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Tag Archives: Edmund Malone


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Birth of Anthony Malone, Lawyer & Politician

anthony-malone

Anthony Malone, Irish lawyer and politician, is born on December 5, 1700, the eldest son of Richard Malone of Baronston, County Westmeath, and Marcella, daughter of Redmond Molady. Edmund Malone is his nephew, and a younger brother, Richard Malone (1706–1759), is MP for Fore from 1741.

Malone is educated at Mr. Young’s school in Abbey Street, Dublin, and on April 6, 1720 is admitted a gentleman-commoner of Christ Church, Oxford. After two years at university he enters the Middle Temple and is called to the Irish bar in May 1726. In 1737 he is created LL.D. of Trinity College, Dublin.

In 1733, Malone marries Rose, daughter of Sir Ralph Gore, 4th Baronet, speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The marriage results in no children.

Malone makes a successful career as a lawyer. From 1727 to 1760, and again from 1769 to 1776, he represents the county of Westmeath, and from 1761 to 1768 the borough of Castlemartyr, in the Irish parliament. In 1740 he is appointed Serjeant-at-law, but is dismissed from office in 1754 for opposing the claim of the crown to dispose of unappropriated revenue. In 1757 he is made Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, but his attitude in council in regard to the Money Bill of 1761 leads to his again being removed from office. His treatment is regarded as too severe by William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and Malone, who draws a distinction between advice offered in council and his conduct in parliament, introduces the measure as chairman of the committee of supply. He is shortly afterwards granted a patent of precedence at the bar, but is charged with having sold his political principles for money.

Malone supports John Monck Mason‘s bill for enabling Roman Catholics to invest money in mortgages on land. In 1762 he is appointed, with Sir Richard Aston, to try the Whiteboys of Munster. They agree in ascribing the rural violence to local and individual grievances.

Malone dies at the age of 75 on May 8, 1776. At one time, a marble bust of him adorned Baronston House. By his will, made in July 1774, he leaves all his estates in the counties of Westmeath, Roscommon, Longford, Cavan, and Dublin to his nephew, Richard Malone, 1st Baron Sunderlin as he became, eldest son of his brother Edmund. On his death in 1816 the right of succession is disputed.


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Birth of Novelist Annie French Hector

Annie French Hector, a popular 19th-century novelist who writes under the pen name “Mrs. Alexander,” is born in Dublin on June 23, 1825.

Hector is the only child of Robert French, a Dublin solicitor. Her family claims to be descended from Irish gentry, the French family of Roscommon and Lord Annaly. On the paternal side, she is related to the poet Charles Wolfe and on her mother’s side, to the Shakespearian scholar, Edmund Malone. Her father loses his money in 1844 and moves first to Liverpool before settling in London.

Hector marries the explorer and archaeologist Alexander Hector in 1858 and together they have four children. She writes several novels during her early life, the first being Kate Vernon in 1854. However, her husband disapproves of her writing so she remains unpublished in his lifetime.

After Alexander Hector’s death in 1875, she uses his first name as her pseudonym and publishes over forty novels as “Mrs. Alexander,” many published by George and Richard Bentley. Among her books, all of which enjoy a wide popularity in the United States, are The Wooing O’t (1873), Ralph Wilton’s Weird (1875), Her Dearest Foe (1876), The Freres (1882), A Golden Autumn (1897), A Winning Hazard (1897), and Kitty Costello (1902).

Hector’s final novel, Kitty Costello, which presents an Irish girl’s introduction to English life and has autobiographic touches, is written when she is 77 years old and is barely completed at her death. A witty, clever talker, of quick sympathies and social instincts, Hector is in many ways abler and broader-minded than is shown in her writings. She dies in London, after suffering from neuritis for ten years, on July 10, 1902, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.