Author: McDonogh, Felix Bryan
Biography:
MCDONOGH, Felix Bryan (1769-1836: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born in Marylebone, London, on 5 Feb. 1769, the son of Felix Macdonnogh (sic), surgeon. His mother’s name is not known. He early acquired proficiency in Latin and Greek with a private tutor and was then sent to a military academy. He proceeded to Oriel College Oxford (matric. 1784) and Lincoln’s Inn (1787), and spent four years on the Grand Tour, acquiring more languages and witnessing the French revolution. On his return to England he joined the army (by purchase), serving in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards, and rose to the rank of captain. In 1802 in Aberdeen he and seven other men from his regiment were charged with murder after they drunkenly fired on a crowd, killing four and injuring ten. McDonogh claimed he thought the bullets were blanks and the verdict came in “not proven.” He left the army but remained for several years in Scotland, where he went through a fortune, and then went to London and Paris to try and earn a living by writing, producing the “Hermit” series for which he was best known: The Hermit in London (1822), The Hermit in the Country (1820), The Hermit Abroad (1823), and The Hermit in Edinburgh (1824). He also published two novels, The Highlanders (1824) and The Heroine of the Peninsula (1826). In 1824 he was charged with stealing someone’s watch and a £100 in a carriage after they had been out drinking in a tavern. He was again acquitted. He applied to the RLF in Apr. 1825, living under King’s Bench rules for debt, and was awarded £10 five times (1825-1832). He married Anna Goldney on 5 Sept. 1794, at St. Dunstan’s in the West, London, with a further Catholic ceremony at St. James, Spanish Place, Marylebone. They had at least two children. He died on 22 Mar. 1836 at 19 Prospect Place, Lambeth: “latterly steeped in poverty, he had dragged on an existence as a bookseller’s hack”(GM). His wife applied for an army pension from Boulogne and died there on 28 Feb. 1838. (ancestry.co.uk 20 Mar. 2023; “Memoir,” EM Apr. 1824, 289-94; RLF, 1/542; O’Donoghue, 276; The Radical 27 Mar. 1836; London Courier 5 Mar. 1838; GM June 1836, 672; N&Q 3 Mar. 1906) AA