December 14, 1715

Thomas Dognan, the 2nd Earl of Limerick, member of the Irish Parliament and governor of the colony of New York, died on this day in 1715. Dognan was born to a Catholic family in County Kildare. Because of their religion, they fled to France. He served in an Irish regiment in France and achieved the rank of colonel in 1674. Due to the order that called all British subjects serving in France back to England, Dognan returned to London. He was given a high ranking commission by the Duke of York in Flanders. James, the Duke of York, had become Lord Proprietor of New York after the English had acquired the colony from the Dutch. He then appointed Dognan as the first provincial governor (1683-1688) of the colony.