William Sydney Clements, 3rd Earl of Leitrim (15 October 1806 – 2 April 1878), was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and landlord notorious in Irish history for his mistreatment of his tenants. He was assassinated in the north of County Donegal in Ireland in April 1878. Early life William was born in Dublin on 15 October 1806. He was the second son of Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim and the former Mary Bermingham (1840). Aside from his elder brother, he had three younger brothers, including Capt. Hon. Charles Skeffington Clements, MP for Leitrim, the Hon. George Robert Anson Clements of the Royal Navy, and the Rev. Hon. Francis Nathaniel Clements, Vicar of Norton and Canon of Durham (who first married Charlotte King, daughter of Rev. Gilbert King, and, after her death, Amelia Verner, eldest daughter of Sir William Verner, 1st Baronet). He also had three sisters, Lady Maria Clements (wife of the Rev. Hon. Edward Southwell Keppel, fourth son of William Keppel, 4th Earl of Albemarle), Lady Elizabeth Victoria Clements, and Lady Caroline Clements (wife of John Ynyr Burges of Parkanaur House). His paternal grandparents were Robert Clements, 1st Earl of Leitrim (son and heir of Rt. Hon. Nathaniel Clements and the former Hannah Gore, a daughter of the Very Rev. William Gore, Dean of Down) and the former Lady Elizabeth Skeffington (eldest daughter of Clotworthy Skeffington, 1st Earl of Massereene). His mother was the eldest daughter and co-heiress of William Bermingham of Ross Hill and Mary (née Ruttledge) Bermingham (eldest daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Ruttledge). After receiving an education at the Sandhurst, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the 43rd Foot in 1824. In 1831, he was promoted Captain, having served in Portugal between 1826 and 1827, and that same year was appointed an aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1835, he transferred to the 51st Foot. In 1839, on the death of his elder brother, he became known as Viscount Clements and also succeeded his brother as a Member of Parliament for County Leitrim, a seat he held until 1847. Career On his father's death in 1854, Clements succeeded as 3rd Earl. In 1855, he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and subsequently retired from the British Army. Over the next two decades, his overbearing behaviour as a landlord brought him much hatred from his tenants, Catholic and Protestant alike, whom he evicted with equal enthusiasm. According to