Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Conor, Charles (1764-1828)
O'CONOR, CHARLES (1764–1828), Irish antiquary and librarian at Stowe, second son of Denis O'Conor (d. 1804), by Catherine, daughter of Martin Browne of Cloonfad, was born at Belanagare on 15 March 1764. Charles O'Conor [q. v.] of Belanagare was his grandfather. Charles the younger early developed studious instincts, and was sent by his father in 1779 to the Ludovisi College in Rome, where he remained until 1791, and obtained the degree of D.D. He was in 1792 appointed parish priest of Kilkeevin, co. Roscommon, and remained there until, in 1798, he was appointed chaplain to the Marchioness of Buckingham, with which office he combined that of librarian to Richard Grenville, afterwards Duke of Buckingham and Chandos [q. v.], at Stowe. O'Conor had previously attracted the attention of a select few by his ‘Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Charles O'Conor of Belanagare, Esq., M.R.I.A., by the Rev. Charles O'Conor, D.D., Member of the Academy of Cortona; Dublin, printed by J. Mehain’ [1796], 8vo. This work is valuable for the information it affords of the first steps taken by the Roman catholics in Ireland for the repeal of the penal laws. It is now very rare. The first volume alone was printed, and afterwards suppressed, as it was feared that the circulation of so outspoken a work might be detrimental to the family. A copy was sold to Heber at Sir Mark Sykes's sale for 14l. Other copies are at Trinity College, Dublin, and at the British Museum. The manuscript of the second volume was committed to the flames by the author's express orders.
Between 1810 and 1813 O'Conor wrote ‘Columbanus ad Hibernos, or Seven Letters on the Present Mode of Appointing Catholic Bishops in Ireland; with an Historical Address on the Calamities occasioned by Foreign Influence in the Nomination of Bishops to Irish Sees,’ Buckingham, 2 vols. 8vo. In this work, although a zealous catholic, he vigorously opposed the ultramontane party and supported the veto, in consequence of which he was declared unorthodox, and formally suspended by Archbishop Troy in 1812. The letters were answered by Francis Plowden [q. v.] O'Conor issued in 1812 a non-controversial work entitled ‘Narrative of the most Interesting Events in Irish History,’ 1812, 8vo. Two years later commenced the monumental work which connects his name with the study of Irish antiquities, ‘Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres’ (vol. i. 1814, vol. ii. 1825, vols. iii. and iv. 1826), Buckingham, 4to. Only two hundred copies were printed, the cost, some 3,000l., being defrayed by the Duke of Buckingham. Nearly the whole impression of the work was distributed as presents to public and private libraries. The originals—the ‘Annals of Tighearnach,’ the ‘Annals of Ulster,’ the ‘Annals of the Four Masters,’ and other valuable chronicles—were almost all in the library at Stowe. Of these manuscript treasures an account was published by the librarian under the title ‘Bibliotheca MS. Stowensis. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Stowe Library,’ 2 vols., Buckingham, 1818, 4to. Two hundred copies were issued at the expense of the duke, to whom an elaborate preface was addressed. The manuscripts were purchased, in one lot, by the Earl of Ashburnham in 1849 for 8,000l. (see Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, 1849). The majority of the documents were acquired by the British Museum in 1883, and a catalogue is in course of preparation; the Irish manuscripts, however, are now in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. The text of the ‘Annals’ published by O'Conor, together with explanatory notes and a Latin translation, was for the time a useful addition to the materials for the study of Irish history. Sir Francis Palgrave, in his ‘Rise of the English Commonwealth,’ described the work as without a parallel in modern literature, ‘whether we consider the learning of O'Conor, the value of the materials, or the princely munificence of the Duke of Buckingham.’ But, by the unanimous opinion of experts since the date of publication, O'Conor has been pronounced incompetent for the task he undertook. The third volume of the ‘Scriptores’ contains a portion of the ‘Annals of the Four Masters;’ but, according to John O'Donovan, the subsequent editor, O'Conor's text is full of errors. It is printed in the italic character, and the contractions of the manuscript, which in many places O'Conor evidently misunderstood, are allowed to remain. The other texts are equally defective, and, indeed, the errors are so grave that it is impossible for an historian to rely on any passage in ‘Tighearnach’ without examining the original manuscript. O'Conor's ignorance of Irish grammar, literature, and topography also led him into many serious blunders in the Latin translation.
O'Conor contributed ‘Critical Remarks’ prefixed to the Rev. J. Bosworth's ‘Elements of Anglo-Saxon,’ and edited ‘Ortelius Improved, or a New Map of Ireland,’ of which, after a few copies were struck off, the plate was destroyed. The writer in Allibone's ‘Dictionary of English Literature’ is, however, in error in attributing to him ‘The Chronicles of Eri,’ a forgery which owed its origin to Roger O'Connor [q. v.] O'Conor's mind began to fail before the last volume of his ‘Scriptores’ was published, and he suffered from the hallucination that he was being deliberately starved. He had to leave Stowe on 4 July 1827, and he was temporarily confined in Dr. Harty's asylum at Finglas, where Dr. Lanigan [q. v.] was also an inmate. He ultimately died in his ancestral home at Belanagare, on 29 July 1828, and was buried in the family burial-place at Ballintober.
O'Conor was a man of mild and timid disposition, liked by every one who knew him, and possessing extensive historical and ‘bookish’ information. In appearance he was short and slight, of sallow complexion, with prominent but distinguished-looking features, giving him as age advanced a most venerable appearance. His manners were a curious compound of Irish and Italian. He was locally known as ‘the Abbé,’ and was for many years daily to be seen between Stowe and Buckingham, with his book and gold-headed cane, reading as he walked. Dr. Johnson and Dr. Dibdin testify, among others, to his amiability and erudition; but the latter quality has been much discredited by the glaring defects of his edition of the ‘Irish Chronicles.’
[The notices of O'Conor in the Gentleman's Magazine (1828, ii. 466–7), in Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, and in Allibone's Dictionary of English Literature are supplemented by the O'Conor Don's O'Conors of Connaught, 1891, p. 319. See also Irish Magazine, March 1811; O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees, 1887, i. 637; Quarterly Review, July 1856; Dibdin's Bibl. Decameron, iii. 401, and Library Companion, pp. 254, 259; Fitzpatrick's Irish Wits and Worthies, pp. 292–4; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. 1717; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 59.]