lege, Dublin, in 1794, and was one of the first Roman catholics admitted to the bar by the Relief Act of 1793. In 1795 he left his father's house, and established himself at 20 Usher's Island, in the neighbourhood of the Four Courts. He joined the United Irish Society, but not being successful in his profession, and being involved in pecuniary difficulties, he was induced by Francis Higgins, ‘the Sham Squire’ [q. v.], to sell his services to government as an informer. During April 1798 he kept a strict watch on Lord Edward Fitzgerald's [q. v.] movements, and it was from information supplied by him through Higgins that Fitzgerald was eventually arrested at Murphy's house in Parliament Street. But so cleverly did he divert suspicion from himself that on the very night of the arrest he was elected a member of the head committee of the United Irishmen. He continued to pose as a patriot, and at the meeting of the bar on 9 Sept. 1798 he voted against the union. On 15 Dec. 1802 he received 500l. apparently for the purpose of procuring information against William Todd Jones. But he took an active interest in the catholic emancipation agitation, subscribed liberally to the association, and possessed the entire confidence of the leaders of the movement, though on the subject of the veto he sided with Arthur James Plunket, eighth earl Fingal, and the bishops. In 1821 he was appointed a commissioner for enclosing waste lands and commons. He filled a small legal office, afterwards abolished, and until 1834 enjoyed a secret pension from government of 200l. a year. He occasionally went on the home circuit, but never held a brief. He died in 1843, was buried in the church of SS. Michael and John in Dublin, and by his will required a perpetual yearly mass to be celebrated by all the priests of the church for the repose of his soul. He never married, but left all his property to his sister, who died worth more than 14,000l. According to Huband Smith, who as a commissioner for enclosing commons was brought into close relations with him, Magan in later years was ‘sufficiently gentlemanlike in appearance; tall, yet rather of plain and even coarse exterior; perhaps a little moody and reserved at times, and something may have been pressing on him of which he said little.’
[W. J. Fitzpatrick's Secret Service under Pitt; Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century.]
MAGAURAN, EDMUND (1548–1593), Roman catholic archbishop of Armagh, a member of the clan Macgauran or Macgovern of Tullyhaw, co. Cavan, was born in Maguire's country in 1548, and appears to have been educated abroad, either like his successor, Peter Lombard [q. v.], at Louvain, or more probably at one of the Irish colleges in Spain. In 1581 he was sent on a mission to the pope by the chiefs of his native country, and was appointed bishop of Ardagh on 11 Sept. (Brady, Episcopal Succession, i. 292). On 1 July 1587 he was translated to the archbishopric of Armagh and primacy of all Ireland, vacant by the death of Richard Creagh [q. v.] The pallium was granted him on 7 Aug. (ib. i. 221). This appointment was gratifying to the northern chiefs, and especially to the Maguires, with whom Magauran was on intimate terms. Magauran was in Ireland in 1589 (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1588–92). But in 1592, according to a letter from Sir R. Bingham [q. v.] to Burghley, he went ‘into Spain with letters and great assurance from Hugh Roe O'Donell and McGwyre’ (ib. 1592–6, p. 81). Philip II distinctly promised him that Spanish troops should be sent by way of Scotland to aid the Irish in the summer, and Magauran is said to have accompanied Philip into France when he took his daughter to be married to the Duke of Guise (ib. p. 71). Before his return home he seems to have also visited Clement VIII, who entrusted him with a message to the Irish troops, exhorting them to persevere in their opposition to the queen.
At length crossing to Ireland in a vessel of James Fleming, a merchant of Drogheda, he landed there probably at the end of 1592. The government regarded him as a rebel, and in two or three days he took refuge with Hugh Maguire, lord of Fermanagh [q. v.], on the confines of his diocese. Ample rewards were offered for his apprehension, and Sir William Fitzwilliam [q. v.], who knew of Magauran's arrival, but was ignorant of his errand, sent to Maguire to demand his surrender. This was refused, and Maguire retired with Magauran to a strong position in the interior of Fermanagh. Magauran, who found the country quiescent, occupied himself in rousing the Irish to fresh efforts, and his words, backed as they were by promises from Rome and Spain, had considerable effect (Lombard, De Hibernia Comment. pp. 345–7). Sir R. Bingham, writing to Burghley 6 June 1593, said, Magauran ‘doth much mischief riding on his chief horse, with his staff and shirt of mail’ (Cal. State Papers). Meanwhile his emissaries in Lisbon and elsewhere were continuing negotiations for foreign aid, and the differences at home between Maguire and Brian Oge O'Rourke were composed by his intervention. Maguire, who had lately laid down his arms, was induced to rebel
