He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He served as High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1866 and as Lord-Lieutenant of County Wicklow from 1890 to 1909 and was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1874.
In 1872 he succeeded his elder brother in the earldom and entered the House of Lords.
Lord Carysfort married Charlotte Mary, daughter of Reverend Robert Boothby Heathcote, in 1860.
The marriage was childless.
He died in September 1909, aged 73, when all his titles became extinct.