O'Conor, Charles, 1764–1828

Dr. Charles O'Conor, Irish Roman Catholic priest, historian, and antiquarian. He was grandson of Charles of O'Conor of Belangare (1710-1791), a prominent Irish historian, and a founder of the Catholic Committee in Dublin, which was instrumental in repealing of the Penal Laws. The younger O'Conor studied in the Ludovisi College in Rome in 1779-1791. Having received the degree of D.D., he was appointed parish priest of Kilkeevin, Co. Roscommon. He remained there until 1798 when he obtained a position of the chaplain to the Marchioness of Buckhigham and, after her death in 1812, the librarian to Richard Grenville, Duke of Buckingham at Stowe. In 1796 he published a biography of his grandfather (Memoirs of the life and writings of the late Charles O'Conor, of Belanagare... Dublin, Mehain [1796]) The edition was suppressed by the author, and the second volume was never printed. He also published Columbanus ad Hibernos, or seven letters on the Present Mode of Appointing Catholic Bishops in Ireland (1813), Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres (1824-1826), and Bibliotheca MS. Stowensis (1818).

From the description of Papers of Charles O'Conor, 1747-1828. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 228718392