Edward MacLysaght

Edgeworth Lysaght, later Edward Anthony Edgeworth Lysaght, and from 1920 Edward MacLysaght (; 6 November 1887 – 4 March 1986), was a genealogist of twentieth-century Ireland. His numerous books on Irish surnames built upon the work of Rev. Patrick Woulfe's Irish Names and Surnames (1923). Early life and education Edgeworth Lysaght was born at Flax Bourton, Somerset (near Bristol), to Sidney Royse Lysaght (1856-1941), of Irish origin, a director of the family iron and steel firm John Lysaght and Co. and a writer of novels and poetry, and Katherine (died 1953), daughter of Joseph Clarke, of Waddington, Lincolnshire. Lysaght's grandfather, Thomas Royse Lysaght, was an architect, and his great-grandfather, William Lysaght, a small landowner distantly connected with the Barons Lisle. Lysaght was named "Edgeworth Lysaght" after his father's friend, the economist Francis Ysidro Edgeworth; "Edward" was added at baptism, and he was called "Ned". "Anthony" was added at confirmation. He lost the sight in one eye after a childhood accident. Lysaght was educated at Nash House preparatory school, Bristol, and at Rugby, where he was unhappy, his parents' frequent absence due to his father's business responsibilities necessitating travel to South America, South Africa, and Australia contributing to this. He was a contemporary there of Rupert Brooke, whose father was Lysaght's housemaster. Eighteen months after leaving Rugby, on the advice of Francis Edgeworth, he then went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to study law, but, having on his own account "had a wild time as part of the smart set" and anticipating rustication after a drunken incident, he left after three terms. Life in Ireland Lysaght took up residence in a caravan at Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland, where he had previously holidayed and become friendly with local people. His father, himself strongly connected to his Irish boyhood and wanting to establish himself as a "country gentleman", recognized his son's enthusiasm for Ireland and in 1909 bought a 600-acre estate at Tuamgraney, at which Lysaght would farm until 1913, introducing an electrical generator and other forms of modernization including the development of a limekiln, nursery, and school where young men of means could learn the basics of farming.