Richard Musgrave

Sir Richard Musgrave, 1st Baronet (c. 1757 – 7 April 1818) was an Irish writer and politician.

He was born the eldest son of Christopher Musgrave of Tourin, County Waterford, by Susannah, daughter of James Usher of Ballintaylor, near Dungarvan.

He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Lismore from 1778 to 1801. On 2 December 1782 he was rewarded with a baronetcy for his loyalism and Protestantism. In this work, Musgrave criticised Burke's influence and called him a hypocrite who "always shewed a decided attachment to popery". He further accused him of trying to persuade the Rockingham Whigs to support Catholic emancipation, by which they "departed from those wise lessons which the history of and experiences of past ages uniformly afford, and adopted a visionary system of concession, which shook the pillars of the throne".

In 1804 he published Strictures upon an "Historical Review of the State of Ireland", by Francis Plowden, Esq., or a Justification of the Conduct of the English Governments in that Country, to which Plowden responded with his Historical Letter (1805).

The Dictionary of National Biography called Musgrave "a man of considerable talent, warped by blind prejudice and savage party spirit".

Works A Letter on the Present Situation of Public Affairs (1794). Considerations on the Present State of England and France (1796). Camillus [pseudonym], To the Magistrates, the Military, and the Yeomanry of Ireland (1798). Veridicus [pseudonym], A Concise Account of the Material Events and Atrocities which Occurred in the Late Rebellion (1799). Short View of the Political Situation of the Northern Powers (1801). Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in Ireland (1801; 4th edn. ed. S. W. Myers and D. E. McKnight, 1995) Observations on the Reply (1802). Strictures upon an "Historical Review of the State of Ireland", by Francis Plowden, Esq., or a Justification of the Conduct of the English Governments in that Country (1804). Observations on Dr. Drumgoole's Speech to the Catholic Board (1814).