Abraham Hely—B.A. 1788, M.A. 1791; and Lorenzo Hely—B.A. 1790.
Richard Hely, the eldest son, and the first Lord Donoughmore, was a Commissioner of Accounts, Second Remembrancer, Chief Commissioner of Excise, Commissioner of Customs, Commissioner of Stamps, and Postmaster-General.
In 1776, he was elected simultaneously representative for Sligo and for the University (against the Attorney-General, Philip Tisdall), and chose the latter. He was unseated by parliamentary committee as not duly elected; and, in 1777, he was re-elected for Sligo without a new writ. In the University he was replaced by John Fitzgibbon (Earl of Clare). In 1783 he was M.P. for Taghmon. In 1788, he succeeded to the title, on the death of his mother, and served in the Upper House, while his father and his two brothers were in the Commons. In 1794, according to the custom of the times, he raised a regiment, and got the command of it for his celebrated brother John.
Francis Hely was returned for the University in the election of 1790. In the following year took place the celebrated petition against his return, which is related in page [xlii], &c. In 1799, he was member for Naas, and was re-elected in 1800, on having been appointed to the office of collector for the Port of Dublin. In 1792, on the debate on receiving the Catholic petition in connection with Langrishe’s Bill for giving, or giving back, the franchise, &c., to the Catholics, Mr. Froude says that: “Francis Hutchinson, the Provost’s second son, soared into nationalist rhetoric. ‘When the pride of Britain was humbled in the dust,’ he said, ‘her enemies led captive the brightest jewel of the imperial crown torn from her diadem, at the moment when the combined fleets of the two great Catholic powers of Europe threatened a descent upon our coasts, from whom did we derive our protection then?’... ‘We found it in the support of three millions of our fellow-citizens, in the spirit of our national character—in the virtue of our Catholic brethren.’ The motion for the petition was lost by 208 votes to 23, and Langrishe’s Bill was carried.”—[English in Ireland, vol. iii., p. 53.]
Sir Jonah Barrington, in his “Personal Sketches.” tells of the duel which Francis had at Donnybrook with Lord Mountmorris in 1798, in which his lordship was wounded.
Christopher Hely was called to the Bar, but never much relished the profession, being altogether of a military turn. In 1795 he was elected member for Taghmon, county Wexford, in the Irish parliament on his father’s death; and after the Union he represented Cork city in the Imperial parliament. He was Escheator of the Province of Munster. He was an earnest champion of the Catholic claims, as were also his father and brothers; he was a thorough supporter of the liberal policy of Lord Lieutenant Fitzwilliam; he mistrusted Lord Lieutenant Camden and Pitt, and he opposed the Union scheme. He is, however, far more celebrated as a soldier than as a lawyer or politician, and in 1796 he resigned his seat. He adored his brother John, rivalled his brilliant courage, and served under him and with him at home and abroad with great distinction. He joined him in Ireland as a volunteer on the breaking out of the disturbances in 1798; but both of the brothers speedily got disgusted with the odious work, as did Cornwallis, and Moore, and Abercrombie, and Lake, and every other high-minded soldier, including Colin Campbell, afterwards in the tithe war. John soon got ordered off to Flanders, under Abercrombie, to fight the French; and thither Christopher followed him, and was wounded at the battle of Alkmar. Christopher followed John also to Egypt, and afterwards on his mission to St. Petersburgh, and to Berlin. Christopher, on his own account, fought in the Russian ranks against the French, and was badly wounded by Benningsen’s side at the battle of Eylau, in 1807. He fought also at the battle of Friedland. He died at Hampsted in 1825—[Suppl. Biog. Univer.] It is worth noticing that this invaluable biographical dictionary makes a mistake in regard of the Castlebar battle in 1798, and a mistake of a kind that is not usual in French historians in affairs that concern the military glory of France. At Castlebar the French were victorious, and the Hutchinsons and the English troops were defeated disgracefully. The Biog. Univer., however, under “Christophe Elie Hutchinson Cinquième fils de Jean Elie Hutchinson, Prevot de l’Universite de Dublin,” says: “Il eut part a l’affaire de Castlebar et fit prisonniers les deux Generaux Francais Lafontaine et Sorrazin au moment ou environnè par leur corps il se croyait et devoit se croire perdu, et s’acquit ainsi l’estime de General en Chef Lord Cornwallis.” The writer confounds Castlebar with Ballinamuck.
Abraham Hely was Commissioner of Customs, and Port duties, according to the Lib. Mun. and Sir Bernard Burke; and a clergyman, according to his father’s will.
Lorenzo Hely took Holy Orders.
Besides these five the Provost had a son—his second born—
John Hely Hutchinson, the most distinguished of all. He was born in 1757, and entered the army in 1774, the year in which his father was made Provost. In 1789 he became M.P. for Taghmon, county Wexford, on his brother Richard’s call to the upper house, and in 1790 he became member for Cork city (the father going to Taghmon), and continued so until the Union. In 1792, in the debate on receiving the Catholic Petition, “Prominent amongst their (Catholic) champions was Colonel Hutchinson, the Provost’s son, who inherited his father’s eloquence without his shrewdness. He talked the Liberal cant of the day, which may be compared instructively with the modern Papal syllabus.”—[Froude, vol. iii., p. 53.]