Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Musgrave, Richard
MUSGRAVE, Sir RICHARD (1757?–1818), Irish political writer, eldest son of Christopher Musgrave of Tourin, co. Waterford, by Susannah, daughter of James Usher of Ballintaylor, near Dungarvan, in the same county, was born about 1757. In 1778 he entered the Irish parliament as member for Lismore, which he continued to represent until the union. A strong protestant and loyalist he was rewarded with a baronetcy on 2 Dec. 1782, and on the union received the lucrative post of collector of the Dublin city excise. During the previous troubles he had displayed great zeal and energy in enforcing the law. On one occasion, while high sheriff of co. Waterford (September 1786), he had flogged a Whiteboy with his own hand, as no one else could be found to execute the sentence. He gave warning of the approaching rebellion in 'A Letter on the Present Situation of Public Affairs,' dedicated to the Duke of Portland, London, 1794 and 1795, 8vo, and 'Considerations on the Present State of England and France' in 1796. On the suppression of the rebellion he published, under the pseudonym 'Camillus,' an address 'To the Magistrates, the Military, and the Yeomanry of Ireland,' Dublin, 1798, 8vo, in which he exonerated the executive from the charge of having provoked it by arbitrary measures. In 1801 appeared his 'Short View of the Political Situation of the Northern Powers,' 8vo, and 'Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland from the Arrival of the English, with a Particular Detail of that which broke out the 23rd of May, 1798 ; the History of the Conspiracy which preceded it, and the Characters of the Principal Actors in it,' Dublin, 4to, 3rd edit. 1802, 2 vols. 8vo, a work so steeped in anticatholic prejudice as to be almost worthless historically. It elicited a sober and dignified 'Reply' from Dr. Caulfield, Roman catholic bishop of Ferns, to which Musgrave rejoined in 'observations on the Reply,' Dublin, 1802, 8vo. In 1804 Musgrave published 'Strictures upon an "Historical Review of the State of Ireland,' by Francis Plowden, Esq., or a Justification of the Conduct of the English Governments in that Country,' to which Plowden replied in an 'Historical Letter,' London, 1805, 8vo (cf. also the British Critic, November and December 1803, and the Anti-Jacobin, December 1804, and September 1805).
Musgrave was a man of considerable talent, warped by blind prejudice and savage party spirit. Though strongly attached to the English connection, he was no less strongly opposed to the Act of Union, and never sat in the imperial parliament. He died at his house in Holies Street, Dublin, on 7 April 1818. Musgrave married, on 10 Nov. 1780, Deborah, daughter of Sir Henry Cavendish, bart., of Doveridge Hall, Derbyshire, by whom he had no issue. The title devolved upon his brother, Sir Christopher Frederick Musgrave. Besides the works mentioned above, Musgrave published in 1814 'Observations on Dr. Drumgoole's Speech at the Catholic Board,' 8 Dec. 1813, 8vo.
[Ann. Biog. 1819 p. 507, 1820 pp. 34 et seq.; Gent. Mag. 1818, pt. i. p. 381; Burke's Peerage; Froude's English in Ireland, ii. 473; Gordon's Hist. of the Rebellion in Ireland, 1803, Preface; Hay's Hist. of the Insurrection of the County of Wexford, 1803, Appendix; Sir Jonah Barrington's Personal Sketches, i. 75; The Treble Almanack, 1801; Cornwallis Corresp. (Ross), iii. 150; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. ii. 170; Fitzgerald's Secret Service under Pitt; Lecky's Hist. of Engl. in Eighteenth Cent.]