Background
O'Donovan was the son of Daniel Mac Murtogh O'Donovan, Lord of Clan Loughlin. A Protestant, he married in 1686 Elizabeth Tallant, daughter of Oliver Tallant, and they had issue 1) Jeremiah, 2) John, and 3) Anne.
Member of Parliament in the Parliament of Ireland
O'Donovan was the son of Daniel Mac Murtogh O'Donovan, Lord of Clan Loughlin. A Protestant, he married in 1686 Elizabeth Tallant, daughter of Oliver Tallant, and they had issue 1) Jeremiah, 2) John, and 3) Anne.
Obtaining letters patent from Charles II, his extensive landholdings were erected into the manor of O'Donovan's Leap, or the Manor of the Leap, in 1684. He was also appointed Registrar of the Admiralty in Ireland by James II. Thomas' father Gerald, known as the Knight of the Horses, was killed fighting for James 11 at the second battle of Windmill Hill after the Siege of Derry in 1689. As a result no Williamite received a grant of them, (15) nor were they included in the return made by the inquiry commissioners in 1699.
Thomas was a Jacobite supporter but was probably too young to have played an active part in the war of the two kings. Following the capitulation of Limerick (1691) the position of known supporters of James 11, such as the Fitzgeralds, was precarious. Daniel O'Donovan, Esq.
(MP Doneraile) and Daniel O'Donovan, gent. (MP of Baltimore) were both outlawed as they were Catholic, while Jeremy was not. He was succeeded by 1) Jeremiah, who inherited his estates, but sold the manor in its entirety in 1737 to Richard Tonson.
