Robert Nugent (1702-1788): politician and poet. Father of Mary Nugent.

Portrait of Robert Nugent published in Memoir of Robert Nugent 1898, facing p82		Portrait of Robert Nugent published in Memoir of Robert Nugent 1898, frontispiece

• Born at Carlanstown, County Westmeath
• Son of Michael Nugent of Carlanstown and Mary, daughter of Lord Trimlestown
• Inherited an estate of £1,500 per year.
• Married three rich widows, Horace Walpole invented the description ‘to Nugentize’ to describe this practice
• 1730. Married Emilia, daughter of Peter, 4th Earl of Fingal. She died 16 August 1731 giving birth to their only child Edmund (see entry on Gosfield).  
• 1736. Married Anne Craggs, 'a fat ugly dame,' (Cundall, xlii). She was twice a widow; one husband was John Knight, of Gosfield Hall, Essex, who also owned St Mawes. Anne died 22 November 1756 (memorial). No children. 
• 1757. (2 January) Married Elizabeth Drax from whom he secured a large fortune. She was widow of Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley (18 February 1715 to 9 January 1755). Two daughters, the first of which was Mary, mother of the 1st Duke. Elizabeth Drax died on 29 June 1792. 
• Elevated to the Peerage as Baron Nugent on 19 January 1769
• Created Earl Nugent on 21 July 1776.
• MP for St Mawes, in Cornwall, in 1741 and 1747.
• Appointed a Privy Councillor in 1759 and served as Privy Councillor and Vice-Treasurer of Ireland until 1765.
• Died 14 October 1788 at the house of Major O'Donnel in Dublin, aged eighty-six. 

Children include:

• Edmund (mother Emilia Fingal)
• Mary Nugent (mother Elizabeth Drax)
• Louisa Nugent (mother Elizabeth Drax)

His literary works include:

• Essay on Justice, poem (London 1737; fol. 1738)
• Essay on Happiness, poem (London 1737)
• Ode to Mrs. Pulteney (1739)
• Odes and Epistles (1739 anon.)
• Faith, poem (anon. 1774)
• The Genius of Ireland, poem addressed to Lord Clare (1775)

Sources

Boylan  p265; Cundall.