Hervey Redmond Morres, 2nd Viscount Mountmorres

Hervey Redmond was born about 1743,^[b] the only son of Hervey Morres and his first wife, Letitia Ponsonby. His father was a commoner at the time but would be created Baron Mountmorres in 1756 and Viscount Mountmorres in 1763.^[3] His mother was the youngest daughter of Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough. His parents had married in 1742. His family was part of the Protestant Ascendancy.^{[citation needed]}

Hervey Redmond's mother died in 1754. He and his two sisters, Letitia and Sarah, were his father's children from his first marriage. His father remarried in 1755. In May 1756, his father was created Baron Mountmorres. Hervey Redmond's half-brother Francis Hervey was born in September. Hervey Redmond immatriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in April 1763. In June, his father was advanced to viscount.^[3]

In April 1766 while still studying at Oxford, Hervey Redmond succeeded his father as second viscount. Mountmorres, as he now was, obtained his M.A. in July. He took his seat in the Irish House of Lords on 20 October 1767^[4] in the first Irish parliament of George III, which had been convened in 1761. Parliament had met since the early 1730s in its new Parliament House, on College Green, Dublin.^[5]

His uncle John Ponsonby was speaker in the house of commons during this parliament. A new Lord Lieutenant, Viscount Townshend was appointed in August 1767 and arrived in Dublin in October^[6][7] The Octennial Act 1767 was passed in February 1768. It limited the duration of parliaments to eight years, leading to more frequent general elections. Irish regiments had been reduced to cadre staff during peace time whereas British regiments had retained their full strength. This made it difficult to run a rotation system. The British government asked Townshend to pass a bill to increase the Irish regiments to the same strength as the British ones.^[8]

That "augmentation bill" was costly and therefore unpopular. The Irish asked at least for a guarantee that at least 12,000 of these troops would be always present in Ireland. This guarantee was refused and the bill was rejected by the Irish Commons in April. Parliament was dissolved in May. The second Irish parliament of George III opened in October 1769. The augmentation bill was tabled again but with a security clause and passed in December.^[8] Mountmorres graduated as a Doctor of Civil Law in 1773. Parliament was dissolved in April 1776.

Mountmorres joined the patriots and was a supporter of Lord Charlemont.^[9] In 1774, Mountmorres stood for election as MP for Westminster in the British house of commons but was defeated. Moving to France in the years that followed, Mountmorres returned in 1784 to take his seat in the Lords.^[10]

In 1795, by the death of Nicholas Morres, a distant cousin, Mountmorres became the 10th baronet Morres of Knockagh, County Tipperary, an honour that had been created in 1631 for John Morres,^[11] one of his ancestors. This became a subsidiary title running with the viscountcy.