FITZGERALD, Robert Uniacke (1751-1814), of Corkbeg and Lisquinlan, co. Cork.

Col. Fitzgerald, described by Castlereagh as ‘inferior to no man in personal respectability’, strongly supported the Union as Member for county Cork in the Irish parliament. He was a ‘good Protestant’.1Castlereagh Corresp. ii. 85, 127; NLI, Shannon mss, Lady Shannon to Boyle, 9 Mar. [1802]. At Westminster he generally supported government, although they found his absence, while in England, on the division of 4 Mar. 1803 ‘not manly’.2Add. 35766, f. 321. He gave evidence to the corn committee on Irish distress early in 1801 and was considered an expert on Irish militia matters, intervening in debate in defence of the county basis of the militia bill, 15 Mar. 1803, after having been absent in June 1802 when the lord lieutenant thought he might have been of service. Hardwicke regarded him as something of an alarmist on the subject of Irish dissidence.3Castlereagh Corresp. iv. 67; Add. 35701, f. 307; 35702, f. 76. In May 1804 it was thought his politics would be those of Lord Shannon, who had helped secure his return for the county, and he was subsequently listed as a supporter of Pitt’s second administration. The Grenville ministry were prepared to support his re-election in 1806, but he stood down and declined standing again in 1807.4Wellington mss, Longfield to Wellesley, 16 Mar. 1807. He died 20 Dec. 1814.5Gent. Mag. (1814), i. 415 gives his age at death as 78, but this is impossible. See Cork Hist. and Arch. Soc. Jnl. iii. 220.