• Name: MacDonnell, D. E.
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date:
• Death Date: 1808
• Occupation: newspaper editor

(fl. 1791-1808). D.E. MacDonnell was an Irish journalist and lawyer. He was, successively, editor of the Morning Post (probably), Gazetteer, and Telegraph, in the period 1791-6. He was a founding member of Society of the Friends of the People in April 1792. Almost certainly the same D. E. MacDonnell of the Middle Temple who compiled A Dictionary of the Quotations in Most Frequent Use, 5th ed (1809) He was a signatory of declaration of the Society of the Friends of the People April 11th 1792, but was omitted, like Robert Merry, from version of their Address printed on April 30th. From February 1793 he became editor of Gazeteer until the following December, whereupon he took on the editorship of the Telegraph. The minute books of the Gazeteer suggest he took a tour of the continent to gather information on the war in the summer of 1794. John Taylor gives an account of his role as go-between with Merry after the poet insulted him as ‘reptile oculist’ in the Telegraphon 4 November 1795 believing him to be the author of a violent attack on the Drury Lane production of Venice Preserved for its ‘democratic principles’ (II, 272). MacDonnel challenged Taylor to a duel, but then backed down. Merry then confessed to the authorship, claiming to have been in drink when he composed the paragraph.

MacDonnell features (twice) in the 1796 list, once crossed out - both entries being for 1795.

• Robert L. Haig,The Gazetteer 1735-1797Carbondale, Il., Southern Illinois University Press, 1960, pp. 232-239 and 250-3
• L. Werkmeister,The London Daily Press, 1772-1792Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1963 , pp. 343, 355
• L. Werkmeister,A Newspaper History of England, 1792-3 Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1967 , pp. 37, 76, 168, 169
• John Taylor,Records of My Life, II, 272-8

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.