Family and Education

b. 1769, 4th s. of Robert Jocelyn, 1st earl of Roden [I] (d. 1797), and Lady Anne Hamilton, da. and h. of James Hamilton†, 1st earl of Clanbrassill [I]. m. 1795, Margaret, da. of Richard Fitzgerald, MP [I], of Mount Ophaly, Queen’s Co., 1da. d. 21 Jan. 1828.

Offices Held

MP [I] 1797-1800.

Port surveyor and storekeeper, Belfast 1796-1803; commr. of customs [I] 1803-7, 1809-20.

Sheriff, co. Louth 1801-2.

Biography

Jocelyn had acted as a seatwarmer for the family interest in Louth, headed since 1797 by his brother Robert, 2nd earl of Roden, until his nephew Viscount Jocelyn* came of age in 1809. His customs position gave him £650 per annum. Following the death of his brother in 1820 he came forward again as his nephew’s nominee, with the additional backing of the Foster interest. Attempts to get up an opposition came to nothing.1 A lax attender, who is not known to have spoken in debate, he was described by a radical publication of 1823 as having ‘voted with ministers’, but his only known votes were against the bill to relieve Catholic peers of their disabilities, 30 Apr., in the minority of 24 for a 40s. fixed duty on corn, 8 May 1822, and against the Liverpool ministry for inquiry into the prosecution of the Dublin Orange rioters, 22 Apr. 1823.2 Next year he proposed his nephew’s nominee Sir Robert Inglis* for the family seat at Dundalk.3 Failing health accounts for his absenteeism during the remainder of this period, when it was repeatedly rumoured that he would retire. He was induced to hold on until the next general election by Lord Oriel, who persuaded a rival ‘not to solicit, advertise or canvass, till a dissolution be announced, except in the case of Jocelyn’s death’, 12 Feb. 1825.4 At the 1826 dissolution he duly stood down, explaining that ‘the state of my health prevents me from offering’.5 He died in January 1828, leaving a daughter, Anne Charlotte.

Ref Volumes: 1820-1832

Author: Philip Salmon

Notes

• 1. Belfast News Letter, 1 Aug. 1820.
• 2. Black Bk. (1823), 167; Session of Parl. 1825, p. 470.
• 3. Drogheda Jnl. 8 May 1824.
• 4. PRO NI, Chilham (Foster) mss T.2519/4/2044, Oriel to Ferrard; A. Malcomson, John Foster, 140.
• 5. Drogheda Jnl. 7 June 1826.