Jonas Greene: Difference between revisions

'''Sir Jonas Greene''' (1767-1828) was an{{Short description|Irish [[barrister]] and [[magistrate]], who held the office of [[Recorder of Dublin]].}}

He was born in [[Dublin]], the eldest son of Richard Greene.<ref name=Montgomery>Montgomery-Massingberd p.497</ref> He was [[called to the Bar]], although few details of his legal practice seem to survive. We know from In a letter he wrote to [[Dublin Castle]] in 1823 that he claimed that his private practice had been extremely lucrative; in pleading for an increase in [[salary]], he referred to the serious financial loss he had suffered in accepting an official position.<ref name="ReferenceA">National Archives of Ireland CSO/RP/1823/2369</ref>

In 1822 he was made Recorder of Dublin and [[knighted]].<ref name =Montgomery/> The Recorder was the chief [[magistrate]] for Dublin city, with responsibility for keeping the peace. The office was an onerous one, and the was generally agreed to have a heavier workload than a High Court judge. Greene from the available evidence seems to have been a particularly and diligent and hard-working official. A debate on the duties of the Recorder of Dublin in the [[English House of Commons]], held three years after his death, revealed that he held two sessions of his court every week, with extra sessions as the workload required. Within a little over a year of taking up office he was writing to [[Henry Goulburn]], the [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]], asking for an increase in salary appropriate to the very heavy workload, and complaining that his pay was already in arrears.<ref >National Archives of Ireland CSOname="ReferenceA"/RP/1823/2369</ref>

He married in 1790 the leading Dublin [[actress]] Marianne Hitchcock.<ref name =Montgomery/> She was the daughter of [[Robert Hitchcock (dramatist)|Robert Hitchcock]] of [[York]], the author and [[playwright]], best remembered for ''An Historical View of the Irish Stage,'' and his wife Sarah Webb, who like her daughter was a popular actress on the Dublin stage.<ref name =Montgomery/> They had twelve children. The eldest son, [[Richard Wilson Greene]], followed his father to the Bar and became a senior [[judge]]. <ref >Ball p.293</ref> Of their daughters, Harriet married the Reverend William Fortescue Gorman of Tannaghmore, [[County Antrim]]. They were the parents of [[William Gorman (priest)|William Gorman]], [[ Archdeacon of Ossory]] 1883-1911. Harriet died in 1839, aged about 32. Her sister Marianne married William Wallace, and another sister Elizabeth married John Gason. Several other sisters died unmarried. Their brother Arthur married Frances Shaw, a relative of [[George Bernard Shaw]]. Arthur's daughter Cecilia married as his first wife [[Sir Samuel Walker, 1st Baronet]], [[Lord Chancellor of Ireland]].<ref>''Burke's Peerage'' 107th Edition Delaware 2003</ref>

Jonas died at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in early March 1828, having been ill for several months.<ref>''Newry Commercial Telegraph'' 14 March 1828</ref> Marianne died in 1854, and was buried in [[Mount Jerome Cemetery]]. Five of her children, Jonas junior, Rachel, Harriet, Sarah and Catherine, are interred in the same grave as their mother.

* Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926

* Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh ''Burke's Irish Family Records'' London 1976

* "Ven. William Gorman" entry in ''Who was Who 2020''