Philip Tisdall

Philip Tisdall SL (1 March 1703 – 11 September 1777) was an Irish lawyer and politician, who held the office of Attorney-General for Ireland.

[1] He sat in the Irish House of Commons as MP for Dublin University from 1739 to 1776 and then for the city of Armagh from 1776 to his death.

[5] To his credit, Townshend recognised that Tisdall's support was still an asset to the Government, and made great efforts to conciliate him.

[1] Tisdall retained the confidence of successive Lords Lieutenants, and, in 1777, despite his age and failing health, he was asked to resume his role as Government leader in the House of Commons: he agreed, but died at Spa, Belgium on 11 September the same year.

In particular, she was one of the principal Irish patrons of the celebrated Swiss painter Angelica Kauffman, who visited the Tisdalls regularly in Dublin in the early 1770s and painted Philip, Mary and their daughters.

[1] He was strikingly dark in complexion, hence his nicknames "Black Phil" and "Philip the Moor", and was described as "grave in manner and sardonic in temper".