Charles Tottenham , MP for New Ross 1727. In 1731 the administration proposed that a £60,000 surplus in the national debt fund should be handed over to the English government. The motion came forward in the first session held in the new Parliament House in College Green. Tottenham heard of it, rode sixty miles through the night, and rushed into the chamber in his mud-splashed boots. An attempt was made to exclude him, but the Speaker ruled in his favour, and his vote defeated the motion. For years afterwards 'Tottenham in his boots' was a standing toast in patriotic circles. He was Sheriff of County Wexford 1737, and had great influence locally. He held his seat in Parliament until shortly before his death on 20 September 1758. Source: A Dictionary of Irish Biography, Henry Boylan (ed.), Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1998.
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