# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morres, Hervey Redmond

​MORRES, HERVEY REDMOND, second Viscount Mountmorris (1746?–1797), eldest son of Hervey Morres, baron Mountmorres, of Castle Morres in co. Kilkenny, who was created viscount Mountmorres in 1763, and Letitia, his first wife, daughter of Brabazon Ponsonby, first earl of Bessborough, was born about 1746. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 27 April 1763, graduated B.A. on 8 Feb. 1766, was created M.A. on 3 July 1766, and D.C.L. on 8 July 1773. At college he was regarded as a man of considerable ability, but of singular habits. On the death of his. father in April 1766 he succeeded to a very small encumbered estate, but by his prudent and even parsimonious manner of life he not only succeeded before his death in creating an easy fortune of 5,000l. a year, but was able to make a liberal allowance to the children of his father's second wife. In Dublin he resided for some time in the same board- ing-house in Frederick Street as Sir Jonah Barrington [q. v.], who regarded him as 'a very clever and well informed, but eccentric man,' and records one or two curious anecdotes about him (Personal Sketches, i. 118). He took a profound interest in all questions affecting the privileges of the Irish House of Lords. On one occasion he furnished some amusement by publishing in the Dublin newspapers and, Barrington maliciously adds, 'with all the supposititious cheerings, &c. duly interspersed' a speech on the appellant jurisdiction of the House of Lords which he intended to deliver, but the debate never took place. His opinions on these subjects were always worth listening to, and still possess a certain historical value. On the regency question in 1788 he dissented from the view generally taken in Ireland, and argued strongly in support of the course pursued by Pitt and the English parliament. Latterly he resided much in London. He was greatly distressed by the news that reached him of the disturbed state of Ireland, and his mind, never very strong, giving way finally under the strain, he shot himself in a fit of temporary insanity at his lodgings, 6 York Street, St. James's Square, on 18 Aug. 1797. He was buried in St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road, and never having married, was succeeded by his half-brother, Francis Hervey Morres. By all accounts he was a man of amiable and gentle manners, extremely polite, upright, and generous, fond of talking, but less from vanity than from the prevalence of strong; animal spirits.
His more important publications are:
* 'A Speech intended to have been spoken … on the Appellant Jurisdiction of the House of Lords of Ireland,' 1782.
* 'Impartial Reflections upon the question of Equalising the duties upon the Trade between Great Britain and Ireland,' 1785.
* 'A Speech delivered, 19 Feb. 1789, in the House of Lords, ​Ireland, on the Address to the Prince of Wales,' 1790.
* 'The Danger of the Political Balance of Europe,' 1790; 2nd edit., greatly improved, 1791.
* 'The History of the Principal Transactions of the Irish Parliament from 1634 to 1666. … To which is prefixed a Preliminary Discourse on the Ancient Parliaments of that Kingdom,' 2 vols. 1792.
* 'The Crisis; a 'Collection of Essays … on Toleration, Public Credit, the Election Franchise in Ireland, the Emancipation of the Irish Catholics,' &c., 1794.
* 'The Prodigal … a Comedy,' 1794, anon, (see Horace Walpole's copy in British Museum).
* 'The Letters of Themistocles,' 1795, from the 'Public Advertiser.'
* 'An Historical Dissertation upon the … Judicature and Independency of the Irish Parliament,' 1795.
* 'Impartial Reflections upon the present Crisis, comprised in four Essays upon … Corn, the Assize of Bread, Tithes, and a general System of Inclosures,' 1796.
[Les Montmorency de France et les Montmorency d'Irlande … avec la genealogie … de Montmorency d'Irlande, Paris, 1828; Barrington's Personal Sketches; Gent. Mag. 1797, ii. 717, 744, 885; Walker's Hibernian Mag. 1797; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
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