Grogan was born about 1738, the eldest son of John Grogan of
Johnstown Castle,
Wexford, by his wife Catherine, daughter and heiress of Major Andrew Knox of Rathmacknee. His father, a
Protestant landlord, was a member of the
Parliament of Ireland. His mother was the
heiress of a well-known
Scots family, which produced two
bishops of the
Church of Scotland. Grogan succeeded to the family estates, was
High Sheriff of Wexford for 1779 and was from 1768 to 1776 M.P. for
Enniscorthy (his father's old seat) in the
Irish parliament. He was a popular landlord, but due to failing health, he rarely left home in his last years. He never married. On the outbreak of the
Irish rebellion of 1798, Grogan joined the insurgents (whether willingly or under compulsion was later the crucial issue at his trial), and became
commissary-general in their army. When Wexford was taken by the government forces Grogan was tried by
court-martial. He pleaded that he had been forced to take a nominal lead, but had been guilty of no overt act of
treason. His plea was rejected, and he was
hanged and
beheaded on
Wexford bridge on 28 June 1798. Two other landlords of Wexford who had taken the same action as himself,
John Henry Colclough and
Bagenal Beauchamp Harvey, suffered with him, as well as other rebel leaders. Harvey to the end maintained that Grogan was an innocent man. Their heads were set up on the courthouse, and their bodies flung into the
River Slaney, but Grogan's body was recovered by his followers, and secretly buried at Rathaspick, near Johnstown. His estates were
escheated by the
Crown, but were restored on the payment of a heavy fine to his youngest and only surviving brother, John Knox. Another brother, Thomas, a lieutenant in the British army, was killed at the
battle of Arklow on 9 June 1798. A cousin from the
Dublin branch of the family,
Edward Grogan (1802–1891), M.P. for
Dublin City from 1841 to 1868, was created a
baronet on 23 April 1859. ==See also==