Co. Roscommon

The leading interests were those of George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston, and his brother Robert Edward, Baron Erris (afterwards Viscount Lorton); Maurice Mahon, 1st Baron Hartland; Arthur French of French Park, Member since 1783; Sir Edward Crofton of Mote Park, and St. George Caulfeild of Donamon Castle. The independent and Catholic interests were also forces to be reckoned with, as was illustrated in the by-election of 1799, when the Castle employed them in the Unionist cause to secure the return of Thomas Mahon against Col. Robert Edward King, an anti-Unionist who was aspiring to succeed his brother to the county seat.Wakefield, Account of Ireland, ii. 308; G. C. Bolton, The Passing of the Irish Act of Union, 146-8. King then ceded victory without a poll, but the victor was not secure. After King had become Lord Erris a year later, Mahon affected to believe that the King family had no further interest in county elections, and too readily informed the Castle of this in a bid to name the sheriff. He was informed by the chief secretary that Erris had contradicted his claim, and as government had no wish to alienate the King family an impartial sheriff was chosen. Mahon’s father, Lord Hartland, seeing which way the wind was blowing, indicated that although his standing had risen through support of the Union and that of the Kings had declined accordingly, he was willing to ‘accommodate’ them, as long as they did not remove the quarter sessions from his doorstep at Strokestown.PRO 30/9/1, pt. 3/2, Hartland to Abbot, 21 Nov.; pt. 3/4, T. Mahon to same, 3 Oct., reply 6 Oct. 1801 (with memo of 17 Oct.). He doubtless feared the immense wealth of Erris, whose father-in-law Lord Oxmantown evidently paid the expenses of Edward King, Erris’s brother, in 1802, when Thomas Mahon declined after his father had failed to persuade Henry Augustus Dillon to stand with him.HO 100/94, Oxmantown to Portland, 11 Dec. 1800; PRO, Dacres Adams mss 5/71; NLI, Pakenham Mahon mss 10095/1, Hartland to Wyatt [Mar. 1808]. There had been other contenders: Sir Edward Crofton, who declined by December 1801, and St. George Caulfeild, a relative of King, who offered from Munich, where he was delayed by ‘a very heavy fall of snow’, 8 Dec. 1801.Dublin Evening Post, 19 Jan. 1802.

In 1806 King, then on naval duty in the Caribbean, was sponsored by his brother Henry. The Castle counted it a defeat for them when King was withdrawn in the face of the candidature of Stephen Mahon, younger brother of Thomas Mahon, who was also absent on active service. Mahon’s father thereby secured his return at the modest expense of £1,696 18s.HMC Fortescue, viii. 440; Dublin Evening Post, 21, 22, 23 Oct., 8, 13, 20, 25 Nov. 1806; Pakenham Mahon mss 10129-30. In 1807 St. George Caulfeild, who had been neutral in 1806, was thought likely to oppose the sitting Members as a friend of the dismissed ministers, Mahon having sided with the new ministry and French having avoided committing himself publicly on the fall of the Grenville ministry. No contest materialized then or at the next three elections.HMC Fortescue, ix. 136; Dublin Evening Post, 18 June 1807. French was invincible, thanks to his alliance with the King family, and as they offered no further candidate, Mahon was equally secure. The invariable support given by both Members to Catholic relief reinforced their security.