Author: Dillon, Henry Augustus
Biography:
DILLON, Henry Augustus, later Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee (1777-1832: ODNB)
The eldest son of Charles Dillon, Viscount Dillon, and his first wife Henrietta Maria Phipps (d 1782), he was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 28 Oct. 1777. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 21 Oct. 1795 but did not take a degree. (Oxford awarded him a D.C.L. on 7 June 1815.) Dillon became a colonel in the Irish brigade in Oct. 1794 and served as colonel in the duke of York’s Irish regiment from 1806 to 1817. He was first elected in 1799 as MP for Harwich, Essex, but in 1802 he was elected to hold one of the county seats for Mayo, Ireland. He held the seat until 9 Nov. 1813 when he inherited his father’s title. On his paternal grandmother’s side he was descended from the ancient family of Lee of Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, and he assumed the additional name of Lee, becoming known as Dillon-Lee. On 9 Feb. 1807 he married Henrietta Browne of Castle Mountgarret, County Mayo; according to the ODNB they had six sons and five daughters. Dillon suffered from a debilitating disease that caused his death on 24 July 1832 at his London home in Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. He was buried in All Saints churchyard, Spelsbury, Oxfordshire, near Ditchley Park on 31 July. His other publications include A Short View of the Catholic Question (1801), A Letter to the Rt. Hon. Henry Addington (1803), A Letter to the Noblemen and Gentlemen who Composed the Deputation from the Catholics of Ireland (1805), Commentary on the Military Estates and Defence of the British Empire (1811-12), and A Discourse Upon the Theory of Legitimate Government (1817). Dillon also wrote two novels: Life and Opinions of Sir Richard Maltravers (1822) and Rosaline de Vere (1824). (ODNB 16 July 2024; ancestry.co.uk 16 July 2024; findmypast.co.uk 16 July 2024; Alumni Oxonienses; GM 34 [1832]) SR
Other Names:
- Henry Augustus Viscount Dillon