Life
730-90 [Dominick Trant]; b. Co. Kerry, the second son of a merchant who conformed to the Anglican church; entered TCD 1756 but did not graduate; Middle Temple, 1759 and Dublin bar, 1764; engaged by smuggling “gentlemen” in Co. Kerry of whom Daniel O’Connell’s were the most prominent; made a first marriage to the widow of Arthur Blennerhasset and a second at her death to Ellen, dg. of John Scott (later Lord Clare); MP for St. Canice, Co. Kilkenny, in 1781-83; appt. King’s advocate general for the admiralty court in Ireland, Dec. 1789;
Trant was the author of Considerations on the Present Disturbances in the Province of Munster (1787), defending the Church of Ireland tithe on Catholics; implied the identity of a local land-owner who conspired with the Whiteboy agitators and elicited the indignation of Sir John Colthurst who challenged him to a a duel in which Colthurt died after four rounds of shots; before his death on the following day, Colthurst exonerated Trant from blame and he was subsequently acquitted of manslaughter in one of the most notorious cases of duelling in 18th c. Ireland - the contest having been previously interrupted by law officers at Ballsbridge and continued at Bray. FDA RIA
Works
Considerations on the Present Disturbances in the Province of Munster (Dublin: P. Byrne, 108 Grafton St. M.DCC.LXXXVII [1787]), and Do. [2nd & 3rd edns.] (Byrne 1787).
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