OGLE, George (1742-1814), of Belview, Enniscorthy, co. Wexford.

Ogle’s grandfather Samuel (d.1718), Member for Berwick, became an Irish revenue commissioner.1DNB. [Rev. J. R. Scott], A Review of the Principal Characters of the Irish House of Commons (1789), 24; HMC Fortescue, i. 169, 225; iv. 473; Life of Grattan, v. 95; Castlereagh Corresp. ii. 34, 81, 191. His father, a man of letters, was Member for Bannow in the Irish parliament. Ogle, who wrote fashionable lyrics, sat for county Wexford for 28 years, a talented orator for the Whigs. In December 1782 he declined nomination for the Speakership. In 1784 he accepted a place to relieve his financial difficulties and in the 1790s voted with administration, though his opposition to Catholic relief led him, despite Castlereagh’s blandishments, to oppose the Union.2[Rev. J. R. Scott], A Review of the Principal Characters of the Irish House of Commons (1789), 24; HMC Fortescue, i. 169, 225; iv. 473; Life of Grattan, v. 95; Castlereagh Corresp. ii. 34, 81, 191. He had retired in 1797 but consented to re-enter Parliament for the city of Dublin in July 1798 on a strong Protestant and anti-Union platform.

Ogle was returned to the Imperial Parliament in 1801 and supported government. He spoke several times on Irish affairs, notably in favour of the martial law bill, 12, 18 Mar., 27 May and 11 June 1801, when he complained that English Members knew as little of Ireland as of ‘Kamschatka or Mesopotamia’; and also on 4 Nov. 1801, in favour of peace, from the Irish protestant standpoint. On 5 Dec. 1801 he offered himself for re-election from London, but although he had government approbation together with his colleague Beresford, he was defeated by John Latouche in a rowdy contest. It was reported that he was to come in for an English borough instead, but he was never again in Parliament. He was compensated with £1,300 a year for the loss of his place, which was worth as much. His nephew and heir George Moore represented Dublin in the Parliament of 1826. Ogle died 10 Aug. 1814 and was rewarded with a monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was thought ‘singular and wayward in his temper’, but ‘a very honourable character’.3The Times, 17 Aug. 1802; Jnl. of Assoc. for memorials of the dead in Ireland, vi. 539; Life of Grattan , iii. 43; Cornwallis Corresp. ii. 372.