O'CALLAGHAN, Cornelius, 1st Visct. Lismore [I] (1775-1857), of Shanbally Castle, co. Tipperary.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1806 - 1807

Family and Education

b. 2 Oct. 1775, 1st s. of Cornelius, 1st Baron Lismore [I], by Frances, da. of Hon. John Ponsonby, MP [I]. educ. Kilkenny; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1793. m. 11 Aug. 1808, Lady Eleanor Butler (div. 1826), da. of John, 17th Earl of Ormonde [I], 3s. 1da. suc. fa. as 2nd Baron Lismore [I] 12 July 1797; cr. Visct. Lismore [I] 30 May 1806; Baron Lismore [UK] 6 July 1838; Baron of Holy Roman Empire 23 June 1838.

Offices Held

PC [I] 30 May 1835.

Ld. lt. Tipperary 1851-d.

Biography

Connected through his mother with the leading Irish Whig family, Lismore obtained a viscountcy soon after the Whigs came to power in 1806. He was anxious to be in Parliament, preferably as an Irish representative peer, but if necessary as a Member of the Commons. On 4 Nov. 1806 Viscount Howick, advised by Tierney two weeks before that he must answer ‘for Lord Lismore, and his money’, wrote of him:

His seat is secured, but it must be by a new arrangement at the time that his brother (in the event of Lord Lismore becoming a representative peer) can be returned in his room. No such bargain could be made at present except under more extravagant terms than the business is now concluded upon.

Nevertheless, Lismore was returned for one of Lord Mount Edgcumbe’s Cornish boroughs in a seat made available to friends of government the same day.1

Lismore made no mark in the Commons. On 4 Mar. 1807 he was among the Irish defaulters ordered to attend on 26 Mar. He was still in the running for a representative peerage, but nothing came of it.2 When his friends were dismissed from power, he voted in protest with them on Brand’s motion, 9 Apr. 1807. At the dissolution, Tierney recommended him to Lord Thanet as a nominee for Appleby and Thanet concurred: Lismore declined the opening, which was wanted, as it turned out, for Viscount Howick.3 Tierney recalled on 12 Nov. 1807, writing to Howick:

After Lord Lismore’s note to me about Appleby, that he could not spare £4,000, a note written within ten days after he had authorized me to give 5,000 guineas for him, I dare not undertake anything for him without the money is paid down. If you had not lost your election he would have been returned for Appleby, and I should have been in a scrape.4

Lismore died 30 May 1857.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: M. G. Hinton

Notes

  • 1. Fitzwilliam mss, box 68, Bedford to Fitzwilliam, 23 Apr.; Grey mss, Tierney to Howick, 19 Oct., Howick to Ld. ?, 4 Nov. 1806.
  • 2. CJ, lxii. 202; HMC Fortescue, ix. 65.
  • 3. Add. 51584, Tierney to Holland, 20 May; Grey mss, Tierney to Howick, 20 May, Thanet to same, 21, 24 May 1807.
  • 4. Grey mss.