Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (1774-1841)

Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (11 July 1774 – 18 April 1841), styled The Honourable from 1781 to 1797 and then known as Viscount Corry to 1802, was an Irish nobleman and politician.

Politics and inheritance
Lowry-Corry was the only surviving son of Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore, and his first wife Lady Margaret Butler. In 1798, he was elected to the Irish House of Commons for Tyrone and represented the constituency until the Act of Union in 1801. Thereafter he was returned to the British House of Commons for County Tyrone, a seat he held until 1802, when he succeeded his father as earl.

Lord Belmore was elected as a Representative Peer for Ireland in 1819 and served as Governor of Jamaica from 1828 to 1832. He was also a colonel in the Tyrone Militia.

He inherited from his father the magnificent house at Castle Coole in County Fermanagh, along with considerable debts. Nonetheless he furnished the house and its classical interiors designed by James Wyatt in an exuberant Regency fashion between 1802 and 1825. Elaborate curtains and pelmets, pier glasses, "Grecian" couches and a magnificent state bed designed to accommodate King George IV on his state visit to Ireland in 1821 (although the king did not make it as far as Castle Coole, much to the disappointment of the earl) were all supplied by the Dublin upholsterer John Preston at a total cost of around £35,000. Lord Belmore also commissioned Sir Richard Morrison to build a new stable block in 1817.

Family
On 20 October 1800 Somerset married his cousin Lady Juliana Butler (20 September 1783 - 22 July 1861), second daughter of Henry Butler, 2nd Earl of Carrick by his wife Sarah Taylor, second daughter and co-heiress of Edward Taylor, of Askeaton, County Limerick, and had issue:


 * Armar Lowry-Corry, 3rd Earl Belmore
 * Hon. Henry Thomas Lowry-Corry (9 March 1803 - 5 March 1873), who was married on 18 March 1830 to Lady Harriet Anne Cooper (d. 25 March 1868), second daughter of Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, by his wife Lady Anne Spencer, fourth daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, and had issue
 * Lady Sarah Lowry-Corry (d.v.p. 1806)

Lord Belmore died at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire on 18 April 1841 aged 66 and was succeeded by his eldest son.