Fleming (No. 1.) family genealogy
Lords of Slane; created 1537; dormant 1726
Arms: Vair a chief chequy or and gu. Crest: A mortar piece casting out a bomb with flames all ppr. chains and rings gold. Supporters: Two greyhounds ar. collared and armed gu. Motto: May the King live for ever.
About 1173, Archibald Fleming came over with Strongbow, and was the first Lord of Slane. To him succeeded Archibald; to him Richard; to him Simon, who, about A.D. 1370, was created “Baron of Slane;” to him succeeded Baldwin Fleming; to him Simon; to him Baldwin; to him another Simon; to him Thomas Christopher; to him David; next Thomas, after whom, in one year, fourteen Lords of Slane died of some contagion.
Colonel Christopher Fleming, the 23rd Lord Slane, was son of Randal, who was conspicuous for his loyalty to Charles I., during the Commonwealth rule in Ireland; and said Christopher was no less faithful to the cause of King James II. He sat as one of the Peers in James’s Irish Parliament, in 1689; commanded a family regiment in his service; and with it fought, during the Revolutionary war, at Derry, the Boyne, and Aughrim where he was taken prisoner. He was, of course, attainted by the Williamite party, and his estates, which were valued at £25,000 a year, were for most part granted by King William, to De Ginkel, the victor of Aughrim; his wife, the Lady Slane, getting only £200 a year out of them during her husband’s life, and £800, a year, at his decease.
Released from prison, Lord Slane followed the exiled King James to France, where he resided in poverty till 1708, when, considering himself badly used by the Jacobite Court, he returned to England. Queen Anne is said to have restored him to his honours, but not to his estates. He was, however, allowed a pension of £500 a year, and a regiment on the Irish Establishment. In 1713, he was advanced to the dignity of ‘‘Viscount Longford,” but, according to Dalton, no patent issued. He died in 1726, and was buried in the tomb of the MacDonnells, Earls of Antrim, in the Abbey of Bonnamargy (with which family he was connected by blood), leaving an only daughter Helen, who died in Paris, on the 7th August, 1748, unmarried. And so ended the line of the Barons of Slane, in the case of the above mentioned Colonel Christopher Fleming, Lord Slane.
The title, however, appears to have been kept up for a short time longer by his brother Henry (who was a Colonel in Galmoy’s horse), and by Henry’s descendants. This Henry had a son William (d. 1747), who had a son Christopher, who d.s.p. in 1772.
Playfair (Pur. lxxv.) says that Richard Fleming, of Slahalmack, was the second son of the last Baron of Slane. In consequence of the last Baron’s decease without male issue, and the Barony being held by tenure, the title descended to his daughter Bridget.