John Talbot Dillon - Career and Travels

Career and Travels

Dillon was the son of Arthur Dillon and Elizabeth Lambert, 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 a great part 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 License on 22 February 1784. In a short obituary notice in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for September 1805 it is said that this honour, which was accompanied by a very flattering letter from the emperor, was conferred upon him in recognition of his services in parliament on behalf of his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects; and the date is given as 1782, which is repeated in the ‘Baronetages’ of William Betham and Foster. He is, however, described as ‘baron of the Sacred Roman Empire’ on the title-page of his ‘Travels in Spain,’ printed in 1780, as well as in the notes to the Rev. John Bowle's edition of ‘Don Quixote,’ which came out early in the next year; and possibly the mistake may have arisen from the adoption of the date of the royal license authorising him to bear the title in this country.