William Somerville, 1st Baron Athlumney

Athlumney was the son of Sir Marcus Somerville, 4th Baronet of Somerville, in the County of Meath, and Mary Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Gorges-Meredyth, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

Athlumney was returned to Parliament for Drogheda in 1837, a seat he held until 1852, and served under Lord John Russell as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1846 to 1847 and as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1847 to 1852 during the worst of the Great Famine. In 1847 he was sworn of the Privy Council. He lost his seat in the 1852 general election, but was successfully returned for Canterbury in 1854, and continued to represent this constituency until 1865. In 1863 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Athlumney, of Somerville and Dollarstown in the County of Meath, and in 1866 he was further honoured when he was created Baron Meredyth, of Dollarstown in the County of Meath, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This second title commemorated his descent from the Meredyth family.

Lord Athlumney married firstly Lady Maria Harriet, daughter of Henry Conyngham, 1st Marquess Conyngham, in 1832. They had one son (who died as an infant) and one daughter. After her death in December 1843 he married secondly Maria Georgiana Elizabeth, daughter of Herbert George Jones, in 1860. They had two sons (of whom the youngest died as a child). Lord Athlumney died in Dover, Kent, in December 1873 and was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son from his second marriage, James. Lady Athlumney died in January 1899, aged 67.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by William Somerville