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Edward FitzGerald (1763 - 1798)
Irish Revolutionary, 1798 Irish Rebellion Martyr, United Irish Army
Commander-in-Chief,
British Army Officer, American Revolutionary War Participant,
Honorary Iroquois Chieftain
What was remarkable about Edward FitzGerald, a scion of nobility,
was his transformation from a defender of absolutism to a martyr of
liberty. His journey from a life of opulence to a hideout in Thomas
Street in Dublin was adventurous, transformational and tragically
fateful—a unique journey for a unique man. His life will be
remembered for the days he shared with his countrymen and -women in
their struggle for liberty and for his profound and fearless embrace
of their revolution.
 Family
and Early Years
Edward FitzGerald was one of seventeen children born to James
FitzGerald, viscount and 1st Duke of Leinster, and
Lady
Emilia Mary Lennox,
the daughter of Charles
Lennox, the 2nd Duke of Richmond,
on October 15, 1763,
at the Carton House near Maynooth in County Kildare.
The Fitzgerald’s owned two more residences in Dublin: Frascati House
in Blackrock and Leinster House on Kildare St. Leinster House now
serves as Ireland's
Parliament House.
Edward's father, James, was a member of the Protestant Ascendency in
Ireland and as such served as a Member of Parliament in the Irish
House of Commons from 1741 until the death of his father in 1744.
Afterwards, having inherited his father's title, James served on the
Irish Privy Council and went on to hold several high-level military
appointments in the British military establishment. His numerous
titles resided in the ranks of both the Peerage of Great Britain and
Ireland.
Edward's maternal grandfather, Charles Lennox, was a politician and
a cricket enthusiast who inherited his title from his father, a
ranking member of the peerage of Great Britain.
When Edward's father died in 1773, his mother, Emilia, married
William Ogilvie,
her children's tutor with whom she had three more children. To avoid
the condemnation of her hasty marriage to Ogilvie, Emilia and her
reconstituted family went to live in one of her family's homes in
Aubigny in France where they remained until 1779. The years spent
there were formative years for Edward and his siblings in that they
were removed from the restraints of the staid norms of the English
aristocracy and exposed to a more realistic way of life. Edward's
mother, a non-traditionalist by choice, was open-minded and attuned
to the philosophy of the
Age of Enlightenment
sweeping Europe at that time. She embraced the ideas of democracy,
equality and liberty espoused by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
and other philosophers and critical thinkers whose ideas were
leading the world out of the dark ages. Committed as she was to a
more inclusive and humane world order, Emilia was determined that
her children's education embraced modernity and an expansive view of
the world and that their choices in life would embrace critical
thinking, curiosity and humanity. One very obvious benefit of the
time spent in France by the family was their command of the French
language.
Military Career and American Revolutionary War
In addition to the formal education lessons FitzGerald shared with
his siblings, Ogilvie spent extra time with Edward, preparing him
for the military career he aspired to. In support of that goal,
Ogilvie instructed him in the basic requirements for a successful
military career included military history, responsibility and
discipline, leadership and teamwork skills, weaponry and battlefield
tactics. The other less formal aspect of Edward's education was
obtained by exposure to the smoldering revolutionary fervor directed
at the absolutist monarchial
governing systems prevalent throughout Europe. Full
realization of that aspect would come later.
Shortly after returning to Ireland, FitzGerald enlisted
in the
Royal Sussex Light Infantry Militia headquartered in Lewes in
Sussex, England.
His maternal uncle, the Duke of Richmond, was the militia's colonel.
It's assumed that Edward completed his mandatory training in Lewes
and afterwards joined the main body of the militia on coastal duty
in the vicinity of Brighton. In possession of a purchased ensign
commission, Edward joined the 96th Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant
after it was raised in April of 1780. After a period of service with
the regiment in Ireland he transferred to the 19th of Foot destined
for the American colonies to fight the rebellious colonists (the
American Revolutionary War).
The 19th regiment departed from Cork with seven hundred and thirty
men and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina on June 3, 1781.
On debarking at Charleston, the 19th
was deployed to Berkeley County in the vicinity of Lake Moultrie as
the British army was in a slow retreat through South Carolina
towards Charleston after having been driven out of Georgia. On June
21, Lord Rawdon with an army of 2,000 that included the 19th
regiment marched towards the fortified village of Ninety-Six under
siege by
1,000 troops under the command of General Nathanael
Greene.
As Rawdon and his soldiers approached the
village, defended by
550
Loyalists, Greene lifted the siege and retreated towards Charlotte
in North Carolina. Some weeks later
on July 17, 1781, the 19th took part in the Battle of Quinby's
Bridge and Shubrick's Plantation. The next battle the 19th regiment
fought in was the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8. That
battle, which the British won, was the bloodiest battle of the South
Carolina campaign. Nonetheless, it did not stop the British retreat
to Charleston. After four hours of hand-to-hand fighting, FitzGerald
was wounded by a bayonet gash to his thigh and left for dead on the
field. He was rescued by a South Carolina slave named Tony Small who
took him to his hut, attended to his wound and nursed him back to
health. Afterwards, Edward made his way back to the British garrison
in Charleston.
FitzGerald did not forget Tony Small's act of humanity
that gave him a second chance at
life. To that end he bought Tony's freedom and employed him as his
servant for the rest of his life. Having developed a kinship with
Tony, Edward brought him along on his subsequent travels
throughout Europe, America and Canada. As best as can be
determined, Tony was cared for by the FitzGerald family after
Edward's death.
In June of 1782, the 19th regiment including FitzGerald was sent to
St. Lucia in the West Indies where he joined the staff of General
O'Hara. It was the same
General O'Hara
who, in October of 1781, represented the British at the surrender
ceremonies at Yorktown wherein he surrendered Cornwallis's sword to
Washington's second in command. FitzGerald, along with the 19th, was
sent back to Ireland in 1783.
Postwar Years
On his return to Ireland in 1783,
and on leave from the army,
FitzGerald took up residence at Frascati House.
He also took a family seat in the Irish Parliament
for Athy in County Kildare, arranged by his brother William, the 2nd
Duke of Leinster. At the time he became a Member of Parliament,
Henry Grattan
had secured legislative independence for the Irish Parliament. Prior
to that it was subordinate to the Westminster Parliament. Its only
responsibility was to levy taxes. On entering Parliament, Edward
joined the reform-minded Patriot Party
led by Grattan. Although his
involvement in parliamentary debates was limited, he nonetheless
supported the aims of the party which included Catholic emancipation
and self-government for Ireland, aka Home Rule.
In 1786, with
little to do in the Irish Parliament and tired of lazing around,
FitzGerald
entered the
Royal Military College in Woolwich
to complete a course in officers' training. After
completing the course, he spent time
traveling through Gibraltar, Spain and Portugal. Still
unsettled after his
Mediterranean
sojourn, he
rejoined the British army in 1788 as a major in the 54th Regiment of
Foot in Canada. He served with the regiment in a number of
locations including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Halifax, Quebec, and
Montreal.
In April 1789 after a year or so of military service,
FitzGerald
took another leave from the army and embarked on a hiking trek with
Tony Small and a fellow officer that took them from Fredericton in
New Brunswick to Quebec, a distance of 225 miles as the crow flies.
What was remarkable about the trek was that it was guided by
compass, it established a shorter, more practicable route than the
existing one and it only took twenty-six days.
During his ongoing travels through Canada
FitzGerald
met
Joseph Brant,
a Mohawk Chief and an ally of Britain during the Revolutionary War,
who showed him a snuffbox he received on a visit to London from a
Charles Fox who happened to be Edward's first cousin. After that
introduction they
became firm friends and travelled together by canoe across the Great
Lakes to Detroit. By the time they arrived in Detroit they had
exchanged their life stories. While in Detroit Brant introduced
FitzGerald to David Hill, an Iroquois Chief who at the behest of
Brant inducted FitzGerald as an Iroquois Chieftain.
From Detroit, FitzGerald under the tutelage of Brant and Hill
continued his journey
down the Ohio Valley to the Mississippi and on to New Orleans,
arriving there in December of 1789. Along the way he met with and
interacted and spent time with other native American tribes, an
experience that reinforced his growing beliefs in the "brotherhood
of man" as practiced by native American tribes.
His interaction and dependence on the generosity of the Indigenous
and tribal people exposed him to an egalitarian way of life that
appeared more natural, where everyone had worth and standing within
their tribe.
FitzGerald's
epic journey and the lessons learned left him with the realization
that the vast majority of his own countrymen and women were
suffering victims of the hierarchy at whose top his own family
perched. In reflection, he considered that state of affairs to be
unnatural and depraved, wherein the vast majority were subjected to
deprivation to fuel the avarice of the chosen elite. It was a
watershed moment in Edward's metamorphosis from defender of
absolutism to martyr for freedom.
The Revolutionary Years
After arriving back in England,
FitzGerald's
uncle the Duke of Richmond offered him the command of an expedition
to Cadiz in Spain to make
preliminary preparations for war. With the offer came a promise of a
promotion to lieutenant-colonel. In the meantime, he became aware
that his brother, the 2nd Duke of Leinster, had returned him to the
Irish Parliament for Kildare County. Considering a seat in the Irish
Parliament more important than commanding an expedition to prepare
for war, Edward declined the Duke of Richmond's offer, a refusal
that stymied his army career and opened a breach with the English
side of his family.
From 1790 through 1798
FitzGerald
held his seat in the Irish Parliament, advocating for the
marginalized and oppressed. His first open act of defiance occurred
in 1792 when he refused to back a proclamation condemning a group of
armed men who marched through the streets of Dublin sporting Irish
Republican regalia. In his refusal he stated, "for I do think
that the Lord Lieutenant and the majority of this house are the
worst subjects the king has". After hours of cajoling by other
members of the house he refused to recant.
In September of 1792
FitzGerald
journeyed to France accompanied by
Thomas Paine
who was fleeing England to avoid arrest on charges of seditious
libel as the author of the
Rights of Man,
which
severely rebuked monarchies and traditional social institutions.
FitzGerald and Paine spent time together in Paris where they engaged
in long discussions on many topics, including the nascent French
Revolution and the successful American Revolution. Paine, for his
part, had earned a claim to the title Father of the American
Revolution for his inspirational pamphlets including
Common Sense,
which
galvanized the rebelling colonists to sever ties with the English
monarchy and replace it with a constitutional Republic.
At the height of the French Revolution in November of 1792,
FitzGerald was amongst a hundred Republican-minded guests from many
countries who attended a banquet in Paris to celebrate the French
army's victories over the Prussian and Austrian invading armies. The
guest of honor was Thomas Paine. Twenty Irishmen, including the
brothers
Henry and John Sheares,
were in attendance. Amongst the many toasts given was one to
FitzGerald and Sir Robert Smith who took the opportunity to formally
renounce their monarchial titles in deference to their newly held
Republican beliefs. In responding to the toast, FitzGerald demanded
that henceforth he was to be addressed as "citoyen Edouard
FitzGerald". Shortly afterwards he was discharged from the British
army.
That historic event is considered to be a factor in the formation of
the United Irishmen as many of those in attendance became members
and later took part in the Rebellion of 1798.
In December of 1792, after a whirlwind romance in Paris, Edward
married Pamela Sims, a revolutionary in her own right who supported
the French Revolution. Shortly after his marriage to Pamela he
returned to Dublin with Pamela and took up residence in Leinster
House. They had three children.
Back in Dublin in 1793, he openly embraced radical politics and
railed against the establishment and his fellow Members of
Parliament, expressing his belief
that the house was packed on one side by the corrupt henchmen of
British power and on the other by ineffectual, rhetorically florid
''patriots''. He consistently voted
against government bills, including the Gunpowder and Convention
Acts aimed at suppressing unregulated militias and the United
Irishmen. He cropped his hair, dressed in plain clothes and walked
the streets of Dublin instead of riding so as to be in concert with
his fellow citizens.
The Society of United Irishmen,
Betrayal and Death
In the meantime, other events taking shape in Ireland would have a
profound effect on FitzGerald's embrace of radical politics,
particularly his embrace of Republicanism. In October of 1791,
Theobald Wolfe Tone,
a Protestant Dublin barrister, was invited by
Samuel Neilson
and Henry Joy McCracken to a meeting to discuss the feasibility of
establishing an organization to pursue Catholic emancipation and
parliamentary reform.
The invite was based on an earlier pamphlet authored and published
by Tone titled “An
Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland”,
which laid out the case for Catholic emancipation.
Tone accepted the invite, and together with Thomas Russell, a fellow
Anglican, met with Neilson, McCracken and seven other Presbyterian
reformers in Belfast. Arising from that meeting, the
Society of United
Irishmen
was founded on
October 18, 1791.
Prior to that, Tone had worked for
John Keogh
and other leaders of the Catholic Committee as
paid secretary to the Committee.
His work on behalf of the Committee helped it secure a modicum of
relief when the British Parliament passed the
Catholic
Relief Act of 1791.
However, the benefits derived thereof were muted by the passing of
subsequent repressive acts that stymied the exercise of the rights
set forth in the Relief Act.
Three weeks later, on November 9, 1791, Tone together with
James
Napper Tandy
established a
branch of the Society
in Dublin.
Shortly thereafter, on January 1, 1792, a newspaper called the
Northern Star, edited by Samuel Neilson, was launched in
Belfast. The newspaper promoted the Society’s ideas by demanding “a
society of equality which would include people of all religious
persuasions—and of none”. As membership in the Society increased
at a rapid rate and branches popped up throughout the country, the
British government became alarmed and began to clamp down and arrest
its leaders.
In 1794, no longer free to operate
openly, the Society was reorganized into a
secret revolutionary organization
dedicated to the overthrow of the monarchy in Ireland and for it to
be replaced by a Republic along the lines of the American and French
Republics. By then
FitzGerald was living in a cottage in Kildare town where he had
started to visit local pubs, play Gaelic games,
learn Irish and use turf instead of coal—in
other words, live as the locals did.
In addition to his new lifestyle, he made known his desire for a
free and unfettered Irish Republic. His easy manner and natural
leadership qualities impressed local young men who shared his views
and were prepared to follow him into battle for the Irish Republic
he was advocating for.
By then he was fully committed to total separation from England in
line with the stated aims of the Society of United Irishmen.
Aware of the Society's plans, the Irish Parliament enacted the
Insurrection Act
in
February of 1796
to forestall an insurrection and to indemnify the British army and
the yeomanry from the consequences of the savagery they would be
allowed to pursue in quelling an insurrection.
It is not known exactly when
FitzGerald became a member of the
Society of United Irishmen as accounts vary from late 1795 to early
1796. Irrespective of when he joined, his family name, affable
demeanor, keen judgment and military background propelled him into
the ranks of the Society's leadership. In short order he became
Commander-in-Chief of the United Irish army.
In May of 1796, together with
Arthur O'Connor, FitzGerald
journeyed to Hamburg to meet with French General Hoche to seek
French military assistance for an insurrection in Ireland. At the
same time, and as part of the same mission, Wolfe Tone was in France
consulting with the French government.
On December 16, 1796, a French expeditionary force consisting of
forty-three vessels and 15,000 soldiers set sail from Brest under
the command of General Hoche. Wolfe Tone was aboard
the flagship Indomitable with General
Hoche. Arriving off the Kerry coast they were unable to land due to
gale-force winds. They waited for six days in Bantry Bay for the
winds to abate before returning to France.
Contemptuous of body politics and his fellow Members of Parliament
as biased and ineffective,
FitzGerald stepped aside in the
general election of 1797, explaining that he could not in good
conscience serve on a body so out of touch with the needs of the
people. By then he had reached the point of no return in his
rejection of his former life as an aristocratic elitist. He
commitment to the cause of liberty and the establishment of an Irish
Republic was sacrosanct Consequently, he was fully reconciled to his
fate, particularly if the looming insurrection failed. To that end,
and aware that his family could also be a target for reprisal, he
took steps to ensure the safety and well-being of his children by
placing them in the care of family members in England.
Through informers such as Leonard MacNally, Samuel Turner, Thomas
Reynolds, Francis Magan, and Richard
Newell, Dublin Castle was aware of
the Society's plans to effect an insurrection and of
FitzGerald's involvement. Regarding
Thomas Reynolds, it was FitzGerald
who had recruited him to the cause, and as a result of his
leadership skills Reynolds was made a colonel of the United Irish
forces in Kildare.
The arrest of Arthur O'Connor in 1797 for high treason left
FitzGerald without a strong ally in
planning and preparing for the insurrection. Nonetheless, by
February of 1798 he had drawn up detailed lists of the number of
recruits available and ready for battle in Munster, Ulster and
Dublin. Naive to the world of spies and traitors, FitzGerald
gave a copy of the lists to the aforementioned Reynolds who
immediately passed it on to his handlers in Dublin Castle. Some
weeks later Reynolds, who had found out where the United Irishmen's
Leinster Provincial Committee would be meeting, passed the
information on to his handlers. In the ensuing British raid, a
number of the Committee's leading members were arrested.
FitzGerald was not amongst them.
Subsequently an arrest warrant was issued for his capture and raids
were carried out at the Frascati and Leinster House residences.
Edward narrowly escaped capture at Leinster House after being
alerted by Tony Small of the approaching raiding party.
After that narrow escape, a public
proclamation was issued offering a reward of £1,000 for information
leading to his arrest. By then he was the most sought-after man in
Ireland. Despite the danger he continued to move around Dublin
using many disguises, even at times dressed as a woman. Some of his
trips outside Dublin were to reconnoiter advance routes into
Dublin from Kildare for the United Irish forces in taking control of
the city.
On March 30, 1798, the government declared martial law and
instructed
the army and yeomanry to use whatever means necessary to crush the
United Irishmen.
As part of that government directive General Lake, who had directed
a campaign of terror in Ulster after the failed French landing in
1796, had his mandate of terror extended to the whole country. After
FitzGerald
received word from France that another French armada would not
arrive until August it was decided that they could not wait and
brought the launch date forward to the 23rd of May.
On May 17, 1798, the informer Francis Magan found out where
FitzGerald
was hiding and passed the information on to his handlers in Dublin
Castle. A few days later on March 19, Edward's hiding place on
Thomas Street in Dublin was raided by yeomanry agents of the British
army. In the ensuing struggle, FitzGerald killed one of the agents
and wounded another with his dagger before being shot twice in the
shoulder. He was taken to Dublin Castle where two pistol shots were
removed, and the wound dressed.
After that he was removed to Newgate Prison.
After languishing for weeks in Newgate Prison his wound became
infected with septicemia. For lack of care the infection
progressed to sepsis shock or some other fatal condition. At 2 am
on the morning of June 4, Armstrong Garnett, a young Dublin surgeon,
recorded in his diary the following entry, ``After a violent
struggle that commenced soon after twelve o'clock, this ill-fated
young man has just drawn his last breath. - 4 June 1798.''
Edward
FitzGerald
was 35 when he died.
After his death,
FitzGerald's
sister,
Lucy Anne,
issued a statement on his behalf:
“Irishmen, Countrymen, it is Edward FitzGerald’s sister who
addresses you: it is a woman, but that woman is his sister: she
would therefore die for you as he did. I don’t mean to remind you of
what he did for you. ‘Twas no more than his duty.
“Without ambition he resigned
every blessing this world could afford to be of use to you, to his
Countrymen whom he loved better than himself, but in this he did no
more than his duty; he was a Paddy and no more; he desired no other
title than this.”
FitzGerald
had previously said that he was a "Paddy" and no more, and that he
"desired no other title".
Contributed by Tomás Ó
Coısdealbha
BURIAL
PLACE
Name:
Saint
Werburgh's Church
ADDRESS: 7-8
Castle St., Dublin, Ireland
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