Crofton Vandeleur (1735 – 1794) was an Irish politician. He sat in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

from 1768 to 1776 as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the borough of

Ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

. He was the son of John Vandeleur of Kilrush and Frances Ormsby, daughter of John Ormsby of Cloghans,

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

. The Vandeleurs were a family of Dutch origin, who settled in Ireland in the 1630s, living first at

Sixmilebridge Sixmilebridge (), is a large village in County Clare, Ireland. Located midway between Ennis and Limerick city, the village is a short distance away from the main N18 road. Sixmilebridge partly serves as a dormitory village for workers in the ...

. They moved to

Kilrush Kilrush () is a coastal town in County Clare, Ireland. It is also the name of a civil parish and an ecclesiastical parish in Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. It is located near the mouth of the River Shannon in the south-west of the county. ...

in the late 1680s and became prosperous landowners in the region. They did much to improve the town of Kilrush, but later became very unpopular due to their harsh treatment of their

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a ...

during the

Great Hunger The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

of the 1840s. He married Alice, second daughter of Thomas Burton of Buncraggy and Dorothy Forster, daughter of John Forster,

Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the s ...

, and had several children, including John Ormsby Vandeleur MP, and

Thomas Burton Vandeleur Thomas Burton Vandeleur (c. 1767–1835) was an Irish barrister and judge. He was born in Kilrush, County Clare to a prominent landowning family of Dutch origin, which settled at Kilrush in the 1680s, and did much to improve the town. He was ...

, a justice of the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The King's Be ...

.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926

References

1735 births 1794 deaths Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Clare constituencies Irish MPs 1769–1776 {{Ireland-pre1801-MP-stub