Edward Fox Fitzgerald

Edward was the son of the infamous Lord Edward Fitzgerald who joined the rebellion in Ireland against the British Government. Lord Edward was arrested but died in prison of wounds suffered at the time of his capture. Lord Edward’s father, young Edward’s grandfather, was James Fitzgerald 1st Duke of Leinster.
Edward Fox Fitzgerald was born on 10 Oct 1784. His mother was a French lady called Pamela, the reputed daughter of Philippe Egalité the Jacobin Duke of Orleans. Shortly before Lord Edward’s arrest, young Edward was given over to the care of his grandmother, the Duchess of Leinster, so he was brought up in England, either at Grosvenor Place or Norbury Park, Dorking. On the death of his father in prison in Dublin, he could not inherit because the Government had passed a Bill of Attainder which effectively froze his assets. However, his grandmother was the sister of the 3rd Duke of Richmond and was able to finance young Edward’s military career as an officer in the most expensive hussar regiment in the British Army.
It may seem odd that the son of a convicted traitor could join such a high profile unit as the 10th Hussars, but his family connections were very aristocratic, and a letter written to the Duchess from Lord Wellington shows great deference. Edward was educated at Eton and he then went on to the recently opened Royal Military College at Great Marlow. He was commissioned as a cornet in the 10th Hussars on 8 Feb 1810 and sailed out to Portugal with the regiment in February 1813. Letters that he wrote during his time in the Peninsula War are published in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research vol XLIV no.178, June 1966. He did not suffer ill health, nor was he wounded in the various battles and skirmishes. He talks of the engagement at Morales del Toro and the battle of Vittoria.
Edward was one of the officers who signed a petition against Lt-Col George Quentin on the regiment’s return from the Peninsula. When Quentin was acquitted at his court martial the signatories of the petition, most of the officers, were dismissed from the 10th Hussars. Disappointingly, there is no mention of Quentin or his alleged cowardice in the letters. So after leaving the army Edward went to live with his mother in Paris, his grandmother having since died. His life there was one of high living and dissipation. He is mentioned in The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson the famous Parisian courtesan. In 1819 he was reinstated in the army and joined the 3rd Dragoons.
A few years later there was a reversal of the Act of Attainder which enabled him to inherit Kilrush, his father’s property in Ireland. He then married Jane, daughter of Sir John Dean-Paul Bt. He was promoted to captain but left the army and travelled around Europe. From 1835 to 1845 he lived in France, at a house just outside Paris. He had a daughter, Pamela (both his mother and sister were called Pamela) and they socialised with the family of the French King Louis-Philippe. At some point he returned to Ireland, and it is there that he died, at Carton House, Maynooth, co Kildare on 23 Jan 1863, aged 68.

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