The Right Honourable The Lord Ponsonby of Imokilly PC (Ire)
c.1795 portrait based on a work byThomas Lawrence
Joint Postmaster General of Ireland
In office 1784–1789
Monarch	George III
Succeeded by	The Earl of Bellomont
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Hereditary peerage 13 March 1806 – 5 November 1806 Preceded by Newly created Succeeded by John Ponsonby County Kilkenny(United Kingdom) In office 1801–1806 Preceded by New constituency Succeeded by Hon. George Ponsonby County Kilkenny(Ireland) In office 1783–1801 Preceded by Hon. John Ponsonby Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom Newtownards In office 1783–1783 Preceded by Sir John Browne, 7th Bt Succeeded by Hon. John Ponsonby Bandonbridge In office 1776–1783 Preceded by Francis Bernard Succeeded by Francis Bernard Cork City In office 1764–1776 Preceded by Sir John Freke, 3rd Bt Succeeded by Richard Longfield
Personal details
Born	William Brabazon Ponsonby (1744-09-15)15 September 1744 Dublin, Ireland
Died	6 November 1806(1806-11-06) (aged 62) London, England
Spouse	Louisa Molesworth m. 1769 d. 1824
Children	John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby of Imokilly Sir William Ponsonby Richard Ponsonby George Ponsonby Frederick Ponsonby Mary Grey, Countess Grey
Parent(s)	John Ponsonby Elizabeth Cavendish
Occupation	Politician

William Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby (of Imokilly),PC (Ire) (15 September 1744 – 5 November 1806) was a leading IrishWhig politician, being a member of theIrish House of Commons, and, after 1800, of theUnited Kingdom parliament.^[1] Ponsonby was the son of the Hon.John Ponsonby, theSpeaker of the Irish House of Commons, and Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the3rd Duke of Devonshire. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor of Ireland in 1784. He served asJoint Postmaster-General of Ireland (1784–1789).

Ponsonby was educated atPembroke College, Cambridge.^[2] He representedCork City between 1764 and 1776 and thereafterBandonbridge between 1776 and 1783. He was the leader of a powerful family grouping of between ten and fourteen MPs, the second largest in theIrish House of Commons. During the regency crisis of 1788–89, he gave his support to thePrince of Wales in opposition toWilliam Pitt the Younger. As a consequence, he was dismissed from the Post Office. Thereafter he permanently aligned himself withCharles James Fox and together with his brotherGeorge gathered together the various small groups of Irish whigs into a unified opposition. As with their English counterparts, their ultimate objective was to re-establish the influence of the landowning classes at the expense of the crown. Ponsonby became committed to the cause ofCatholic Emancipation, as a means of securing a loyal population at a time of radical agitation and potential foreign invasion.

Pitt's coalition with thePortland whigs in July 1794 andEarl FitzWilliam's consequent appointment asLord Lieutenant of Ireland gave Ponsonby and his allies an opportunity to regain office. He was on the brink of becoming Irish secretary of state and had sat on the Treasury bench. In 1795, however, he appears to have persuaded FitzWilliam to dismissJohn Beresford from his post as first commissioner of the revenue on the grounds of alleged corruption, apparently in revenge for earlier political dealings. The subsequent political crisis led in 1795 to FitzWilliam's swift removal from office, Beresford's reinstatement, and to Ponsonby's humiliating return to opposition.

Ponsonby was a leading opponent of the union between Ireland and Great Britain. In 1783, he stood forNewtownards andCounty Kilkenny. He chose the latter constituency and sat for it from 1783 until theAct of Union came into force in 1801. He became then part of theFoxite Whig opposition in the Westminster House of Commons, voting against theAddington and Pitt ministries and in favour of the Prince of Wales and Catholic Emancipation. His influence was declining, however, and by 1803 effective leadership of the Irish whigs had passed to his brother George.

By the timeFox regained office in 1806 as member of Grenville'sMinistry of All the Talents, Ponsonby's health was poor, with the result that his wife urgently pressed his claims for a peerage, arguing that it was merited by his opposition to the Regency Bill and the Union, and by his staunch support for the Foxite whigs at Westminster.^{[citation needed]} As a consequence, he was raised swiftly to thepeerage of the United Kingdom on 13 March 1806. He was gazetted as 'Baron Ponsonby, of Imokilly in the County of Cork', although other sources generally refer to him as 'Baron Ponsonby of Imokilly'.^[which?] He died in Seymour Street, London, on 5 November 1806, and was buried in Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

At a personal levelEdmund Burke described Ponsonby in a letter toLord Charlemont as "a manly, decided character, with ... a clear and vigorous understanding." He was as interested in sport as he was in politics and was said to have kept 'the best hunting establishment in Ireland' atBishopscourt, his seat inCounty Kildare, where it was also reported that he lived 'in the most hospitable and princely style' (Cokayne,The Complete Peerage). In addition, he was easily irritated, especially if his status and pretensions went unacknowledged. Thus, although he took a leading part in creating a whig opposition in Ireland in the 1790s, he overplayed his hand under FitzWilliam, and his effectiveness was thereafter limited.

In 1769 Ponsonby married Louisa Molesworth (1749–1824), 4th daughter of the3rd Viscount Molesworth, and his second wife, Mary Usher. They had five sons, four of whom were men of note and one daughter.

1. John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby, was a diplomat
2. Hon. SirWilliam Ponsonby, a major-general in the army was killed at theBattle of Waterloo
3. Richard Ponsonby, becamebishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora in 1828,Derry in 1831 andDerry and Raphoe in 1834;
4. George Ponsonby was a Member of Parliament andJunior Lord of the Treasury.
5. Mary was married to the Prime Minister,Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey.

Ponsonby's descendants includeEdward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax,Sir Alec Douglas-Home andPrince William of Wales.^{[citation needed]}

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Mosley, Charles (editor). (1999).Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th edition
• G. E. Cokayne (editor). (1910–1959)The Complete Peerage..., XIII volumes; volume X, page 576
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B. M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• stirnet.com

• Postmasters general of Ireland
• 1744 births
• 1806 deaths
• Barons Ponsonby
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• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
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