Hamilton Geale
Irish politician, judge, and author
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Hamilton Geale (1814–1909) was an Irish politician, judge, barrister, and author. As a member of the landed gentry who owned some 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in Ireland, Geale served on the Irish Council and the Imperial Parliament. He was also a deputy judge with the Bristol County and Marylebone County courts in England and a justice of the peace for County Limerick in Ireland.[1][2]
Early life
Hamilton Geale was born in 1814.[3] He was the son of Catherine (née Crofton) and Piers Geale, a lawyer.[4][3] His mother was the daughter of the lawyer Marcus Lowther Crofton of Killonahan in County Limerick.[3] His sister was Elizabeth Geale Fortescue; she was the wife of Sir Marcus Somerville, 4th Baronet and Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue.[5][6]
Geale graduated from Trinity College at the University of Dublin.[7] He was an amateur artist and displayed his paintings in Dublin.[8] He also published his poetry.[8] In 1827, he served as a midshipman in the Battle of Navarino.[9]
Career
He passed the bar exam in Ireland in April 1839 and became a practicing barrister.[3][4] In 1841, he was a member of the Reformers of Ireland.[10] He passed the English Bar Exam on November 17, 1841.[3][11]
He served on the Irish Council in November 1847; it included members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, peers of Ireland, and the landed gentry.[12] He was also a member of the Irish Council's manufacturing council.[13] In September 1848, he wrote a letting affirming his intention to sit in the Parliament of Ireland as a member of the gentry.[14] He was a member of the Imperial Parliament which met in Dublin in 1848.[15] He also participated in the first meeting of the Society for Promoting Annual Sessions of the Imperial Parliament in Dublin on December 19, 1848.[16]
In 1852, he ran as a Whig candidate for Kinsale.[17][18] Part of his platform was a moderate fixed duty on imported corn.[18] He said, "I am in favour of a just and equitable protection to native agriculture, and, without seeking to set aside the recent free-trade policy, I think the agriculturists of Great Britain and Ireland have a right to either a moderate fixed duty or a least to that adjustment of taxation which M'Culloch and other free-trade authorities admit they are entitled to."[19]
Geale served on the Dublin Metropolitan Committee that oversaw the arrangements of the Cork Regatta that was held at the National Exhibition in Cork in 1852.[20][21][22] In 1855, he was a supporter of the Administrative Reform Association which sought to remove unfit men from civil, military, and diplomatic service and to promote workers for merit.[23]
In July 1855, the Lord Chancellor appointed Geale to the position of justice of the peace for County Limerick.[24][2] In 1857 and 1859, he again ran as a candidate for his Kinsale.[25][17] By 1860, he was a deputy judge in Bristol County in England and a judge of the Insolvent Debtors' Court in Bristol.[26][27] In 1862, he was also a deputy judge in Marylebone County court.[28]
In 1866, Geale was part of the Irish Railway delegation.[29] He was also a director of the Limerick and North Kerry Railroad and of the Waterford and Passage Railroad.[30]
Literary legacy
Geale is created with Ernesto di Ripalta, a three-volume novel of historical fiction about Italian revolution against Austrian rule, that was published anonymously in 1849.[31][32][33] His nonfiction and poetry publications include:
- Miscellaneous Poems by a Midshipman. Dublin: M. Keene and Sons, 1832.[34]
- Juvenilia, a Collection of Miscellaneous Poems. Dublin: M. Keene and Sons, 1833.[8]
- Ireland and Irish Questions. 2nd edition. London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1845.
- Notes of a Two Year's Residence in Italy. Dublin: James McGlashan, 1848.
United States Senator from New Jersey James Walter Wall was charged with plagiarizing Geale's book on Italy in his 1856 book Foreign Etchings.[35]
Personal life
In 1840, Geale married widow Elizabeth Heard (née Lee) of Killonahan in County Limerick.[31][3] She was the daughter of Henry Lee, a lawyer who was a member of the Irish landed gentry, and the widow of the lawyer Henry George Heard.[36][3] They lived at Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin but spent the winter of 1841 and other times in London.[37] They had a daughter in 1842.[38][3]
Later, the Geale family lived in Darraghmore (Irish: An Dairtheach Mhór).[3][31] In 1878, their address was Durragh [Darragh] Lodge, Kilfinnane, County Limerick.[1] Geale also owned 2,521 acres (1,020 ha) in County Cork and 484 acres (196 ha) in County Limerick.[1]
Geale gave to several charitable causes, including the General Central Relief Fund for All of Ireland and the Benevolent Society of St. Patrick.[39][40] He donated to the fund for a national monument honoring Daniel O'Connell in 1847 and for a memorial to the poet Thomas Moore in 1852.[41][42] He was a member of the Poor Law Guardians of Dublin, serving on the Poor-Law Amendment Committee in 1849 which drafted guidelines for all such boards of guardians in Ireland.[43] He was also a steward of the Royal Free Hospital in London.[44]
Geale was a member of the Social Science Association in London and the Windham Club.[45][3] He died in his residence in Limerick at the age of 95 in 1909.[9]