Marquess of Donegall
Arms: Quarterly, 1st and 4th: Chequy Or and Gules, a Chief Vair(for Chichester); 2nd and 3rd: Azure fretty Argent(for Etchingham).Crest: A Stork proper, holding in the beak an Eel Argent.Supporters: On either side a Wolf Gules, ducally gorged and chained Or.[1]
Creation date	4 July 1791
Created by	George III
Peerage	Peerage of Ireland
First holder	Arthur Chichester, 5th Earl of Donegall
Present holder	Patrick Chichester, 8th Marquess of Donegall
Heir apparent	James Chichester, Earl of Belfast
Remainder to	Heirs male of the body
Subsidiary titles	Earl of Donegall Earl of Belfast Viscount Chichester Baron Chichester Baron Fisherwick Baron Templemore
Status	Extant
Seat	Dunbrody Park
Former seats	Dunbrody House; Ormeau House;Belfast Castle; Donegall House
Motto	INVICTUM SEQUITUR HONOR(Honour follows him who does not seek it)[2]

Marquess of Donegall is a title in thePeerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally fromDevon, England.Sir John Chichester sat as aMember of Parliament and wasHigh Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons,Sir Arthur Chichester, wasLord Deputy of Ireland from 1605 to 1616. In 1613, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland asBaron Chichester, ofBelfast inCounty Antrim. When he died childless in 1625 the barony became extinct.^[3]

However, in the same year the Chichester title was revived in favour of his younger brother,Edward Chichester, who was madeBaron Chichester, of Belfast in the County of Antrim, andViscount Chichester, ofCarrickfergus inCounty Antrim.^[4] Both titles are in the Peerage of Ireland. He was succeeded by his eldest son,Arthur Chichester. A distinguished soldier, he was createdEarl of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland in 1647 (one year before he succeeded his father), with remainder to the heirs male of his father.^[5][6]

He died without male issue and was succeeded (in the earldom according to the special remainder) by his nephew Arthur Chichester, the second Earl. He was the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Chichester, second son of the first Viscount. Lord Donegall had previously representedCounty Donegal in theIrish House of Commons. His eldest son, thethird Earl, was aMajor-General in the Spanish army and fought in theWar of the Spanish Succession. He was killed in action in 1706. His eldest son, the fourth Earl, died childless and was succeeded by his nephew, thefifth Earl. He was the son of the Hon. John Chichester, younger son of the third Earl. Lord Donegall was createdBaron Fisherwick, ofFisherwick in theCounty of Stafford, in thePeerage of Great Britain in 1790,^[7] and one year later he was further honoured when he was madeEarl of Belfast andMarquess of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland.^[8][9]

His grandson, the third Marquess, served asCaptain of the Yeomen of the Guard underLord John Russell between 1848 and 1852. In 1841, three years before he succeeded his father in the marquessate, he was createdBaron Ennishowen and Carrickfergus, ofEnnishowen in theCounty of Donegal and ofCarrickfergus in theCounty of Antrim, in thePeerage of the United Kingdom.^[10] Both his sons predeceased him and on his death in 1883 the barony of 1841 became extinct. He was succeeded in his other titles by his younger brother, the fourth Marquess. On the death of his grandson, thesixth Marquess, in 1975, the line of the second Marquess failed. The sixth Marquess was succeeded by his kinsman, the fifthBaron Templemore (see below), who became theseventh Marquess. From 1790 until 1999, when most hereditary seats were abolished with the passage of theHouse of Lords Act 1999, the Marquess sat in theHouse of Lords asBaron Fisherwick in thePeerage of Great Britain. As of 2015^[update], the titles are held by the latter's son, the eighth Marquess, who succeeded in 2007.^[2]

Thecounty inUlster from which the title is derived is now speltDonegal. Several locations inBelfast are named after the family, such asDonegall Square, Donegall Place,Donegall Road, Donegall Pass, Donegall Quay, Chichester Street, Arthur Street, Arthur Square, and Chichester Park.

Several other members of the Chichester family have also gained distinction.John Chichester, grandson of Sir John Chichester, brother of the first Baron Chichester and the first Viscount Chichester, was created abaronet in 1641 (seeChichester baronets).^[11]John Chichester, second son of the first Viscount and father of the second Earl, representedDungannon in theIrish House of Commons. For the branch of the family founded by John Chichester's younger son and namesake, John Chichester, seeBaron O'Neill andBaron Rathcavan.

Arthur Chichester, eldest son ofLord Spencer Chichester, third son of the first Marquess, was createdBaron Templemore in 1831.^[12]Lord Arthur Chichester, fourth son of the second Marquess, andLord John Chichester, sixth son of the second Marquess, both representedBelfast in Parliament.Robert Chichester, eldest son of Lord Adolphus Chichester, youngest son of the fourth Marquess, briefly representedLondonderry South in Parliament. His wifeDehra was also a politician while their daughter, Marion Caroline Dehra, was the mother ofJames Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, who served briefly asPrime Minister of Northern Ireland, and the politicianSir Robin Chichester-Clark and of the gardening writer and television presenterPenelope Hobhouse.

Thecaput, orfamily seat, has been in several locations over the centuries, usually in the east ofUlster. Joymount House was built forthe 1st Baron Chichester in the 1610s inCarrickfergus in the south-east ofCounty Antrim, probably being completed in 1618.^[13] Joymount, along withChichester House on the outskirts ofDublin and thePlantation-eraBelfast Castle in the centre ofBelfast,^[14] were the three original principal residences of the Chichester family in Ireland.Lord Chichester maintainedChichester House, located on the Hoggen Green (nowCollege Green), as his 'town' residence on what was then the eastern edge ofDublin. Joymount House was probably demolished in the early eighteenth century, whileParliament House was built on the site of Chichester House in Dublin in the early 1730s. The Plantation-era Belfast Castle was largely destroyed by fire on 24 April 1708 and was not rebuilt.^[15]

In the early to mid-nineteenth-century, the family seats were: Donegall House, a largetownhouse on the corner of what is now Donegall Place andDonegall Square North incentral Belfast^[16] (Donegall House was later converted, in the 1820s, into a hotel called The Royal Hotel^[17]); and Ormeau House (formerly Ormeau Cottage), a mansion largely built in the 1820s in the OrmeauDemesne (nowOrmeau Park) inCounty Down, in what was then the south-eastern outskirts ofBelfast.^[18] Both these residences were later demolished, with Ormeau House being demolished in 1869 or 1870.^[19][20]

The 2nd Marquess of Donegall, again during the early to mid-nineteenth-century, also maintained Fisherwick Lodge, a hunting 'lodge' nearDoagh inCounty Antrim, on the family's country estate there.^[21] Later in the nineteenth-century,Belfast Castle, on the lower slopes ofCave Hill in North Belfast, was purpose-designed and built forthe 3rd Marquess of Donegall as the main residence of the family. This new Belfast Castle, aVictorian structure built in the 1860s,^[22] was inherited bythe 8th Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife in October 1883, thus passing out of the ownership of the Chichester family. Lord Shaftesbury had married the daughter of the third Marquess.

From October 1953 until about 1996,Dunbrody House, formerly the seat of theBarons Templemore nearArthurstown in the south-west ofCounty Wexford, was the family seat ofthe 7th Marquess of Donegall. From October 1953 until May 1975, the seventh Marquess was known as the 5thBaron Templemore. Arthurstown was named forthe 1st Earl of Donegall. The house was sold by the seventh Marquess to chefKevin Dundon, who converted it into a luxury hotel and restaurant in 1997.^[23] What remains of the Dunbrody Estate is, however, still in the ownership of the current head of the family, The 8th Marquess of Donegall, whose present family seat is the much smaller Dunbrody Park within the estate grounds.

• Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester (1563–1625)

• Edward Chichester, 1st Viscount Chichester (1568–1648)
• Arthur Chichester, 2nd Viscount Chichester (1606–1675; createdEarl of Donegall in 1647)

• Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall (1606–1675)
• Arthur Chichester, 2nd Earl of Donegall (died 1678)
• Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall (1666–1706)
• Arthur Chichester, 4th Earl of Donegall (1695–1757)
• Arthur Chichester, 5th Earl of Donegall (1739–1799; createdBaron Fisherwick [GB] in 1790 andMarquess of Donegall in 1791)

• Arthur Chichester, 1st Marquess of Donegall (1739–1799)
• George Augustus Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall (1769–1844)
• George Hamilton Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall, (1797–1883; createdBaron Ennishowen and Carrickfergus [UK] in 1841)
• Edward Chichester, 4th Marquess of Donegall (1799–1889)
• George Augustus Hamilton Chichester, 5th Marquess of Donegall (1822–1904)
• Edward Arthur Donald St George Hamilton Chichester, 6th Marquess of Donegall (1903–1975)
• Dermot Richard Claud Chichester, 7th Marquess of Donegall (5thBaron Templemore) (1916–2007)
• Arthur Patrick Chichester, 8th Marquess of Donegall (b. 1952)

(Arthur) Patrick Chichester, 8th Marquess of Donegall (born 9 May 1952), is the eldest son of the 7th Marquess. Styled as Earl of Belfast from 1975 to April 2007, he was educated atHarrow School and theRoyal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and was commissioned into theColdstream Guards.^[24]

In April 2007 he succeeded his father as Marquess of Donegall and in his other peerages.^{[citation needed]}He also holds 1/100 of the office ofLord Great Chamberlain.^[24]Donegall is married to Caroline Philipson (born 1959), and they have two children:^[24]

• James Arthur Chichester, Earl of Belfast (born 1990),heir apparent^[24] whose heir is his son Arthur Humphrey John Chichester, Viscount Chichester (born 2022)
• Lady Catherine Chichester (born 1992).^[24]

They live nearArthurstown in the south-west ofCounty Wexford.^[24]

• Chichester baronets
• Baron Templemore
• Baron O'Neill
• Baron Rathcavan
• Baron Carrickfergus
• Belfast Castle

• Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921).Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. London:Dean & Son. p. 300.

• Marquessates in the Peerage of Ireland
• Chichester family
• 1791 establishments in Ireland
• Noble titles created in 1791

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