Duquery, Henry (1749×1751–1804), barrister and MP, son of Henry Duquery of Dublin, was educated by the Rev. Thomas Ball in Dublin. He matriculated at TCD 8 July 1766, became a scholar (1769), and graduated BA (1771) and LLB (1774). He entered the Middle Temple (1769) and was called to the bar (1774), was appointed surveyor of customs for Dublin (1776), and in 1779 became a KC and bencher of the King's Inns. He resided at 10 Leinster St., Dublin, and was described by contemporaries as an eminent barrister who had the ‘elegance of Addison’ (O'Regan (1817), 19). In 1779 he joined the newly formed Monks of the Order of St Patrick, a society founded by Barry Yelverton (qv) as a forum for political debate. Its fifty-six members assembled each Saturday when parliament was sitting, and included many of the leading politicians of the 1780s. As a result of his political connections and legal ability Duquery was created third sergeant 17 August 1789 and second sergeant 30 July 1791, a post he held until 10 December 1793, when he resigned after contracting sunstroke during a tour of the Holy Land. His convalescence cannot have been protracted, as by 1794 he was suggested as a possible counsel for the defence at the trial of William Drennan (qv) and represented John Philpot Curran (qv) when Curran sued the Rev. Michael Sandys for having an adulterous relationship with his wife.
He sat as MP for the borough of Armagh (January–April 1790), in the gift of the archbishop of Armagh, Richard Robinson (qv), who favoured supporters of the administration, and then bought one of the borough seats at Rathcormick, Co. Cork (1790–97), from William Tonson, 1st Baron Riversdale. This gave him political freedom. He was colonel of the lawyers’ corps of the Volunteers which was reconstituted for a short period in 1793, and on 18 February 1793 supported the bill of Robert Hobart (qv), the chief secretary, which granted catholics the vote, although Duquery contended that even more should have been conceded. (On 13 October 1796 he strongly supported Henry Grattan (qv) in an amendment for further relief, which was rejected 149 to 12.) On 13 July 1793 he unsuccessfully opposed the convention act, and in 1794 supported a proposal by Lawrence Parsons (qv) that the Irish parliament had the right to investigate the war with France. Parsons's motion was defeated by 128 to 9. On 22 January 1795 Duquery proposed an amendment condemning the war and Pitt's refusal to treat with the French government, which was rejected. His later Speech in the house of commons on negotiations with France was published in 1795. Contemporaries believed his stance to be pique at failing to gain office under Lord Fitzwilliam (qv). After the general election of 1797 he appears to have vanished from politics. His name was not listed among the lawyers who had a view on the union in 1800. He died in Bath 9 June 1804. It is not known if he ever married; O'Regan describes him as ‘chaste’.