Maurice FitzGerald, 16th Knight of Kerry (c. 1734 – 24 June 1779), known as "The Dingle Knight", was an Irish politician, barrister and hereditary knight. He was the only surviving son of John FitzGerald, 15th Knight of Kerry and his wife Margaret Deane, daughter of

Joseph Deane Joseph Deane PC (1674–1715) was an Irish politician and judge who became Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. His sudden and premature death was popularly believed to be due to a chill caught when watching an eclipse of the sun. Background H ...

. In 1741, he succeeded his father as

Knight of Kerry Knight of Kerry (), also called The Green Knight, is one of three Hiberno-Norman Knight#Ireland, hereditary knighthoods, all of which existed in Ireland since feudal times. The other two were White Knight (Fitzgibbon family), The White Knight ( ...

. FitzGerald was Judge of the Admiralty Court and in 1761, he entered the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

. He sat for

Dingle Dingle ( or ''Daingean Uí Chúis'', meaning "fort of Ó Cúis") is a town in County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The only town on the Dingle Peninsula (known in Irish as ''Corca Dhuibhne''), it sits on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coa ...

, the same constituency his father had represented before, until 1776. On 10 June 1764, he married his cousin Lady Anne FitzMaurice, only daughter of

William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry William FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Kerry Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (1694 – 4 April 1747) was a British Army officer and peer. He was the eldest son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry and Anne Petty. In 1738, he married Lady Gertrud ...

. FitzGerald died childless and was succeeded in his title by his uncle

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

. His nephew Richard Boyle Townsend became heir of his estates.

References

(Ireland) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Maurice Irish knights

Maurice Maurice may refer to: *Maurice (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name Places * or Mauritius, an island country in the Indian Ocean *Maurice, Iowa, a city *Maurice, Louisiana, a village *Maurice River, a trib ...

1740s births 1779 deaths Irish MPs 1761–1768 Irish MPs 1769–1776 Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kerry constituencies