As "Lord Clifton" he played first-class cricket for Kent 1871-9 and "spent money like water", greatly reducing the wealth of his family. On his death without male issue the barony of Clifford of Leighton Bromswold separated from the Irish titles when it devolved upon his only child and sole heiress, the ten-month-old Lady Elizabeth Bligh, who became the seventeenth holder of the barony by writ of summons. He was succeeded in the Irish titles by his younger brother the 8th Earl. Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley (1859–1927), younger brother of 7th Earl. A talented and successful cricketer who captained MCC, he met his Australian wife Florence Morphy when visiting that country playing cricket. During the First World War he and his wife set aside the state apartments of Cobham Hall to accommodate 50 Australian officers. After the War in the 1920s he let Cobham Hall and in 1925 sold the collection of paintings and the outlying estate and converted the eastern deer park into a golf course. He sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1905 to 1927. On his death in 1927 the titles passed to his only son, the ninth Earl. Esme Ivo Bligh, 9th Earl of Darnley (1886–1955), eldest son of the 8th Earl. In 1937 he succeeded his first cousin Baroness Clifton of Leighton Bromswold (who died unmarried) in her ancient English barony, being her heir-general, as 18th Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold. Peter Stuart Bligh, 10th Earl of Darnley (1915–1980) eldest son of the 9th Earl. In 1959 following the death of his father and facing heavy inheritance tax demands, he sold the house, gardens and part of the park to the "Land Fund", which sold them on in 1963 to the Westwood Educational Trust Limited (a charity in the form of a private company limited by guarantee without share capital, formed in 1961) which established and operates the school which still occupies the site today. In 1968 the 10th Earl resided nearby at Puckle Hill, Shorne, near Gravesend, Kent, "a large, robust Arts and Crafts house constructed in 1923". Adam Ivo Stuart Bligh, 11th Earl of Darnley (1941–2017), half-brother and heir of the 10th Earl (2nd son of the 9th Earl by his 3rd wife).