CLARE, JOHN FITZGIBBON, 1ST EARL OF (1749 lord chancellor of Ireland, the second son of John Fitz gibbon, was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, where he was highly distinguished as a classical scholar, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1770. In 1772 he was called to the Irish bar. In 1778 he entered the Irish House of Commons as member for Dublin university, and at first gave a general support to the popular party led by Henry Grattan (q.v.). He was, how ever, from the first hostile to that part of Grattan's policy which aimed at removing the disabilities of the Roman Catholics; he endeavoured to impede the Relief bill of 1778 by raising difficulties about its effect on the Act of Settlement. As early as 1780 Fitz gibbon began to separate himself from the popular or national party by opposing Grattan's declaration of the Irish parliament's right to independence. His hostility to the Catholic claims, and his distrust of parliamentary reform as likely to endanger the connection of Ireland with Great Britain, made him a sincere opponent of the purposes which Grattan had in view. Grattan supported the appointment of Fitzgibbon as attorney-general in 1783, and in 1785 the latter highly eulogized Grattan's character and services to the country in a speech in which he condemned Flood's volunteer movement. He also opposed Flood's Reform bill of 1784; and from this time forward he was in fact the lead ing spirit in the Irish Government, and the stiffest opponent of all concession to popular demands. In 1784 the permanent corn mittee of revolutionary reformers in Dublin, of whom Napper Tandy was the most conspicuous, invited the sheriffs of counties to call meetings for the election of delegates to attend a con vention for the discussion of reform; and when the sheriff of the county of Dublin summoned a meeting for this purpose Fitz gibbon procured his imprisonment for contempt of court, and justified this procedure in parliament, though Lord Erskine de clared it grossly illegal. In the course of the debates on Pitt's commercial propositions in 1785, which Fitzgibbon supported in masterly speeches, he referred to Curran in terms which led to a duel between the two lawyers, when Fitzgibbon was accused of a deliberation in aiming at his opponent that was contrary to etiquette. His antagonism to Curran was life-long and bitter, and after he became chancellor his hostility to the famous ad vocate was said to have driven the latter out of practice. In Jan. 1787 Fitzgibbon introduced a stringent bill for repressing the Whiteboy outrages. His influence with the majority in the Irish parliament defeated Pitt's proposed reform of the tithe system in Ireland, Fitzgibbon refusing even to grant a committee to investigate the subject. On the regency question in 1789 Fitz gibbon, in opposition to Grattan, supported the doctrine of Pitt in a series of powerful speeches which proved him a great con stitutional lawyer ; he intimated that the choice for Ireland might in certain eventualities rest between complete separation from England and legislative union; and, while he exclaimed as to the latter alternative, "God forbid that I should ever see that day !" he admitted that separation would be the worse evil of the two.
In the same year Lord Lifford resigned the chancellorship, and Fitzgibbon was appointed in his place, being raised to the peerage as Baron Fitzgibbon. His removal to the House of Lords greatly increased his power. "He was," says Lecky, "by far the ablest Irishman who had adopted without restriction the doctrine that the Irish legislature must be maintained in a condition of permanent and unvarying subjection to the English executive." But the Eng lish ministry were now embarking on a policy of conciliation in Ireland. The Catholic Relief bill of 1793 was forced on the Irish executive by the cabinet in London, but it passed rapidly and easily through the Irish parliament. Fitzgibbon was opposed to the appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam (q.v.) as viceroy in and was probably the chief influence in procuring his recall; and it was Fitzgibbon who first put it into the head of George III. that the king would violate his coronation oath if he consented to the admission of Catholics to parliament. When Lord Camden, Fitzwilliam's successor in the viceroyalty, arrived in Dublin on March 31, 1795, Fitzgibbon's carriage was violently assaulted by the mob, and he himself was wounded; and in the riots that ensued his house was also attacked. In June 1795 he was created earl of Clare. On the eve of the rebellion he warned the Govern ment to take stringent measures to prevent an outbreak; but he was neither cruel nor immoderate and was inclined to mercy in dealing with individuals. He attempted to save Lord Edward Fitzgerald (q.v.) from his fate by giving a friendly warning to his friend, and promising to facilitate his escape from the country. After the rebellion he threw his great influence on the side of clemency.
In Oct. 1798 Lord Clare, who since 1793 had been convinced of the necessity for a legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland, and was equally determined that the union must be un accompanied by Catholic emancipation crossed to England and pressed his views on Pitt. In 1799 he induced the Irish House of Lords to throw out a bill for providing a permanent endowment Maynooth. On Feb. 1o, 1800, Clare in the House of Lords moved the resolution approving the union in a long and powerful speech, in which he reviewed the history of Ireland since the Revolution, attributing the evils of recent years to the independent constitu tion of 1782, and speaking of Grattan in language of deep personal hatred. He was not aware of the assurance which Cornwallis had been authorized to convey to the Catholics that the union was to pave the way for emancipation, and when he heard of it after the passing of the act he bitterly complained that Pitt and Castlereagh had deceived him. After the union Clare became more violent than ever in his opposition to any policy of concession in Ireland. He died on Jan. 28, 1802.
Lord Clare was the first Irishman since the Revolution to hold the office of lord chancellor of Ireland. As a politician there is no doubt that his bitter and unceasing resistance to reasonable measures of reform did infinite mischief by inflaming the passions of his countrymen, driving them into rebellion, and perpetuating their political and religious divisions.
See W. E. H. Lecky, History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (1892) ; J. R. O'Flanagan, The Hires of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal in Ireland (187o) ; Cornwallis' Correspond ence, ed. by C. Ross (1859) ; Charles Phillips, Recollections of Curran and Some of his Contemporaries (1822) ; Henry Grattan, Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Honble. Henry Grattan (1839-46) ; Lord Auckland Journal and Correspondence (i86i) ; Charles Coote, History of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland (1802) .