Murrough O'Brien, 1st Marquess of Thomond

Murrough O'Brien, 1st Marquess of Thomond KP, PC (1726–1808), 5th Earl of Inchiquin (1777–1800), wearing purple coat, white waistcoat, pale blue sash and breast star of the Order of Saint Patrick (Henry Bone)

Murrough O'Brien, 1st Marquess of Thomond KP, PC (Ire) (1726 – 10 February 1808), known from 1777 to 1800 as the 5th Earl of Inchiquin, was an Irish peer, soldier and politician.

Life

Murrough O'Brien was born in 1726 to Hon. James O' Brien and Mary Jephson in Drogheda.

He joined the Grenadier Guards and was an officer in Germany, where he carried colours at the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747. He retired in 1756 and entered the Irish House of Commons for Clare in the following year. He represented the constituency until 1761 and sat then as Member of Parliament (MP) for Harristown until 1768.

Because of his support for the Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland, on 29 December 1800 he was created Marquess of Thomond in the Peerage of Ireland, with a special remainder to his younger brother, and Baron Thomond, of Taplow in the Peerage of the United Kingdom on 2 October 1801 (which title allowed him to sit in the United Kingdom House of Lords), but this time with no special remainder. He had a close relationship with King George III. In 1783 he was one of the Founding Knights of the Order of St Patrick. His Irish seat was Rostellan, near Cork.

He was a drinker, called a "'six bottle man", and a gambler. He had a zest for life. He was a keen farmer and oversaw enclosure of lands around Taplow and mechanisation.

Marriages & progeny

Mary, Countess of Inchiquin (1750–1820), by Thomas Lawrence

He married twice:

• Firstly in 1753 to Mary O'Brien, 3rd Countess of Orkney (died 1790), by whom he had a daughter, Mary O'Brien, 4th Countess of Orkney (1755–1831).
• Secondly on 25 July 1792, to Mary Palmer (1750–1820), eldest daughter of John Palmer (1708–1770) of Palmer House, Great Torrington, Devon, by his wife Mary Reynolds (1716–1794), a sister of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). His wife was thus Sir Joshua's niece and as the chief beneficiary of his will, she was able to pay off her husband's debts.

He also is reputed to have had an illegitimate son, Thomas Carter (1767–1800), who was a popular singer in London during the 1790s. Thomas lived with Inchiquin at Taplow Court after his return from India in July 1789, and lent the earl all the money he earned in a benefit concert in Calcutta. In return, Inchiquin recommended Thomas to all his friends as a coal merchant; he had gone into that field after his marriage to Mary Wells in 1793 in order to support his growing family.

Death & succession

He died after a fall from his horse in Grosvenor Square, London on 10 February 1808. The title of Marquess of Thomond passed to his nephew William O'Brien, 2nd Marquess of Thomond. The barony of Thomond became extinct.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• thePeerage.com