Abstract
Introduction
In addition to his contributions to medicine, Charles Lucas had a long career in politics, starting in the 1740s as a guild representative on the lower house of Dublin corporation, and culminating in his election to the Irish House of Commons in 1761. By examining the background in Dublin and Irish politics, this paper explores Lucas’ impact on the electorate, and how it was that he was able to win a parliamentary seat in Dublin and retain it for a decade while he campaigned in support of a range of important Patriot issues.
Lucas’ political career
Lucas had none of the qualifications that would normally be required for a successful politician. His father held some land, but as a younger son who had to make a living, Charles was apprenticed to a Dublin apothecary. Nor did he have the political connections that might have compensated for a lack of land, wealth, or status. But Lucas possessed other advantages, notably an education that enabled him to read the city’s medieval charters, identifying areas where the Dublin freemen had lost ‘ancient rights’, and some experience of publishing, so that he could appeal to the electorate.
Conclusion
Lucas’ remarkable political success stemmed from both local circumstances and his own personal qualities.
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References
Kelly J (2009) Charles Lucas (1713–71). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 581–586
Whitty R (1749) A letter to the free-citizens of Dublin. Dublin
Murphy S (1981) The Lucas affair: a study of municipal and electoral politics in Dublin, 1742–9. M.A. thesis, University College Dublin
Hill J (1997) From Patriots to Unionists: Dublin civic politics and Irish Protestant Patriotism, 1660–1840. Clarendon Press, Oxford
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Hill, J. Dublin and Irish politics in the age of Charles Lucas. Ir J Med Sci 184, 547–548 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-015-1252-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-015-1252-2