William Edward Hartpole Lecky, OM, PC, FBA (26 March 1838 – 22 October 1903) was an Irish historian, essayist, and political theorist with Whig proclivities.

[2][3] Born at Newtown Park, Stillorgan, Dublin, he was the eldest son of John Hartpole Lecky, a landowner.

[4] In 1860, Lecky published anonymously a small book entitled The Religious Tendencies of the Age, but on leaving college he turned to historiography.

Lecky's History of European Morals was one of Mark Twain's favorite books, and influenced the writing of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

In 1903, he published a revised and enlarged edition of Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, in two volumes, with the essay on Swift omitted and that on O'Connell expanded into a complete biography.

In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902, he was nominated an original member of the new Order of Merit (OM),[11][12] and he was invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.

[16] In 1904, money for a memorial was raised by subscription and a statue by Goscombe John was erected in Trinity College, Dublin.

A volume of Lecky's Historical and Political Essays was published posthumously (London, 1908), edited and introduced by his wife.