Commons 1790-1820

The leading interests were those of George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston, and his brother Robert Edward, Baron Erris (afterwards Viscount Lorton); Maurice Mahon, 1st Baron Hartland; Arthur French of French Park, Member since 1783; Sir Edward Crofton of Mote Park, and St. George Caulfeild of Donamon Castle. The independent and Catholic interests were also forces to be reckoned with, as was illustrated in the by-election of 1799, when the Castle employed them in the Unionist cause to secure the return of Thomas Mahon against Col.

John, 2nd Earl of Portarlington (d.1845) became owner in fee of most of the borough and patron of the corporation on his father’s death in 1798. By then it had been reduced to the status of a burgess borough. On the Union ballot, Frederick Trench had the luck of the draw against his colleague the Castle official Gregory, but his creation as an Irish peer with the title of Ashtown, 27 Dec. 1800, prevented him from taking his seat at Westminster.Parl. Rep. [I] H.C. 1831-2 (519), xliii.

County politics were dominated by three interests: those of the kinship alliance of Lord de Vesci, Lord Portarlington and Parnell of Rathleague, estimated in 1809 to consist of a thousand freeholders; that of the Cootes, and that of William Wellesley Pole, one of the Wellesley brothers, who had in 1781 succeeded to the property and name of his cousin William Pole of Ballyfin. The rivalry of these three interests, which were evenly balanced, implicated the Castle more than usual in elections and, as the lord lieutenant reported, 2 Apr. 1802:

A plantation frontier county with a strong interest in the linen trade, Monaghan was populated fairly evenly by Protestants and Catholics. The leading proprietary interests belonged to Lords Cremorne (Dawson), Rossmore (Westenra), Clermont (Fortescue) and the Leslies of Glasslough. There were also several lesser interests and ‘a vast number of little gentlemen who have from 50 to 100 votes each’, who could constitute a species of independent interest. It is therefore surprising that contests were avoided in this period.

A fertile pastoral county with a considerable coarse linen manufacture, Meath was credited with at least ten landowners worth over £5,000 p.a. and a ‘great many others’ worth between £2,000 £3,000 p.a. This division of property in a county in proximity to Dublin encouraged a strong independent group of gentry for whom Lord Fingall, the leading resident Catholic peer, aspired to be spokesman. The most effective interests were those of Lord Darnley (Bligh), Lord Headfort (Taylour) and Sir Marcus Somerville.Wakefield, Account of Ireland, i. 268; Oldfield, Rep. Hist. vi.

Described by one of its Members in 1815 as the third county in Ireland in area ‘and the second, I believe ... in population’, Mayo, which had about 150,000 inhabitants at that time, was predominantly Catholic, the Protestants being estimated at 10,000. The leading landed interest was that of the Brownes of Westport, earls of Altamont and, since the Union, marquesses of Sligo, worth some £20,000 p.a. Lord Dillon, an absentee, had an estate worth £18,000 p.a. producing 2,000-3,000 freeholders, mostly Gaelic speaking. Lord Tyrawley (Cuffe) had a sizeable interest.

At Dundalk the principal proprietor was the Earl of Roden, by inheritance from his uncle the Earl of Clanbrassill. He controlled the corporation by restricting the freemen. The return of a Member at the Union was delayed while Roden, who had supported the measure from ‘positive conviction’, came to terms with government. In the event, he returned Isaac Corry in exchange for a place at the navigation board for his brother-in-law John Stratton, one of the retiring Members. Roden was anxious not to ‘endanger the borough which was once so nearly lost to the family’, and on 16 Nov.

Drogheda, the fifth city in Ireland, specialized in linen manufacture and was governed by an exclusively protestant corporation. Representatives of two mercantile families vied for the representation: the Meade Ogles, whose interest dated from over 30 years before the Union and who were abetted on the corporation by Alderman Ralph Smyth; and Edward Hardman, who was sponsored by the veteran neighbouring politician, John Foster of Collon, whose interest was of a personal, rather than a territorial kind.

Since 1761 a tripartite alliance had dominated Louth elections. John Foster of Collon was its mainstay and he retained his seat unquestioned throughout this period: had he chosen to contest another seat, it was regarded as a foregone conclusion that his son and heir Thomas Henry Foster would have replaced him, which he eventually did.

Longford, a small but fertile county with an extensive share in the linen trade, had a confined and predominantly Catholic electorate. The leading proprietary interest was that of the Earl of Rosse (Viscount Oxmantown until 1806), while the Newcomen family and Lord Granard, with estates worth £7,000 and £3,000 p.a. respectively, were next in line. Sir Thomas Fetherston, whose estate was extensive but depressed, cut a figure thanks to Oxmantown’s support, while Lord Longford, whose estate was ‘let much under its value’, was reduced to a minor role.