LATOUCHE, David (1769-1816), of Upton, co. Carlow.

Col. Latouche was a member of the Dublin banking family and with his father, who managed the business from 1785 to 1817, sat in the Irish parliament, described as ‘sometimes with opposition, but in general with government’ (1791) and expected to follow his father’s line (1793). Latouche was never a banker and eventually sold his interest in the family business and his estates to a brother.Procs. R. Irish Acad. lix, sec. C no 1 (1957), 27; Cork Hist. and Arch. Soc. Jnl. iii. 170-1. He was a firm opponent of the Union, which his father supported. Returned for the county after a contest in 1802, he was a silent supporter of government, but disappointed them by voting for Calcraft’s motion for an inquiry into the Prince of Wales’s finances, 4 Mar. 1803.Wickham mss 5/19, Wickham to Marsden, 6 Mar. 1803. After being listed ‘Prince’ in May 1804 when he was with the Carlow militia, he was subsequently reckoned a supporter of Pitt’s administration. On 14 May 1805, however, he voted for the Catholic petition.

The Grenville ministry, while noting that he supported the late administration, thought him ‘very deserving of attention’ and supported his election in 1806. He did not arrive, after taking sick leave, in time to vote for Brand’s or Lyttelton’s motions against the Portland ministry in April 1807, but was listed ‘Opposition’ at the time of the general election and voted against the address, 26 June 1807. The Irish secretary’s view in 1808 was ‘is not disinclined to support government. Does not attend Parliament. May be depended upon for any object of government in Ireland.’NLS mss 12910, p. 173, Elliot to King, 4 June 1806; Dublin Evening Post, 23 Apr.; Morning Chron. 22, 26 June 1807; Add. 40221, ff. 15-42. In fact, Latouche voted for the Catholic petition on 25 May 1808 and was in the minority against Perceval’s face-saving resolution on the Duke of York’s abuse of army patronage, 17 Mar. 1809. In November of that year, the lord lieutenant thought him ‘rather against us but certainly not violent and might be influenced to some degree’.NLI, Richmond mss 72/1508. This proved wrong: Latouche was in the minority on the address, 23 Jan. 1810, in the majority against government on the Scheldt question, 23 Feb. and 5 Mar., and paired in the minority on the same, 30 Mar. 1810. On 5 Apr. he voted against Burdett’s committal to the Tower. The Whigs reckoned him one of their supporters in that year. He voted with them on the Regency, 21 Jan. 1811, and as before, when present, on the Irish Catholic question. In 1812 he was thanked by Carlow Catholics who resolved to bring him in ‘at all events’Add. 51826, Skully to Holland, 19 Nov. 1812. for supporting their claims, and his last recorded vote was in the majority on their behalf, 2 Mar. 1813. Nor was he included in the Treasury list at that time. Not a word of his in Parliament is recorded. He died v.p., after repeated strokes of apoplexy, 15 Mar. 1816.Add. 40191, f. 167.