D’ALTON, John. The History of Ireland. From the earliest period to the year 1245, when The Annals of Boyle, which are adopted and embodied as the running text authority, terminate: with a brief essay on the native annalist, and other sources for illustrating Ireland, and full statistical and historical notices of the Barony of Boyle. With hand-coloured engraved half-title, twelve plates and list of subscribers.

Two volumes. Dublin: Published by the Author, 1845. Medium octavo. pp. (1) xliv, 283, (2) iv, 418, 1 (list of works by the author). Publisher’s blind-stamped light brown cloth, titled in gilt. Spines evenly faded. A fine hand-coloured set. Rare in this condition.
John D’Alton (1792-1867), devoted a lifetime to the collection and study of historical, topographical and genealogical materials, and this despite the demands of his profession as a barrister at law. He was born at Bessville, County Westmeath, first son of William D’Alton and his wife Elizabeth Leyne. He was educated privately by the Rev. Joseph Hutton before entering TCD (1806). Deciding on a legal career, he gained admittance to the King’s Inns, Dublin, in early 1809. Graduating BA (Dubl.) in 1811, he was admitted to the Middle Temple in May of the same year and was called to the Irish bar in 1813. He began his practice on the Connacht circuit and was especially sought after in cases where a knowledge of genealogy was required. In 1835 he became commissioner of the Irish Loan Board.
While he maintained his legal practice, it was in the area of historical research that he achieved renown.

In 1827 he was awarded the RIA’s Cunningham medal for the best essay on the political and social history of the early Christian period. Three years later he won another academy prize for his account of the reign of Henry II in Ireland. His relationship with the RIA was not always cordial, however, and throughout the 1830s he opposed the academy’s plans to publish a series of historical memoirs, as he was planning such publications himself. In January 1833 he began to write for the Irish Penny Magazine, a journal established by Samuel Lover, and contributed many learned historical articles. The journal was a failure and was discontinued in January 1834. Elected an honorary member of the RIA in December 1835, D’Alton also contributed a number of articles to the Gentleman’s Magazine. In 1838 he was elected a corresponding member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
D’Alton’s first publication was a metrical poem, Dermid, or the Days of Brian Boru, in twelve cantos. In 1827 the Royal Irish Academy offered a prize of £80 and the Cunningham gold medal for an essay on the Irish people to the twelfth century; D’Alton obtained the top prize and medal, and his essay, which was read 24 November 1828, occupied the first part of vol. xvi. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1831 he also gained the prize offered by the Royal Irish Academy for an account of the reign of Henry II of England in Ireland.

A prolific writer, during the course of his career he published a vast number of works including Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin (1838), History of the County of Dublin (1838). These were followed with the Annals of Boyle, to which Robert King, 1st Viscount Lorton, the proprietor, contributed £300 towards the publication. D’Alton published in 1855 King James II’s Irish Army List, 1689, which contained the names of most of the prominent Irish families, with historical and genealogical illustrations, and subsequently enlarged in separate volumes, for cavalry and infantry. They bring the history of most families to the date of publication. D’Alton died 20 January 1867 at his Dublin residence, 48 Summer Hill, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery.
The contents of D’Alton’s library, which included some seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Irish manuscripts, became the focus of much attention in the historical community after his death. The library was eventually broken up but there are large collections of D’Alton papers, including unpublished manuscripts, in the University of Chicago and the NLI in Dublin.

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