The head of the De Courcy family, and brother of Lady Arabella Gresham.

"He was a man who had been much given to royal visitings and attendances, to parties in the Highlands to ... prolongations of the London season ... and to various other absences from home.... But of late gout, lumbago, and perhaps also some diminution in his powers of making himself generally agreeable, had reconciled him to domestic duties.... The Earl was one of those men who could not endure to live otherwise than expensively, and yet was made miserable by every recurring expense" - The Small House at Allington