Wellington, Somerset 1215 and during the Middle Ages it grew as a centre for trade on the road from Bristol to Exeter. Major rebuilding took place following a fire in the town in 1731, after which it became a centre for cloth-making. Wellington gave its name to the first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, who is commemorated by the nearby Wellington Monument. Following his victory at the Battle of Talavera in the Peninsular War, Arthur Wellesley was offered a peerage. The question was what title should he take. His brother, Richard Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, looked around and discovered that a manor
Richard Wellesley, 6th Earl Cowley Lord Cowley married Maria, daughter of Enrique Buenaño, in 1971. They had two daughters. He died in December 1975, aged only 29. As he had no sons he was succeeded in the earldom by his uncle Garret Wellesley. Richard Wellesley, 6th Earl Cowley Richard Francis Wellesley, 6th Earl Cowley (12 June 1946–13 December 1975), known as Viscount Dangan from 1962 to 1968, was a British Conservative politician. Cowley was the only son of Denis Arthur Wellesley, 5th Earl Cowley, and his first wife Elizabeth Anne (née Papillon), and was educated at Eton. He succeeded in the earldom on his father's