Garrett Dillon

Garrett (or Gerald) Dillon (c.1640-c.1696) was an Irish judge, politician and soldier, who held the office of Recorder of Dublin. He is mainly remembered today as one of the signatories of the Treaty of Limerick.

He was born in County Westmeath, son of Theobald Dillon of Portlick Castle and his wife Marcella Browne. Theobald was the son of Garrett Dillon of Feamore, County Mayo, member of a junior branch of the family of Viscount Dillon. Garrett inherited both Feamore and Portlick, and acquired other estates in Westmeath and Mayo: these were all forfeited in the 1690s, but his eldest son Theobald recovered at least a portion of them.

He entered Gray's Inn in 1669, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1674. The Roman Catholic King James II of England, who succeeded to the throne in 1685, adopted a conscious policy of appointing as many Catholics as possible to high office. Dillon was described as a "furious Catholic" and on that account was acceptable to the King. His rise was rapid: he became King's Counsel and Recorder of Dublin in 1685, and Prime Serjeant in 1687. In the so-called Patriot Parliament of 1689 he sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Mullingar. On the outbreak of the Williamite War in Ireland, he entered the military service on King James's side and was made a colonel.

After the defeat of the Jacobite cause, the new King William III of England was anxious to conciliate as many of his former enemies as possible. The result was the Treaty of Limerick, which was strictly speaking two treaties, military and civil. Dillon (who had been dismissed from all his offices) was one of the three lawyers, along with John Brown and Sir Toby Butler, who negotiated the civil articles on behalf of the defeated Jacobite side, although Butler is said to have done most of the work.

The articles were signed by Dillon and his colleagues on 3 October 1691: the terms were surprisingly generous to the defeated side. In particular it was provided that those Jacobites who swore an oath of loyalty to the new regime who be permitted to retain their lands. Unfortunately for the Jacobites, the Parliament of Ireland was not prepared to abide by the Treaty, which it regarded as far too generous to the Jacobites. Life for Catholics who had supported King James became increasingly difficult: while his co-signatories, Butler and Brown, were left in peace, Dillon was proscribed and left the country. He joined King James in France, and became a colonel in his regiment in 1693. He died a few years later, greatly mourned, according to Burke, as a man of "integrity, eloquence, learning and worth".

Dillon married firstly in 1677, Susanna Clifford, widow of Sir Edward Crofton, 1st Baronet of Moate (who had died in 1675), and secondly before 1690, Mary Hamilton, younger daughter of George Hamilton, 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane and Elizabeth Fagan, by whom he had several children, including Theobald, his heir.

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