reputation, and the lady was condemned to nine months' imprisonment for libel. In 1812 he was sworn of the English privy council, and appointed a lord of the treasury in England, chancellor of the Irish exchequer, and first lord of the Irish treasury, and in January 1813 he again succeeded his father as M.P. for Ennis. He held the above offices until their abolition in 1816, when the English and Irish treasuries were amalgamated, and in the same year he assumed his mother's name of Vesey in addition to his own, on succeeding to some of the Vesey estates. In 1818 he was elected M.P. for the county of Clare. In 1820 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to the court of Sweden, where he spent three years in fruitless attempts to persuade Bernadotte, who had succeeded to the throne of that kingdom, to repay the large sums of money advanced to him during the war with Napoleon. His efforts were of no avail, and in 1823 he was recalled in something like disgrace. Lord Liverpool, however, knew his value as a polished speaker and practical man of business, and in 1826 he was appointed paymaster-general to the forces. When the Duke of Wellington formed his administration in 1828, he selected Vesey-Fitzgerald to take a seat in his cabinet as president of the board of trade, and this nomination made it necessary for him to seek re-election for the county of Clare. He was opposed by Daniel O'Connell, and was beaten at the poll, a defeat involving important political consequences. A seat was, however, found for Vesey-Fitzgerald at Newport in Cornwall in 1829, and in August 1830 he was elected for Lostwithiel. In December 1830 he went out of office with the Duke of Wellington, and resigned his seat in parliament, but in the following year he was again elected for Ennis, and sat for that borough until his accession to his mother's Irish peerage in February 1832. When Sir Robert Peel came into office with his tory cabinet in 1835, he did not forget the services of Vesey-Fitzgerald, who was created an English peer, Lord Fitzgerald of Desmond and Clan Gibbon in the county of Cork, 10 Jan. 1835. He did not form part of Sir Robert Peel's original cabinet when he next came into office in 1841, but he succeeded Lord Ellenborough as president of the board of control on 28 Oct. 1841, and held that office until his death in Belgrave Square, London, on 11 May 1843. Vesey-Fitzgerald was not a great statesman, but he was a finished speaker, a good debater, a competent official, and had refined literary tastes. At the time of his death he was a trustee of the British Museum, president of the Institute of Irish Architects, and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. At his death his United Kingdom peerage became extinct, but he was succeeded in his Irish peerage by his brother Henry, dean of Kilmore, at whose death in 1860 that also became extinct.
[Gent. Mag. July 1843; Mary Anne Clarke's Letter to the Right Hon. W. Fitzgerald, 1813.]
FITZGIBBON, EDMUND Fitzjohn (1552?–1608), the White Knight, second son of John Oge Fitzgerald, alias Fitzgibbon (d. 1569), and Ellen, daughter of Patrick Condon, lord of Condons, accompanied James Fitzmaurice to France in March 1575, returning in July. Being by the attainder of his father (13 Eliz. c. 3) deprived of his ancestral possessions, he in 1576 obtained a lease of a large portion of them (Cal. of Fiants, Eliz. 2873), which he surrendered in 1579, receiving in return a new one comprising the lands contained in the former and others which had in the meantime reverted to the crown through the death of his mother (ib. 3583). Charged by his hereditary enemy, Lord Roche, viscount Fermoy, with aiding and abetting the rebellion of Gerald, earl of Desmond, he appears to have trimmed his way through the difficulties that beset him with considerable skill, but without much regard for his honour. The English officials, Sir H. Wallop in particular, were greatly provoked that the lands forfeited by his father's rebellion were not to be allotted among the planters, and did their best to blacken his character. In 1584 he accompanied Sir John Perrot on his expedition against Sorley Boy MacDonnell, and being wounded on that occasion was much commended for his valour by the deputy. In April 1587 the government thought it advisable to arrest him, though it declined to follow St. Leger's advice to make him shorter by his head. In 1589, when all immediate danger had passed away, he was released on heavy recognisances. In the following year he paid a visit to England and obtained a grant in tail male of all the lands he held on lease (Morrin, Cal. of Patent Rolls, ii. 198). He was appointed sheriff of the county of Cork in 1596, and appears to have fulfilled his duties satisfactorily. But he still continued to be regarded with suspicion, and not without reason, for it is almost certain that he was implicated in the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill. He, however, on 22 May 1600, submitted unconditionally to Sir George Thornton, and was ready enougk when called upon to blame the folly of his son John, who had joined the rebels (Pac. Hib. i. 74, 133). Still Cecil was not quite satisfied, and advised Sir George Carew to
