Viscount Edmond Sexton Pery

Pery, Edmond Sexton, Viscount, the son of a Limerick clergyman, was born in April 1719. He was called to the Bar, entered Parliament in 1751, and was Speaker from 1771 to 1785. On his vacating the office of Speaker in 1785, he was, upon an address of the Parliament, created Viscount Pery, of Newtown-Pery, near Limerick, and granted a pension of £3,000 per annum. He was twice married, but left no heir, and the title became extinct on his death, in 1806, at the age of 87. He was buried at Pelham, in Hertfordshire. Grattan said of Lord Pery: "He was more or less a party to all those measures [of free trade and Irish liberation], and indeed in every great statute and measure that took place in Ireland for the past fifty years, a man of the most legislative capacity I ever knew, and the most comprehensive reach of understanding; with a deep engraven expression of public care, accompanied by a temper which was adamant. In his train is every private virtue which can adorn human nature." The Gentleman's Magazine, in noticing his death, eulogizes him highly.

Sources

21. Barrington, Sir Jonah, Historic Memoirs of Ireland. 2 vols. London, 1835.

54. Burke, Sir Bernard: Peerage and Baronetage.

146. Gentleman's Magazine. London, 1731-1868.
Gilbert, John T., see Nos. 110, 335.

196. Irishmen, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished, Rev. James Wills, D.D. 6 vols. or 12 parts. Dublin, 1840-'7.