Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 3 (of 3), 1660-1690

by Richard Bagwell

FOOTNOTES:

[139] Proclamations of February 10 and 11, 1684-5, Carte’s Ormonde, ii. 543. Ormonde’s letters of February 22, March 1 and 4, in Singer’s Correspondence of Clarendon and Rochester. Luttrell’s Diary, March 27. The story of the officers’ dinner is in Secret Consults of the Romish Party, 1690. Ormonde’s arms were placed over the entrance to the new hospital.

[140] Proclamations of Lords Justices against Monmouth and his adherents, June 13 and 22; as to the militia arms, June 20 and October 16, 1685. For Argyle’s expedition, Earl of Antrim to Lords Justices, May 18, and Captain Thomas Hamilton of the Kingfisher to Granard, June 17, in State Papers, Ireland, vol. cccli. As to the removal of officers, Tyrconnel and Granard, August 12, ib., and Justin MacCarthy to Granard, ib. Ormonde to Primate Boyle, October 17, 1685, Ormonde Papers, vii. 374. Tyrconnel reached Ireland before May 29, ib. 341.

[141] Correspondence between Ormonde and Roscommon, particularly August 15 and September 17, 1685, Ormonde Papers, vol. vii.

[142] Clarendon to Rochester, December 28, 1685, Clarendon Correspondence. Writing on December 20, 1685, Bishop Fell wishes Clarendon ‘good luck with his honour, which to me seems sufficiently hazardous,’ Hatton Correspondence. According to the Sheridan MS., Sunderland had suggested Clarendon to the King, ‘for mending his fortune, of which he stood in need, pacifying Tyrconnel by saying that the two brothers would be ruined by being kept apart.

[143] Evelyn’s Diary, December 16, 1685. Clarendon’s letters, December 21 to January 10 and January 23, 1685-6. Ellis Correspondence, i. 9, 11. Luttrell’s Diary, December 16 and 18, 1685. Clarendon’s speech on taking office is in the Clarendon and Rochester Correspondence, ii. 475.

[144] Evelyn’s Diary, November 3, 1685. A newsletter to Colonel Grace from Dublin, November 11, in Clarendon’s Correspondence, notices the silence of the Gazette there about the French persecutions and the persistence of unauthorised sheets: ‘if it be a fiction, as certainly it is for the most part, why does not the Government take notice of it?... great concern that those of Geneva—Dublin have for their Calvinist brethren in France.’ The latest lights are in Lavisse’s 7th and 8th vols. and Rousset’s Hist. de Louvois, iii. chap. vii. For the dragonnades in Bearn, Henry IV.’s own country, see Sainte-Beuve’s article on the intendant Foucault, Nouveaux Lundis, vol. iii. In 1686 Avaux found there were 75,000 French refugees in Holland, Lavisse and Rambaut’s Hist. générale, vol. vi.

[145] Clarendon’s letters, February and March 1686, particularly that of February 14. Sunderland to Clarendon, March 11. An acute observer notes that the Irish Protestant refugees in England were too proud to complain and less noticed than the French, though they were ‘our bone and our flesh.’ Every Frenchman was distinguished by garb and speech, but those from Ireland by neither, and so in the crowd not discerned. Character of the Protestants of Ireland, May 1689, p. 8.

[146] Clarendon to Rochester, March 14 and April 17. James II. to Clarendon, April 6. In Burnet’s Hist. i. 654, the remarks on Porter are much softened compared to his original MS., Supplement, ed. Foxcroft, p. 170.

[147] Clarendon’s letters of April 17, 20, and 24.

[148] Clarendon to Rochester, April 17, 20, and 24, 1686; to Sunderland, April 24 and 27; to Rochester, May 11 and 15. Sunderland to Clarendon, March 11, May 22. In his diary on January 31, 1686-7, Clarendon says Nagle pretended that he had no wish to be Attorney-General, but ‘I do not believe him in the least, for I am sure he is both a covetous and an ambitious man.’

[149] Clarendon to Rochester, May 1, 1686; Lady Clarendon to Rochester, March 15. Luttrell’s Diary, January 19 and February 24. Evelyn to Clarendon, September 1686, appended to the Diary, iii. 425.

[150] Sheridan MS. Clarendon to Sunderland, May 30, June 1, and July 20, 1686. King’s State of the Protestants, chap. iii. sec. 2. Luttrell’s Diary, June 8. After the Revolution Sunderland thought it wise to disclaim any share in the Irish business: ‘My Lord Tyrconnel has been so absolute there that I never had the credit to make an ensign or to keep one in, nor to preserve some of my friends, for whom I was much concerned, from the least oppression and injustice, though I endeavoured it to the utmost of my power,’ letter in H. Sidney’s Diary, ii. 378. Tyrconnel cashiered about 4000 Protestant soldiers and 300 officers, Fortescue’s History of the British Army, iv. chap. 1.

[151] Clarendon to Rochester, June 8 and July 4. St. John’s Well was at Kilmainham, near where O’Connell Road now crosses the railway, and the name is perpetuated in the intersecting road. A ‘pattern’ fair, which became very disorderly, was held here till about 1835, when the well was swallowed up by builders. See Frazer’s Balder the Beautiful, i. 205 (Golden Bough).

[152] Letters in Clarendon and Rochester Correspondence, vol. i., particularly August 4 and 19, 1686. Ormonde Papers, vols. vi. and vii., particularly Sir W. Stewart to Arran, February 13, 1682-3; Tory Hamilton to W. Ellis, January 2, 1683-4, and Longford’s letters in August 1686. King mentions the murder, chap. i. section 7. In the correspondence of the time Hamilton is generally called a very honest fellow. Ellis Correspondence, i. 166.

[153] Letters in vol. i. of Clarendon and Rochester Correspondence. Aston’s dying declaration is appended to that of June 3. King’s remark is (chap. iii. sec. 2), ‘they might kill whom they pleased without fear of law, as appeared from Captain Nangles’ murdering his disbanded officer in the streets of Dublin; but if any killed or hurt them they were sure to suffer; as Captain Aston found to his cost, who was hanged for killing a Papist upon his abusing the captain’s wife in the street.’

[154] Sheridan MS. Ellis Correspondence, November 30, 1686. Luttrell’s Diary, December 1. Evelyn’s Diary, January 17, 1686-7. Sunderland was considered bribable, see his own statement in Diary of H. Sidney, ii. 379.

[155] The air of ‘Lillibullero,’ originally composed by Purcell for another song, is still whistled in Ulster under the name of ‘Protestant Boys.’ The words have been often reprinted, see Wilkin’s Political Ballads, i. 275, and (with variants) the third part of Revolution Politicks, 1733. Purcell’s music is given in the 1873 edition of Sterne’s Works, i. 93, at the end of Tristram Shandy, 2nd part, chap. iii. See also Croker’s Historical Songs of Ireland, pp. 1-11.

[156] See in particular Clarendon’s letters to the King of October 23, 1686, and of February 6, 1686-7 (in the appendix). Evelyn’s Diary, March 3 and 10.

[157] Clarendon’s parting speech, February 12, 1686-7, is in the appendix to King’s State of the Protestants. No mention is made of the Ulster Scots. Evelyn’s Diary. Luttrell’s Diary, March.

[CHAPTER XLIX]
GOVERNMENT OF TYRCONNEL, 1687-1688

Tyrconnel Lord Deputy, February 1687.

James forced Sheridan upon Tyrconnel as secretary, and made him chief commissioner of revenue to make the Irish service worth his while. Clarendon thought him a ‘wicked, cheating man,’ and the new Lord Deputy objected to him, not on that ground, though he accused him of dishonesty, but because he knew he was sent to be a drag on him. He could not avoid taking him, but did so with a very ill grace, advising him to give up drinking, and not imitate Sir Ellis Leighton or Mr. Ellis, ‘the first having ruined Lord Berkeley, and the other, the blackest and most corrupt of villains, my Lord Arran.’ Sheridan answered that he was the most abstemious of men, that he abhorred corruption, and that for all he cared Tyrconnel might give the secretary’s place to his nephew, Sir William Talbot. He at first refused to go unless he had a seat at the Irish Council, but Tyrconnel said he had asked the King for this and been refused. Nevertheless, when Lord Bridgeman spoke about it to James, he at once consented, saying that Tyrconnel had never mentioned the matter to him. In January the new Viceroy and Sheridan were at Chester, where Cartwright was now installed as bishop, along with Richard and Anthony Hamilton and two Irish lords. Fitton joined them at Holyhead, and they all talked of Irish affairs while waiting for a wind. Tyrconnel suggested that Christ Church should be taken from the Protestants, that a Catholic militia should be raised and trained, and that Catholics should fill all places. Sheridan and Fitton disagreed, ‘both of them knowing these things were contrary to His Majesty’s intentions and interest.’ It is clear that they were against his interest, but not that they were against his intentions. On reaching Dublin, Sheridan was sent to Clarendon with the King’s letter of recall, repeating one from Sunderland in which he was directed to give up the sword to Tyrconnel within a week of his arrival. Before he received the sword, and while still a private person, the latter demanded the surrender for punishment of one of Clarendon’s servants who had attributed the change to the dog Talbot. Tyrconnel was sworn in as Deputy, not Lord Lieutenant, on February 12, and Clarendon was Cartwright’s guest at Chester a few days later. He heard a sermon from Mr. Peake in the cathedral on the duties of governors, and it seems not to have been pleasant, for the bishop thought of suspending the preacher, though both Lord Derby and Mr. Cholmondeley interceded for him. Ten days afterwards Cartwright sent his carriage to meet Porter, and found the ex-Chancellor’s children ‘set in a stage-coach broke in the quicksands three miles from Chester.’ They were rescued, and next day their father and mother were brought safely from Neston.[158]

The Coventry letter.

When Nagle left Ireland it was thought probable that he would return as Attorney-General, and that part of his business would be to attack the Act of Settlement. The King had assured Clarendon that it ‘must always be kept untouched, though many ill and disaffected people are secured in their possessions by it.’ Nagle was back in November, and neither then or later did Clarendon have any intimation from the English Government that a change of policy was intended. It was not until January, shortly before his recall, that he received through private hands the copy of a letter from Nagle to Tyrconnel purporting to have been written on the road at Coventry, but doubtless composed in London as the result of careful deliberation. In it the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and the administration of them were vigorously attacked. About the same time the Benedictine Philip Ellis, afterwards Bishop of Segni, was allowed, or, as some thought, bribed, by the Irish in London to preach at St. James’s against the Acts. Tyrconnel admitted that he had inspired the sermon and promised Ellis the bishopric of Waterford as a reward. The contents of Nagle’s letter were known in Ireland before Clarendon got his copy, and the writer complained of its surreptitious publication. Tyrconnel had the original, and his denial is worth little. Both letter and sermon were disliked by moderate men, but they evidently foreshadowed extreme measures. Less than a year after the date of Nagle’s manifesto, Barillon knew that James had made secret preparations for repealing the Act of Settlement.[159]

The Land Settlement threatened.

The commission of grace issued less than eleven months before the late King’s death expired with him. The court constituted by it had not time to do much, but it excited hopes and fears, for the old proprietors expected to get money in exchange for their claims, while the men in possession saw that their titles were endangered. Clarendon found men’s minds much disturbed, and thought the best way to quiet the country would be to renew the commission. He believed the Protestant holders under the Act of Settlement, as well as the many Roman Catholics who had bought land from them, would be willing to pay well for confirmation of their titles, and 150,000l. might thus be raised to compensate the most deserving sufferers. Lord Chancellor Porter sounded the men of his own profession, and found them generally favourable to such a policy. Chief Justice Keating was strongly of that opinion, and at first James seemed inclined to agree, but contrary influences prevailed, and Clarendon was informed that the King preferred a parliament to a commission. He was to take counsel with Tyrconnel and others as to how much landowners would be willing to pay for clear titles, with a suggestion that the parliamentary way might bring in the larger amount. Rice and Nagle supported Tyrconnel, who inveighed against the idea of a commission with much cursing and swearing, holding that it would bring in little money, ‘but would confirm those estates which ought not to be confirmed.’ In the meantime many secret meetings were held among the Roman Catholics. A letter found at Christ Church after morning prayer on the last day of August professed to be written by one who ‘politically went to mass’ in order to gain admission to these conclaves, which he said were attended by nine bishops, ten Jesuits, and eighteen friars, and that letters were received from the Queen, from Lord Castlemaine, from the Pope and cardinals, and from the King of France. All this was no doubt greatly exaggerated, and the writer’s name did not transpire, but Clarendon knew from other sources that there were many private consultations at which Tyrconnel attended, and that at one of these it was resolved to send Nagle to England. When he returned, after having written the Coventry letter, there was more uneasiness than ever, and he soon became Attorney-General, displacing Domville, who had held that office ever since the Restoration. As a practising lawyer, says Archbishop King, Nagle ‘was employed by many Protestants, so that he knew the weak part of most of their titles.’[160]

Protestant corporations attacked.

In order to carry out their policy, James and Tyrconnel saw that an Irish Parliament would have to be called, and one of a very different character from the last. There were thirty-two counties, in each of which the freeholders were entitled to return two members, and one hundred cities and boroughs where two members were eligible by the burgesses. In the counties Government could generally maintain itself through subservient sheriffs, and it was resolved to attack the charters in virtue of which the boroughs existed. The process of transforming the municipalities by prerogative alone began as early as June 1686, when Tyrconnel brought over a letter from the King directing the Lord Lieutenant to admit freemen without tendering the oath of supremacy. Even the English oath of allegiance was thought too strict, and he was ordered to be satisfied with a shorter oath of fidelity. Acting by the advice of Judge Daly and other reasonable Roman Catholic Privy Councillors, Clarendon aimed at appointing English and Irish in equal numbers, ‘which they say is the best way to unite and make them live friendly together.’ Had this wise course been persevered in, an understanding might have been arrived at, but Tyrconnel’s faction thought the mere fact of being a Roman Catholic was qualification enough for anything. As it was, all who could make out any sort of hereditary claim were accepted as freemen, though they did not live in the towns and were engaged in no trade or business.[161]

Those who were encouraging James to take extreme measures tried to make out that most Irish Protestants were Cromwellian fanatics or their descendants. Clarendon said that there were not many adventurers or soldiers, nor many of their children remaining. Land had been freely bought by men who wanted to make fortunes by buying in a cheap market. These new purchasers and the representatives of settlers before 1640 formed the bulk of the colony, six-sevenths of the trade being in their hands. They had hitherto had things much their own way, but it was now determined to humble them to the dust. By the statutory rules made under Essex, every mayor or other municipal officer was required to take the oath of supremacy, but might be dispensed from so doing by name and in writing by the Lord Lieutenant and Council. The result of these rules had been to keep the Protestants in power, though the Roman Catholics, scattered for the most part in the country, but claiming the hereditary freedom of old towns, were more numerous. Corporations of recent origin had been the creation of the colonists, and had always been in Protestant hands. The changes made by Clarendon were considerable, but the process was too slow for a man of James’s temper. In August he summoned Tyrconnel to meet him at Chester. The King was attended by Sunderland, and the Deputy by Nagle, Rice, William Ellis, and a Jesuit named Johnson. Richard Hamilton was also at Chester. Tyrconnel wished to keep Sheridan back in Ireland, but orders came from Sunderland that he was to come over, and they went on to Shrewsbury together to meet James, who sent for Sheridan early next morning, and told him he should expect a full report at Chester. There were heated discussions about the Act of Settlement, but no decision was come to. ‘God damn you,’ said Tyrconnel, ‘for making you a Privy Councillor!’ to which the secretary replied that the King made him. The Deputy then damned himself for making him secretary, and told him to go to the devil. Rice and Nagle tried to smooth matters by attributing all this to Sunderland’s wine, but Sheridan says he was sober. Next day Tyrconnel thought it prudent to apologise, pressing the other to dine, ‘and taking him about the neck and hugging him.’ The quarrel broke out again as soon as they got back to Dublin.[162]

Municipal charters annulled.

Tyrconnel had been able to report at Chester that the transformation of the corporations was already well begun. Dublin had resisted successfully for a time, but quo warrantos were brought against all the corporations, except a few that surrendered at discretion. Soon after his return from the Chester conference, James wrote to Tyrconnel announcing that judgment had been given against most of the cities and towns, and that suits were pending for the rest. The Deputy was empowered to issue new charters appointing the officers and members of all municipalities by name, with power to fill up vacancies and to return two members to Parliament. He was to reserve power for himself and his successors to remove all magistrates and officers by Order in Council, both they and the freemen being obliged to swear ‘that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the King.’ This, of course, made all the corporations absolutely subservient to the Government. The charters were brought into the Exchequer, the only Irish court whence no writ of error lay in England, and were nearly all declared forfeited. Rice and his brethren took advantage of every legal quibble, and it does not appear that any case was tried upon its substantial merits. Strafford had long since discovered how easy it was to find technical flaws in letters patent, and Rice before he was a judge had said that he could drive a coach and six through the Act of Settlement. The general result was that two-thirds of each corporation were Roman Catholics who could be trusted to return members of their own persuasion when the time came for a parliament. In many old towns this was no doubt only a return to the state of things that had existed before the Civil War, but the new boroughs were chiefly the creation of English Protestants. No exception was made, Londonderry and Belfast faring like the rest. The colonists were placed in the power of men who had seldom any substantial commercial interest, and who were often descended from the insurgents of 1641.[163]

Panic among the Protestants.

Tyrconnel’s proceedings in general had driven many Protestant families from Ireland. In June 1686, 120 went to Chester in one ship, and multitudes hastened to realise their property. The certainty of his being made Viceroy caused a greater exodus, and while he was waiting for a wind at Holyhead, Ormonde wrote that many men and more women had fled, ‘but I think a less matter than the dread of my Lord Tyrconnel will fright a lady from Ireland to London.’ It was natural that the men who stood their ground should wish to place their families in safety, for Clarendon reports that many merchants and others were going, though he tried to steady them by saying that all would be well. As they left Dublin their places were filled by crowds of officers who came to meet the rising sun. After his arrival Tyrconnel lost no time in proclaiming his intention of dealing justly with all according to the known laws. The prevailing terror had, he said, been much heightened ‘by some few fiery spirits in the pulpits, by taking upon them to treat of matters that do not lie within their province.’ The Protestants, nevertheless, continued to leave Ireland when they could, though magistrates and officers were empowered by proclamation to stop them. Many were unable to go because they could not afford the journey or because they had everything invested in stock or buildings. Officials generally stood their ground from a sense of duty, or lest their places should be taken by hostile Roman Catholics, and many clergymen were actuated by the same motives. But the drain steadily continued, and after William’s invasion at a greatly increased rate.[164]

Lord Chancellor Porter dismissed.

Lord Chancellor Porter, though nothing could be truly said against him, proved less accommodating than was expected, and as early as June 1687 it was rumoured that he would be recalled. Tyrconnel worked incessantly to that end, and accused him of taking a bribe of 10,000l. from the Whigs, ‘which, upon my conscience,’ said Clarendon, ‘is as true as that he has taken it of the Great Turk.’ General MacCarthy was satisfied of Porter’s probity, and Mr. Nihill, a young Roman Catholic King’s Counsel, admitted that if Tyrconnel took a dislike to a man, he had ‘a sly way,’ and would ruin him while pretending to be reconciled. Tyrconnel emerged victorious from the obscure struggle at Court, and Porter shared Clarendon’s fate. They dined together on January 4, and within a week both were recalled. The Lord Chancellor was treated with marked discourtesy, for he only heard of his removal from a third person.[165]

Fitton succeeds him.

No explanation was offered to Porter, the King treating him with studied coolness, and merely remarking that it was all his own fault. He returned to the English bar, and was counsel for Sir Alexander Fitton, his successor as Irish Chancellor, in one of his numerous lawsuits. Fitton, who was released from prison and knighted by the King, seems never to have had any practice to speak of, but he was a convert to the Church of Rome. He had been engaged in long litigation with Lord Gerard, and was accused of setting up a forged deed. A jury found against the document, and he was fined and imprisoned by the House of Lords. He apparently owed his appointment to Father Petre and to James himself, rather than Tyrconnel, whom he accompanied to Ireland. Archbishop King, who was in Dublin during the whole time that he held office, has represented Fitton as not only partial and tyrannical, but quite incompetent to perform his judicial function, while a modern biographer who examined the records of Chancery declares that all was done in order. Possibly the legal knowledge was supplied by two new Masters in Chancery appointed to strengthen the Court. One of these was Felix O’Neill, whose father had been a member of the Confederate Council in 1642; the other was Alexius Stafford, a priest who may have been a learned civilian. Both Stafford and O’Neill were killed at Aughrim. King may or may not have painted Fitton in too dark colours, but Sheridan, who was closely associated with him, says he was ‘a most poor and timorous man, having nothing to maintain him but his office, to which dignity he was surprisingly raised from a tedious imprisonment of many years in the King’s Bench in England for debt and pretended forgery in the business of the estate in dispute between him and Lord Macclesfield.’[166]

Judges and magistrates.

At the time of Clarendon’s recall one judge out of three in each Common Law Court was a Roman Catholic; under Tyrconnel the proportion was reversed. In the Exchequer, which became much the most important, Rice was made Chief Baron, and was supported by Sir Henry Lynch, who pursued the same policy. Baron Worth was a Protestant, but not much trusted by his own co-religionists, and in any case always in a minority. Probably he tried to be impartial. The same policy was adopted in the case of local magistrates, whose personal fitness was not always considered. Porter had no objection to Roman Catholics, but he had some regard for his own reputation. He received lists of candidates from the judges and rejected only those for whom no person of position would vouch. Among these was Primate Maguire’s brother. ‘He is a poor country fellow,’ he told General MacCarthy, ‘lives upon six pounds a year, which he rents of Sir Michael Cole, and has nothing else in the world. After all this, if you think fit for the King’s service to have such a man come upon the Bench, he shall be a justice of peace.’ ‘No, in good faith,’ answered MacCarthy, ‘I do not think it fit.’ Even the degree of independence which Porter showed was not to be expected from Fitton.[167]

Sheriffs.

The appointment of sheriffs was of the highest importance. They were not only the chief officers for enforcing the laws of property between man and man, but they might exercise great influence in the case of a general election. Clarendon had to nominate them immediately after his arrival, and before he had time to make a wide personal acquaintance. He got the best information he could, and thought he had made a happy selection, but the list was sent back to him with criticisms which, according to Tyrconnel, were made by Sheridan and Sir Robert Hamilton. He answered them all in detail and with much confidence. Sir William Evans was objected to as Sheriff of Kilkenny because he was Cromwell’s baker’s son. The answer was that his father had been a baker in England before the war, that he had made a fortune near Kilkenny, married Captain Coote’s daughter, been made a baronet, ‘and since a justice of peace, which office he has discharged very honestly.’ But Tyrconnel was not satisfied, though he owned that the Lord Lieutenant had done his best. ‘By God, my Lord,’ said he, ‘you must not wonder if the Catholics do think you a little partial after your making such a set of sheriffs, who are four parts out of five rogues; but, by God, I justified you to the King,’ and so forth. Long before the year was out Clarendon had orders not to name any sheriffs for 1687, instead of which Tyrconnel handed him a list drawn up by himself and Nugent, and purporting to make no religious distinction. Clarendon remonstrated, telling the King that the judges were the proper persons to suggest names, and that many of those now proposed were obviously and scandalously unfit for positions of trust. When the appointments were at last made, Tyrconnel was Deputy, and every county was committed to the charge of a Roman Catholic except Donegal, where one Hamilton was pricked by mistake for another. It is easy to believe that many of these sheriffs were unfit men. Protestants were also turned out of all the minor offices connected with the law.[168]

Rice and Nugent in London, 1688.

The corporations, the judicial bench, the army, and the shrievalty having been remodelled to his liking, Tyrconnel wished to hold a parliament. Rice and Nugent were sent over early in 1688, and their presence tended to increase the general unrest in London. Their coach, when they appeared in the streets, was escorted by a mob carrying sticks with potatoes at the ends, and calling upon all men to make room for the Irish ambassadors. They brought with them heads of a Bill for repealing the Act of Settlement, and were authorised to offer 40,000l. to Sunderland, who loved money even more than he loved power. In the negotiations that took place, Rice showed his great ability and Nugent his conspicuous want of sense. Sheridan was in London part of the time trying to rebut the charge of corruption brought against him by Tyrconnel. He told Sunderland that the Lord Deputy had been bragging about the money he had offered the minister, and about the Queen’s necklace. The result was that the bribe was now refused with becoming indignation. To the King himself Sheridan said that Tyrconnel hated him for objecting to turn out Protestant officers ‘for being such only,’ and for differing with him in opinion about the Act of Settlement. Nugent and Rice did not stay long in London, and they failed in their immediate object. Bellasyse and Powis opposed them, the former with many severe expressions about Tyrconnel’s rash folly. A year was still to elapse before the land legislation of Charles II. was repealed by an Irish Parliament.[169]

The Declaration of Indulgence.

The Declaration of Indulgence was republished in Dublin one week after its appearance in London. For the relief of the Roman Catholics it was hardly necessary, since the Statute of Elizabeth and the oaths depending on it had been virtually suspended even under Clarendon; but the prospect of general toleration was pleasing to the Ulster Presbyterians. Three or four loyal addresses were presented from Nonconformists in Dublin and Belfast and in Munster, but on the whole their attitude was cautious, for they could not forget what James had done quite lately in Scotland. Halifax’s famous letter to a Dissenter does not appear to have been reprinted in Ireland, but no doubt it circulated there, and its argument is conclusive to all who reject Filmer’s theory and the doctrine of passive obedience. If a King can sweep away the statute law at pleasure, he is absolute, and Parliaments and courts of justice are superfluous. In the end the Irish Presbyterians had to say Yes to Halifax’s short question, ‘whether you will join with those who must in the end run the same fate with you?’ The Episcopalians were, of course, not pleased, for all that the King would promise was less than what the law already gave them. There was an address from the Irish Quakers, which may probably have been due to Penn. In the meantime very few Protestants were left in the army, while they were placed in a minority on the bench and in civic administration. Those who could leave Ireland did so, and cashiered officers helped to fill the gaps in the Prince of Orange’s forces, made by those who obeyed the King’s order of recall. In less than a year after the Declaration of Indulgence the King forbade all foreign enlistment, and his proclamation was republished in Dublin, with stringent directions to magistrates and port authorities to stop all who endeavoured without licence ‘to transport or to enter and list themselves in the service of any foreign prince or state.’[170]

Tyrconnel and the army.

In about five months after his arrival as Deputy Tyrconnel had granted over one hundred commissions in the army, and the names show that few, if any, were Protestants. Among them were Anthony Hamilton and his brother John, both of whom became generals. Before he had been three months in the country he found that the private soldiers, especially in the infantry, were in great misery and more likely to cause disorder than to be useful in keeping the peace. The most he could do was to give each soldier of the line threepence-halfpenny a day, with a promise, which was not kept, of another halfpenny at the end of the year. Out of this the man had to feed himself. He was to receive fresh clothing free every eighteen months, the solitary coat to be turned without charge at the end of ten. It was found that some officers had been in the habit of enrolling recruits, keeping them for awhile, and then turning them away without pay, thus making a handsome profit in each case. In July 1687 he assembled a force in camp at the Curragh with a free market for victuallers, the soldiers having strict orders to pay ready money and ‘in all things to behave themselves as becomes good and peaceful subjects.’ When the camp broke up Sheridan advised Tyrconnel to send the regiments of Mountjoy and Forbes, the only two Scotch Protestant colonels, to Munster, and Catholic regiments to Ulster, where the Presbyterians had been assembling in great numbers. Mountjoy dissuaded him from this course, with important results both to himself and to the country.[171]

Irish soldiers in England.

Tyrconnel raises fresh regiments.

The attack on Magdalene College, the persecution of the seven bishops, and the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission had little direct effect in Ireland, but they caused many Protestants to make haste out of Tyrconnel’s reach and spread terror among those who were unable to get away. In July 1688 the Irish army was again encamped at the Curragh, and James, unwarned by his father’s and Strafford’s fate, determined to use it for his own purposes in England. In the camp at Kildare all Roman Catholic soldiers—that is, the great bulk of them—were to confess regularly and to forfeit three months’ pay if they failed to produce a priest’s certificate of having received the Sacrament at least twice a year. In the camp at Hounslow loud cheers hailed the acquittal of the bishops. There were a few Irishmen there, and one of them murdered a comrade. He was promptly hanged as the only means of stilling the consequent uproar. A few weeks later Evelyn reports that ‘many murders had been committed by Irish Popish soldiers.’ Officers forfeited their commissions rather than admit Irish recruits at the King’s command. Nearly a whole regiment laid down their arms rather than declare against the tests. In the face of this popular feeling James persevered in his determination to bring over Irish troops. There were not enough of them to be of any real use, and they were guilty of many disorders on the road. Probably they were unpaid, and had to steal or starve. Tyrconnel was weakened by the loss of trained troops. Some 5000 were brought over in all, including about one-half of the Irish standing army of seven or eight thousand. Sarsfield and his men behaved well at Wincanton, but the skirmish there could not influence events. When the Revolution was accomplished most of the Irish were disarmed and kept in the Isle of Wight, whence William III. sent about two thousand as a present to the Emperor for employment against the Turks, thus contributing to the discomfiture of France and indirectly to that of their dethroned king. When the Dutch descent on England was imminent, Tyrconnel began to raise new regiments. He told James that Ireland was rich in men and provisions, but without money, and he sent full particulars through Sarsfield. The supply of competent officers was at once seen to be insufficient, and many non-commissioned officers and men left their colours in the old army with a view to getting promotion with the new levies. Before the end of the year Tyrconnel gave out that His Majesty’s revenue had decreased and was daily decreasing, and the clear pay of a soldier of the line was reduced to twopence halfpenny a day. Hundreds of commissions were issued in a very irregular way, and the new officers, in Archbishop King’s words, ‘were without money, estate, or any visible means to raise their troops and companies and to subsist [so they termed maintaining] them for three months from the first of January, a thing impossible without allowing them to steal and plunder. It was this struck so much terror into Protestants, and made them so jealous and apprehensive of danger that they fled into England in great numbers, especially when they found that the new raised men, as they surmised, began to make havoc of all things.’[172]

The Duke of Ormonde dies.

On July 21, less than a month after the acquittal of the seven bishops, the Duke of Ormonde died at Kingston Hall in Dorsetshire. It was the anniversary of his wife’s death four years before, and the end of his life was clouded by many other losses. His eldest son Ossory, who had a reputation scarcely inferior to Philip Sidney’s, had died in 1680, and his much less satisfactory brother Arran followed in 1685. As soon as the news reached Oxford, Convocation was hastily summoned, and the Duke’s grandson and successor was chosen Chancellor. A royal mandate to stop the election came too late, and the University was saved the indelible disgrace of seeing Jeffreys at its head. In one respect Ormonde was happy in an opportune death, for he did not have to choose between the King and the law. It would have been a bitter thing for him to come under another sovereign when James was still alive, but he opposed his policy. Only a year before his death he signed a protest against admitting a pensioner to the Charterhouse without taking the oath of allegiance and supremacy as required by an express Act of Parliament. The governors who protested with him were Sancroft, a non-juror, Craven, whose loyalty was absolute, Halifax the cautious, Danby and Compton, who signed the invitation to William of Orange, and Nottingham, who was privy to it but shrank from signing. The King and Jeffreys were cowed by this powerful opposition. Besides his anxiety about public affairs, Ormonde was troubled by want of money, for Tyrconnel’s proceedings had interfered with Irish rents, and he foresaw discomforts such as he never expected to feel ‘during the reign of any of the race of King Charles the First.’ His health was gradually failing, though he travelled much almost to the last, but he felt that the time for field sports was over, and that ‘the steps downwards are very natural from a field to a garden, from a garden to a window, from thence to a bed, and so to a grave.’[173]

His character.

Ormonde’s character has sufficiently appeared in the course of these volumes. His patience was boundless. Burnet, who had not much in common with him, says he was ‘firm to the Protestant religion, and so far firm to the laws that he always gave good advices: but even when bad ones were followed, he was not for complaining too much of them.’ His distinguishing principle was loyalty to the person of the sovereign and to the Crown as an institution. Thus, he fought for Charles I. as long as he had any party, and then he surrendered Dublin to the Parliament rather than damage the value of the reversion. Having begun by repressing the Irish rebels, he joined them when they were fain to call themselves royalists. During the interregnum he followed Charles II., and even risked his life in London when Cromwell was at the height of his power. During his three years of retirement after the accession of James, he continued to give good advice, and followed the King as long as he was able to go about. In Ireland he was undoubtedly popular, though an offence to extreme men on either side. Those who were ruined by the Act of Settlement thought he did not do enough for them. The Settlement, however, was not specially his work, but the result of the political situation, and for many he was able to secure special terms. By the Roman ecclesiastics he was, of course, hated, but they had done him all the harm they could in their day of power, and he made no secret of his wish to divide them. Most of his relations were Roman Catholics, but he stood staunchly by the Church of England. For persecution he had no taste, and he did much to soften the action of the English House of Commons. He did not neglect his own interests, though he might have had much more than he got, but some critics forgot that he had been in dire poverty during several years of exile. He, or rather his Duchess, was extravagant, as when 2000l. was spent on Charles II.’s supper, but his own tastes were very simple, and a boiled leg of mutton was all he insisted on. As a soldier he distinguished himself in the early part of the Civil War, but the disaster at Rathmines damaged his military reputation. He had a very bad army there, and Michael Jones had a very good one. His whole career is a comment on Wellington’s question—How is the King’s government to be carried on? The sovereigns whom he served were unworthy of such loyalty, but both England and Ireland profited by it.[174]

Disturbed state of Leinster.

Price’s case.

The state of the country after a year of Tyrconnel’s government may be inferred from such reports as have survived of the Spring Assizes in 1689. Chief Justice Keating and Baron Lynch, one of the new judges, presided at Wicklow. John Price, lately Receiver-General, but dismissed since Clarendon’s departure, was under his successor’s protection. When the new levies were in progress ‘the Merryboys,’ urged on by some of their clergy, made a general attack on the Protestants. Plunder was the order of the day. Price lived at Ballinderry in the Wicklow hills, and his neighbours gathered round him for mutual safety. Colonel O’Toole, who was said to have collected twenty-six loads of miscellaneous booty, demanded their horses and arms, which were refused. Colonel Sheldon was then sent with a strong force, and to him they submitted. On these facts Price and a hundred other Protestants were indicted for high treason. A true bill was found, but the multitudinous defendants challenged all Roman Catholics. For want of Protestant freeholders no petty jury could be had, so that the trial failed. A juror named Saville was discharged as destitute. Even his wife’s and his children’s clothes had been taken. Keating asked him the value, and he answered, ‘Truly, my lord, I have not yet computed my loss, but they have taken away all.’ In his charge to the Grand Jury the Chief Justice said the country generally was in an ill state, ‘but here they spare not even wearing clothes and habits of women and children, that they are forced to come abroad naked without anything to cover their nakedness.’ He prayed for the preservation of his sacred Majesty King James II., ‘for the protection of dutiful subjects, and for the subversion and eradication of all those who desire the subversion of his government either by foreign force or inbred conspiracy.’ He told the Roman Catholics that their turn would come. They knew that there had been ‘an invasion in England of a foreign enemy, the Prince of Orange, and the same is designed on this kingdom.’ When these words were spoken William was actually King of England, and it is not surprising that the Protestants, when they regained power, should have considered Keating a traitor, or at the very least a trimmer.[175]

Opinions of two judges.

At the same Assizes Maurice Cavanagh and two men named Poer and Boland, were indicted for robbery with violence. Cavanagh gave evidence against his accomplices and was acquitted. In sentencing Poer and Boland to be hanged, Keating said the worst of the three had escaped; and he drew a vivid picture of the condition of those who had put the labour of their whole lives into cattle and lost all in a night. There was, he said, nothing so barbarous this side of the Cape of Good Hope. Cavanagh swore that his parish priest had ordered him to have a skean, that similar orders had been given in other parishes, and that companies were thus everywhere collected armed with skeans or half-pikes. A letter dated March 2, addressed by Tyrconnel to the judges, was read in court. The Chief Justice having returned to Dublin, the Grand Jury gave in their answer to Lynch. The Lord Lieutenant complained of a falling revenue, and demanded a voluntary aid to be raised by the sheriffs, but they said in writing that the country was poor through the daily ruin of the English, and they could hardly live, much less subscribe. In discharging them the judge said their paper was a reflection and scandal to their country, and would be very ill taken by Government. He ordered it to be torn out of the minute-book, lest it should be used in evidence against them, and this was accordingly done.[176]

Case of Sir Thomas Southwell, March 1689.

Cork and Bandon, Mallow and Castlemartyr, being in Jacobite hands, about a hundred of the Munster gentry who were determined not to submit, prepared to join Lord Kingston at Sligo. Sir Thomas Southwell of Castlematras, near Rathkeale, was the leader of this expedition. Avoiding Limerick, they crossed the Shannon at O’Brien’s Bridge and made their way through Clare with slight opposition. At last they were captured in a narrow pass by James Power, sheriff of Galway, at the head of a strong force. It seems clear that the conditions were not faithfully kept, but the prisoners were all taken unharmed to Loughrea and thence to Galway. They were tried before Martin, one of the new judges, who went to court preceded by a piper instead of a trumpeter. The facts could not be denied, and the whole party were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and even ordered to prepare for immediate death, but there were several reprieves, and all were suffered to live until William’s arrival altered the situation. Southwell himself made friends with Kenneth, Lord Seaforth, who was allowed to carry him off after several months’ captivity. James granted him a pardon, though Nagle said he was then precluded by the Act of Attainder from doing so. As Southwell was by that time safe in Scotland, the validity of King James’s clemency remained undecided.[177]

William’s attempt to gain Tyrconnel.

Tyrconnel was a partisan of France, and in 1686 boasted that he could hand over Ireland to her whether he became Viceroy or not. Barillon said much the same, adding that only time and a Parliament could restore their property to the Catholics of Ireland. In the meantime James thoroughly approved of the Lord Deputy’s proceedings in that direction. There is no evidence that Tyrconnel at any time contemplated making terms with William, but he may have wished it to be thought that he did. He told Archbishop Marsh and others that he was weary of the government, but could not quit it without his master’s leave. ‘What,’ he said, ‘shall I do with the sword? There is nobody to receive it. Shall I throw it into the kennel?’ He may have had a moment of despair when he saw the thanes leaving their misguided master, and there is a letter written by Chief Justice Keating with his approval, which hints that he and his co-religionists would be satisfied if they could be placed in as good a position as they had held under Charles II. If James gave the order he was ready to disband his new levies. Keating’s letter was addressed to Sir John Temple, whose nephew advised William to send over Richard Hamilton, one of the officers sequestered in the Isle of Wight. It is uncertain whether Hamilton had an understanding with Tyrconnel, or whether he really thought he could persuade him to accept William’s terms. However that may be, it was known in a month that the emissary would not return as he had promised, and he doubtless confirmed Tyrconnel in his determination to resist. John Temple was blamed for the bloodshed that followed, and his tragic death was the result of remorse.[178]

Unrest in Ulster,

and in Dublin.

‘It pleased God,’ said George Walker, ‘so to infatuate the councils of my Lord Tyrconnel that when the 3000 men were sent to assist his master against the invasion of the Prince of Orange, he took particular care to send away the whole regiment quartered in and about Londonderry.’ The air was full of rumours, and the prevailing panic was increased by an anonymous letter announcing that there would be a massacre of the Protestants on Sunday, December 9. Many copies were circulated, one of which, addressed to Lord Mount Alexander, was found in the street at Comber in Down. The letter was doubtless an impudent fabrication, but it had a great effect, for 1641 was not forgotten. Copies reached Dublin on Friday, Sunday was the fatal day, and 3000 Protestants managed to get away by sea on the Saturday. Tyrconnel did not lose a moment before issuing a proclamation against false news, and he sent a yacht after the fugitives, but they could not be persuaded to return. The alarm spread to the country, and for several successive Sundays Protestant congregations worshipped with armed sentries at the door, like the Scotch field conventicles in Lauderdale’s time. The panic in London owing to false reports brought by countrymen took place a week later, and may have been an echo of the Comber letter, but the truth will never be known. Londonderry became a city of refuge, with vigorous support from Enniskillen and Sligo, which Tyrconnel had also neglected to garrison.[179]

Non-resistance. Dr. King.

Lord Mountjoy.

The English colonists in Ireland were naturally most unwilling to break with the King. The Scots were less so, though the Presbytery of Belfast had in some sort taken the part of Charles I. against the Parliament. The position occupied by the covenanted King before Worcester had not increased their respect for the royal office, nor had the boot and the thumbscrew done much to revive it. Ezekiel Hopkins, Bishop of Derry, was for non-resistance at any price. Dr. William King, who succeeded him after the Boyne, held the same doctrine, but he realised that James was on the road to ruin, and has left an interesting account of the steps by which he came to see that his allegiance was due to King William. It was a comfort to him to reflect that he had done nothing to bring about the change, and might become an archbishop under the sovereign whom Parliament had chosen. Less fortunate was William Stewart, Viscount Mountjoy, whose father had fought against Cromwell at Dunbar, who had been Master of the Ordinance since 1684, and who had seen foreign service. It was his regiment which was withdrawn from Londonderry to replace one sent to England. On account of his great influence the purge had been sparingly used in this case, and many, perhaps most, of Mountjoy’s men were Protestants. After Londonderry had shut its gates Mountjoy was admitted alone, but the town was induced to receive two companies, chiefly Protestants, under the command of Lundy, who has thus gained an unenviable place in history. Mountjoy then went to Dublin, where Tyrconnel persuaded him to go to James in France, to say that he would destroy Ireland, but not save it, and to ask leave for the Deputy to treat with the usurper. Tyrconnel promised upon his word and honour not to raise or arm additional troops and to sign no fresh commissions, to keep the new levies in quarters, and to send no more into Ulster, to molest no one for any tumultuous meeting or disorder before January 10, and to quarter no soldiers in any private gentleman’s house. The sequel is well known. Chief Baron Rice accompanied Mountjoy to Paris with secret orders directly opposite to those avowed. The deceived soldier was at once shut up in the Bastille, where he remained for over three years, and was then exchanged for Richard Hamilton. Having by this time had enough of passive resistance, he joined William as a volunteer, and was killed at Steenkirk. James was no party to the imprisonment, and would have been satisfied to let Mountjoy leave France. Tyrconnel at once proceeded to do all the things he had promised on his word and honour not to do—the honour which stooped to traduce Anne Hyde, and the word which had gained him the name of lying Dick Talbot. The treacherous detention of Mountjoy was a blunder, for the Protestants found other leaders, and were confirmed in their opinion that no faith would be kept with heretics.

The gates of Londonderry shut, December 1688.

On the same day that the Comber letter reached Londonderry there came another from George Philips of Limavady, who had been governor in Charles II.’s time. He was a descendant of that Philips who had been conspicuous in the Ulster Settlement. He informed the townsmen that Lord Antrim was near with his regiment, and cautioned them against admitting it. Antrim’s men were raw levies, some 1200 Highlanders and Irish, not properly clothed and very imperfectly armed, and, of course, all Roman Catholics. The men on the wall saw the motley crowd, and thought that they had come to fulfil the predicted massacre. Against the advice of the bishop and disregarding the fears of their elders, some young apprentices shut the gates in the face of Lord Antrim’s officers. He withdrew to Coleraine, and ten days later Tyrconnel ordered him to be ready to march at a moment’s notice. The Lord Deputy was about to send an army against the rebellious town, and would follow himself in a short time. In the meantime Mountjoy had received a somewhat apologetic letter from the citizens, in which the apprentice boys are called a rabble; but in writing to the Irish Society in London the same men say only that ‘just as the soldiers were approaching the gates, the youthhood, by a strange impulse, ran in one body and shut them.’ Old and young combined to form themselves into companies. Philips accepted the office of governor, and, while seeking a pardon from the Lord Deputy, the offenders made it quite clear that they would stand on their defence. Mountjoy entered the town alone, but it was agreed that two companies of his regiment, chiefly Protestants, should be quartered there under Colonel Robert Lundy, who became governor, and that future reinforcements should be at least one-half Protestant. When the flight of James was known, the determination to hold out became stronger, and when William actually became King of England all restraint was withdrawn. Lundy received a commission from the new sovereign. When James landed in Ireland he found the state of war fully established between his own Government and the Protestants of Ulster.[180]

Enniskillen determines to resist.

‘We stand upon our guard,’ said Gustavus Hamilton, governor of Enniskillen, ‘and do resolve, by the blessing of God, rather to meet our danger than expect it.’ The great men of the neighbourhood were timid or lukewarm, but the people did not hesitate, and their chosen governor identified himself with them. His grandfather, who was Archbishop of Cashel, had died in exile after being plundered by the rebels in 1641. His mother was a Swede, his father and uncle had served under the great Gustavus, and he himself had been turned out of the army by Tyrconnel. At Enniskillen, as at Derry, there was great unwillingness to oppose King James, but circumstances were too strong, and the party of resistance soon got the upper hand. The Comber letter arrived on December 7, and the effect was immediate. The Irish were drilling and arming in the neighbourhood, and the news from Dublin grew daily worse. It was hard to get a horse shod, for the country smiths were busy making pikes, and staves were being cut openly in the woods. On December 13 came news that two companies were actually on their way to garrison the town. From that moment country people with horses and arms flocked in to reinforce the inhabitants, who were under a hundred in number. Three days later the dreaded companies, with a convoy of arms for the rabble, reached Lisbellaw, some four miles away. By this time the townsmen could muster 200 foot and 150 horse, and they resolved to be the attacking party. Hamilton had raised another 100 horse on his own account, and was ready to support them. The invaders fled without striking a blow to Maguire’s Bridge, and the next day to Cavan. Hamilton then accepted the office of governor, and a few days later the news came of James having left London, after which there was no hesitation, though it was long before the full facts were known. Some said he had gone to Rome, others to a monastery, and others that he was dead. Until after his landing in Ireland there was no further attempt against Enniskillen. Lundy was accepted as commander-in-chief, and on March 11 William and Mary were joyfully proclaimed with as much ceremony as circumstances admitted.[181]

Sligo.

The panic extended to Sligo, and the gentry there, chiefly under the guidance of Robert, Lord Kingston, determined to resist. As at Londonderry and Enniskillen, Roman Catholics were excluded from the town, and the Protestants resolved to cast in their lot with the English Government and Parliament. Troops and companies were formed, Kingston and Colonel Chidley Coote were chosen commanders-in-chief, and care was taken to provide for communication with Enniskillen. One outpost was at Manor Hamilton, which had played a part in 1641, and another at Dromahaire, the old O’Rourke stronghold near Lough Gill. The Protestants of Roscommon, Mayo, and Leitrim flocked to Sligo, and when James landed it was still in Protestant hands.

Ineffective resistance in Ulster.

The Break of Dromore.

The Protestant gentry of Down and Antrim met at Comber and formed an association. Lord Mount Alexander, who was only a nominal soldier, was made commander of the forces raised, which were considerable in point of number. A council was established at Hillsborough, where there was a fort, and stores were collected there; but from the first ill-success attended the movement. The general showed little ability, and his heart was not really in the business, while he complained of being ill seconded by others. The local magnates quarrelled among themselves. No real leader made himself known. A plot to seize Belfast and Carrickfergus, which were undefended, failed through want of promptitude, and an attempt to surprise the latter place after it had received a garrison was ill-managed and unsuccessful. Just before James landed in Ireland, Tyrconnel sent Richard Hamilton with a thousand good soldiers and twice that number of raw levies to the North. The Protestants were scattered about in small bodies and never came properly together. Those at Rathfriland and Loughbrickland fled at Hamilton’s approach. A stand was made at Dromore, but he fell upon them before they were all assembled, and a complete rout followed. Tradition says the struggle was so short that a woman left her baking to see the fight, and on her return found the bread not burnt. Some delay was caused by the strong fort at Hillsborough, but there was no serious resistance. The general and most of the chief men fled to England or Scotland, and the rest flocked to Londonderry and Coleraine. By the time that James reached Dublin opposition to him was practically confined to the territory controlled by Londonderry and Enniskillen. Sligo was evacuated by special orders from Lundy, who laid the blood of all Ulster on Lord Kingston’s head, if he did not come at once to the relief of Londonderry. The holder of King William’s commission was obeyed, but when the Sligo men got to Ballyshannon they were ordered to stop there and defend the Erne. Afterwards they were told to go to Cladyford, but the order came too late. Lundy, who had at first demanded every man, then offered to take in a few as a sort of favour. Lord Kingston made his way to England, but he left Colonel Lloyd behind, who became the fighting hero of the Enniskillen garrison.’[182]