Lionel Cranfield Sackville K.G., (1688-1765), 7th Earl of Dorset was created Duke of Dorset on 13 June 1720. He was appointed Lord Lieutentant of Ireland in 1731, the year this cup was made, where he remained for the Parliamentary sessions until 1736. 'A man of dignity, caution and plausability' his first term in Ireland was uneventfull but he returned accompainied by his favorite son, Lord George Sackville, for a four year term in 1751 during which he did little to endear himself to the Irish. Horace Walpole, however, provides a rather charming comment on the Duke saying that he 'with the dignity in his appearance was in private the greatest lover of low humour and buffoonery'. He was clearly a man who took his duties seriously for he claimed that his time in Ireland cost him (1500 per annum from his own pocket.