Family and Education

b. c.1700, o.s. of Brig-Gen. Sir Thomas Prendergast, 1st Bt., by Penelope, da. of Henry Cadogan of Liscarton, co. Meath, sis. of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan. educ. Clare, Camb. 1719; I. Temple 1721. m. 11 Jan. 1739, Anne, da. and h. of Sir Griffith Williams, 6th Bt., of Marle, Caern., s.p. suc. fa. 11 Sept. 1709.

Offices Held

M.P. [I] 1733-d.

P.C. [I] 17 Aug. 1733; postmaster gen. [I] 1754-d.

Biography

Dubbed by George II ‘an Irish blockhead’,1 Prendergast took advantage of being first cousin of the Duchess of Richmond to bombard her husband, the 2nd Duke (Charles Lennox, Lord March) with applications for a seat in Parliament or a lucrative Irish job.2 Returned as a government supporter by Richmond for Chichester at a by-election in 1733, he had not been a week in the House before he voted against the Administration on the city of London’s petition against the excise bill, because he had been ‘disobliged’ by a non-commital reply to his application to be appointed postmaster general of Ireland.3 He never obtained another seat, though he contested Shoreham unsuccessfully in 1734 and Caernarvonshire, where he had acquired an estate through his wife, in 1747; but his importunity was at last rewarded in 1754 by the Irish postmastership. He died 23 Sept. 1760.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. Hervey, Mems. 162.
• 2. Lord March, A Duke and his Friends, i. 206-7, 323-6; Cadogan 5 Sept. 1728, Prendergast 15 Feb. 1733, Devonshire 24 Aug. 1741, Newcastle 5 July 1743, to Richmond, Richmond mss.
• 3. HMC Egmont Diary, i. 360.