Sir Richard Musgrave, 1st Baronet (c.1755-1818; political writer and politician)

<< Back to full list of biographies

Musgrave, of Tourin, co. Waterford, was a member of the Irish House of Commons and connected to the Dukes of Devonshire by marriage. He held fiercely anti-Catholic views. Around the time of the Irish uprising in 1798 he wrote several pamphlets in support of the government.

Musgrave collected large amounts of information and evidence relating to the uprising, and published his findings in 1801 as Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland from the arrival of the English, with particular detail of that which broke out the 23rd of May, 1798; the history of the conspiracy which preceded it, and the characters of the principal actors in it. Although the work was detailed, Musgrave's conclusions were sectarian and polemical.

Musgrave spent the rest of his life as collector of the excise for Dublin.