On 31 August 1661 he was baptised 'at St.James's' but was registered at Kilkhampton, and most of his life was styled Viscount Lansdown. While only seventeen, on 22 May 1678, he married Lady Martha Osborne, daughter of the 1st Duke of Leeds, who was about fourteen.

He served in the army that defeated the Turks before Vienna in 1683. For his services he was, by charter of 27 January 1684 at Linz, created a Count of The Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Leopold, such creation being the first to be given a Royal Licence to enable a British subject to hold a foreign honour.

His wife died aged about twenty-five on 11 September 1689 and, as 'the Lady Lansdown', was buried in Westminster Abbey. On 10 March 1691 he married Isabella van Nassau, a sister of the Earl of Grantham. However, she died in childbirth on 30 January 1692.

On 2 August 1701 his father died, making him 2nd Earl of Bath.However, on 4 September 1701, he was found dead in his chair in his bedchamber wounded in his head, with a brace of pistols by him,
one discharged. It was recorded that 'he had been melancholy for some time past'. On the same day, 22 September 1701, both father and son, were buried at Kilkhampton.

Source: Leo van de Pas