William Hare was a founding member of The Yacht Club.
Some records say he was the second son of the 1st Earl of Listowel, but Julian Reid's book indicates he was himself the 1st Earl.
The following comes from Julian's book, and may need correction, especially as Julian says he lived until 1837, yet Squadron records indicate 1846. There's a mix-up somewhere.
William, 1st Earl of Listowel (September 1751-13 July 1837), known as Lord Ennismore from 1800 to 1816 and as the Viscount Ennismore and Listowel from 1816 to 1822, was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament.
William was the son of Richard Hare and his wife Catherine, daughter of Samuel Mavlor. He was elected to the Irish House of Commons representing Cork City in 1796, a seat he held until 1797, and then represented Athy from 1798 until the Act of Union in 1801. In 1800 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Ennismore, in the County of Kerry. In 1816
he was created Viscount Ennismore and Listowel and in 1822 he was further honoured when he was made Earl of Listowel.
The family's London seat was Kingston House, a Palladian mansion built c.1750 by the Duchess of Kingston and set in twenty-one acres immediately south of Hyde Park and north of today's Victoria & Albert Museum, that had been acquired by the family in 1813 for £20,000. William in his will, recognising the rapid encroachment of property development - the adjacent Rutland House on the eastern side had just been demolished - he set out the proposal to his successor, his grandson, to grant long leases for new housing. Initiallv at
least in conjunction with Elger, who had previously developed South Street, Mayfair, and the Thorn Brothers, who met their own Waterloo in the construction of Blackfriars Bridge, the estate was developed over the extended period 1840 to 1960 to the area as it is today. An initial delay was overcome from a threat of the Birmingham-Bristol-Thames Junction Railwav
Company extending a line across the property to Knightsbridge Green. Ennismore Gardens therefore was named after our Original Member.
William married, firstly, Mary, only daughter of Henry Wrixon, in 1772. After her death in 1810 he married Anne, daughter of John Latham, in 1812. He died in July 1837, aged 85, and was succeeded in his titles by his grandson William, his eldest son Richard Hare, Viscount Ennismore, having predeceased him. Lady Listowel died in 1859.
Of further interest amongst subsequent relationships of descendants of Original Members, William's granddaughter, Lady Victoria Hare (1840-1927), married Charles Anderson-
Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough, whilst his great-granddaughter, Lady Beatrice (1899-1960) married Edward, 14th Baron Inchiquin.