Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam

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The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, founded through a bequest of Richard FitzWilliam on his death.

Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (1 August 1745 – 4 February 1816) was an Irish Viscount in the FitzWilliam family [1] who was a benefactor and musical antiquarian. He founded the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, with a bequest of his library and art collection on his death in 1816. He was also a significant developer of his time in Dublin, Ireland [2].

[edit] Biography

Richard FitzWilliam was baptised on 22 August 1745. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, receiving an MA in 1764. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1789 and elected the second Member of Parliament for Wilton in Wiltshire from 1790 to 1806 when it still had two representatives.

He developed part of southeast Dublin in the Georgian style. This included:

An Act to enclose the centre of Merrion Square in 1791;
The design of Fitzwilliam Square from 1789, laid out in 1792;
A new Roman Catholic church at Booterstown in 1812;
An Act to enclose the centre of Fitzwilliam Square in 1813.

Richard FitzWilliam mainly lived in Richmond near London, but he made frequent visits to Mount Merrion House, south of Dublin. He left his large Irish estates to his first cousin's son, the 11th Earl of Pembroke, and his art collection and library to the University of Cambridge, together with funds to house them; this formed the Fitzwilliam Museum.