Henry Dillon, 8th Viscount Dillon

Henry was born about 1665,[lower-alpha 1] probably at his parents' house at Kilmore, County Roscommon, Ireland.[1] He was the second but eldest surviving of the three sons of Theobald Dillon and his wife Mary Talbot. His father was the 7th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen.[2] He supported James II in the Williamite war in Ireland. His father's family was Old English Irish and descended from Sir Henry Dillon who came to Ireland with Prince John in 1185.[3] Henry's mother was a daughter of Sir Henry Talbot of Templeogue. The Talbots also were an Old English Irish family. Both his parents were Catholic.

He appears below among his brothers as the second son:

1. Robert, who was unmarried and predeceased his father;[4]
2. Henry (died 1714), the subject of this article; and
3. Arthur (1670–1733), who became a general in French service.[5]

In July 1687 Henry married Frances Hamilton, second of the three daughters of comte George Hamilton and his wife Frances Jennings and step-daughter of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, viceroy of Ireland.[7][8] These three sisters were known in Ireland as the three viscountesses as they all three married Irish viscounts.[9]

The couple had at least two children:

1. Bridget; and
2. Richard (died 1737), who succeeded as the 9th Viscount.[10]

In 1689 Henry was Member of Parliament for County Westmeath in the House of Commons of the Patriot Parliament.[11] In that same year he served as Lord Lieutenant of County Roscommon.[12]

His father, the 7th Viscount, fell in the Battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691[13] fighting under Saint-Ruhe against the Williamites under Ginkel. Henry succeeded as the 8th Viscount in the eyes of his Jacobite comrades, but his father had been attainted on 11 May 1691[14] and in the eyes of the victorious Williamites there was no title or estate for him to succeed to.[15]

Henry, Lord Dillon, as he was now, was governor of Galway for the Jacobites,[16] and Ginkel quickly marched down upon him from Aughrim and invested the town on 18 July. Lord Dillon surrendered on the 26th on terms and marched out with his troops to Limerick.[17] The sieges of Limerick in August and September 1690 and in 1691 followed. The second siege and the entire Williamite war in Ireland ended with the Treaty of Limerick signed on 8 October 1691.[18]

While many of the Jacobites went into exile with the Flight of the Wild Geese, Lord Dillon stayed in Ireland and applied for the reversal of his attainder, which he obtained in 1694 by a judgement of the Court of the King's Bench and was confirmed by the Irish House of Lords in 1697.[19] He therefore got back his title and lands.

He died on 13 January 1714 in Dublin and was buried at Ballyhaunis in County Mayo.[20] He was succeeded by his son, Richard, the 9th Viscount, who died in 1737, without male issue,[21][lower-alpha 2] and the title passed to his nephew Charles, his brother Arthur's son.[22]

• Bagwell, Richard (1898), "TALBOT, RICHARD EARL and titular DUKE OF TYRCONNEL (1630–1691)", in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, 55, London: Smith Elder & Co, pp. 331–336
• Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1911), The Battle of the Boyne, London: Martin Secker
• Burke, Bernard (1869), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (31st ed.), London: Harrison (for siblings Elizabeth, Thomas, John, Lucia, Margaret and daughters)
• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• Cokayne, George Edward (1916), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 4 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press - Dacre to Dysart (for Dillon)
• Debrett, John (1828), Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 (17th ed.), London: F. C. and J. Rivington - Scotland and Ireland
• Hardiman, James (1820), History of the town and county of the town of Galway, Dublin: W. Folds & Sons
• La Tour du Pin, Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de (1913), Journal d'une femme de cinquante ans (in French), 1 (7th ed.), Paris: Librairie Chapelot
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 4, Dublin: James Moore – Viscounts (for Dillon)
• Smyth, Constantine (1839), Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, London: Henry Butterworth (for Table of reigns)
• Ward, Adolphus William; Prothero, G. W.; Leathes, Stanley, eds. (1908), The Cambridge Modern History, 5, New York: The MacMillan Company – The Age of Louis XIV
• Webb, Alfred (1878), "Dillon, Theobald, Viscount", Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, p. 149 (for 1st Viscount)

• Genealogy of Henry Dillon, 8th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallin on The Peerage website