William Saurin

William Saurin (1757 – 11 February 1839) was an Irish barrister, Crown official and politician. He was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1807 to 1822, and for much of that period, he acted as the effective head of the Irish Government. He was unusual among Irish Law Officers in that he was never appointed a judge, nor wished to become one. As an Ulster Protestant, and a determined opponent of Catholic Emancipation, he incurred the bitter enmity of Daniel O'Connell, who called him "the mortal foe", and worked for years to have him removed from office. Family Saurin was born in Belfast, second of the four sons of the Reverend James Saurin, Vicar of Belfast (died 1774) and his wife Jane Duff. James Saurin, Bishop of Dromore, was his younger brother. The Saurins were of French Huguenot descent (no doubt this is why Daniel O'Connell called William an "insolent transplanted Frenchman"). The family, who were originally from Nimes, fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Even a century later, this episode, according to his friends, made a deep impression on William. Louis Saurin, Dean of Ardagh, the first of the family to settle in Ireland, (he was a brother of the celebrated preacher Jacques Saurin, who converted to Catholicism, and then back to the Reformed faith), was William's grandfather.