Arthur James Plunkett, 8th Earl of Fingall KP (9 September 1759 – 30 July 1835), styled Lord Killeen until 1793, was an

Irish peer The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisio ...

. A prominent Roman Catholic, he was a leading supporter of the cause of

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

. He was at the same time a loyalist who played a leading role in suppressing the

Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced ...

Family

He was the eldest son of Arthur James Plunkett, 7th Earl of Fingall and his wife Henrietta Wollascot, daughter and heiress of William Wollascot of

Woolhampton Woolhampton is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. The village straddles the Bath road between the towns of Reading, to the east, and Newbury, to the west. Geography The village homes are clustered on the northern side of ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. He became

Earl of Fingall Earl of Fingall and Baron Fingall were titles in the Peerage of Ireland. Baron Fingall was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The seat of the title-holders was, from its establishment until 1953, Killeen Castle in County Meath, Irelan ...

in 1793 upon the death of his father. He married in 1785 Frances Donelan, daughter of John Donelan of Ballydonnellan,

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

and his wife Mabel Hore, daughter of Matthew Hore of Shandon,

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region. It is named ...

; she died in 1835. They had a son,

Arthur Plunkett, 9th Earl of Fingall Arthur James Plunkett, 9th Earl of Fingall KP PC (I) (29 March 1791 – 21 April 1869) was an Irish peer, styled Lord Killeen from 1797 to 1836. He became Earl of Fingall in 1836 on the death of his father the 8th Earl and was appointed a Knig ...

, and a daughter, Harriet (died 1871), who married James Jones of

Llanarth, Monmouthshire Llanarth is a privately owned estate village and community within a conservation area in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire. Llanarth is roughly east of Abergavenny and west of Raglan. the community includes Llanvapley and Bettws Newydd. Hi ...

, and was the mother of Sir

Arthur James Herbert General Sir Arthur James Herbert KCB (21 January 1820 – 24 November 1897) was a Welsh officer in the British Army who was Quartermaster-General to the Forces. Early life and education Herbert was born in Llansantffraed, Monmouthshire,''187 ...

. Fingall was appointed a Knight of the

Order of St Patrick The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a dormant British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by King George III at the request of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, The 3rd Earl Temple (later cre ...

on 20 October 1821, on the occasion of the Royal Visit to Ireland of King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

. His creation as Baron Fingall, ''of Woolhampton Lodge in the

County of Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

'' on 20 June 1831 made him a member of the United Kingdom

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Cause of Catholic Emancipation

For many years he was a champion of the cause of

, and for a time worked closely with

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

to secure it. In 1807 he obtained an interview with the

1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

, the

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century un ...

, who explained that Catholic Emancipation was not at that time practical politics, but that the remaining Penal Laws would be enforced with all possible mildness and good humour. As one of the leaders of the

Catholic Association The Catholic Association was an Irish Roman Catholic political organisation set up by Daniel O'Connell in the early nineteenth century to campaign for Catholic emancipation within Great Britain. It was one of the first mass-membership politica ...

in its original form, which the Government maintained was illegal, he was briefly arrested, but never prosecuted. His role led to his being known by the unofficial title "head of the Irish Catholic laity". In 1815 he withdrew from any active role in the Emancipation movement, following a series of bitter public clashes with Daniel O'Connell. O'Connell publicly denounced Fingall as "a Catholic nobleman coldly departed from the cause of his children and his country". This, however, was the kind of rhetoric in which O'Connell frequently engaged in public, and was rarely a guide to his true feelings. In private he admitted to having great regard for Fingall, whom he described as having a character "as pure as gold".

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

violently attacked Fingall in verse for accepting the Order of St. Patrick from George IV - ''wears Fingall thy trappings?'' - and for his deferential behaviour during the Royal Visit in 1821.Byron ''The Irish Avatar'' However Fingall and his fellow Irish Catholic peers were not, and did not pretend to be, republicans: they sought equal rights under the Crown, not separation from it. Fingall himself had demonstrated his loyalty to the Crown during the 1798 Rebellion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fingall, Arthur Plunkett, 8th Earl of 1759 births 1836 deaths Knights of St Patrick

Plunkett Plunkett is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic Ó ''Pluingceid''. It is associated with Ireland, and possibly of Norse or Norman origin; it may be spelled O'Plunket, Plunket, Plunkit, Plunkitt, Plonkit, Plonkitt, Plonket, Plonkett, or Ó Plu ...

Earls of Fingall Peers of the United Kingdom created by William IV