Longford

Longford was enfranchised by Charles II in 1669, 20 Chas II, and this included certain grants of lands. Additional lands and privileges were granted in a charter of 1679, 30 Chas I, to Francis Aungier, 1st Earl of Longford (1st creation). Thomas Pakenham (1622) married the daughter and heiress of Michael Cuffe (0556): Cuffe and James Macartney were residuary heirs of the estate of Ambrose Aungier, Earl of Longford (0064). Michael Cuffe died in 1744 and his estate, including the borough, passed to his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Pakenham (1622) who was created Baron Longford in 1756. On Lord Longford's death in 1766 it passed to his son (1619), whose mother was created suo iure Countess of Longford. In 1783 the borough corporation was composed of 'Burgesses and Freemen. Patron, Lord Longford (1619). The Freemen nearly extinct and Burgesses non-resident', while the 'borough [was] entirely at the disposal of the Patron.'264 In 1790: 'Lord Longford, that sensible and able officer, is the proprietor of this Borough, whose electors have, by the same arts of Corporation politics so successfully practised elsewhere, been reduced to the Burgesses only who are mere machines in his lordship's hands, created by his orders and obedient to his directions.' Lord Longford died in 1792, and his mother in 1794. Longford was disfranchised in 1800 and the £15,000 compensation was paid to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Longford.