The earldom of Belvedere was held by the Rochfort family. The 1st Earl of Belvedere was Colonel Robert Rochfort, notorious for his treatment of his wife the 1st Lady Belvedere. He heard rumours that his wife had been unfaithful to him by his brother Arthur. He locked her up in the family house in Gaulstown for thirty years. He was enraged and took Arthur to court. He was awarded the then huge sum of 20,000 pounds in damages and his brother, unable to pay, fled the country. He had married Mary in 1736 when she was 16 and he was 28. When Arthur saw fit to return to Ireland he was thrown into the debtors prison where he stayed until the "Wicked Earl," as he was known died. He was realeased as was Mary, who after 12 years imprisonment had escaped only to be recaptured and given harsher treatment, who died as a recluse a few days later.
During his life the 1st Earl built Belvedere House, Mullingar a well admired piece of Georgian architecture. This was perhaps what he is remembered for, but it was his second son, George Augustus, who has kept the name Belvedere remembered.
Georges Augustus, who had been named after King George III who was his godfather by proxy, came to the title in 1774 and despite the family holding vast estates in Westmeath came to reside in Dublin. He bought the land for his town house that same year and also married Dorothea Bloomfield.
He was a violent opponent of the Act of Union but was wooed by money to vote in favour. He did at least, however, reside in Dublin after the act was passed. After the death of his wife he married Jane McKay but he died heirless in 1814.
He did however build during his life his townhouse. He hired the well known architect Michael Stapleton to build it and it is now one of the best surviving examples of Georgian architecture in Ireland.
After his death his wife remarried and bore a son whom she christened George Augustus Rochfort Boyd. He lived on his estates in Westmeath and the house fell into disrepair. He sold it to a man who then sold it to his brother's religous order the Jesuits. It is now the best secondary school in Dublin.
Upon George Augustus' death in 1814 the title became extinct and has yet to be revived.
