12 August 1808, Eleanor O"Brien, the daughter of Henry O"Brien (later Stafford-O"Brien) of Blatherwycke park, Northamptonshire and his wife Margaret Flenary.
He was a male-line, paternal descendent of the first Viscount Valentia. Lord Valentia died on 30 December 1863 at Bletchingdon park, aged 78. Bibliography Burke, J. (1834), volunteer
1 Cokayne, General Electric (1898), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, first edition, volume 8 (U to Z).
Davies, Juris Doctor (2004) "Hardy, Sir Charles, the younger (bap 1717, d 1780)", Oxford Dictionary of National Gwyn, J. (1979). "Hardy, Sir Charles", Dictionary of Canadian Biography (volume iv).
Lodge, East. (1861). The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire.
Ruvigny (Marquess de) (1907). The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, "Exeter" volume.
On the death of the ninth Viscount Valentia, who had no immediate relatives, Annesley, being a very distant cousin, assumed the peerage, which had been created in 1642, without attempting to establish this right in the House of Lords. Cokayne points out that he was "probably correct" in assuming the peerage. He also assumed the title of Baron Mountnorris, another Irish peerage, which was also held by the ninth Viscount, and was the Premier Baronet of Ireland, inheriting also the Annesley Baronetcy, of Newport Pagnell.
