author
Samuel Murray Hussey
b. 1824
An outspoken Irish land agent and memoirist, he turned a lifetime in 19th-century Kerry into a vivid firsthand account of rural politics, property disputes, and everyday life. His writing offers a sharp, personal window into a turbulent period of Irish history.
1 Audiobook
The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent
by Samuel Murray Hussey
About the author
Born in Bath, Somerset, on 17 December 1824 to a Kerry family, Samuel Murray Hussey built his career in Ireland and became one of the best-known land agents in County Kerry. He was educated in Dublin, Limerick, Exeter, and Woolwich, and later settled at Aghadoe House near Killarney.
Hussey is remembered chiefly for The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent (1904), a memoir compiled by Home Gordon from his recollections. The book draws on his long experience managing estates and dealing with the tensions of 19th-century Irish landholding, making it valuable both as personal testimony and as a lively historical source.
He died in November 1913, still well known enough to be noted in The Times as one of the best-known land agents in the United Kingdom. Today, readers turn to his work for its strong voice, local detail, and direct view of Irish social and political life from someone who stood close to the center of it.