John Talbot Dillon

Sir John Talbot Dillon, 1st Baronet, Baron Dillon (1739 – 17 July 1805) was an Irish politician and baronet, traveller and historical writer.

Career and travels

Dillon was the son of Arthur Dillon and Elizabeth Lambert, daughter of Ralph Lambert;[1] and grandson of Sir John Dillon of Lismullen, knight, and Member of Parliament for Meath. Dillon sat in the Parliament of Ireland, representing Wicklow Borough from 1771 to 1776, and then Blessington from 1776 to 1783.

For much of this period, however, he was abroad, travelling in Italy and Spain, or residing in Vienna, where he enjoyed the favour of the Emperor Joseph II, from whom he received the title of Baron Dillon, of the Holy Roman Empire, on 4 July 1783. He used this title after recognition by King George III per Royal Licence on 22 February 1784. In the obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1805 it is said that this honour was conferred in recognition of his services in parliament on behalf of Catholics; and the date is given as 1782, which is repeated in the Baronetages of William Betham and Foster.

Slavery as necessary evil

According to his biography, he was an admirer of revolution, but "with all his enthusiasm for liberty, however, he was not disposed to extend it to the negroes in the West Indies. ‘God forbid,’ he says, ‘I should be an advocate for slavery as a system;’ but in their particular case he regarded it as a necessary evil, and believed that upon the whole they were far better off as slaves than they would be if set free."[2]

Family

Dillon married Millicent Drake with whom he had six sons and three daughters. He was created a baronet of the United Kingdom by King George III in 1801, and died in Dublin in August 1805.

Works

Travels in Spain, 1780[2]
Letters from an English Traveller in Spain in 1778, on the Origin and Progress of Poetry in that Kingdom, 1782[2]
A Political Survey of the Sacred Roman Empire, c. 1790[2]
Sketches on the Art of Painting, a translation from the Spanish of Anton Raphael Mengs's letter to Antonio Ponz[2]
Memoirs of the French Revolution, c. 1790s[2]

Notes

John Burke (1832). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn and R. Bentley. p. 36.
Dillon,_John_Talbot_(DNB00) in the Dictionary of National Biography

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References

Turner, Katherine. "Dillon, John Talbot". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7658. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Dillon, John Talbot". Dictionary of National Biography. 15. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Edward Tighe William Whitshed	Member of Parliament for Wicklow Borough 1771–1776 With: Edward Tighe	Succeeded by Edward Tighe Sir William Fownes, 2nd Bt
Preceded by John Monck Mason Charles Dunbar	Member of Parliament for Blessington 1776–1783 With: Charles Dunbar 1771–1779 John Reilly 1779–1783	Succeeded by John Reilly William Montgomery
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New title	Baronet (of Lismullen) 1801 – 1805	Succeeded by Charles Dillon
German nobility of the Holy Roman Empire
New title	Baron Dillon 1783 – 1805	Succeeded by Charles Dillon

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[1] John Burke (1832). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn and R. Bentley. p. 36.

[DNB-2] Dillon,_John_Talbot_(DNB00) in the Dictionary of National Biography