Earl Fitzwilliam

Earl Fitzwilliam, a huge landowner in Ireland and England, was born in 1815, and sat as a Liberal MP for Malton in Yorkshire and later for Co. Wicklow. In 1857, he succeeded his father to the title and large estates running to over 115,000 acres in nine counties. The great bulk - over 89,000 - acres was in Co. Wicklow, with another 22,000 acres in Yorkshire.

Fitzwilliam died in 1902, leaving £2.95m in his will. Based on his rental income of £138,801 in 1882, and taking account of his personal assets, he was easily worth over £4.1m at the time, representing around 0.38% of the then £1.075bn net national income. Today's equivalent would be over £4.2bn.