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‘A dangerous species of ally’1: Orangeism and the Irish Yeomanry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Allan F. Blackstock
Allan F. Blackstock*
Affiliation:
Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University of Belfast
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Extract

The Irish Yeomanry was a voluntary, part-time military force raised in 1796 for local law-and-order duties, with the potential for full military service during invasion or insurrection. It consisted of locally organised corps of up to 100 men serving under commissioned officers, paid, armed and equipped by government. The Irish Yeomanry and Orange Order are popularly associated to the extent of being semantically linked in songs: for example, one ballad claims that the Orangeman:

Prays for peace, yet war will face,

Should rebels congregate;

Like the brave Orange Yeomanry

Who fought in Ninety-eight.

The primary sources apparently corroborate this with much evidence of ostentatiously ‘Orange’ displays by yeomen. On 12 July 1797 eight Catholic Kerry militiamen were killed in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, in a brawl with yeomen and Orangemen after a militiaman seized an Orange cockade. At Hillsborough in October 1798 ‘a party of Yeoman Infantry (calling themselves Orangemen) beat a number of poor Papists out of the market’. Yet to automatically accept the received view on the ‘Orange yeomanry’ risks anachronistical determining cause by consequence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 119 , May 1997 , pp. 393 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1997

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Footnotes

1

Auckland to Mornington, 22 Apr. 1798 (B.L., Add. MS 37307, f. 132).

References

2 37 Geo. III, c.2.

3 Cleary, H.W., The Orange Society (London, 1899), p. 258.Google Scholar

4 Camden to Portland, 17 July 1797 (P.R.O., HO 100/72/109).

5 Stephenson to Downshire, 9 Oct. 1798 (P.R.O.N.I., Downshire papers, D607/F/454).

6 Senior, Hereward, Orangeism in Ireland and Britain, 1795–1836 (London, 1966)Google Scholar.

7 Richardson, William, A history of the origin of the Irish Yeomanry (Dublin, 1801), p. 12 Google Scholar.

8 Knox to Cooke, 25 June 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/23/202); Knox to Cooke, 12 July 1796 (ibid., 620/26/143).

9 Knox to Cooke, 25 June 1796 (ibid., 620/23/202); Cooke to Knox, 9 July 1796 (ibid., 620/24/24).

10 Richardson, Yeomanry, pp 28–9.

11 Senior, Orangeism, pp 41–50.

12 Jephson to Charlemont, 9 Oct. 1795 ( H.M.C., Charlemont, ii, 265-6Google Scholar).

13 Curtin, Nancy J., The United Irishmen: popular politics in Ulster and Dublin, 1791–1798 (Oxford, 1994), pp 67, 160–61Google Scholar.

14 Knox to Cooke, 6 July 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/24/16).

15 Knox to Cooke, 25 June 1796 (ibid., 620/23/202); Knox to Cooke, 6 July 1796 (ibid., 620/24/16); Richardson, Yeomanry, p. 27.

16 Cooke to Knox, 9 July 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/24/24).

17 Camden to Portland, 12 July 1796 (P.R.O., HO 100/60/261).

18 See Bartlett, Thomas, ‘Defence, counter-insurgency and rebellion, 1793–1803’ in Bartlett, Thomas and Jeffery, Keith (eds), A military history of Ireland (Cambridge, 1996), pp 247-93Google Scholar.

19 Richardson, Yeomanry, p. 15.

20 Ogle to Cooke, 15 July 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/24/37).

21 Malcomson, A.P.W., ‘A lost natural leader: John James Hamilton, first marquess of Abercorn’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxxxviii (1988), sect. C, pp 271–303 Google Scholar; Thorne, R.G. (ed.), The history of parliament: the Commons, 1790–1820 (5 vols, London, 1986), iv, 349Google Scholar.

22 Camden to Pelham, 30 July 1796 (B.L., Add. MS 33102, ff 81–6).

23 Camden to Portland, 6 Aug. 1796 (P.R.O., HO 100/62/153); Camden to Pelham, 6 Aug. 1796 (B.L. Add. MS 33102, ff 95–7); Camden to Pitt, 6 Aug. 1796 (Kent Archives Office (henceforth K.A.O.), Pratt MSS, U840/0156A/2).

24 Sketch of a plan for ... Fencible County Cavalry’, n.d. [c. 30 Aug. 1796] (P.R.O., HO 100/61/262).

25 Camden letter-book, 1 Sept. 1796 (K.A.O., Pratt MSS, U840/0130A).

26 Camden to John Foster, 1 Sept. 1796 (ibid., U840/0184/2).

27 Cole to [Cooke], [early] Sept. 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/25/133).

28 Knox to Cooke, 13 Aug. 1796 (ibid., 620/24/106).

29 Camden to Portland, 17 Sept. 1796 (P.R.O., HO 100/62/226).

30 Bartlett, Thomas, The fall and rise of the Irish nation: the Catholic question, 1690–1830 (Dublin, 1992), p. 221.Google Scholar

31 Parl. reg. Ire., xvii, 13.

32 Camden to Pelham, 13 Aug. 1796 (B.L., Add. MS 33102, f. 102).

33 Yeomanry list, 1797 (N.L.I., Ir. 355 a 10).

34 Smith to Cooke, 2 Jan. 1797 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/28/9).

35 Matthews to Downshire, 10 Jan. 1797 (P.R.O.N.I., Downshire papers, D607/ E/20).

36 Belfast News-Letter, 21–24 Oct. 1796; ‘Resolutions’, 14 Nov. [1796] (P.R.O.N.I., Stewart of Killymoon papers, D3167/2/127).

37 In the National Army Museum, London.

38 Handbills, n.d. [c. 9 Nov. 1796] (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/26/32).

39 Senior, Orangeism, p. 51.

40 Richardson to Abercorn, 22 Feb. 1797 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, D623/A/156/5).

41 Memo on the defence of Ireland’, n.d. [Feb. 1797] (P.R.O., WO 30/66, f. 28).

42 Waddell to [Cooke], 29 July 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/24/173).

43 Downshire to Pelham, 25 Nov. 1796 (P.R.O.N.I., Downshire papers, D607/26/77). “Clare to Trench, 22 Oct. 1796 (P.R.O.N.I., Fitzgibbon papers, T3224/5/2).

45 Memo on the defence of Ireland’, n.d. [Feb. 1797] (P.R.O., WO 30/66 f. 28).

46 Byrne, Miles, Memoirs, ed. Gwynn, Stephen (Dublin, 1907), pp 12-13Google Scholar; SirMusgrave, Richard, Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland (Dublin, 1801) pp 160, 219Google Scholar.

47 LittlehalestoWickham, 3 June 1803 (P.R.O.N.I., Wickhampapers, T2627/5/L/75). ““Yeomanry list, 1797 (N.L.I., Ir. 355 a 10).

49 Knox to Cooke, 13 Aug. 1796 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/24/106).

50 Richardson to Abercorn, 22 Feb. 1797 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, D623/A/ 156/5).

51 Lodge, Grand Orange (ed.), The formation of the Orange Order, 1795–8 (Belfast, 1994), pp 18–19 Google Scholar; Senior, Orangeism, p. 31.

52 Senior, Orangeism, ch. 3.

53 Ibid., p. 58.

54 Ibid., pp 92–5, 101.

55 Lecky, Ire., iv, 203; Camden to Portland, 29 Mar. 1798 (P.R.O., HO 100/75/331).

56 Camden to Portland, 29 Mar. 1798 (P.R.O., HO 100/75/331).

57 Castlereagh to Wickham, 13 May 1799 (ibid., HO 100/86/367).

58 Anderson to Raholp Orange Society, 26 Apr. 1798 (PR.O.N.I., Perceval-Maxwell papers, T1023/147); Murphy to Maxwell, 28 May 1798 (ibid., T1023/150).

59 Notes on the defence of Ireland’, 25 Apr. 1798 (P.R.O., WO 30/66, f. 211 ).

60 Lurgan Yeomanry detail book, 16 Apr. 1798 (P.R.O.N.I., D3696/A/4/1).

61 Elliot to General Knox, 16 Apr. 1798 (N.L.I., Lake MSS, 56/154).

62 Camden to Castlereagh, 4 Nov. 1798 ( Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, ed. Marquis of Londonderry (4 vols, London, 1848-53), i, 424–6Google Scholar).

63 Camden to Portland, 11 June 1798 (P.R.O., HO 100/77/132).

64 ‘Plans for yeomanry division’, 22 May 1798 (National Army Museum, London (henceforth N.A.M.), Nugent MSS, 6807/174, ff 433–4); Cavan to Lake, 9 June 1798 (P.R.O., HO 100/77/139); Nugent to Lake, 10 June 1798 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/38/121).

65 Nugent to Lake, 10 June 1798 (N.A.I., Rebellion papers, 620/38/121).

66 Goldie to Lake, 13 June 1798 (ibid., 620/38/185).

67 Hudson to Charlemont, 19 May 1798 ( H.M.C., Charlemont, ii, 322-3Google Scholar).

68 Lake to General Knox, 30 May 1798 (N.L.I., Lake MSS, 56/168); Castlereagh to Nugent, 6 June 1798 (N.A.M., Nugent MSS, 6807/174, ff 457–8).

69 Nugent to Hewitt, 4 Sept. 1798 (Castlereagh correspondence, i, 332–4).

70 Shannon to Boyle, 9 June 1798 (P.R.O.N.I., Shannon papers, D2707/A3/3/80).

71 Castlereagh to Nugent, 10 June 1798 (N.A.M., Nugent MSS, 6807/174, ff 459–62).

72 Castlereagh to Nugent, 21 June 1798 (ibid., ff 473–5).

73 Cooke to Wickham, 2 June 1798 (P.R.O., HO 100/77/21).

74 Hudson to Charlemont, 19 May 1798 ( H.M.C., Charlemont, ii, 322-3)Google Scholar.

75 Fowler to Marsden, 13 Aug. 1803 (N.A.I., State of the Country papers, 1025/73).

76 Carysfort to Grenville, 13 Nov. 1803 ( H.M.C., Fortescue, vii, 196 Google Scholar).

77 ‘Resolutions of the Orange Association’, 6 Aug. 1798 (N.A.M., Nugent MSS, 6807/174, ff 503–6).

78 Cornwallis to Ross, 21 Jan. 1800 (ibid., Cornwallis MSS, 6602/45/3/89).

79 Hardwicke to Yorke, 31 July 1801 (B.L., Add. MS. 35701, f. 201).

80 Third report from the select committee appointed to inquire into the nature, character, extent and tendency of Orange lodges, associations or societies in Ireland, p. 183, H.C. 1835 (476), xvi.

81 Lurgan Yeomanry detail book, 22 Dec. 1830 - 31 Jan. 1832 (P.R.O.N.I., D3696/A/4/2).

82 [First] Report from the select committee appointed to inquire into the nature, character, extent and tendency of Orange lodges, associations or societies in Ireland, p. 339, H.C. 1835 (377), xv.

83 I would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for permission to draw on archival material in their keeping: the Deputy Keeper of the Records, P.R.O.N.I., for the Abercorn, Downshire, Lurgan Yeomanry (Morrow papers), Perceval-Maxwell, Shannon and Stewart of Killymoon papers; the British Library for the Hardwicke, Wellesley and Pelham papers; the National Army Museum, London, for the Cornwallis and Nugent papers; the National Archives, Dublin, for the Rebellion papers; the National Library of Ireland for the Fitzgibbon-Trench and Lake papers; the Keeper of the Public Records, London, for the Home Office papers (crown copyright); Kent Archives Office for the Pratt papers.