Hamilton Geale (1814–1909) was an Irish politician, judge, barrister, and author. As a member of the landed gentry who owned some 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in Ireland, Geale served on the Irish Council and the Imperial Parliament. He was also a deputy judge with the Bristol County and Marylebone County courts in England and a justice of the peace for County Limerick in Ireland.[1][2]

Early life

Hamilton Geale was born in 1814.[3] He was the son of Catherine (née Crofton) and Piers Geale, a lawyer.[4][3] His mother was the daughter of the lawyer Marcus Lowther Crofton of Killonahan in County Limerick.[3] His sister was Elizabeth Geale Fortescue; she was the wife of Sir Marcus Somerville, 4th Baronet and Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue.[5][6]

Geale graduated from Trinity College at the University of Dublin.[7] He was an amateur artist and displayed his paintings in Dublin.[8] He also published his poetry.[8] In 1827, he served as a midshipman in the Battle of Navarino.[9]

Career

He passed the bar exam in Ireland in April 1839 and became a practicing barrister.[3][4] In 1841, he was a member of the Reformers of Ireland.[10] He passed the English Bar Exam on November 17, 1841.[3][11]

He served on the Irish Council in November 1847; it included members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, peers of Ireland, and the landed gentry.[12] He was also a member of the Irish Council's manufacturing council.[13] In September 1848, he wrote a letting affirming his intention to sit in the Parliament of Ireland as a member of the gentry.[14] He was a member of the Imperial Parliament which met in Dublin in 1848.[15] He also participated in the first meeting of the Society for Promoting Annual Sessions of the Imperial Parliament in Dublin on December 19, 1848.[16]

In 1852, he ran as a Whig candidate for Kinsale.[17][18] Part of his platform was a moderate fixed duty on imported corn.[18] He said, "I am in favour of a just and equitable protection to native agriculture, and, without seeking to set aside the recent free-trade policy, I think the agriculturists of Great Britain and Ireland have a right to either a moderate fixed duty or a least to that adjustment of taxation which M'Culloch and other free-trade authorities admit they are entitled to."[19]

Geale served on the Dublin Metropolitan Committee that oversaw the arrangements of the Cork Regatta that was held at the National Exhibition in Cork in 1852.[20][21][22] In 1855, he was a supporter of the Administrative Reform Association which sought to remove unfit men from civil, military, and diplomatic service and to promote workers for merit.[23]

In July 1855, the Lord Chancellor appointed Geale to the position of justice of the peace for County Limerick.[24][2] In 1857 and 1859, he again ran as a candidate for his Kinsale.[25][17] By 1860, he was a deputy judge in Bristol County in England and a judge of the Insolvent Debtors' Court in Bristol.[26][27] In 1862, he was also a deputy judge in Marylebone County court.[28]

In 1866, Geale was part of the Irish Railway delegation.[29] He was also a director of the Limerick and North Kerry Railroad and of the Waterford and Passage Railroad.[30]

Literary legacy

Geale is created with Ernesto di Ripalta, a three-volume novel of historical fiction about Italian revolution against Austrian rule, that was published anonymously in 1849.[31][32][33] His nonfiction and poetry publications include:

United States Senator from New Jersey James Walter Wall was charged with plagiarizing Geale's book on Italy in his 1856 book Foreign Etchings.[35]

Personal life

In 1840, Geale married widow Elizabeth Heard (née Lee) of Killonahan in County Limerick.[31][3] She was the daughter of Henry Lee, a lawyer who was a member of the Irish landed gentry, and the widow of the lawyer Henry George Heard.[36][3] They lived at Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin but spent the winter of 1841 and other times in London.[37] They had a daughter in 1842.[38][3]

Later, the Geale family lived in Darraghmore (Irish: An Dairtheach Mhór).[3][31] In 1878, their address was Durragh [Darragh] Lodge, Kilfinnane, County Limerick.[1] Geale also owned 2,521 acres (1,020 ha) in County Cork and 484 acres (196 ha) in County Limerick.[1]

Geale gave to several charitable causes, including the General Central Relief Fund for All of Ireland and the Benevolent Society of St. Patrick.[39][40] He donated to the fund for a national monument honoring Daniel O'Connell in 1847 and for a memorial to the poet Thomas Moore in 1852.[41][42] He was a member of the Poor Law Guardians of Dublin, serving on the Poor-Law Amendment Committee in 1849 which drafted guidelines for all such boards of guardians in Ireland.[43] He was also a steward of the Royal Free Hospital in London.[44]

Geale was a member of the Social Science Association in London and the Windham Club.[45][3] He died in his residence in Limerick at the age of 95 in 1909.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Geale". Landed Estates. University of Galway. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "The Lord Chancellor". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1855-07-16. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Walford, Edward (1869). The County Families of the United Kingdom Or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland ... (5th ed.). London: Robert Hardwicke. p. 397 – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 "Easter Term". The Freeman's Journal. Dublin, Ireland. April 17, 1839. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Burke, Bernard (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (5th ed.). London: Harrison, Paul, Mall. p. 766. Retrieved December 4, 2023 – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ "Obituary". The Standard. London. 1896-05-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-05-10 – via Newspaper.com.
  7. ↑ Foster, Joseph, ed. (1889). The register of admissions to Gray's inn, 1521-1889, together with the register of marriages in Gray's inn chapel, 1695-1754. London: Priv. print. by the Hansard Publishing Union, Limited. p. 454 – via Internet Archive.
  8. 1 2 3 O'Donoghue, D. J. (David James) (1912). The poets of Ireland; a biographical and bibliographical dictionary of Irish writers of English verse. Dublin and London: Hodges Figgis & Co. Ltd. / Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press. p. 159 – via Internet Archive.
  9. 1 2 Death of Mr. Hamilton Geale.
  10. ↑ "Great Meeting of the Irish Reformers to Address Lord Morpeth". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1841-08-13. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Gray's Inn". Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. Manchester, England. 1841-11-20. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "The Irish Council. Great Aggregate Meeting of Peers, Members of the House of Commons, and Landed". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1847-11-05. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "The Irish Council". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1847-12-10. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Periodcial Sitting of Parliament in Ireland". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1848-09-28. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Annual Sessions of the Imperial Parliament in Dublin". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1848-11-18. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Rotatory Parliaments". The Morning Post. London, England. 1848-12-20. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. 1 2 "Election Movements". The Boston Pilot. 29 May 1859. p. 2. Retrieved December 4, 2023 – via Boston College Libraries.
  18. 1 2 "Representation of Kinsale". The Standard. London, England. 1851-06-17. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Ireland. Representation of Kinsale". The Morning Chronicle. London, England. 1851-11-03. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "National Exhibition at Cork". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1852-05-12. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Cork National Exhibition". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1852-06-02. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ Official catalogue of the national exhibition, of the arts, manufactures, and products of Ireland; held in Cork in 1852. Cork, Ireland: Cork, J. O'Brien, Bookseller & Stationer. 1852. p. 43 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ "Administrative Reform Association". Daily News. London, England. 1855-07-04. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "The Court". Belfast News-Letter. Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. 1855-07-17. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ "Ireland". The Standard. London, England. 1857-03-18. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ "Briston County COunty". The Bristol Mirror. Bristol, Avon, England. 1860-03-31. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ "Insolvent Debtors' Court". The Bristol Mirror. Bristol, England. 1861-02-09. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ↑ "Marylebone County Court". Marylebone and Paddington Mercury. Westminster, London, England. 1863-04-18. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ "The Irish Railways". Belfast News-Letter. Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. 1866-05-23. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide, and Official Directory for 1869. Vol. 21. London: W. J. Adams. 1869. pp. 165 and 329 – via Google Books.
  31. 1 2 3 Bassett, Troy J. "Author: Hamilton Geale." At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837—1901, 19 November 2023, . Accessed 4 December 2023.
  32. ↑ British Museum Department of Printed Books (1902). British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books: Supplement. G-Gilbart. London: Wiliam Clowes and Sons, Ltd. p. 173. Retrieved December 4, 2023 – via Google Books.
  33. ↑ Rudman, Harry W. (1966). Italian Nationalism and English Letters. New York: AMS Press, Inc. p. 87 – via Internet Archive.
  34. ↑ "Search Results - "Geale, Hamilton."". catalogue.nli.ie.
  35. ↑ Looney, Dennis; Shemek, Deanna (December 10, 2005). Phaethon's Children: The Este Court and Its Culture in Early Modern Ferrara. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. ISBN 9780866983297.
  36. ↑ Burke, Bernard (1863). A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. Part II. Oxford University (4th ed.). Harrison, Paul Mall. p. 850 – via Internet Archive.
  37. ↑ "Fashion and Varieties". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1841-12-10. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. ↑ "Births". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1842-09-26. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ↑ "General Central Relief Committee for All Ireland". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1847-01-11. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ↑ "Benevolent Society of St. Patrick". The Morning Post. London, England. 1860-06-05. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ↑ "Moore Testimonial". Belfast News-Letter. Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. 1852-05-05. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ↑ "National Monument to O Connell". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1847-08-30. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  43. ↑ "Poor-Law Amendment Committee". Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Dublin, Ireland. 1849-01-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  44. ↑ "Royal Free Hospital". The Morning Post. London, England. 1860-05-29. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  45. ↑ "The Social Science Association". Belfast News-Letter. Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. 1862-06-13. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
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