| Viscountcy Ashbrook | |
| Creation Date: | 30 September 1751 |
| Peerage: | Peerage of Ireland |
| First Holder: | Henry Flower, 2nd Baron Castle Durrow |
| Present Holder: | Michael Flower, 11th Viscount Ashbrook |
| Heir Apparent: | Hon. Rowland Flower |
| Remainder To: | Heirs male of the first viscount's body, lawfully begotten |
| Subsidiary Titles: | Baron Castle Durrow |
| Family Seat: | Arley Hall |
| Former Seat: | Castle Durrow Beaumont Lodge Shellingford Manor |
| Motto: | Nens Conscia Recti ("A mind conscious of rectitude") |
Viscount Ashbrook is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1751 for Henry Flower, 2nd Baron Castle Durrow. The title of Baron Castle Durrow, in the County of Kilkenny, had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1733 for his father William Flower. He was a Colonel in the Army and also represented County Kilkenny and Portarlington in the Irish House of Commons. He was praised by Jonathan Swift as "a gentleman of very great sense and wit"., the titles are held by the eleventh Viscount, who succeeded his father in 1995.
The family seat is Arley Hall, near Arley, Cheshire.[1] Until 1922, the principal seat of the family was Castle Durrow, near Durrow, County Kilkenny; in England they also owned Beaumont Lodge, near Old Windsor, Berkshire,[2] and the manor of Shellingford in Shellingford, Berkshire (presently Oxfordshire).[3] [4]
The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hon. Rowland Francis Warburton Flower (b. 1975)
The heir apparent's heir apparent is his son Benjamin Warburton Flower (b. 2006).[5]
Godson, Julie Ann, "The Water Gypsy. How a Thames fishergirl became a viscountess" (FeedARead.com, 2014). A biography of Betty Ridge (1745–1808) who married William Flower, 2nd Viscount Ashbrook (1744–1780), and history of the Ridge and Flower families