Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/418

 he kept his books, and continued his studies till his death on 1 July 1791. His means had been much reduced by a form of extortion not rare in Ireland in the middle of the eighteenth century. His youngest brother became a protestant, and filed a bill in chancery ‘for obtaining possession of the lands of Belanagare as its first protestant discoverer.’ The law would have dispossessed him, and he had, after long litigation, to compromise the action by a large money payment. His portrait, at the age of 79, forms the frontispiece of his biography by his grandson, Charles O'Conor (1760–1828) [q. v.], and shows him to have had fine features and a gracious and dignified expression. The defects of his education alone prevented him from being a great Irish scholar, and it must be remembered that he lived at a period when the difficulties of study in mediæval Irish literature were very great. That he speaks with enthusiasm of the vain and shallow writings of Vallancey is a sign, not of his own ignorance, but of his warm satisfaction in the study of the then despised history and literature of Ireland by a person whose general learning he believed to be profound, and whose external position seemed to give his remarks the authority of an impartial judge awarding commendation where praise was almost unknown and contempt usual. O'Conor's devotion to his subject deserves more praise than his additions to knowledge.

 O'CONOR, CHARLES (1764–1828), Irish antiquary and librarian at Stowe, second son of Denis O'Conor (d. 1804), by Catherine, daughter of Martin Browne of Cloonfad, was born at Belanagare on 15 March 1764. Charles O'Conor [q. v.] of Belanagare was his grandfather. Charles the younger early developed studious instincts, and was sent by his father in 1779 to the Ludovisi College in Rome, where he remained until 1791, and obtained the degree of D.D. He was in 1792 appointed parish priest of Kilkeevin, co. Roscommon, and remained there until, in 1798, he was appointed chaplain to the Marchioness of Buckingham, with which office he combined that of librarian to Richard Grenville, afterwards Duke of Buckingham and Chandos [q. v.], at Stowe. O'Conor had previously attracted the attention of a select few by his ‘Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Charles O'Conor of Belanagare, Esq., M.R.I.A., by the Rev. Charles O'Conor, D.D., Member of the Academy of Cortona; Dublin, printed by J. Mehain’ [1796], 8vo. This work is valuable for the information it affords of the first steps taken by the Roman catholics in Ireland for the repeal of the penal laws. It is now very rare. The first volume alone was printed, and afterwards suppressed, as it was feared that the circulation of so outspoken a work might be detrimental to the family. A copy was sold to Heber at Sir Mark Sykes's sale for 14l. Other copies are at Trinity College, Dublin, and at the British Museum. The manuscript of the second volume was committed to the flames by the author's express orders.

Between 1810 and 1813 O'Conor wrote ‘Columbanus ad Hibernos, or Seven Letters on the Present Mode of Appointing Catholic Bishops in Ireland; with an Historical Address on the Calamities occasioned by Foreign Influence in the Nomination of Bishops to Irish Sees,’ Buckingham, 2 vols. 8vo. In this work, although a zealous catholic, he vigorously opposed the ultramontane party and supported the veto, in consequence of which he was declared unorthodox, and formally suspended by Archbishop Troy in 1812. The letters were answered by Francis Plowden [q. v.] O'Conor issued in 1812 a non-controversial work entitled ‘Narrative of the most Interesting Events in Irish History,’ 1812, 8vo. Two years later commenced the monumental work which connects his name with the study of Irish antiquities, ‘Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres’ (vol. i. 1814, vol. ii. 1825, vols. iii. and iv. 1826), Buckingham, 4to. Only two hundred copies were printed, the cost, some 3,000l., being defrayed by the Duke of Buckingham. Nearly the whole impression of the work was distributed as presents to public and private libraries. The originals—the ‘Annals of Tighearnach,’ the ‘Annals of Ulster,’ the ‘Annals of the Four Masters,’ and other valuable chronicles—were almost all in the library at Stowe. Of these manuscript treasures an account was published by the librarian under the title ‘Bibliotheca MS. Stowensis. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Stowe Library,’ 2 vols., Buckingham, 1818, 4to. Two hundred copies were issued at the expense of the duke, to whom an elaborate preface was addressed. The manuscripts were purchased, in one lot, by the Earl of Ashburnham in 1849 for 8,000l. (see Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, 1849). The majority of the documents were acquired by the British Museum in 1883, and a catalogue is in course of preparation; the Irish manuscripts, however, are now in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. 