Author: MacNally, Leonard
Biography:
MACNALLY, Leonard (1752-1820: DIB)
No official records have been found, but he is known to have been born in Dublin in 1752; he was most probably baptised a Roman Catholic although he lived most of his adult life as a Protestant. His father William MacNally, a merchant, died in 1756 and he had a rather haphazard education under the care of his mother (possibly Mary Ann Eve Macnally) and an uncle. After a failed attempt to run a grocery business in Dublin, in 1774 he began to study law both in Dublin and in London, at the King’s Inns and the Temple respectively. He was called to the bar in both countries (1776, 1783) but in both found his earnings insufficient and entered on a phase of writing for the theatres between 1781 and 1796—mainly comedies, farces, and comic operas, the most successful being his Robin Hood for Covent Garden (1784). In London in the 1780s he began actively campaigning for Irish rights and joined the United Irishmen. He married three times. The name of his first wife, who died in 1786, is not known. His second was Frances I’Anson or Janson (1766-95), whom he married on 16 Jan. 1787 and whom he immortalized in his song “Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill.” They had two children. His third was Louisa Edgeworth; they were married in May 1799 and had at least three sons. In or about 1790 MacNally returned to Dublin and resumed his career at the bar. He published on legal matters, notably Rules of Evidence on Places of the Crown (1802), and established a reputation as a lawyer for the defence. He continued his political engagement on behalf of the United Irishmen and defended some of the leaders in court. He was secretly, however, a double agent who betrayed his colleagues and in some cases his clients to the British government, perhaps to avoid prosecution himself as well as for money. In 1801 he was granted an annual pension of £300 by the secret service. He died at home in Dublin on 13 Feb. 1820 and was buried at Donnybrook graveyard. (DIB 16 Feb. 2023; ODNB 16 Feb. 2023; findmypast.com 16 Feb. 2023)