Born and brought up in England, George Augustus Chichester, second Marquis of Donegall, inherited from his father in 1799 one of the greatest landed estates in Irelandnearly a quarter of a million acres. Since the new Lord Donegall had hitherto spent much of his time gambling on borrowed money, a host of creditors now looked for payment. Donegall disputed the legality of many of the claimes, however, and retreated to Belfast where he defied all efforts to make him pay in full. He was to live in Belfast for the rest of his life, becoming notorious as the Marquis of Done em all. The story of his prodigal son who became a prodigal father is full of fascinating glimpses of the lower life of the upper classes of his timea world of debtors’ prisons, chancy deals, and Chancery proceedings. Apart from this Donegall’s career is interesting also for the curious affair of his marriage. When his eldest son was about to get married in 1819, Donegall’s own marriage to Anna May was declared illegal, more than twenty years after it had taken place. This made their seven children illegitimate and deprived them of their inheritance. Only a retrospective change in the law of matrimony (brought about by the Donegall case) saved the family from ruin. At a local level, Donegall’s presence in the town and his insatiable need for cash had a considerable, if unintended, effect on the development of Belfast. By seriously undermining the Chichester family’s wealth and influence he opened the way for the citizens to take its place.

Living Like a Lord: The Second Marquis of Donegall, 1769-1844 (Explorations in Irish History)

Maguire, W.A.

Biographies & Memoirs

Irish Books & Media

Heydays, fair-days, and not-so-good old days: A Fermanagh estate and village in the photographs of the Langham family, 1890-1918

Friar's Bush Press

Caught in time: The photographs of Alex Hogg of Belfast, 1870-1939

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

The Maguires of Tempo, whose substantial estate dated from the Ulster Plantation in 1610, were the only Gaelic family in Fermanagh to survive the upheavals of the next two centuries with their property more or less intact. By the time Constantine Maguire inherited in 1800, however, only a fraction remained. The extraordinary story of this resourceful, not to say ruthless, man's struggle to retain his social standing—in the course of which he married a famous courtesan and then fell in love with a mistress of his own—reads like a novel of the period. His brutal murder in Tipperary in 1832 was a suitably Gothic finishing touch to a rackety career. At a more serious level, the tale of "Captain Cohonny" throws useful light on some obscure aspects of life and death in early 19th century Ireland.

Captain Cohonny: Constantine Maguire of Tempo 1777-1834

Historical

Ulster Historical Foundation

Living Like a Lord: The Second Marquis of Donegall 1769-1844

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maguire, W.A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Maguire, W.A.