Educated at Westminster College and Christ Church, Oxford, he was MP for St. Albans (1790-1800) before succeeding his father in the Irish peerage in 1799. In 1794 he married Lady Elizabeth Belasyse, from whom he separated in 1804.

REFERENCES TO Richard Bingham, second Earl of Lucan:

Lady Holland to John Whishart, 17 December 1814 in The “Pope” of Holland House: Selections from the Correspondence of John Whishaw and his Friends 1813-1840 (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906)