Murrough O'Brien, 1st Marquess of Thomond

Murrough O'Brien, 1st Marquess of Thomond KP, PC (Ire) (1726 – 10 February 1808), known from 1777 to 1800 as the 5th Earl of Inchiquin, was an Irish peer, soldier and politician.

Life

Murrough O'Brien was born in 1726 to Hon. James O' Brien and Mary Jephson in Drogheda.

He joined the Grenadier Guards and was an officer in Germany, where he carried colours at the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747. He retired in 1756 and entered the Irish House of Commons for Clare in the following year. He represented the constituency until 1761 and sat then as Member of Parliament (MP) for Harristown until 1768.

Because of his support for the Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland, on 29 December 1800 he was created Marquess of Thomond in the Peerage of Ireland, with a special remainder to his younger brother, and Baron Thomond, of Taplow in the Peerage of the United Kingdom on 2 October 1801 (which title allowed him to sit in the United Kingdom House of Lords), but this time with no special remainder. He had a close relationship with King George III. In 1783 he was one of the Founding Knights of the Order of St Patrick. His Irish seat was Rostellan, near Cork.

He was a drinker, called a "'six bottle man", and a gambler. He had a zest for life. He was a keen farmer and oversaw enclosure of lands around Taplow and mechanisation.

Family

He married Mary O'Brien, 3rd Countess of Orkney (died 1790) in 1753, with whom he had a daughter, Mary O'Brien, 4th Countess of Orkney (1755–1831). He also is reputed to have had an illegitimate son, Thomas Carter (1767–1800), who was a popular singer in London during the 1790s. Thomas lived with Inchiquin at Taplow Court after his return from India in July of 1789, and lent the earl all the money he earned in a benefit concert in Calcutta. In return, Inchiquin recommended Thomas to all his friends as a coal merchant; he had gone into that field after his marriage to Mary Wells in 1793 in order to support his growing family).

Mary, Countess of Inchiquin (1750-1820) (Thomas Lawrence)

Then in 1792, he married Mary Palmer, the niece and a beneficiary of Joshua Reynolds. She paid his debts.

He died after a fall from his horse in Grosvenor Square, London on 10 February 1808. The title of Marquess of Thomond passed to his nephew William O'Brien, 2nd Marquess of Thomond, The barony of Thomond became extinct.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• thePeerage.com

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Robert Hickman Sir Edward O'Brien	Member of Parliament for Clare 1757–1761 With: Sir Edward O'Brien	Succeeded by Sir Edward O'Brien Francis Pierpoint Burton
Preceded by John Graydon Agmondisham Vesey	Member of Parliament for Harristown 1761 – 1768 With: Edward Sandford	Succeeded by Garret FitzGerald Robert Graydon
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by George Fitzwilliam Marquess of Graham	Member of Parliament for Richmond (Yorkshire) 1784 – 1796 With: Charles Dundas 1784–1786 Sir Grey Cooper 1786–1790 Lawrence Dundas 1790–1796	Succeeded by Lawrence Dundas Charles George Beauclerk
Preceded by Edward James Eliot John Eliot	Member of Parliament for Liskeard 1797 – 1800 With: John Eliot	Succeeded by John Eliot Viscount Fincastle
Peerage of Ireland
New creation	Marquess of Thomond 1800 – 1808	Succeeded by William O'Brien
Preceded by William O'Brien	Earl of Inchiquin 1777 – 1808
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Thomond 1801 – 1808	Extinct

Persondata
Name	Thomond, Murrough Obrien, 1st Marquess Of
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1726
Place of birth
Date of death	1808
Place of death