Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox [SEP] father
Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox
Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox KG (157930 July 1624) was the son of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox and Catherine de Balsac. He was a patron of the playwright Ben Jonson, who lived in his household for five years. At the death of his brother the 2nd Duke of Lennox, he was already Earl of March and Lord Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in the peerage of England (1619) as well as 7th Seigneur d'Aubigny.
He married Katherine Clifton
, of Plymouth, a Commissioner of Customs and Excise despatched to Ireland in search of forfeited estates, and in turn his father was William Bligh, a prosperous Plymouth merchant.
John Bligh, 1st Earl of Darnley, married Theodosia Hyde, 10th Baroness Clifton (of Leighton Bromswold), great-granddaughter of Lord George Stuart, younger son of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox, also 3rd Earl of Darnley (see the Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold and the Duke of Lennox for earlier history of these titles).