John Fitzgibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare (1792 - 1851), KP, GCH, PC, son of the 1st Earl and uncle of Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, was a close friend of Lord Byron when they both attended Harrow School. Byron claimed to love him "ad infinitum" and that he could never hear the word "Clare" without "a murmur of the heart": "I have always loved him better than any malething in the world."
There is a portrait of the 2nd Earl, by John Jackson, at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire.
He became 2nd Baron FitzGibbon of Sidbury, 2nd Earl of Clare, 2nd Viscount FitzGibbon of Limerick, co. Limerick, and 2nd Baron FitzGibbon of Lower Connello, co. Limerick on 28 January 1802, when he was 9 years old.
He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, 1812.
In 1826 he married Elizabeth Julia Georgiana Burrell, daughter of Peter Burrell, 1st Baron Gwydir, and Priscilla Barbara Elizabeth Bertie, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, on the 14th of April 1826 at Richmond, Surrey. Their marriage is said to have lasted only three years, before she left him, and no children were born to them.
[It would seem he went to India shortly after she left - c.1829?]
This John Fitzgibbon was active in the House of Lords, a Privy Councillor (from 1830), Governor of Bombay (1830 - 1834), Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Limerick (1848 - 1851) and Custos Rotulorum of County Limerick (1850 - 1851).
He died at the age of 59 on the 18th of August 1851 at Brighton, Sussex, England. The Countess Clare died at age 86 on 30th of April 1879 at Ryde, Isle of Wight, England. [I have an idea she founded a convent there?]
According to Carole? Gurnett [CHECK it was indeed she, and that this is a proper quote. Add the ref.]:
"Born in 1792, Lord Clare went to school at Harrow in England where he formed a lasting friendship with the poet, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824). In his 'Detached Thoughts, October 15th, 1821 - May 18th, 1822', Byron wrote: "My school friendships were with me passions ... that with Lord Clare began one of the earliest - and lasted longest ... I never hear the word "Clare" without a beating of the heart .'
The second Earl travelled extensively and brought back with him large quantities of bronzes, busts and pictures with which he adorned Mountshannon House.
In 1826 he married Elizabeth Burrell but she deserted him after only three years of marriage, leaving him childless.
A story, put forward by Constantine Fitzgibbon (great great grandson of the second Earl) in his book 'Miss Finnegan's Fault' [it can also be found, I think, in his essay on visiting Limerick in 1952] suggests to us one reason why this union was ultimately unsuccessful and barren of children. There is, however, no guarantee that the tale is authentic.
Apparently lords Clare and Byron, while both travelling together through the Ottoman Empire, managed to gain entrance to the local Pasha's harem. In the middle of their escapades, they were interrupted by the Pasha's men and Lord Clare was captured while Byron escaped.
The prisoner was given the choice of losing either his masculinity or his life. The story goes that he chose the former."