18th and 19th-century Irish viscount
Charles Dillon-Lee, 12th Viscount Dillon, (1745–1813) conformed to the established religion in 1767 and inherited Ditchley in England from his mother.
Birth and origins.
Charles was born on 6 November 1745 in London. He was the eldest child of Henry Dillon and his wife Lady Charlotte Lee. His father was the 11th Viscount Dillon.
Charles's mother was the eldest daughter of George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield. His parents had married on 26 October 1744 in London.
He was one of seven siblings, who are listed in his father's article. His two younger brothers, Arthur and Henry, were colonels of Dillon's regiment in France.
Early life.
In January 1766 Pope Clement XIII ended the Catholic Church's support for the Jacobites and recognised the Hanoverian Dynasty as the rightful rulers of England. On 4 December 1767, in Dublin, Charles conformed to the established church. In that same year he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Charles, in his youth, liked racing and gambling and made huge debts. He moved to Brussels to avoid his debtors.
In 1770 he was elected MP for the Westbury Borough constituency in Wiltshire, England.
In 1776 Charles changed his surname from Dillon to Dillon-Lee and quartered his arms accordingly to comply with the will of his maternal uncle George Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield. In that same year, his mother inherited the Lichfield estate at the death of her uncle the fourth Earl, who died childless.