He was the only son of Robert Jocelyn, 1st Viscount Jocelyn and his first wife Charlotte Anderson. He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father 3 December 1756, and on 1 December 1771 he was created Earl of Roden, of High Roding in County Tipperary.
He was Member of Parliament for Old Leighlin from 1743 to 1756 and Auditor-General of the Exchequer from 1750 until his death. The marriage was a happy one, and gave great pleasure to his father, who had been deeply saddened by his own wife"s death. He died in York Street, Dublin.
The Dowager Countess, who spent much of her later life at her old home at Tollymore, County Down, describes the events of 1798 vividly in her diary.
Their third son Percy Jocelyn became Bishop of Clogher, but his career was ruined by a notorious sex scandal in 1822, and he lived out his life under an assumed name. His disgrace is known to have profoundly affected the mind of Lord Castlereagh, who apparently developed a paranoid delusion that he was to be charged in connection with the Jocelyn case: this is thought to have been a major factor in Castlereagh"s suicide.
