St Leger St Leger, 1st Viscount Doneraile

He was the son of Richard Aldworth by his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Arthur St Leger, 1st Viscount Doneraile (d. 1727), of the first creation (1703) of that title.

[2] In 1780, St Leger found himself in the County Cork Assizes facing John Philpot Curran, counsel for an elderly Catholic priest.

Father Neale had announced the excommunication of an adulterous parishioner who happened be the brother of St Leger's mistress.

[3] St Leger would have acted in the belief that no jury, which under the existing Penal Laws would be all Protestant, would rule against him in a suit pressed by a Catholic.

In cross examination Curran demolished the credibility of Doneraile's witnesses and persuaded the jury to set aside sectarian consideration and find for his client.