Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/292

 change sides, and introduced him to Sir [q. v.], secretary of state. Lunt alleged that in 1692 James II had sent him with commissions to catholic gentry in Lancashire with a view to a rising simultaneously with a French invasion. Taaffe was sent to Lancashire with Lunt to search for arms and correspondence, but he was detected in abstracting communion plate and money belonging to Roman catholic families, and on returning to London received a reprimand in lieu of a reward. Thereupon he went to the friends of the Lancashire prisoners, offering to divulge the evidence against them, so that they might be prepared to rebut it, and to swear that the whole story of the plot had been concocted by himself and Lunt. His offer was accepted, and he received 20l. on account, with the promise of an annuity. Accordingly at the trial at Manchester, 16 and 17 Oct. 1694, Taaffe made his retractation, together with such allegations against Lunt that though concealed arms had been found, Sir (1634–1700) [q. v.], solicitor-general, threw up the case for the prosecution. The prisoners were acquitted, and the other defendants discharged. Not satisfied with this triumph, the Jacobites, on the meeting of parliament, raised debates in both houses, and demanded the counter-prosecution of the crown witnesses for perjury. Eventually, however, both houses affirmed that a Jacobite plot had existed, a stringent bill against perjury was dropped, and the counter-prosecution was abandoned. Taaffe was examined by the House of Commons, 24 Nov., and committed to prison, but liberated on bail. He was also committed to prison by the House of Lords on 8 Feb. 1695, but was discharged on the 26th. He was again imprisoned by the privy council in February 1696 (see, Diary}. He is said to have concealed himself in Lancashire to avoid prosecution. When very old and poor he waited on Speaker Onslow, to whom he showed documents respecting his discoveries of estates left for catholic uses (Onslow’s notes to ). Nothing more is known of him.



TAAFFE, NICHOLAS, sixth (1677–1769), lieutenant-general in the Austrian army, was the son of Francis Taaffe (grandson of John, first viscount) by Anne, daughter of John Crean of O’Crean’s Castle, co. Sligo. He was born at O’Crean’s Castle in 1677, but, his family having attached themselves to James II, he was educated in Lorraine. He was made chancellor to Duke Leopold, whose son married Maria Theresa and became the Emperor Francis I.

Passing into the Austrian service, in 1726 he was in command of a squadron of Count Hautois’s regiment. In October 1729 he became lieutenant-colonel of it, and on 3 Jan. 1732 he was made colonel of the Lanthieri cuirassiers. He served with this regiment against the French in the war of the Polish succession (1734–5), and against the Turks in the war of 1737–9. He covered the retreat of part of the army in November 1737, and again in September 1738. On 11 Feb. 1739 he was promoted major-general (general-feldwachtmeister). He was given the command of a brigade in the main army under Wallis, and distinguished himself in the operations round Belgrade. He was promoted lieutenant-general (feldmarschall-lieutenant) on 2 July 1752.

On 30 Oct. 1729 he had married Maria Anna (d. 1769), daughter and heiress of Count Spindler of Lintz, and he was himself afterwards made a count of the empire. By the death of his second cousin, Theobald, fourth earl of Carlingford, in 1738, he succeeded to the title of Viscount Taaffe in the peerage of Ireland [see under, fourth and third ]. His claim to the Irish estates was disputed by Robert Sutton, who was descended from the only daughter of, first earl of Carlingford [q. v.], and who took advantage of the penal laws which enabled protestants to supersede catholic heirs. It was ultimately agreed (and confirmed by 15 Geo. II, c. 49) that the estates should be sold, and that Taaffe should receive one-third, Sutton two-thirds, of the purchase-money. They were bought by John Petty Fitzmaurice (afterwards Earl of Shelburne).

Taaffe was present at the battle of Kolin (18 June 1757), and helped to rally the heavy cavalry of the Austrian right wing, though he was at that time eighty years of age. In 1763 he conferred a lasting benefit on the people of Silesia, where he had a large estate, by introducing the potato culture. In 1766 he published (in Dublin and London) ‘Observations on Affairs in Ireland from the Settlement in 1691 to the Present Time.’ This was a moderate and dignified plea against