Barrington, Jonah (c. 1760–1834)

Irish lawyer and historian, best remembered for Personal Sketches of His Own Times (3 volumes, 1827–32) containing comical historical portraits of political and legal figures. Born at Knapton in County Laois, Barrington was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the bar in 1788, became Admiralty Court judge in 1798, and was knighted in 1807. In 1830, after he was removed from office for embezzlement, he lived in exile, where he wrote The Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (1833). He died in France, having fled there in 1815 to escape creditors.