University Archives
Grattan family, of County Kildare
The papers in this collection relate to three generations of the Grattan family beginning with James Grattan (d.1766). His son, Henry Grattan (1746-1820), was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and entered the Middle Temple, London, in order to qualify for the Irish bar. In 1775 he became MP in the Irish Parliament, quickly making his mark as a champion of Irish commercial equality with England and legislative autonomy involving the reform of Poyning's Law. He was successful and the Lord Lieutenant awarded him £50,000 for the purchase of estates. He also supported Langrishe's Roman Catholic Relief Bill and a number of papers concerning the relief of Catholics are to be found in the collection. He died in England and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His eldest son James Grattan (1783-1854) served in the 9th Light Dragoons and represented the county of Wicklow in Parliament from 1821 until 1841. Henry Grattan's younger son, Henry Grattan (1789-1859) was also an MP. By his wife, Mary O'Kelly (great-niece of Andrew Dennis O'Kelly), he had six daughters. One of them, Henrietta Grattan, married into the Langdale family, through whom the papers descended. There are circa 600 items comprising title documents to estates at Stradbally, Queen's County, and Celbridge Abbey, County Kildare, personal account books and correspondence including 15 letters to Henry Grattan about Irish and political affairs from 1782 to 1808. [DDLA/39]