CURRAN, JOHN PHILPOT ,1750-1817), Irish politi cian and judge, was born on July 24, 1750, at Newmarket, Cork, where his father, a descendant of one of Cromwell's soldiers, was seneschal to the manor-court. He was educated at Middleton, and Trinity college, Dublin; and in 1773, having taken his M.A. degree, he entered the Middle Temple. In 1774 he married; but the marriage proved unhappy, and Mrs. Curran finally eloped. In 1775 Curran was called to the Irish bar; he soon increased his reputation by an attack on a judge who had sneered at his poverty, and a successful prosecution of a nobleman for an assault on a priest. In 1783 Curran was appointed king's counsel; and in the same year he was presented to a seat in the Irish House of Commons. But finding that he differed radically in politics from the gentleman from whom he had received his seat, he expended £1,5o0 in buying another to replace that which he occupied. In his parliamentary career Curran was throughout sincere and consistent. He spoke vigorously on behalf of Catholic emancipation, and strenuously attacked the ministerial bribery which prevailed. This led him into two duels, one with the attorney-general, the other with the secretary of State, Maj. Hobart. The Union caused him the bitterest disappointment; he even talked of leaving Ireland, either for America or for England.
Curran's fame rests most of all upon his speeches on behalf of the accused in the state trials between 1794 and 1803, the most notable being those in defence of Hamilton Rowan, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Wolfe Tone. Curran came under suspicion on the arrest of Robert Emmet, but on examination before the privy council was acquitted. In 1806, on the death of Pitt and the for mation of the Fox ministry, Curran received the post of Master of the Rolls, with a seal in the privy council, though he had desired a position of greater political influence. For eight years, however, he held this office. He then retired on a pension of £3,000, and the three remaining years of his life were spent in London, where he became one of the most brilliant members of the society which included Sheridan, Erskine, Thomas Moore, and William Godwin. He died at his house in Brompton on Oct. 14, 1817.
See Curran and his Contemporaries, a most entertaining work, by Charles Phillips, a personal friend of Curran 0818), and the Life of Curran, by his son, W. H. Curran (1819 ; with additions by Dr. Shelton Mackenzie, New York, 1855) . See also . urran's Speeches (1805, 1808, 1845) ; Wm. O'Regan, Memoirs of Curran (1817) ; Letters to Rev. H. Weston (1819) ; and T. Moore's Memoirs