Sir Richard Musgrave

Musgrave, Sir Richard, Bart., was born in Ireland about 1757. He sat for Lismore from 1778 until the Union, and was a strenuous supporter of Government. In 1782 he was created a baronet. In the Cornwallis Correspondence will be found a letter from him to Secretary Cooke, under date 1st November 1799, hinting at the desirability of some place being secured to him before he gave his vote for the Union. He was appointed Receiver of Customs in Dublin, with a salary of £1,200 a year. In 1801 appeared his Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in Ireland, with maps and plans, chiefly dealing with the Insurrection of 1798. Three large editions were exhausted in a few months. The book contains many valuable particulars not to be found elsewhere; but is, according to Lowndes, "a party work, abounding in misrepresentations" — not, however, more prejudiced than many written from an opposite standpoint. He displayed such animosity against the Catholics, and outraged public decency so much by his defence of flogging and free-quarters, that, according to a long notice of the work in the Annual Biography, "the Irish government at length deemed it necessary to disown all connexion with the author; and publicly disclaimed the idea of affording him either patronage or protection in future." In private life Sir Richard was greatly beloved. He died in Holles-street, Dublin, 7th April 1818, aged 61.

Sources

6. Annual Biography. London, 1817-'27.

16. Authors, Dictionary of British and American: S. Austin Allibone. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1859-'71.

87. Cornwallis, Marquis, Correspondence: Charles Ross. 3 vols. London, 1859.
Cotton, Rev. Henry, see No. 118.