Mornington, Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of

(b Dublin, 19 July 1735; d Kensington, 22 May 1781). Irish composer. His father, Richard Colley (Cowley) (c1690–1758), came from an established family of Anglo-Irish landowners, and changed his surname to Wesley on being made heir of Dangan Castle by a distant cousin, Garret Wesley. He named his son after his benefactor. (The surname was not changed to Wellesley until after the death of the 1st Earl.) The father was created Baron Mornington in 1746, and on his death on 31 January 1758 the son inherited the barony. He was created Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley on 2 October 1760: it is said that he owed this honour to his musical talent, which had gained him the favour of George III. His second son was the great Duke of Wellington, who was a talented violinist in his youth, but deliberately broke his fiddle when he thought it might distract him from his career. There is no evidence to connect this family with that of John Wesley.

Mornington's father ‘played well (for a gentleman) on the violin’, and the boy showed a precocity which attracted the notice of Daines Barrington, who later compared him with Mozart, Samuel Wesley and Crotch. In 1748 Mrs Delany wrote:

My godson, Master Wesley, is a most extraordinary boy; … he is a very good scholar, and whatever study he undertakes he masters it most surprisingly. He began with the fiddle last year, he now plays everything at sight; he understands fortification, building of ships, and has more knowledge than I ever met with in one so young.

He also demonstrated early ability in playing the organ and the harpsichord, and in composition. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1751, graduating BA in 1754 and MA in 1757. In the latter year he founded an amateur musical society in Dublin called the Academy of Music which became well known for its charitable concerts. He was also elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Trim, but left the following year to take his father's place in the House of Lords. In 1764 he was made MusD and elected the first professor of music in the University of Dublin, a post he retained until 1774. The latter part of his life was spent mostly in London.

As a composer Mornington is known chiefly for his glees, most of which were first published posthumously in collections. The Catch Club of London awarded him prizes in 1776, 1777 and 1779, the last for Here in cool grot, which became his most popular piece. His glees are among the most smoothly melodious of their period: two of the best are Come, fairest nymph and When for the world's repose my Chloe sleeps. Mornington also wrote three madrigals, which show at least a superficial connection with the Elizabethan madrigal. All his part-songs show a due sensitivity to word-setting, though their phrase structure is influenced by that of instrumental music.

Among the unpublished music is a cantata, Caractacus, to a text by William Mason. The statement that he wrote cathedral music for St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and that it is preserved there, is found in earlier editions of Grove and other reference books, but seems to be a myth (see Bumpus, p.113). His double chant is the only composition still in regular use, but in a debased form; the original version (ibid., p.92) is in its cool serenity among the best of Anglican chants.

WORKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. Barrington: Miscellanies (London, 1781), 317ff

G.E. C[okayne]: The Complete Peerage (London, 1887–98, 3/1982), ix, 235–6

J.S. Bumpus: ‘Irish Church Composers and the Irish Cathedrals, I’, PMA, xxvi (1899–1900), 90–159

E. Longford: Wellington, i: The Years of the Sword (London, 1969)

NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY