Montague James Mathew
Lieutenant General | |
---|---|
Commands held | 99th Foot |
In politics, he was both a
Life
Mathew was the second son of
From 1797 to 1800, Mathew was a member of the
In 1806, Mathew was proposed as a member of Dublin's Kildare Street Club but was blackballed by no fewer than eighty-five members, so was rejected. His brother Francis Mathew, 2nd Earl Landaff, denounced the "eighty-five scoundrels", who he claimed had all promised him they would give his brother their support, and stalked out of the club, never to return.[4]
Mathew was first elected as a Member of the
The Parlt. met yesterday... a drunken speech from Sheridan towards morning, and a blackguard one from Montague Mathew, who, with the figure of an Irish giant and the voice of a stentor, charged Perceval with treason to 5 millions of Irish Catholics & me with corruption at the Tipperary election....[2]
On 5 May 1808, Mathew urged Wellesley and Perceval's government to increase its financial support for
In 1809, the magazine Select reviews reported that
There are two members in the
chesnut horse.[7]
On 6 June 1811 Mathew was appointed Colonel of the 99th Foot.[1]
In 1815 the parliamentary sketch-writer Thomas Barnes wrote of Mathew that he showed "...all the characteristic fervour of his countrymen in favour of the cause of the
Mathew never married. He died suddenly, and intestate, at Castle Fogerty, Thurles, County Tipperary, on 19 March 1819. He was buried at his ancestral home, Thomastown in the parish of Kilfeacle.[9] Of his death it was later recorded that he was "one of the last of the four-bottle men in the county", and that he had died at dinner.[10]
A distant relation noted in 1890:
They were popular among their tenants – as were most kindly spendthrifts – but were by no means model landlords. One of them, a General Montagu Mathew, is still remembered in Tipperary with special affection. Their crest was quarrelsome – a fighting heathcock, most pugnacious of fowl, with the motto, Y Fyn duw a Fydd, or the word "Towton", traced to Sir David Mathew, the Yorkist standard-bearer at Towton Field. The ingenious Burke, in his "Landed Gentry," traces this family back to Gwaithvoed the Great, Prince of Cardigan and Gwent...[11]
Notes
- ^ a b John Phillippart, The royal military calendar (Printed by A. J. Valpy, 1815) p. 216
- ^ a b Arthur Aspinall, ed., The later correspondence of George III (1966), p. 12
- ^ E. M. Johnston-Liik, MPs in Dublin: Companion to History of the Irish parliament, 1692-1800 (2006), p. 106: "MATHEW, Hon. Montagu; b. 18 August 1773 d. 20 March 1819; MP for Ballynakill 1797-1800."
- ^ The Irish quarterly review (1853), pp. 295-296
- ^ Irish historical studies, vol. 34, Issues 133-134 (Dublin University Press, 2004), p. 218
- ^ The Parliamentary debates (Authorized edition), vol. 122, pp. 238-239
- ^ Select reviews, vol. 1 (Hopkins & Earle, 1809), p. 208
- ^ Thomas Barnes, Parliamentary portraits: or, Sketches of the public character of some of the most distinguished speakers of the House of commons (Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, and R. Hunter, 1815), p. 170
- ^ John R. Boots, The Mat(t)hews family: an anthology of Mathews lineages (1970), p. 109 : "Montague Mathews, born 18 August 1773 died unmarried, intestate, and suddenly, at Castle Ffogerty, Thurles, 19 March 1819. He was Lieut.-General 98th Foot; M.P., Co. Tipperary; buried at Thomas-town."
- ^ Patrick Rogers, Father Theobald Mathew: apostle of temperance (Browne and Nolan Ltd., 1943), p. xix: "Major General Montagu Mathew, one of the last of the four-bottle men in the county, died at dinner in 1819 at Castle Fogarty."
- ^ Frank J. Mathew, Father Mathew: his life and times (1890), p. 98