Wellesley, Whiteboys and the Brampton Men
Print Page Click here to print this page
By Dr. Jennifer Harrison
Dept of History, The University of Queensland, Australia

On 26 December 1821 at Ballybritton on the Grand Canal in King's County, Ireland, John Daly and James Fyans stole arms from the house of Mr J. Cooper. The two men were sentenced to death under the Whiteboy or Insurrection Act at Philipstown Assizes on Wednesday 20 March 18221. Seven and a half months later on 8 November 1822, Daly was among 172 men, most of whom had been convicted under the same Act, on board the convict ship Brampton which arrived at Port Jackson on 22 April 18232. As many of the passengers had received sentences of death, and all had originated in the Irish southern and midland counties, what circumstances existed in the early 1820s to determine this result?

In February 1822 on the proposal of Lord Londonderry, the House of Commons assented to the 1815 Act of Insurrection immediately being revived in Ireland and the suspension there of habeas corpus for at least six months at a time when the number of British troops stationed locally exceeded 16,0003. Drastic steps? Moreover, with over 300 persons awaiting trial for crimes associated with the 'Munster war', why was the government pre-arranging for the transportation of a large proportion4. As it was anticipated that the number of death sentences imposed would reach a level 'neither humanity nor policy could sanction'5, the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Marquess Wellesley was seeking Home Office cooperation to substitute transportation for the gallows whenever possible6. In an extract of justification to Rt. Hon. Robert Peel in May 1822, the new incumbent of Dublin Castle wrote:

If the Insurrection Act derives its forces from the principles of coercion and terror, it has suspended a tyranny which carried both to the utmost extremity of barbarous and relentless cruelty; which had become irresistible by the ordinary powers of law and which unresisted, must have reduced Ireland to incapacity.

John Daly was one who benefited from this indulgence with his death sentence reduced to transportation for seven years, a dramatic amendment for a man condemned to the ultimate penalty8. The prosecutor's house from where Daly and Fyans stole arms was described as being on the 'line of the Canal9'. After giving their testimony, Cooper and his daughter, had been pursued and harassed by a mob. Furthermore, they were denied accommodation at lodging houses because a woman ran ahead urging hosts to refuse them as they had sworn away two lives before the crowd stoned them until the yeomanry averted certain murder10. Why was there public sympathy for two burglars?

At a special assize held in Limerick mid-February 1822, thirty-six capital sentences were ordered, or more than one in ten of those on trial. Several ringleaders were hanged but during the next eighteen months, hundreds of these insurrectionists were sent to Port Jackson. In this decade of the second centenary commemoration of the 1798 Rebellion, perhaps it is appropriate to look at this mid-term chapter of political activity which resulted in more Irish agitators being sent to Australia at one time since the transportation of United Irish supporters in the early years of the nineteenth century. All the better identified Irish rebels including the 1815 Ballagh arsonists11, the 1848 Young Irelanders12 and the 1867 Hougoumont Western Australian exiles added together (around 80) equal only a small fraction of the number who came between 1822-4.

Whiteboys

The term, Whiteboy, was first used to describe political agitators in October 176113. Disorganised small groups of rebels sought to redress various grievances that usually involved the amount of exaction and the manner of collecting tithes especially in Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Queen's counties14. In these districts the farmers granted labourers allotments of bog, mountain and other waste land for specific terms, usually free of rent, to grow potatoes. At the end of each June overseers would view the crop, value it and no part could be removed until an agreement had been reached to pay one-tenth of the assessment value. The impost traditionally was levied on corn but its extension to the subsistence crop met with resistance. Bands of men, wearing the shirts uppermost to avoid identification, met by night. On occasions, in some districts, when aggravated by community issues, these divergent strands became loosely unified under local heroes such as Captain Fearnought and Captain Rock who encouraged the use of uniforms, secrecy oaths, intimidation and punishment rituals. The agitators attacked properties creating so many public disturbances that the legislators enacted regulations known as the Whiteboy Act in 1796, 1799, then in 1815, the Insurrection Act to cope with Whiteboys, Oak Boys, Peep of Day Boys, Thrashers, Defenders, Shanavats, Caravats, Lady Clares and later Terry Alts and Rockites.15

Over the following years, as economic circumstances rose and fell in accordance with weather conditions, local employment levels, war time inflation and peace time depression, changes in farming and pasturing methods, relocation of industry and religious intoleration, organised protest groups and rebellious individuals reacted with varying degrees of violence from time to time and place to place.

In addition, a study of the gaol books for both the counties of Cork and Limerick which have survived for these years, support the extent of insurrectionist disorder.16 As a contrast, the musters taken when convict ships arrived in Sydney before 1826 do not give details of the crimes, merely mentioning the place and date of trial, the sentence and the number of previous convictions. However the musters taken on board the vessels at the time of sailing do offer this information but only a limited number survive.17

Irish discontent, 1818-23

Discontent for Irish farm labourers came from several causes between 1818 and 1823. Firstly, the ending of the Napoleonic wars had a twofold effect on employment levels. Initially, there was significant reduction in the number of soldiers required for the ranks to which the Irish traditionally had contributed a constant and steady input. A large proportion of these in the period following the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France in November 1818 returned home looking for jobs. Employment opportunities did not exist for the locals let alone the veterans. Additionally, the associated slackening in demand for food, such as butter and meat which had been issuing out of the eastern ports for the sustenance of troops, necessitated a realignment of markets. Due to the introduction of rents on previously unfarmed areas and then to dramatic increases in these levies during prosperous years, former pasturage areas which had been converted to more labour-intensive tillage were abandoned again to flocks. This occurred particularly in many southern and midwestern districts leaving out-of-work cottiers deprived of their patch of potato producing, life supporting ground as well as their jobs. "In the tillage rotations of farmers, the potato had become the universally accepted restorative crop rather than turnips or mangels18." Furthermore, to compound these problems, during the years of plenty, the population between 1791 and 1821 increased by 50%, from 4.4 million to 6.8 million people, with the greatest boom occurring in the poorer districts least able to sustain a burgeoning population in times of dearth. And famine did come in 1818 and 1821. The final ingredient in this hotpot was that of rebellion which since the 1760s had been absorbing spicy flavours such as republicanism, religious toleration and millenarianism. In this paper, several of these components will be examined, taking as examples some of the 172 men on the Brampton which arrived at Port Jackson on 22 April 1823 and concentrating on King's County,19 an area on the periphery of districts more usually associated with rural collective action.20

Control in Ireland

Official organisations used to counter agitation in King's County and surrounding districts included the diminishing army, an unpopular factional yeomanry, an almost non-existent militia, and an embryonic police force. One of the regiments transferred into Ireland in 1818 was the 57th which served there for six years before being posted to New South Wales. A comment in the regimental history noted: "Their duties included suppressing Whiteboy outrages... It was the kind of police work that soldiers dislike."21 In all, thirty-six regiments were on posting to Ireland in 1821, most of them being rotated through the counties each year.22 At this critical time, the 93rd was based at Birr in King's County, while several others were closeby with the 57th in Galway, the 3rd at Mullingar, the 40th at Ennis, 44th at Naas, 63rd at Athlone and the 2nd Rifle Company located in Tuam.23

When Henry Goulburn replaced Charles Grant as chief secretary in Ireland in December 1821, constructive changes took place. "Within the next year and a half, Ireland received new police force, a reform of the magistracy was instituted, an attempt was made to alleviate the burden of the tithe and the practice of holding petty sessions of the magistracy was introduced".24 It was these developments which coped with the large numbers of agitators.

King's County

During 1820, incidences in King's County attributed to Whiteboys increased markedly with over 83 reports of trouble. The records described robbery of arms from houses, the surrender of useless arms and the retention of effective ones by the public, numbers of armed men crossing the Shannon River from Galway who broke into houses, robbed arms and gave illegal oaths, several requests for troops to be stationed in particular districts, attacks on boats in the Grand Canal, private distillation and collections to pay for and to bribe prosecutors. More than one-third of the complaints were made between October and late December, normally recognised as 'outrage season'. By the end of 1820, clearly the situation in King's County, on the periphery of established arenas of action, was deteriorating. One regular correspondent from Tullamore on 6 December 1820 reported:

I fear that the County is every hour getting worse. It has been mentioned to me from an authority that I do not doubt that the people called Carders have changed their title and are now called Ribbonmen. I last night had a man with me ... who knows a good deal of what is going forward... From what he hears the town [Dublin] is Irish and the Count[ies] of Dublin, Kildare, King's County and part of the Queen's County have been sworn to the Ribband Man's oath, that he hears that they have meeting houses in Dublin... in the neighbourhood of the Grand Canal. As I am a partner in a large establishment on that Canal it would be destruction to me if this information was divulged to any one as already have they done me injury & total ruin would follow...25

The central situation of the county within the country and its location on the Grand Canal assumed strategic importance as direct access to Dublin was quick, easy and cheap.26 The reporter continued: "I do believe the boat men employed in the lumber or trade boats are deeply concerned and I also believe they are the link between the disaffected in the City and the Country."27

Not many records have survived for these districts in 1821 but King's County was reported to be 'in a dangerous state' while Limerick was worst of all. Once again the authorities had let the situation develop until it was beyond their control. During the year the crops failed and by the end, the familiar pattern of disease accompanying the hunger was established. By late December 1821, the London Times reported:

"The Dublin papers of Saturday evening arrived yesterday. They give a melancholy picture of the state of Ireland. Natural, seem now to conspire with political, causes to desolate that ill-fated country. The late heavy rains have produced the most ruinous consequences upon the potato crops; and typhus, the usual result of any extraordinary scarcity in an impoverished country, has made its appearance."28

The Annual Register confirmed that any goodwill engendered by the recent visit of George IV completely disappeared. "The gaudy and hollow bubble of conciliation soon burst and a system of outrage, robbery, murder and assassination commenced scarcely to be paralleled in the annals of any civilised country."29 A map of King's County has been marked with all places reporting disturbances and outrages during 1821 and early 1822.30 Although not usually identified with insurrection, nearly every district and almost every settlement reported outbreaks of disorder in the two year period under discussion.

By 1822, little had changed with a similar number of complaints despite the presence of the yeomanry. In February, Major Powell in Shanavogue submitted a sample of a notice objecting to tithes in the parish of Shinrone but by the middle of March he commented on the tranquillity of the district attributing peace to the recently enforced Insurrection Act. Also in March, the petition of the local justice of the peace in Edenderry, Mr. J. Brownrigg, was successful in obtaining a military station for the eastern part of the county. He stressed that a permanent force was needed indicating the uselessness of bringing military into the county only to take them out again. In late June 1822 a report verified that hunger and disease were stretching available resources while violence became more common as men became more desperate. Major Powell had written on three aspects which drew attention to the problems worrying county officials: firstly, that violent outrages were increasing although a man indicted for a local murder had been apprehended, next that a fever hospital to cope with typhoid had been established and thirdly, that he strongly was of the opinion that local distress was attributable to the lack of employment rather than a shortage of food.

The Brampton

On 8 November 1822, the Brampton sailed from the Cove of Cork to New South Wales under Captain Samuel Moore and surgeon superintendent, Doctor Morgan Price. The passengers on this sailing were men who had been sentenced during the summer of 1821 and the Lent, Spring and Summer assizes of 1822, having been tried in sixteen of the thirty-two Irish counties mainly from the western and midland districts. While not every single Brampton passenger was an agrarian agitator, the majority were drawn from traditional Whiteboy territories with 35 from Tipperary, 32 from Limerick, 25 from Kerry, 15 from Queen's County, 12 from both Waterford and Mayo and 10 each from Cork and Kilkenny.31 On the muster taken in Queenstown just prior to sailing,32 most of the Tipperary lads were listed as having been 'tried under the Insurrection Act' whereas at least ten from Kerry including Edmund Elliott, a 51 year old dancing master, had been sentenced for administering oaths. All the Cork men were identified as Whiteboys with both John Sullivan and Timothy Dawley both guilty of heiress abduction and administering oaths with the former obtaining respite from execution.

Nine prisoners, aged between 17 and 27, had been sentenced in King's County even though Patrick Mulleady was a native of Westmeath, young errand-boy John Prince had been born in Kilkenny and Thomas McGomery (or Montgomery) hailed from Meath, providing another indication of widespread mobility among the unskilled workforce.33 Their trades were varied with four ploughmen, a coachman, a stockman and a baker. Five were convicted for robbery offences and two had stolen heifers and cows. By the time the ship departed some of the harsh sentences had been modified as five had originally received the death penalty; now seven were transported for seven years while only two, Patrick Mulleady and Patrick Brittle/Buttle, a murderer, were outcasts for life. All had faced trial between the Summer Assizes of 1821 and 1822 so authorities allowed little lingering in county gaols. The northern and midland county officials customarily sent their prisoners to Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin with many proceeding directly to the Essex hulk until passages were secured on convict transports when they were transhipped to Cove, in Cork harbour. Those from the southern regions went directly to Cork, usually to the Surprize hulk until assigned to their ships.

Aftermath

These convicts had varying careers in New South Wales.34 Two of the ploughmen adapted their skills with Patrick Mulleady/Mulladay becoming a watchman while Patrick Houlahan/Holaghan, assigned to the Rev. T. Hassall, was employed as a bullockdriver. Edward Claffey was assigned to F.E. Forbes of Sydney whereas Thomas McGomery was a labourer at Camden and Matthew Murray, another labourer, was assigned to James Walker of Bathurst. He married Catherine Carthy in 1827 and following her death in 1829 in childbirth, wed Maria Hackett in 1831. He was before the magistrate again in Campbelltown in November 1833. John Prince, the young messenger from Kilkenny, was accidentally shot and died in 1824 near Newcastle whereas John Daly, the baker, married Hannah Lee, a nursemaid to the George Acres' family, who arrived in the colony of New South Wales on the same vessel bringing Governor Thomas Brisbane to Sydney. John Daly also appeared before the Sydney Quarter Sessions in 1835 but avoided conviction. Thomas Claven did not marry until 1839 when he wed Mary Thomas; one reason for the delay probably being his sentence at Bringelly on 21 October 1826 to the Moreton Bay penal settlement for two years for robbery.35 Lifer Patrick Buttle worked for H. Coulson in Sydney in 1837 having obtained a ticket of leave in 1830.36 On the records held on these men in NSW no allusion is made to their original crime until Insurrection is mentioned on one Certificate of Freedom issued on 15 October 1840.37 The musters on arrival, exemptions from government labour, tickets of leave, any trial records, all neglect to mention that any of these men may have been connected with rebellion in their homeland.

This is work in progress. The primary investigation demonstrates that in 1821-2 throughout Ireland Whiteboy activity permeated extensively but that wholesale rebellion was avoided and the problem defused by the transportation of the rabble-rousers to the other side of the world. These people often were guilty of crimes much more violent than petty stealing but New South Wales authorities appear to have received little warning of the difference in the degree of criminality and further that some attempts were made to confound certain officials. As all incidences of sheep stealing, coining, forgery, housebreaking, arson or highway robbery, cannot be attributed to political rebels, it is difficult to enumerate those involved with organised rural resistance. A.G.L. Shaw has asserted that about one-fifth of male Irish convicts were political agitators and it is certain that total numbers were quite significant and deserve investigation in their Australian context as rebels continued to arrive throughout the tithe battles well into the 1830s. Whether a study of all the insurrectionists sent to New South Wales between 1822 and 1824 will show a high percentage of recidivism, remains to be seen.

Agitation in King's County between 1820 and 1823 does not appear very organised so incorrectly ascribing ideas of unified or collective action to individual acts of aggression achieves little especially when an uneasy and incompetent magistracy simply invoked the all-encompassing Act. In some cases local grievances provoked local destruction but several troublemakers were, without doubt, just village bullies, burglars and poachers. Disruptions in this county were based on unemployment rather than a lack of food, resentment of tithes or other taxes, or evictions or changes in tenure although geographic influences such as limited tillage land and the prevalence of bog were important factors.

On the other hand, the mere nine King's County men on the Brampton were forerunners of a greater number from this region on later convict ships confirming that complaints increased and vigilance and apprehensions improved. Furthermore, while little cohesion can be perceived in the outbreaks, the concept that the overall direction for insurrection might have its origins in urban centres should be pursued. Rebel leaders operating from townships such as Dublin, Cork and Limerick, well may have furthered their aims by using sore points festering in adjacent counties through improved communication networks. Perhaps too, the emphasis by several historians that most political agitation was confined to southern rural areas in easily recognisable 'disturbed' counties, now requires reassessment. Evidence mounts that outrages took place with alarming frequency throughout other counties and that 'ordinary' crimes such as housebreaking and larceny well could be Whiteboy actions, further distorting lines of positive association with either common thieves or political rebels.38 The combination of source material in both Ireland and Australia will be required to offer solutions, or pose further questions, about 1820s Whiteboy activities.


NOTES

  1. Saunder's Newsletter, 23 Mar 1822, p.1.
  2. AONSW, 4/4008.
  3. Annual Register, 1822, p. 26.
  4. Galen Broeker, Rural Disorder and Police Reform in Ireland, 1812-36. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970, p. 135.
  5. PRO, HO 100/203, Wellesley to R. Peel, 21 Jan 1822.
  6. "The Marquess Wellesley is said to be the first Irishman who has been placed at the head of the Government of Ireland for a century and a half; the last Irish Lord Lieutenant being the Duke of Ormond." Dublin Morning Post, 21 Dec 1821. Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington's eldest brother, when govenor general of India triumphed over Sultan Tippoo and was twice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
  7. House of Commons papers, XIV, p. 737.
  8. James Fyans who had been caught and sentenced with Daly must have either been executed, received a total reprieve, been imprest into the army or navy, or have died as he did not travel to New South Wales. Despite a thorough search, no more is known about him.
  9. Saunder's Newsletter, 23 Mar 1822, p. 1.
  10. National Archives Dublin (hereon NAD), State of the Country papers, 2370/28, 20 & 26 Mar 1822.
  11. Max Barrett, Because of these, Toowoomba, Church Archivists' Press, 1992.
  12. ed. Richard Davis, 'To solitude consigned': The Tasmanian Journal of William Smith O'Brien, Sydney, Crossing Press, 1994. Also T.J. Kiernan, The Irish exiles in Australia, Dublin, Clonmore & Reynolds, 1954, pp. 43-134.
  13. G.C. Lewis, Local Disturbances in Ireland, Cork, Tower Books, 1836/1977. Maureen Wall, The Whiteboys in Secret Societies in Ireland, ed. T.D. Williams, Dublin, Gill and MacMillan, 1973, 13-25. J.S. Donnelly, The Whiteboy Movement, 1761-5, in Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 21, No. 81 (Mar 1978), pp. 20-54.
  14. The State of the Country papers at the National Archives Dublin have been consulted in order to obtain an impression of the extent of Whiteboy activities. Whilst not every report has survived, those that do, indicated that in 1822 most disturbances were in Cork (especially the Baronies of Condon and Clangibbon) with 406 complaints, Limerick 290, Tipperary 175, and Kerry 147.
  15. A.G.L. Shaw, Convicts & the Colonies, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1981, p. 176 noted how rarely extreme powers were invoked despite all this provocation.
  16. NAD. Prisons 1/8/1. V16-1-30 Cork County Gaol, General Register, 1 Jan 1819-31 Dec 1824; 1/24/1 V16-10-28 Limerick General Register of Criminals, 1830-7.
  17. AONSW. X40, Irish Indent for Brampton.
  18. James S. Donnelly, Jr. The Land and the People of Nineteenth Century Cork: the rural economy and the land question, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975/1987, p. 29.
  19. Since 1922, known as Co. Offaly.
  20. Annual Register, 1822, p. 13. After detailing areas of disturbance in Munster, it was reported: "There were four other counties of Leinster, to which the illegal associations had extended their influence; namely, Kildare, West-Meath, King's County and Meath." The purpose here is to highlight the extent of activity in a district other than those traditionally linked with secret societies and outrages.
  21. ed. Wolmer Whyte, The roll of the drum: Histories of the regiments of the British army. The Die-Hards: the story of the Middlesex regiments, London, Hutchison, [n.d. c. 1944].
  22. Seven of the twelve regiments which received overseas postings in April 1821 embarked from Ireland where they had been serving. The Times, 23 Apr 1821.
  23. The Times, 4 Jan 1821.
  24. Broeker, Rural Disorder, p. 130.
  25. NAD, State of the Country papers, 2179/81.
  26. The Grand Canal had been constructed to Philipstown (Daingean) in 1797 and to Tullamore in 1798 and in April 1804, the first trade boat arrived in Shannon Harbour from Dublin. See Ruth Delany, Ireland's Inland Waterways, Belfast, Appletree Press, 1988. pp. 85 & 87.
  27. The Times for 19 Jan 1821 reported murder and plundering on cargo boat on the Grand Canal near Edenderry. "Several gentlemen residing near to the spot have subscribed a very liberal reward to any persons who shall cause the delinquents to be apprehended; and the directors of the Grand Canal Company have in a manner highly commendable, offer 100 pounds to the same purpose."
  28. The Times, 26 Dec 1821.
  29. Annual Register, 1821, p. 128.
  30. This information has been extracted from the NAD, State of the Country files, King's County, 1822, 2370 Nos.1, 11, 18, 21, 41, 48.
  31. Ruan O'Donnell's paper at this conference also confirmed that the sailings appeared to be divided into 'crime' ships and 'rebel' ships during the mid-1790s, a division which can be seen in post-1821 transportation from Ireland.
  32. AONSW. X40, Irish indent.
  33. AONSW. 4/4008. Fiche 649, p.299-312.
  34. This information has been gathered from among convict records at AONSW including shipping indents; assignment registers; birth, death & marriage entries; banns records; quarter session and supreme court records.
  35. State Library of Queensland, Chronological Register [of convicts arriving at Moreton Bay], Film 81, Prisoner No. 950. Thomas Claven returned to Sydney on 8 Dec 1828.
  36. AONSW. 4/4074. Ticket of Leave, 1830/36.
  37. AONSW. 4/4361, Certificate of Freedom, 1840/1694.
  38. Shaw, Convicts and Colonies, pp. 180-2. George Rude, Protest and Punishment, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, c. 1978, pp. 104-106; all quoted examples are from the 'traditional' Whiteboy counties.
Back to List
 

Site Hosted by Dotser

  

A-Z of Offaly - About Offaly - Community History - Famous People - Photographs - Maps - Town Crests - 19th Century Offaly
© Irish Midlands Ancestry - Bury Quay - Tullamore - Co. Offaly - Ireland - email
Contact Us