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1ST BARON WILLIAM CONYNGHAM PLUNKET PLUNKET (1764—1854)
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PLUNKET, WILLIAM CONYNGHAM PLUNKET, 1ST BARON (1764—1854), Irish lawyer, orator and statesman, was born in the county of Fermanagh in July 1764.1 He was educated first by his father, a Presbyterian minister of considerable ability and reputation, and in 1779 he became a student of Trinity College, Dublin. He was conspicuous as the acknowledged leader of the Historical Society, the debating club of Trinity College, then full of young men of remarkable promise. Having entered Lincoln's Inn in 1784, Plunket was called to the Irish bar in 1787. He gradually obtained a considerable practice in equity; and was made a king's counsel in 1797. ' The Irish Plunkets are distinguished by the spelling of the name from the Plunketts of the families of the barons Dunsany (cr. 1439) and the earls of Fingall (cr. 1628), though the earlier members of these houses are often given the spelling of Plunket. Rathmore. William Lee Plunket, 5th baron (b. 1864), was governor of New Zealand from 1904 to 1910.