Author: O'Connor, Roger
Biography:
O’CONNOR, Roger, formerly CONNER (1762-1834: ODNB)
Another Lay of the Last Minstrel was published anonymously. The attribution to Roger O’Connor seems secure even though verse was not typically his medium. He was born at Connorville, Co. Cork, Ireland, in 1762, one of nine children of the Irish MP Roger Conner and his wife Ann Longfield, who had married in 1753. The family was Protestant and of English descent. Roger Conner (as he was then) entered Trinity College Dublin in 1777, trained in the law, married Louisa Ann Strachan in 1783, and was called to the bar in 1784. His wife died at Kilbrogan, Cork, on 17 Feb. 1786, leaving two children. On 11 Aug. 1788, using the name Roger O’Connor, he married Wilhelmina Bowen, with whom he had at least seven more children. He and his younger brother Arthur (1763-1852) broke with their family to advocate Irish nationalism and adopted the O’Connor surname as a patriotic gesture. Roger edited the radical paper Harp of Erin, published in Cork. Both joined the United Irishmen; both were arrested in 1798 and imprisoned. Roger denied having ever engaged in treasonable activity, wrote pamphlets in his defence, and was supported by some British politicians, notably R. B. Sheridan (q.v.) and Sir Francis Burdett (1770-1844). Arthur was released in 1802 on condition of banishment; he became “the exile of Erin” and settled in France. Roger, released in 1801, was not allowed to return to Ireland until 1803. He had control of his exiled brother’s property and swindled him to support himself, even in the face of legal judgments against him. Burdett, hailed in O’Connor’s poem as an “illustrious, incorruptible” champion of reform, was in prison in the Tower for abuse of privilege between April and June 1810. In 1817 O’Connor, with one of his sons and some followers, attacked a mail coach, possibly to retrieve letters compromising to Burdett, who appeared as a character witness at the subsequent trial at which O’Connor was acquitted. The best known of his later writings was the 1822 Chronicles of Eri, a fanciful account of the origins of the Irish people. O’Connor died at his home of Knockenmore Cottage, Cork, on 27 Jan. 1834. After his death his brother Arthur was permitted a temporary return to Ireland to dispose of his property there. (ODNB 13 Mar. 2024; DIB 13 Mar. 2024; ancestry.com 13 Mar. 2024; findmypast.com 13 Mar. 2024)
Other Names:
- R. O'Connor