Oliver Dowell John Grace (born 19 October 1791) was an Irish landowner and politician from County Roscommon, serving at various times as a magistrate, grand juror (1820s and 1830s), high sheriff (1831), and member of Parliament (MP) for Roscommon from 1847 to 1859.Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette, 28 January 1871, p. 2; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.Grace held 3000 acres in the civil parish of Shankill, barony of Roscommon (where his seat, Mantua House, was situated) and in adjacent parts of the civil parish of Kilcolagh, barony of Frenchpark. See NUI Galway, Landed Estates Database, Estate: Grace. http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie See Weld, Isaac (1832). Statistical Survey of the County of Roscommon, drawn up under the direction of the Royal Dublin Society. Dublin, Royal Dublin Society. pp. 648, 650; available at https://books.google.co.uk/; Dublin Mercantile Advertiser, and Weekly Price Current, 18 July 1836, p. 4; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.Burke, Bernard (1912). Genealogical & Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. London: Harrison & Sons. p. 66. Grace was elected as a Whig MP in 1847, briefly switching to the Independent Irish Party prior to reelection in 1852, before standing for reelection once more as a Whig in 1857.Walker, B.M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 310. ; Rayment, Leigh (10 September 2018). "The House of Commons: Constituencies beginning with "R"". Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2018. In 1867, Grace was appointed Vice Lieutenant of Roscommon, an office he held until his death.Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette, 5 October 1867, p. 2; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
Early life and career Grace distinguished himself from many of the absentee landed classes of the time through his deep Irish roots, Roman Catholic faith, and permanent residency at his Mantua estate.See Burke, John et al. (1847). Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Henry Colburn. vol 1, p. 488; available at https://books.google.co.uk. While sharing beliefs with the gentry on rights of property, his background led Grace to be an advocate for the native Irish, claiming to oppose any government that did not advance and promote Ireland's interests.Coleman, Anne (1999). Riotous Roscommon: Social Unrest in the 1840s. Dublin and Portland OR: Irish Academic Press. p. 12.Roscommon Journal and Western Impartial Reporter, 17 July 1852, p. 3; available at available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Grace demonstrated these beliefs in 1832 by declining to join in the customary address of the clergy, nobility, gentry and landed proprietors to Lord Lorton, the largest landowner in Roscommon, upon his appointment as lord lieutenant of the county. Grace denounced the appointment, citing Lorton as an "enemy of reform", a view he claimed to share with the majority of landowners in the county.Quoted in Weld, pp. 709-710.
Grace was an outspoken champion of tenant rights, aiming to better the conditions of tenants by providing a legal security to guarantee residency in the lands they live.Roscommon Journal, 17 July 1852, p. 3; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. His particular ties to the tenantry on his own estate were reflected in his later life through his funding of a new National School for Mantua in 1869, and his willingness to allow his house to serve as a chapel before the building of the local church in 1870.See Roscommon Messenger, 9 October 1879, p. 4. available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.Beirne, Francis (2000). The Diocese of Elphin: People, Places and Pilgrimage. Dublin: The Columba Press. p. 241. Grace's noteworthy care for his tenants are reflected in census figures around the period of Famine (1845–1852). Between 1841 and 1851, the population of Grace's estate declined by just 5.5%, considerably lower than the 37% decline in the surrounding areas.The Mantua estate comprised six townlands in Shankill CP (Athgoe, Corry East, Corry West, Edenan & Kinclare and Kinclare) and seven in Kilcolagh CP (Carrigeennacreeha, Carrigeennagappul, Carrigeenynaghten, Clookerin, Loughbally, Mullenduff, Tonaknick). The population on his Mantua estate then recovered in the following decade, rising by 10.2%, while the surrounding population fell by 6.9%.Census Report of 1861, Part I, Vol. IV, pp. 212-213 (includes comparative figures for 1841 and 1851). Before his death, Grace demonstrated his generosity as a landlord by granting leases to all his tenants who applied for them.Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette, 28 January 1871, p. 2; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. His funeral procession included 100 vehicles and 2000 people on foot, reflecting his popularity.Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette, 4 February 1871, p. 2; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
Personal life Grace is buried in the family mausoleum at Tulsk Abbey.Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette, 4 February 1871, p. 2.
Grace had two children: John Dowell Fitzgerald Grace and Mary Clare. Mary later married Robert Archbold, MP for Kildare. After the death of Archbold in 1855, Mary entered the Sisters of Mercy and, in 1868, founded a convent in Elphin.The Weekly Freeman, 4 February 1871, p. 5; available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
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