Baron Mountnorris

Viscount Valentia is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It has been created twice. The first creation came in 1621 for Henry Power. A year later, his kinsman Sir Francis Annesley, 1st Baronet, was given a "reversionary grant" of the viscountcy, which stated that on Power's death Annesley would be created Viscount Valentia. Annesley, a member of an influential Anglo-Irish family which descended from Newport Pagnell in the County of Buckinghamshire, was a favourite of James I, who granted him land in Ireland, notably the fort of Mountnorris in County Armagh. He was knighted in 1616, created a baronet, of Newport Pagnell in the County of Buckingham, in the Baronetage of Ireland in 1620 and Baron Mountnorris, of Mountnorris in the County of Armagh, in 1628.

In 1642, on the death of Power, he became Viscount Valentia according to the reversionary grant given in 1622. Valentia's fourth son Hon. Francis Annesley was the father of William, 1st Viscount Glerawly, from whom the Earls Annesley descend. Valentia's eldest son and successor, Arthur, the second Viscount, was created Baron Annesley, of Newport Pagnel in the County of Buckingham, and Earl of Anglesey, in Wales, in the Peerage of England, in 1661. Anglesey's younger son Altham Annesley was created Baron Altham in the Peerage of Ireland on 14 February 1681.

On the death of the fifth Earl of Anglesey in 1737 the line of the eldest son of the first Earl failed. He was succeeded by his kinsman Richard Annesley, who became the sixth Earl and seventh Viscount Valentia. However, after his assumption of the Earldom an extraordinary legal battle developed. A Mr James Annesley claimed the earldom and its subsidiary titles as the son of Arthur Annesley, fourth Baron Altham. He alleged that in 1728 he had been removed to an obscure school and that his death had subsequently been announced by his uncle, Richard, the sixth Earl of Anglesey. James was later to have been sold to an American planter as a slave by his uncle. He subsequently escaped to Jamaica and in September 1740 he made his way back to England. On 11 November 1743 he took action against his uncle, to eject him as Baron Altham and to retain his property. Richard's defence was that James was not the legitimate son of Mary, second wife of the fourth Baron Altham, but actually the illegitimate son of a Joan Landy. The verdict was in James' favour, with his uncle being convicted of claiming he was dead and selling him into slavery so that he could take up the title and estates. James' estates were returned to him but he never took up his titles and his uncle continued to be recognised as Earl.

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