 He was educated at Kilkenny College.From 1757–60, he was a Member of the Irish House of Commons for Waterford County from 1757 to 1760, and for Coleraine from 1761 until 1763, when he inherited his father's earldom, entered the Irish House of Lords and was admitted to the Privy Council of Ireland.He was Governor of Waterford from 1766 and custos rotulorum of that county from 1769 to 1800, during which time he was made a Knight of St Patrick, created Baron Tyrone in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1786, and elevated as a marquess in 1789.