Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Note on dates and quotations
- 1 From barbarian to burlesque: the changing stereotype of the Irish
- 2 Anglo-Irish attitudes: shifting perceptions of national identity
- 3 Aristocratic decline: the fall of the house of Ormond
- 4 A presence in the country: the Brodricks and their ‘interest’
- 5 ‘Commonwealthman’, unionist and king's servant: Henry Maxwell and the Whig imperative
- 6 ‘Paltry underlings of state’? The character and aspirations of the ‘Castle’ party, 1715–32
- 7 Creating industrious Protestants: charity schools and the enterprise of religious and social reformation
- 8 A question of upbringing: Thomas Prior, Sir John Rawdon, 3rd Bt, and the mentality and ideology of ‘improvement’
- Bibliography of secondary works
- Index
5 - ‘Commonwealthman’, unionist and king's servant: Henry Maxwell and the Whig imperative
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Note on dates and quotations
- 1 From barbarian to burlesque: the changing stereotype of the Irish
- 2 Anglo-Irish attitudes: shifting perceptions of national identity
- 3 Aristocratic decline: the fall of the house of Ormond
- 4 A presence in the country: the Brodricks and their ‘interest’
- 5 ‘Commonwealthman’, unionist and king's servant: Henry Maxwell and the Whig imperative
- 6 ‘Paltry underlings of state’? The character and aspirations of the ‘Castle’ party, 1715–32
- 7 Creating industrious Protestants: charity schools and the enterprise of religious and social reformation
- 8 A question of upbringing: Thomas Prior, Sir John Rawdon, 3rd Bt, and the mentality and ideology of ‘improvement’
- Bibliography of secondary works
- Index
Summary
Henry Maxwell, squire of Finnebrogue, County Down, who successively represented three Ulster boroughs – Bangor, Killybegs and Donegal town – in the Irish House of Commons from 1698 until his death in 1730 (from the effects of an ‘apoplectic fit’), has attracted rather more scholarly attention than is usual for an early eighteenth-century Irish M.P. This is not because of his importance in the Irish parliament, or in Irish politics generally, though he was by no means an insignificant figure, but because of his political writing, and in particular the pamphlet published anonymously in 1703 arguing the merits of an incorporating Anglo-Irish union, An essay towards an union of Ireland with England. This is a rare example of early eighteenth-century unionism, though by no means a straightforward statement of principle. As we shall see, Maxwell's intention in the pamphlet is susceptible to more than one interpretation; and it is equally impossible to construct a clear and unequivocal statement of unionist principles from his other published writings, or his speeches and votes in the House of Commons. If anything, his career illustrates the complexity of politics in early eighteenth-century Ireland, situated, as he was, within a matrix of sometimes conflicting influences. Most obviously, although he was undoubtedly a Whig, his family background within the established church in east Ulster disposed him to take a sour view of Presbyterian ambitions, and induced him to side with Tories in support of the maintenance of the sacramental test.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Anglo-Irish Experience, 1680-1730Religion, Identity and Patriotism, pp. 104 - 123Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012