Lyons, John Charles (1792–1874), antiquary and horticulturist, was born 22 April 1792, the only child of Charles John Lyons (1766–96), a Westmeath landowner and soldier, of huguenot descent, and his wife, Mary Anne Lyons (née Levinge). His father died when he was four and in 1798 his mother remarried. Educated in England at a boarding school in Reading and at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1803 he inherited Ledeston, Co. Westmeath, upon the death of his grandfather. He left Oxford without taking a degree, and later admitted that wealth and ill health had made him ‘idle’. He returned to Westmeath and was a local magistrate from 1814, high sheriff of Westmeath in 1816, and chief magistrate after 1817. In 1815 he obtained command of a company in the Westmeath militia but it was disbanded the following year.
A keen horticulturist and inventor, he made boilers for his glasshouses, orchid baskets, and clocks, and in 1837 constructed his own printing-press, establishing the Ledeston Press. In the same year he imported tropical orchids from Mexico, and in 1839 received thirty-five from Trinidad. His Remarks on the management of orchidaceous plants (1843), published by Ledeston Press, was the first book in English on the cultivation of orchids. By 1845 he had an extensive orchid collection, one of only three privately owned in the country. The outbreak of the great famine had no effect on him and he was generally unsympathetic to the plight of the starving; in January 1847 he criticised the apparent laziness of the people. In 1852 he published his finest work, The book of surveys and distribution of the estates of the county of Westmeath, 1641, and the following year Grand juries of Westmeath, 1727–1853.
He married 14 March 1820 Penelope Melesina Tuite, daughter of Henry Tuite, of Sanna near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath; they had one son, Charles Lyons (1821–59), and a daughter, Mary Anne Melesina Lyons. His wife died in 1855 and he married, 12 November 1856, Frances Ellen Walsh, daughter of Thomas Walsh, of Bellvue, Co. Westmeath; they had two sons, John-Charles and Charles, and two daughters, Caroline and Mary Anne. He died 3 September 1874 and was buried in the Lyons family grave in All Saints’ church, Mullingar.