sex’ (reprinted in Nichols, op. cit. p. *128 f; cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1603–10, p. 7). From 1604 till 1611 he was M.P. for Christchurch. In February 1612–13, on the occasion of the Princess Elizabeth's marriage, he organised a masque at the Middle Temple. Martin was Lent reader of the Temple in the thirteenth year of James I (1615–16), and on 1 Oct. 1618 was chosen recorder of London. He died on 31 Oct. 1618 (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18, pp. 589, 591). Aubrey says his end was hastened by excessive drinking (but cf. Whitelocke, Liber Famelicus, p. 63). Martin was buried in the Temple Church, and has an alabaster monument on the north wall, representing his figure kneeling beneath a canopy (Malcolm, Londinium Rediv. ii. 292). The monument was repaired in 1683. A portrait of Martin, engraved by Simon Passe in 1620, is in the Ashmolean Museum, and is reproduced in Nichols's ‘Progresses of James I,’ i. *128. By his will (in the Prerogative Office of Canterbury) Martin left 5l. to Otterton, and 5l. to Calliton Raleigh, Devonshire, where he had a house. The mayor of Exeter was his executor (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 168). Martin had a reputation as a wit, and ‘there was no person,’ says Wood, ‘more celebrated for ingenuity … none more admired by Selden, Serjeant Hoskins, Ben Jonson, &c., than he.’ Jonson dedicated his ‘Poetaster’ to him. Wood states that Martin was the author of ‘Various Poems,’ of which, however, he had seen no copy. A verse ‘Epistle to Sir Hen. Wotton’ by Martin is in Coryat's ‘Crudities.’
[Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), ii. 250–1; Foster's Alumni Oxon. (1500–1714); Chamberlain's Letters, temp. Eliz. p. 112; authorities cited above.]
MARTIN, RICHARD (1754–1834), known as ‘Humanity Martin,’ born in February 1754, probably at Dublin, was the eldest son of Robert Martin of Dangan in Galway, who died on 7 Aug. 1794, by his first wife, Bridget Barnewall, third daughter of John, eleventh baron Trimleston, who died on 2 Feb. 1762. The family claimed to have settled in Galway in the thirteenth century. Richard was sent to Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, being the first of his family who was brought up from childhood as a protestant, but left the university without taking a degree in order that he might enter parliament, which he did in 1776. In Easter term 1781 he was called to the Irish bar, and in 1783 went the Connaught circuit, but as he was merely qualifying for the duties of a magistrate his practice in the law was limited to one well-known case, that of Charles Lionel Fitzgerald v. (his brother) George Robert Fitzgerald [q. v.], ‘Fighting Fitzgerald,’ when the latter was convicted and sentenced. Martin acted as high sheriff for co. Galway in 1782, and was colonel of the county volunteers and also of its troop of yeomanry. He dwelt at the castle of Ballinahinch, and practically ruled over the district of Connemara. His property at Connemara alone comprised two hundred thousand acres in extent, stretching for a distance of thirty Irish miles from his house door, and including some of the loveliest scenery in Ireland, but it was largely encumbered.
His territorial influence gave him a seat in parliament for many years. From 1776 to 1783 he represented in the Irish parliament the borough of Jamestown, co. Leitrim, and from 1798 to 1800 he sat for Lanesborough in the same county; but in the appendix to the official return he is also entered as the member for co. Galway, in the place of Lord Wallscourt. In 1801, the first parliament after the union—a measure which he warmly advocated—he was returned for co. Galway, and continued to represent it until the dissolution in 1826. George IV was long Martin's personal friend, and first called him ‘Humanity Martin;’ but Martin avowed sympathy with Queen Caroline, and a temporary estrangement followed. In 1821 a reconciliation took place in Dublin. The king remarked, ‘I hear you are to have an election in Galway: who will win?’ Martin replied, ‘The survivor, sire.’ He felt some anxiety in 1825 about his return at the coming election, and to conciliate ‘the priests and O'Connell’ he announced that he would not vote for the suppression of the Catholic Association (Canning's Correspondence, ed. Stapleton, i. 242–6). He was always a firm supporter of Roman catholic emancipation. After a contest characterised by much violence he was again returned to parliament in 1826, and his majority was stated to be eighty-four votes, but by an order of the house (11 April 1827) his name was erased from the return, and that of James Staunton Lambert was substituted. Martin after this defeat withdrew to Boulogne, and died there on 6 Jan. 1834, aged 79.
He married, first, on 8 Feb. 1777, Elizabeth, daughter of George Vesey of Lucan, co. Dublin, by whom he had two sons, George (1788–1800) and Thomas Barnewall (see below), and a daughter, Lætitia (1808–1858). Martin's second wife, whom he married on 5 June 1796, was Harriet, second daughter of Hugh Evans, senior surgeon 5th dragoon guards, and relict of Captain Robert Hesketh, R.N., who died on 27 Sept. 1846. She was author of ‘Historic Tales’ and ‘Helen of Glenross’ (1802). By her he had, besides three daughters, a son, Richard (1797–1828), who
