Nehemiah Donnellan (1649–1705)

For other uses, see Nehemiah Donnellan (disambiguation).

Nehemiah Donellan (1649 – 25 December 1705) was an Irish lawyer, the son of Sir James Donnellan and grandson of Archbishop Nehemiah Donnellan. His mother was Sarah Wheeler, daughter of Jonah Wheeler, Bishop of Ossory. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1666. Though he seems to have originally intended to be a soldier, he resolved on a legal career instead, and entered Middle Temple in 1669. He was an exceptionally unruly student, being fined for breaking doors and gambling at Christmas. He was called to the Irish Bar about 1672 and became Commissioner of Revenue Appeals in 1677. After the Revolution of 1688 he lived for a time in England.

He was appointed Prime Serjeant on 29 December 1692 and represented the borough of Galway in the Irish House of Commons from 1692 to 1693. In 1693 he was also made Recorder of Dublin.

He was raised to the bench as a Puisne Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer in 1695, and on 31 December 1696 was one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal of Ireland until the appointment of John Methuen as Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1697. He became Chief Baron of the Exchequer on 27 December 1703, holding the office until his death. His elevation was part of an effort to remove judges suspected of Tory or pro-Catholic views; but it was a little surprising that Donnellan, descendant of an Old Irish, Gaelic speaking family with Catholic members, was not suspected of such sympathies himself.

He married twice; little is known of his first wife, who died before 1688, leaving a surviving son, James. He remarried Martha Ussher, daughter of Christopher Ussher, who outlived him by many years, and married secondly Phillip Perceval, brother of the 1st Earl of Egmont. They had two sons, Nehemiah and Christopher and two daughters, Martha and Anne. Anne is remembered as the friend of most of the leading Irish writers of her time, and for founding the Donnellan Lectures at Trinity College Dublin.

References

• Ball, Francis Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926
• Joseph Haydn and Horace Ockerby, The Book of Dignities, 3rd edition, London 1894 (reprinted Bath 1969)
• http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/irelandcommons.htm
• http://www.ballyd.com/history/baron.html

Persondata
Name	Donnellan, Nehemiah
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Date of birth	1649
Place of birth
Date of death	25 December 1705
Place of death