Lucius O'Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin

Sir Lucius O'Brien painted about 1840 by Stephen Catterson Smith

Sir Lucius O'Brien with his second wife Louisa Finucane

Lucius (McEdward) O'Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin (5 December 1800 – 22 March 1872), known as Sir Lucius O'Brien, 5th Baronet from 1837 to 1855, was an Irish politician and nobleman. He is remembered respectfully in County Clare for his relief work in the famine years.

Biography

He was born at Dromoland Castle in 1800, the eldest son of Sir Edward O'Brien, 4th Baronet and Charlotte Smith. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1825. In 1826, he replaced his father as Tory Member of Parliament for Clare, but was unseated in 1830 by the Whig candidates. He unsuccessfully contested the county again in 1835, but was appointed High Sheriff of Clare for that year instead. Upon the death of his father in 1837, he succeeded to the baronetcy, and he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Clare in 1843.

He again contested Clare in 1847, topping the poll and ousting Cornelius O'Brien. In 1848, he published a book, Ireland in 1848: the late famine and the Poor Laws. During the same year, his brother William Smith O'Brien, a Liberal, led an abortive rebellion and narrowly escaped hanging. O'Brien did not contest Clare in 1852.

In 1855, he inherited the title of Baron Inchiquin from his ninth cousin, the last Marquess of Thomond, and was confirmed in this right by the Lord's Committee of Privileges in 1862. He was elected as an Irish representative peer in 1863. He died in 1872 at Dromoland and was succeeded by his son Edward O'Brien, 14th Baron Inchiquin.

Family

O'Brien married in 1837 Mary FitzGerald, daughter of William FitzGerald of Adelphi and Corofin, and together they had six children:

• Edward O'Brien, 14th Baron Inchiquin (1839–1900)
• Hon. Charlotte Anne O'Brien (d.1918), who married in 1866 Rev. George Stopford Ram (1838–1889), a maternal grandson of the 3rd Earl of Courtown, and left nine children.
• Hon. Mary Grace O'Brien (d.1912), who married in 1874 Abel John Ram, brother of her sister´s husband, and left four children.
• Hon. Juliana Cecilia O'Brien (d.1925)
• Hon. Ellen Geraldine O'Brien (d.1860)
• Hon. Augusta Louisa Jane O'Brien (d.1861)

After the death of his first wife, he re-married in 1854 Louisa Finucane, daughter of Major James Finucane, and had another seven children:

• Hon. Anastasia Kathleen Lucia O'Brien (1856–1938)
• Hon. Lucius Murrough O'Brien (1857–1939)
• Hon. Nora Louisa Jane O'Brien (1859–1927)
• Hon. Blanche Louisa O'Brien (1860–1945)
• Hon. Alica Amabel O'Brien (1860–1939)
• Hon. William Henry Ernest Robert Turlough O'Brien (1863–1943)
• Hon. Louisa Anna Maria O'Brien (1863–1940)

References

• Boase, Frederic (1897). Modern English Biography v. 2. Netherton & Worth. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)) out of copyright

Further reading

• Inchiquin, Lucius Lord of (1861) [1765], "The Petition of the right Honourable Lucius Baron of Inchiquin (otherwise Inskwyne), of that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Ireland.", Case of the Right Honourable Lucius, lord Inchiquin in the peerage of Ireland on his claiming the right to vote at the election of representative peers for Ireland. ..., pp. 66–70

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lucius O'Brien