Irish library
2 total works
Francis Ploweden (1749-1829) came from a Recusant family in Shropshire and was educated at Saint-Omer. After some time in the Jesuit order he became a conveyancer at Middle Temple before being called to the Bar in 1796. Thereafter he increasingly devoted his time to political and historical research, writing extensively on Church-state relations. His most famous work, "An Historical Review of the State of Ireland", was published in 1803. Its harsh criticism of government policy and administration involved him in a series of skirmishes with Sir Richard Musgrave, historian of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Unperturbed, Plowden issued the enlarged edition of the work under the title here and thenn proceeded to write the continuation below. Both works have proved an important resource for subsequent historians such as John Mitchel and seek to redress the anti-Catholic histories of Ireland then prevalent.
