Day, Robert (1746–1841), politician, judge, and diarist, was born 1 July 1746 at Lohercannon, near Tralee, Co. Kerry, the third son in a family of five sons and two daughters of the Rev. John Day (1711–81), chancellor of Ardfert, and his wife Lucy, a daughter of Maurice FitzGerald, knight of Kerry. Fostered (as was common) by a peasant family, he grew up speaking only Irish until the age of seven when he began at Banna School, Ardfert, run by John Casey, a catholic. After attending school at Tralee, and apparently at Midleton, Co. Cork, he entered TCD (1761), was made a scholar (1764), and graduated BA (1766). He entered the Middle Temple (1764) and was called to the Irish bar (1774). At Trinity and at the Temple he was a close friend of Henry Grattan (qv). Practising in Dublin, he was by 1779 a member of the Monks of the Screw (a convivial club of a whiggish complexion), was awarded an LLD by TCD in 1780, was active as a Volunteer in his native county and was elected MP for Tuam, Co. Galway, in 1783, exchanging this seat for Ardfert, Co. Kerry, in 1790.
Day was a member of the Volunteer convention of 1782 but criticised that of 1784 for demanding parliamentary reform. Though in parliament naturally a friend of Grattan and a supporter of catholic emancipation, he was no democrat and won favour from the government, being appointed a commissioner of revenue appeals at £300 p.a. (1783) and advocate of the admiralty court at £200 p.a. (1785). In 1793 he was chairman of the parliamentary committee that considered the catholic relief bill of that year. In 1795 he became alarmed at the agitation of the leading catholic politicians and, while never ceasing to support firmly the principle of emancipation and to believe in gradual concessions, remained suspicious of the catholics’ intentions. After the rebellion of 1798 his alarm was extreme, though he never countenanced Orangeism. Towards the end of his long life he was gratified by the thought that the victory of Daniel O'Connell (qv) at the Clare by-election (1828) ‘would at once and without further struggle accomplish emancipation and thus terminate an abominable discussion’ (quoted in O'Carroll, Day, 259).
On 28 February 1798, having been a KC since 1790 and shown great knowledge of criminal law as chairman of County Dublin quarter sessions and recorder of Kilmainham (1789–98), Day was made second justice of the king's bench. He served on a special commission that tried cases during the 1798 rebellion. Subsequently he presided at trials of Shanavests and Caravats in County Tipperary (1808) and at the trials of Walter Cox (qv) (1811), Thomas Kirwan (qv) (1812) and John Magee (qv) (1813, 1814). Many of his judicial charges were published during his lifetime. Day retired as a judge in 1819. From 1801, if not earlier, he kept a diary that is full of interest for the persons and places he encountered, not only in Ireland when (especially) travelling on circuit but also on visits to Scotland and England (1801, 1807). It was published partly by Ella Day, the wife of a descendant (1938), partly by Gerald O'Carroll (2002, 2004).
Before leaving London to be called to the Irish bar, Robert Day married (8 August 1774) Mary (‘Polly’) Pott or Potts (he used both spellings), a daughter of Percivall Pott (1714–88), an innovative surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Her dowry was £5,000. One of her brothers, Samuel, owned Saunders’ News Letter and several other newspapers and magazines circulating in England and Ireland; another, Joseph Holden (1758–1847), was a prominent clergyman in England. Robert and Mary Day lived at first at North Frederick St., Dublin, but a few years later moved to Merrion Square.
In February 1798, Day got a long lease of Loughlinstown House, near Cabinteely, Co. Dublin. His connections with influential Kerry families, already extensive through his mother's family and her sister's marriages, were strengthened by the marriage on 26 May 1795 of his daughter, Elizabeth, to the owner of Tralee, Sir Edward Denny, 3rd baronet, to whose family Day was already a legal and financial adviser. Denny moved to England leaving Day in charge of his property and with much patronage. Day's political influence in the county was unchallenged during the years 1795–1810. He developed Tralee as a tourist resort and generally improved its infrastructure; he was provost (1797–9), had a street (Day Place) named after him, and was able to return a future prime minister, George Canning (who was of Irish parentage), as MP for the borough (1802–06). After his wife's death (18 April 1823), he married (21 June 1824) her companion, Mary (‘Moggy’) (d. 1849), daughter of Bartholomew Fitzgerald, MD of Bandon, Co. Cork. A catholic, she had already borne him two sons: John Robert Fitzgerald (1797?–1881), who became a protestant clergyman in County Kerry and took the name Day on inheriting his landed property; and Edward Fitzgerald, who similarly became a clergyman (though later he was a unitarian) and later took the name Day. Robert Day's eldest brother, Edward (d. 1808), was archdeacon of Ardfert; his younger brother, William (d. 1791), was also ordained and was a fellow of TCD. The Days were a levitical family. Of Robert Day's own piety there are many indications in his diaries. After his death, which occurred at Loughlinstown on 8 February 1841, he was buried at Monkstown church, the construction of which was partly due to his patronage. An oils portrait of Day by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (qv) is in the King's Inns, Dublin, and is reproduced in Ella Day's biography.