William Dongan, 1st Earl of Limerick (1630 – 1698) was an Irish Jacobite soldier and peer.[1]

Dongan was the second son of Sir John Dongan, 2nd Baronet and Mary Talbot, daughter of Sir William Talbot, 1st Baronet. His older brother, Sir Walter Dongan, 3rd Baronet, was involved in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.[2] Dongan was declared innocent of any involvement in the rebellion and was in the service of Charles II of England during his exile. Following the Stuart Restoration, Dongan was restored to his lands and created Viscount Dungan in the Peerage of Ireland in 1661, and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords.[1] He succeeded Walter as baronet in February 1662. In January 1686 he was created Earl of Limerick, also in the Peerage of Ireland. In May 1686 he was made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.[1]

In 1689 he raised a regiment, Lord Dongan’s Dragoons, in support of James II during the Williamite War in Ireland. He attended the brief Patriot Parliament summoned by James in 1689.[3] Following the Battle of the Boyne, Dongan fled to France in the Flight of the Wild Geese and he was attainted in 1691. His estate, amounting to 3,000 acres, was granted to Godert de Ginkel, 1st Earl of Athlone; a grant later revoked by the English Parliament. Dongan died in exile in France in 1698.[1]

He had married Euphemia Maria, daughter of Sir Richard Chamber, in Spain. Their only son, Walter Dungan, Viscount Dungan, was killed while fighting for the Jacobites at the Battle of Boyne.[4] Consequently, Dongan was succeeded in his titles by his younger brother, Thomas Dongan.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ó Ciardha, Éamonn (October 2009). "Dongan, William". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  2. ^ Dungan, Thomas P. (1988). "John Dongan of Dublin, an Elizabethan Gentleman". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 118: 108. JSTOR 25508949. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  3. ^ O'Hart, John, The Irish Parliament of King James the Second in 1689, Irish Pedigrees: or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation (5th Ed., 1892), Volume 2. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  4. ^ Officers of the Jacobite Armies, Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  5. ^ Cokayne, G. E., ed. (1893). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant (L to M). Vol. 5 (1st ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 82, line 5]: "Thomas (Dongan) EARL OF LIMERICK &c. [I.], yr. br. of the above earl. and on whom this Earldom and the Viscountcy of Dongan of Clane were entailed under the spec. rem. in their respective creations, was b. 1654 and appears, notwithstanding the attainder of 1691, to have assumed in 1698 and been generally allowed the peerage [I.]."((cite book)): CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Peerage of Ireland New creation Earl of Limerick 1686–1698 Succeeded byThomas Dongan Viscount Dungan 1661–1698 Baronetage of Ireland Preceded byWalter Dongan Baronet (of Castletown) 1662–1698 Succeeded byThomas Dongan
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