William Trant Fagan (31 January 1801 – 16 May 1859)[1][2] was an Irish writer and Member of Parliament (MP) from Cork.

Family

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Fagan was the son of James Fagan and his wife Ellen Trust. On 21 June 1827, he married Mary Addis, the daughter of Charles Addis; they had four children,[1] and lived at Feltrim in County Dublin.[3]

Career

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At the general election in August 1847 he was elected as one of the two Repeal Association MPs for Cork City.[4] defeating the sitting Repeal MP Alexander McCarthy and taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Later that year, he published "The life and times of Daniel O'Connell", prefacing the book with an address "To The people of Ireland" in which he described O'Connell as "the greatest man that this, or any other country, ever produced".[5]

Fagan resigned from Parliament on 14 April 1851 by appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds[6] to become a Commissioner of Insolvency. He stood again as an independent Whig at the general election in July 1852, pledged to support to the formation of an Independent Irish Opposition.[7] He was re-elected in 1857[8] and at the general election on 6 May 1859,[9] but died ten days later, aged 57.[2]

In 1844 Fagan was elected Mayor of Cork and as an Alderman a Justice of the Peace (JP) for County Cork, and was also a Deputy Lieutenant.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lundy, Darryl. "William Trant Fagan". ThePeerage.com. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Historical list of MPs: House of Commons constituencies beginning with "C", part 5". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ "No. 21995". The London Gazette. 1 May 1857. p. 1535.
  4. ^ Brian M. Walker, ed. (1978). Parliamentary election results in Ireland 1801–1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 76. ISBN 0-901714-12-7.
  5. ^ Fagan, William Trant (1847). The life and times of Daniel O'Connel. Cork: J. O'Brien.
  6. ^ Department of Information Services (9 June 2009). "Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  7. ^ Walker, op. cit., page 82
  8. ^ Walker, op. cit., page 89
  9. ^ Walker, op. cit., page 95
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cork City
18471851
With: Daniel Callaghan to 1849
James Chatterton from 1849
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cork City
18521859
With: Francis Murphy
Francis Beamish
Succeeded by