John Nugent, of Clonlost, was descended from a powerful Masonic family. He was a cousin of both Thomas, the 6th Earl of Westmeath, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland 1763-64, and Robert Nugent, of Carlanstown, Junior Grand Warden, 1732.
His daughter married Robert Rochfort, whose brother, George, succeeded to the title as the 2nd Earl of Belvedere in 1772, and was appointed Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland 1774-75. J. Aikin, and W. Enfield, Peerage and General Biography (London, 1799), p. 389;
see also Lepper and Crossle, History of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ireland, p. 211;
see also J.C. Lyons, The Grand Juries of the County of Westmeath, 1727-1853, vol. 1 (Ledestown, 1853), pp 222-5.
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