The Luttrells and the Two Kings

Both Simon and his brother Henry were educated in France, and their sojourn there did nothing to help form their characters, particularly in the case of Henry. Simon married the daughter of Sir Thomas Newcomen Bart., in whose regiment he was serving as a lieutenant colonel. She was a Protestant, and the couple were married first by a clergyman of the Established Church and later by the bride's uncle, Peter Talbot, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and brother of Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, who was James II's lord lieutenant.

Simon was forced to withdraw from Dublin following the defeat of James's army at the Boyne, and he followed James to France, returning in October 1690 with a French fleet too late to aid the Irish Jacobite cause. He did not avail of the clause in the Treaty of Limerick allowing former Jacobite officers to return and swear allegiance to William and Mary and retain their estates. He served with the French army in Italy and Catalonia and died in 1698.

Following his refusal to pledge allegiance to William of Orange and his queen, Mary, Simon's estates at Luttrellstown became forfeit and devolved to his brother Henry, who turned his coat and betrayed the Jacobite cause. During the Siege of Limerick he was court-martialled for treachery, having given the enemy information about a vital ford on the Shannon. It appears that his family connections - his brother Simon and the fact that members of the Luttrell family had intermarried with their near neighbours the Lucan Sarsfields- saved his life. Henry' Luttrell then became involved in supplying soldiers to fight abroad for the Venetian Republic and was later a major-general in the Dutch army. The fact that he prevented his sister-in-law, Simon's widow, from gaining her rightful inheritance, together with his notorious debauchery, caused him to be universally detested. The Devil's Mill on the banks of the Liffey at Luttrellstown was, according to local legend, a place of assignation between Henry Luttrell and the devil.

Finally, fate caught up with him: he was left fatally wounded by a pistol shot in the autumn of 1717 as he returned home in his sedan chair from the Lucas Coffee House at Cork Hill en route to his Stafford Street town house. His assassins were never apprehended, partly because so many people and factions had motives for killing him. Even in death the hatred he engendered and the loathing his family attracted caused persons unknown to violate his tomb and smash his skull with a pickaxe during the 1798 rebellion.

Henry left two sons, Richard and Simon. Richard inherited the estate but died within ten years and Simon succeeded him. Simon was raised to the peerage as Baron Irnham and later Earl of Carhampton. His daughter Ann married Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, George III's brother. His son Temple Luttrell was imprisoned in Paris during the French Revolution on the mistaken view that he was the king's brother rather than his brother-in-law. Lord Carhampton was much involved in political intrigue and corruption: He spent a great deal of his time in Cornwall, where he held a parliamentary seat, and was also involved in Lancashire politics.

(Excerpt from Candle in the Window by Jim Lacey)