“The Congreve family has played a leading part in the history of Waterford city and county over eight generations and nearly four centuries. The name is derived from Congreve in Staffordshire, which was their principal seat from the 14th century. The family has produced several celebrities, including:

“William Congreve the poet and dramatist, born at Bardsey, Yorkshire, in 1670 (he lived for some years in Ireland when his father was stationed here as an army officer);

“Sir William Congreve, 1st Bart, who made improvements in the manufacture of gunpowder;

“His son Sir William Congreve, 2nd Bart, inventor of the Congreve Rocket, the Congreve Clock, and much else;

“Sir Walter Congreve, awarded the VC in the Boer War and later a vigorous corps commander in the First World War (his elder son, also awarded a VC, was killed at the Somme);

“The first of the family to settle in the Waterford area was the Rev. John Congreve, rector of Kilmacow, co. Kilkenny, who died in 1710. His son, the first Ambrose Congreve, played a leading part in the affairs of Waterford City: he erected a dry dock for the repair of boats and a bridge over St Catherine’s Pill; served as Mayor in 1736-37; and was the first of three generations of his family to represent Waterford at the Irish parliament in Dublin. He also bought or rented from the Corporation a considerable amount of property in the city and liberties. In 1741 Ambrose died leaving a young son and heir John. Two years later his widow married Dr John Whetcombe, bishop of Clonfert and later Archbishop of Cashel. Whetcombe was a noted biblical scholar, and several of the books in Mount Congreve Library bear his bookplate.

“In 1758 John Congreve, son of Ambrose, married Mary ussher, of the Kilmeaden branch of that family. They had two sons. John, the elder, lived at Landscape near Carrickbeg and died unmarried in 1801 (after his death Landscape was rented by a cousin, the celebrated politician and duellist William Congreve Alcock; a later tenant was the infamous Captain boycott). The younger, Ambrose ussher Congreve, succeeded his fatherThe elder John continued his father’s acquisition of land near Waterford City. In particular, he acquired in 1759 the lease of property belonging to the Christmas family of Whitfield. Here he settled, and two years later we find him described as “of Mount Congreve”. We may therefore assign the building of the house to about 1760, and an account-book in the Mount Congreve archives shows that the builder was the Waterford architect John Roberts. (Of all Roberts’s buildings in and around Waterford, including the two cathedrals, this is the only one of which we have direct evidence of his involvement.)

“John assembled the Mount Congreve Library, and many of the older volumes bear his bookplate, comprising the arms of Congreve impaling those of Ussher. His grandson and namesake compiled a catalogue of the library; of which he had some copies printed locally in 1827; to his own copy he added further acquisitions made down to his death in 1863.

“John and both his sons were enthusiastic supporters of the Volunteer movement and participated in the affairs of the Irish parliament. The rebellion of 1798 and the Act of union in 1801, however, put an end to these activities. Ambrose Ussher Congreve died in 1809 and was succeeded by his son John, who in 1827 married Louisa Dillon of the Clonbrock family. Their son and heir, the third Ambrose Congreve, succeeded to the estate in 1863 and married his first cousin Alice Dillon of Clonbrock. Life at Mount Congreve during their time is depicted in the photographs of the Clonbrock Collection, some of which featured in the National Library’s recent “Power and Privilege” exhibition in Temple bar.

“Their son, Major John Congreve, succeeded his father in 1901, and married Lady Irène Ponsonby, daughter of Edward Viscount Duncannon, later eighth Earl of Bessborough. Lady Bessborough’s mother was the redoubtable Lady Charlotte Schreiber. Her first husband was Sir Josiah John Guest, (See Lot 71), manager of the Dowlais Iron Works near Merthyr Tydvil, which became the largest of its kind in the world. After her husband’s death she took over complete management of the works. Then in 1855 she married Charles Schreiber, a classical scholar, left Dowlais, and together with her husband travelled Europe collecting objets d’art, especially ceramics.

“Ambrose Christian Congreve, only son of Major John and Lady Irène, was born in 1907. Having worked for unilever in England and China, he married in 1935 Marjorie Glasgow, whose father was one of the two founders of Humphreys and Glasgow. After his marriage Mr Congreve joined the firm, and in 1935 he took over its complete management; he remained chairman for many years, greatly expanding its capabilities. In 1965 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division), and in 1967 was elected an honorary member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, an acknowledgement of his unique contribution to British chemical engineering.

“On taking over Mount Congreve he fully restored and modernised it, taking up residence there in 1968. He also progressed the development of the gardens, which had been a lifelong interest. He had begun planting with his father in his late teens, inspired by Lionel de Rothschild’s garden at Exbury. Lorry-loads of plants arrived, carriage paid by de Rothschild, including the newly discovered Rhododendron sinogrande. In 1955 Mr Congreve began to make large clearings in the woodlands to create the necessary conditions where the plants thrive. The garden comprises around seventy acres of intensively planted woodland garden and a four-acre walled garden, and is said to have the largest collection of plants grown out of doors in Europe. In 1987 Mr Congreve was awarded a Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society, and in 2001 a gold Medal by the Horticultural Society of Massachusetts, who classified Mount Congreve as a Great Garden of the World.”