Manuscripts and Correspondence of James, First Earl of Charlemont

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. James Caulfeild, viscount and subsequently earl of Charlemont, occupied a conspicuous place in connection with public affairs, literature and art, in the second half of the last century. Born at Dublin in 1728, he was but seven years of age, when, on the death of his father, he inherited a peerage and considerable estates in Ulster, which his ancestors had acquired under grants from queen Elizabeth and James I. To complete his education and acquire a knowledge of foreign countries, Charlemont, while yet a youth, left Ireland and passed several years as a resident in Holland, Italy and France, and in travels in Spain, Sicily, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. He took his seat in the house of peers at Dublin on the 7th of October 1755, and adopted the plan of keeping himself wholly independent, as a standard to which men could resort, whether actuated by real principle or by other motives which might be rendered useful to the public cause. Lord Charlemont records that the emancipation of Ireland from the control of the parliament of England had from his early days been the dearest wish of his heart. That he had contributed towards this object by the introduction of Henry Grattan into parliament, as representative of his borough of Charlemont, was, he averred, the happiness and honor of his life. Although feeble in constitution, lord Charlemont engaged actively in public affairs, and acquired special prominence as the unanimously-elected commander-in-chief of the Ulster Volunteer force, which numbered twenty-five thousand men fully armed. Of portions of his public career lord Charlemont left a narrative under the title of memoirs of his political life.