Robert Rochfort was born in 1708, the third son of George Rochfort of Gaulstown in County Westmeath. He died in 1774 with a fractured skull in the grounds of his own estate. Between those two dates he built one of the finest small Palladian houses in Ireland, commissioned the largest folly in the country out of spite, and imprisoned his wife for over three decades on an accusation that was probably false.
"The Wicked Earl" is not a nickname his family approved of. It's the one history settled on.
Early Life and the Barony
The Rochforts were an Anglo-Irish family who had acquired Westmeath lands in the 17th century. Robert's father, also George Rochfort, was MP for Westmeath. Robert inherited the estate in 1727, when he was 19. Four years later he was created Baron Belfield — his first title, for unremarkable political service during the reign of George II.
In 1736 he married Mary Molesworth, the beautiful daughter of the 3rd Viscount Molesworth. She was 16. He was 28. They had four children over the next seven years.
1740 — Belvedere House
Around 1740, Robert commissioned a new hunting lodge on the shore of Lough Ennell, about 5 km from his main residence at Gaulstown. He hired Richard Castle, the German-born Palladian architect already famous for Powerscourt House, Westport House and Russborough House.
Castle gave Robert a restrained, elegant Georgian villa — smaller than his grander commissions but with beautifully judged proportions, fine Rococo plasterwork and a lakeside prospect that remains one of the best house-to-water views in Ireland. It was Robert's first architectural act, and by all accounts a successful one.
1743 — The Accusation
What happened in 1743 is disputed in detail but not in outcome. Robert accused Mary of an affair with his younger brother Arthur. He may have had actual evidence. He may have been jealous of Arthur's easier manner or Mary's affection for him. Whatever his reasons, Robert moved with the full legal machinery of 18th-century aristocratic Ireland.
He had Mary confined to the house at Gaulstown. She was forbidden visitors. She was separated from her children. She was attended by servants who were instructed not to speak with her beyond what was necessary.
He sued Arthur for £20,000 — an astronomical sum — on the civil charge of "criminal conversation" (the legal term of the day for adultery). When Arthur could not pay, Robert had him jailed in a debtor's prison in London. Arthur remained there for years, and in the process his nine children lost their inheritance.
Robert then raised a further civil suit to annul parts of Mary's dowry. He collected the funds. He continued to manage the Rochfort estates. He was ennobled as Earl of Belvedere in 1757 — fourteen years into his wife's imprisonment.
1760 — The Jealous Wall
By 1760 Robert had fallen out with his older brother George Rochfort, whose house Tudenham lay in sight of the Belvedere estate. Commissioning the Jealous Wall was, in many respects, more characteristic of Robert than his judicial cruelty — at least the wall was done in the open. Its purpose was unmistakable. It was a monument to the fact that he was the kind of man who did things like this.
The Scandal in Polite Society
By the 1760s, Mary's imprisonment was an open secret in Irish Protestant aristocratic society. Accounts of visitors glimpsing her through upper-floor windows circulated. Her former friends occasionally pressed for her release — all were rebuffed by Robert. The Rochfort family were socially tolerated because they were powerful and wealthy, but Robert's reputation had turned to something close to infamy.
Writing years later, a contemporary described him as "a man whose lineage and fortune preserved him from the consequences which his conduct, in any other station, would certainly have incurred."
1774 — The End
On 13 November 1774, Robert Rochfort was found dead in the grounds of Belvedere with a fractured skull. He was 66. There was no detailed inquest. The official account was that he had slipped while walking and struck his head on a stone.
Other accounts circulated. A tenant had been seen near the estate that day. A servant had recently been dismissed. Local folklore, already hostile to Robert, needed very little encouragement to arrive at a story of divine — or human — retribution.
Whatever the truth, Mary was released within weeks. She lived another 17 years, largely quietly, with her children. Arthur, by then released from prison, eventually reconciled with his surviving siblings. The Earldom passed to Robert's son George, who inherited both the house and the reputation.
What Survives
Everything the Wicked Earl built still stands. Belvedere House is now owned by Westmeath County Council. The Jealous Wall is restored and photographed thousands of times a year. Mary's portrait hangs, when the house interior is open, in one of the smaller reception rooms.
The best monuments of the Wicked Earl are also the most indifferent to him. A Georgian house that outlasted him. A wall built to hide a brother who died first. A story still being told, two and a half centuries after the end.
See the estate for yourself
The house interior is in conservation for 2026, but the grounds, the Jealous Wall and the lakeshore are fully open.
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