John Stratford, 1st Earl of Aldborough

John was born either on 10 August 1697,[2] or in 1698 at Ormond.[3] He was the son of Edward Stratford and his first wife Elizabeth Baisley, daughter of Euseby Baisley of Ricketstown, Rathvilly, County Carlow.[3] He was a descendant of the English House of Stratford.[2] He matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin on 8 May 1716.[3][4]

In 1721, he entered the Irish House of Commons for Baltinglass.[5] He was appointed High Sheriff of Wexford in 1727, High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1736 and High Sheriff of Wexford in 1739.[3]

Stratford sat for Baltinglass until 21 May 1763, when he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Baltinglass, of Baltinglass, in the County of Wicklow.[3][6] On 22 July 1776, he was advanced to the dignity of Viscount Aldborough, of Belan, County Kildare[3] or the Palatinate of Upper Ormond,[7] part of a series of promotions carried out by Earl Harcourt, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to secure support for the British ministry in the Parliament of Ireland.[8] and on 9 February 1777, Stratford was further honoured when he became Viscount Amiens and Earl of Aldborough, of the Palatinate of Upper Ormond.[3][9] The title of "Viscount Amiens" was apparently adapted on the strength of a fictitious pedigree detailing Stratford's descent from a companion of William the Conqueror originating in Amiens.[3]

He married Martha O'Neale, daughter of Venerable Benjamin O'Neale, Archdeacon of Leighlin.[10] They had six sons and nine daughters.[11] Stratford was succeeded in his titles successively by his oldest son Edward, his second son John and then his fourth son Benjamin.[12]

• Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press. pp. 98–101.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cokayne, George E. (1998). Hammond, Peter W. (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. XIV, Addenda and Corrigenda. London: St. Catherine Press. p. 18.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)