ter and heiress of Mr. Vaughan of Carrowmore, Mayo. He now began to take an active interest in politics. He was a strong supporter of the legislative independence of Ireland, and assisted in the formation of the volunteer companies. On his estate in county Mayo he boasted with truth that he had introduced numerous improvements, much attention being devoted by him to the growth of wheat. His serious occupations were relieved by wild adventures, including a habit introduced by him of hunting at night. For a sum of 8,000l. per annum paid down his father granted him a rent-charge of 1,000l. per annum, and agreed to settle his whole estates on him and his issue male. As, however, it now seemed unlikely that young Fitzgerald would ever have any issue male, he became jealous of his younger brother, whose issue would ultimately inherit the property. The father having fallen in arrears in the payment of the rent-charge to the amount of 12,000l., young Fitzgerald, by an order of the court of exchequer, got possession of the property, his father being allowed a comparatively small annuity. This annuity the son neglected to pay, and carried off his younger brother to his house at Turlough. Thereupon his brother brought an action against him for forcible abduction, and being found guilty he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,000l. The sentence proved for a time a dead-letter. He retreated to Sligo with his father, and, being closely followed, embarked with him in a boat for a small island in Sligo Bay. Here his father proposed to him that if he would pay him 3,000l. to clear his debts, and give him a small yearly stipend, he would convey to him the reversion in the estate and exonerate him of all blame in the forcible abduction. To this he agreed, and, proceeding by unfrequented roads, the two together reached Dublin. No sooner had they reached it than the father set him at defiance. A reward of 3,000l. having previously been offered for his capture, it was not long before he was arrested. He endeavoured to move for a new trial, but without effect, and he was sent to prison, where he remained till a serious illness induced the authorities to liberate him. Soon afterwards one Patrick Randal McDonnell, who had been in league against him, was shot at and wounded in the leg. One Murphy, a retainer of Fitzgerald, was arrested on suspicion, but would reveal nothing. Fitzgerald now procured a warrant for the arrest of M'Donnell and others for false imprisonment of Murphy, but it could not be immediately executed on account of McDonnell's illness from the wound in his leg. Knowing, however, that McDonnell would on a certain day proceed from Castlebar to Chancery Hall, they beset him on his return and took him prisoner. In the scuffle one of the escort was shot. The volunteers coming up, the tables were, however, turned against Fitzgerald, who was captured and lodged in gaol. While there he was in some inexplicable way attacked by a mob of men, who left him in a very weak condition on the supposition that he was dead ; but he survived to stand his trial for murder, and being found guilty was executed at Castlebar in the evening of Monday, 12 June 1786. He was interred at midnight in the family tomb in a chapel which, now in ruins, adjoins a round tower.
[Memoirs of G. E. Fitzgerald, 1786 ; Life, in Dublin University Magazine, xvi. 1-21, 179-197, 304-24, reprinted in 1852 ; Appeal to the Jockey Club, &c., 1 775 ; Case of G. E. Fitzgerald, 1786 ; Gent. Mag. vol. lvi. pt. i. 346-7, 434, 518-20 ; Sir Jonah Barrington's Memoirs.]
FITZGERALD, GERALD, Lord of Offaly (d. 1204), was the son of Maurice
Fitzgerald (d. 1176) [q. v.], the invader of
Ireland. Though the Geraldines had already
become a well-known family, Gerald is more
often called Fitzmaurice than Fitzgerald. Accompanying his father from Wales to Ireland,
he and his brother Alexander showed great
valour in the battle against Roderick O'Conor,
outside the walls of Dublin in 1171 (Exp. Hib. in Giraldus, Opera, v. 268, Rolls Ser.)
After his father's death, William Fitzaldhelm
[q. v.] deprived him and his brothers of their
stronghold of Wicklow, though after a time
compelled to give them Ferns in exchange
(ib. p. 337). He had already received from
Strongbow, Naas and other districts in Kildare, and had erected Maynooth Castle (Gilbert, Viceroys of Ireland, p. 93). In 1199,
though receiving King John's letters of protection, he was ordered to do right to Maurice
Fitzphilip for the lands of 'Gessil and Lega'
(? Leix), whereof he had already deforced
Maurice (Chart. 1 John, m. 6, p. i. ; Oblate
1 John, m. 12; Cal. Doc. Ireland, Nos. 101,
102). But on his death, Gerald was still in
possession of those estates (Cal. Doc. Ireland,
No. 195). He is often described as 'Baron
Offaly,' the middle cantred of which had been
among his father's possessions. He died before 15 Jan. 1204 (ib. No. 195), though generally said to have died in 1205 (Book of Howth, p. 118, which describes him erroneously as justice of Ireland). He married
Catherine, daughter of Hamon of Valognes,
justiciar of Ireland between 1197 and 1199
(Gilbert, Viceroys, pp. 57, 93). He left by
