Howard, a grandson of the sixth earl. The ninth earl died in 1983 without issue and the peerages became extinct. The ancestral seat of the Earls of Wicklow was the palatial Shelton Abbey, near Arklow, County Wicklow, which remained in the family until 1951. Shortly thereafter financial difficulties forced the 8th Earl to sell the estate to the Irish State. Shelton Abbey is currently used as an open prison. Viscounts Wicklow (1785) Ralph Howard, 1st Viscount Wicklow (1726–1789) Robert Howard, 2nd Viscount Wicklow (1757–1815) (succeeded as Earl of Wicklow in 1807) Earls of Wicklow (1793) Alice Howard, 1st Countess of Wicklow (1736–1807) Robert Howard, 2nd Earl of Wicklow (1757–1815) William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow (1761–1818) William Howard, 4th Earl of Wicklow (1788–1869) Charles Francis Arnold Howard, 5th Earl of Wicklow (1839–1881) Cecil Ralph Howard, 6th Earl of Wicklow (1842–1891) Ralph Francis Howard, 7th Earl of Wicklow (1877–1946) William Cecil James Philip John Paul Howard, 8th Earl of Wicklow (1902–1978) Cecil Aylmar Howard, 9th Earl of Wicklow (1909-1983) See also Dunduff Castle, South Ayrshire – origins of the Earldom References Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1968 edition) www.thepeerage.com Extinct earldoms in the Peerage of Ireland Noble titles created in 1793