Title

Chapter 1

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=298100

page

1-19

Bibliographic Citation

A veteran of 1812 : the life of James FitzGibbon / by Mary Agnes FitzGibbon.

10168803

A veteran of 1812 : the life of James FitzGibbon / by Mary Agnes FitzGibbon.

Type

Text

extracted text

Vi ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Colonel Macnab—Irritating delays—A rough plan of
attack—A curious scene—Defeat of the rebels—Burning
of Gibson's house — Regrets — Resignation — Incorrect
statement

184

CHAPTER X.
Public recognition—The address—The Governor's letter—
A disappointing message—A visit to England—Invitation to Guernsey—Sir Augustus d'Este—His sword—
Return to Toronto—Discussion in the House—Lord
Seaton's letter—Death of Mrs. FitzGibbon—Removal to
Kingston—A struggling artist—Sir Charles Bagot's advocacy—Sir Charles Metcalfe—A tardy settlementRetirement—Failing health

A VETERAN OF 1812.
CHAPTER I.
231

CHAPTER XI.
Residence in Belleville—Blessings of a quiet neighborhood—
Letter from Lady Simpson—Return to England—Cheap
living — Harriet Martineau—Miss Murray — Elizabeth
Strickland—Federation foretold—Writing for the Home
Circle George Combe's interest—Military Knight of
Windsor—Life in the Castle—Frogmore Park—The
Great Exhibition—Agnes Strickland—Relief from debt
—Bereavements—A remarkable dream ..............................
—

258

CHAPTER XII.
Energetic old age—Contributions to the press—A sailor's
" Pen yarn "—Opinion on the Indian Mutiny—Night
schools—Letter to Walter Mackenzie—Reminiscences of
the Rebellion—Good advice—Remarks on the Crimean
war—European politics—An anecdote of 1813—A letter
of introduction—The Knights' case—Sinners vs. Saints
— The Knights' votes—French invasion scare—An undaunted spirit—Longing for Canada—Closing scenes

281

APPENDICES ................................................................................................

309

NOTES ............................................................................................................

348

N the 16th of November, 1780, in the little
village on the south bank of the Shannon
immortalized by Gerald Griffin's graphic pen
and the sad story of the Colleen Bawn,* was born
the lad whose after life was destined to be more
eventful than generally falls to a soldier's lot.
The square stone house, then forming three sides of
a paved court-yard, is now a heap of ruins. Ivy
drapes the roofless walls; the barred doorway through
which the faithful Danny-man went in and out about
his work attending to his master's horses, is gone ; a
pile of loose stones and weed-choked crevices alone
mark the spot, but the little brook still winds its way
in tiny leaps and bounds down the steep hillside—
sin ripples over its stony bed, widening as it reaches
the foot of the old grey tower of the ruined castle of
the Knights of Glin, and under the high-arched bridge
* Colleen Bawn, a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffin's novel,
" The Collegians."

10

A VETERAN OF 1812.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.

to the broad river below, Is merrily at the end of the
nineteenth as during the latter years of the eighteenth
century.
In some of the family letters extant, James FitzGibbon's descent is spoken of as being in the direct
line from the White Knight, but I have no positive
knowledge of the family tree beyond the three preceding generations. At the time of his birth, the
property herd by his father was little more than the
Small freehold and the old stone farm-house at Glin.
His father and grandfather, both Geralds, were
good classical scholars, and though James' early
recollections of his childhood are of the village school
where Ned FitzGerald dispensed learning to the lads
of the village and neighboring district, his education
was not by any means entirely dependent upon that
pedagogue. James owed much to his maternal grandmother, who must have been a superior woman,
much looked up to, loved and honored by her sons.
His mother was a Wyndham, a name well known in
Jacobite annals in the '45. In after years, when a
member of the Highland Society, James often declared his claim to election should be derived from
his maternal grandfather's connection with the " true
men " of that day, he having only escaped attainder
and loss of property through arriving too late to take
part in the battle of Culloden.
James was the second son. Of his elder brother,
John, we hear little. He died unmarried at the age
of nineteen. The third son, Gerald, afterwards was

.

11

the well-known Irish Master in Chancery, and father
of the present Lord Justice FitzGibbon. Thomas and
Henry, the latter father of the present Judge and
Recorder of Belfast, and three sisters. These made
up the home-circle at Glin.
Gerald Griffin drew his character of Danny-man in
" The Collegians " from the hunch-backed stable-boy
at the stone house, and that of Lowry Looby from
another of the family retainers, who followed their
fortunes when they moved to Prospect Lodge, near
Limerick.
" The earliest recollection of my childhood," writes
James, " was that of a bird being brought me by one
of the laboring men. The eagerness with which I
grasped it, my delight in the bright eye and beautiful
plumage, made a lasting impression, never forgotten
in after life. Again, sometime later—one of those
landmarks of childhood's memories, which stand out
like mile-stones by the roadside—one of the men took
me with him in his cart to a distant farm. The way
lay over a neighboring hill Turning to look behind
me as we reached the summit, I was filled with surprise and awe at the vast extent of land and water
spread so far below me. It was a mild, beautiful, but
cloudy autumn day. The broad Shannon, the distant
hills beyond, melting, as it were, into the soft grey
sky, roused a hitherto unknown sensation. I felt as
if my body and spirit were alike swelling into a vast
magnitude. The delight of perception, the sense of
the beautiful, the dawning knowledge of the greatness

12

13

A VETERAN OF 1812.

HIS FIRST SALMON.

and grandeur of nature, and the dimly conscious,
although unrealized, sense of the spirit to feel it, was
a revelation to me.
" The first book I ever read, and which forms my
only recollection of my first reading, was the 'History
of Troy's Destruction.' I yet well remember the
difficulty in understanding the first few pages. I
read, or rather spelled, it over and over, until I believed I understood it. It was a small volume of not
more than forty or fifty pages. I had no other book
except my spelling book, and I read it again and
again. It contained four prints, of Agamemnon,
Achilles, Hector, and Penthesilia, to me objects of
great wonder and admiration. I found incidents in
it at the second perusal which, in my ignorance, I
thought had, by some miracle, been inserted since my
first reading. I kept my little book hidden away
from others, and read it to pieces unaided by any
explanations.
" In those days the only books sold in the village
shops, beside the ' Primer Spelling Book' and the
`Child's New Plaything,' were such as 'The Seven Wise
Masters of Greece,' The Seven Champions of Christendom,"The History of the White Knight,"Parismus
and Parismenus,' The Arabian Nights' Entertainment,'
and a few others of the like character. I soon gained
the reputation of being the greatest reader in the
school. I found a new world opening before me, and
looked with avidity for a new book. The boys from
the neighboring farms and mountains came to me to

help them to select one whenever they had the money
to purchase it, and I, with childish wisdom, invariably
chose one hitherto unknown to me, that I might
borrow and read it, too. Thus in time I read every
book brought into the school or possessed by my companions, often incurring the schoolmaster's displeasure
by absenting myself from school to lie under the
hedge and read a tale so absorbing as to render me
forgetful of all else.
", At eleven years of age, I was taken from school to
help my father and elder brother on the farm and in
carrying on a small branch of the linen manufacture.
I read the ' History of Telemachus,' by candle light
during the long winter evenings, my father pointing
out to me the derivations of the words, and rousing
an intense interest in the connection between the
Latin and English languages and my first attempts
at the construction of sentences. I used to save and
hoard the candle ends that I might pursue my
unaided studies when the household were asleep."
James was as fond of out-door life as other boys.
He always retained an affection for the yellow wallflower, as it reminded him of the bright blossoms he
had climbed the old stone tower of Glin to gather
when little more than a baby. He describes, with a
keen sense of pleasure in the excitement, his delight
in his first salmon.
" I was paddling barefoot in the brook which raid..
down through the meadows and round the foot of
the castle, when I spied a fine salmon lurking under

-

14

15

A VETERAN OF 1812.

HIS FIRST TESTAMENT.

a big stone. To climb down round the boulder and
make a grab at him was the work of a moment. I
did not catch him, but the startled leap he gave cast
him at the very edge of the brook ; I flung myself
bodily upon him and caught him by the gills. After
a hard fight I dragged him up on the bank, gaffed
him with a rusty old knife, and carried him home in
triumph. I have no recollection of his weight, but
remember his length was more than I could lift from
the ground—although I was a tall boy for eight years
—but trailed his shining body along the grass."
Of his early religious impressions the first mention
among his papers shows, also, the dawning reasoning
faculties and clear judgment which were afterwards
his strongest characteristics.
" One day, while working in the field, my attention
was drawn to the conversation between the hired
laborers on the subject of the Protestants and Englishmen and their religion.
I already knew that Protestants and Englishmen
were disliked, nay, hated, as the Irish had but one
were
word in their language to express either. I knew no
Protestants (all in the village were Roman Catholics),
and I knew that, could they do so with impunity,
few among these men would hesitate to take the life
of a Protestant.
" ' Why do you hate the Protestants ?' I asked.
" ' Because they are heretics and go to hell.'
" To this reply I made no answer, but thought,
' Surely you ought rather to pity them—blame them

—for being such fools as to live in this world for
seventy-five years as Protestants only to be sent to
hell for seventy-five million '
" My mind dwelt long on what I thought was the
unaccountable insensibility of these Protestants. In
those days, about the year 1790, the judges going to
the circuit were escorted and guarded by a troop of
mounted men bearing halberds and pikes. A trumpeter rode in advance, and upon approaching a village
sounded his trumpet.
"This procession was to us boys a splendid spectacle,
and looked for every half year with lively anticipation. When I learned that these judges were Protestants, my surprise was great. That men so wise as
they must be could so disregard their future salvation
for any present wealth or power seemed incredible,
and the information that the king, who in my childish
faith, must of necessity be the wisest man living, was
also a Protestant, filled me with amazement. It was
about this period that I read for the first time the
parable of the good Samaritan, and, though ignorant
that the Jews hated the Samaritans, the conviction
was impressed upon me that the Catholics were
wrong, and by hating their neighbors were not following the teaching of our Saviour. This was the
first doubt raised in my mind of the infallibility of
my teachers."
The boy's anxiety for new books had by chance put
him in brief possession of a New Testament. He
purchased it from a travelling pedlar, who probably

16

HATED ENGLISHMEN.

A VETERAN OF 18I2.

was very glad to find a customer for such unsalable
stock in that part of the world.
James crept under the hedge with his treasure, and
was soon absorbed in the wonderful story. '
Here he was discovered by the parish priest, who,
spying the boy and curious to know what study he
was so deeply immersed in, accosted him. Unfortunately I cannot
any detailed account of the discussion between'them
them over the right of the parishioner
as well as the priest to the privilege of reading the
Bible for themselves, but I have heard those who had
the story from FitzGibbon say, that " he got the best
of the priest in the argument, but the priest got the
better of the boy in size, for the Testament was
forcibly confiscated, but what he had read was indelibly fixed in his memory."
Some years afterwards, about 1795 or 1796, the
people of Ireland were called to arms and formed
into yeomanry corps to defend the country against
the threatened invasion of France.
" My father enrolled his own, his eldest son's and
my name, although I was only fifteen. With the
' military bias already given to my mind by my early
reading, this excited me very much. On entering the
corps each had to take the oath of allegiance, part of
which contained the following words : ' And I do
further swear that I do not believe that any Pope,
--Priest or Bishop has power to forgive sins.'
" My father, my brother and I took the oath without hesitation, as did many others, but many refused.

17

" On the following Sunday the priest proclaimed
from the altar that all might take the oath, as it was
only upon condition of confession and repentance
that the priest could absolve the sinner.
-" Some time after the yeomanry corps were raised,
the French fleet, with a large land force on board intended for the invasion of Ireland, anchored in Bantry
Ba; . Troops were sent, for the first time in the centur into that remote part of Ireland, and the first
regim nt that appeared in our village was the Devon
and Co wall Fencibles. We had thus an opportunity
of enco tering the 'hated Englishmen'--hated to the
extent o a proverb, of which the literal translation
is, ' An E lishman is not more hateful to me than
thou art.'
" A serge t and two privates presented their billet
at my fath Ir's door and were admitted, not only
rooms but meals also being provided for them. Their
quiet behavio, their gratitude for my father's kindness and hospitality, astonished me. Could these be
the dreaded tnglishmen ? My former fears were
changed into admiration.
" The sergeant often spent an hour or two in the
evening drilling us boys in the old stone-paved
kitchen, and my military ambition and desire to be
one day a soldier was fanned into a flame.
" A storm driving the French fleet to sea again, it
was feared their coming to Bantry Bay was but a
feint to draw off our troops from the north, where
they meant to land without opposition.
,

18

A VETERAN OF 1812.

" In the uncertainty the troops were marched and
counter-marched from one place to another, and the
Fencibles often again passed through or were quartered in our village. Our former hatred became
friendship and liking ; no one of our own militia
regiments were greater favorites with us than these
English soldiers.
" About this time the corporal who drilled the yeomanry corps to which I belonged, was ordered to
join his regiment, and we were without a teacher.
Our captain, the Knight of Glin, who had hitherto
been in England, returned soon after the corporal's
departure. The first time he inspected us in the field,
he attempted to put us through our exercises. He
gave orders of which we knew nothing. Not having
learned the new system ordered for the instruction of
the army in 1792, he was following the tone acquired
with the volunteers at the close of the American war.
In striving to obey him, we fell into confusion and
disorder. He flew into a violent passion and swore
roundly at us, declaring, with an oath, that if he had
the ' scoundrel ' who had drilled us within reach, he
would 'cleave his flesh from his bones with his sabre.'
"A good landlord, an excellent and just magistrate,
to whose active exertions we were indebted for the
peace of the surrounding country during the rebellion
of 1798, the knight was yet a hot-tempered man,
whose rage sometimes found expression in hard blows
as well as in words. His language was so offensive
on this occasion that, unable to endure it longer, I

A BOLD STEP.

19

stepped out from the ranks and said : ' The men are
not to blame, sir. You are giving us words of command we have never heard. The man who drilled us
was a good teacher, and were he here, he could make
us appear to greater advantage.'
" For a moment I thought my bold words would
bring the knight's wrath upon my head, but, reflect, ing that my father was a freeholder and no man's
tenant, though inwardly quaking I stood my ground.
" After a pause, probably of astonishment at my
daring, he asked if there was anyone there who
could put the men through their exercises. Upon
my replying that I did not know, he asked me to
show him what they could do. I did the best I could,
and the men did well. He then desired me to go on
drilling them until he could procure another instructor
from the arity. A sergeant and twenty men were soon
after added to the corps, and, on returning from my
work some days later, I found a sergeant's pike,
sword and sash sent to me with an order appointing
me sergeant. Thus was I, at the age of seventeen,
promoted over my father and elder brother. What
wonder that my boyish enthusiasm was greatly increased by such unexpected honor."
In 1798, the first lieutenant of the corps obtained
a company in the Tarbert Fencibles, then being raised
by Sir Edward Leslie, and James was easily persuaded to join him ; an additional inducement being
offered in the promised appointment of pay-sergeant
to the company.



Vi ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Colonel Macnab—Irritating delays—A rough plan of
attack—A curious scene—Defeat of the rebels—Burning
of Gibson's house — Regrets — Resignation — Incorrect
statement

184

CHAPTER X.
Public recognition—The address—The Governor's letter—
A disappointing message—A visit to England—Invitation to Guernsey—Sir Augustus d'Este—His sword—
Return to Toronto—Discussion in the House—Lord
Seaton's letter—Death of Mrs. FitzGibbon—Removal to
Kingston—A struggling artist—Sir Charles Bagot's advocacy—Sir Charles Metcalfe—A tardy settlementRetirement—Failing health

A VETERAN OF 1812.
CHAPTER I.
231

CHAPTER XI.
Residence in Belleville—Blessings of a quiet neighborhood—
Letter from Lady Simpson—Return to England—Cheap
living — Harriet Martineau—Miss Murray — Elizabeth
Strickland—Federation foretold—Writing for the Home
Circle George Combe's interest—Military Knight of
Windsor—Life in the Castle—Frogmore Park—The
Great Exhibition—Agnes Strickland—Relief from debt
—Bereavements—A remarkable dream ..............................
—

258

CHAPTER XII.
Energetic old age—Contributions to the press—A sailor's
" Pen yarn "—Opinion on the Indian Mutiny—Night
schools—Letter to Walter Mackenzie—Reminiscences of
the Rebellion—Good advice—Remarks on the Crimean
war—European politics—An anecdote of 1813—A letter
of introduction—The Knights' case—Sinners vs. Saints
— The Knights' votes—French invasion scare—An undaunted spirit—Longing for Canada—Closing scenes

281

APPENDICES ................................................................................................

309

NOTES ............................................................................................................

348

N the 16th of November, 1780, in the little
village on the south bank of the Shannon
immortalized by Gerald Griffin's graphic pen
and the sad story of the Colleen Bawn,* was born
the lad whose after life was destined to be more
eventful than generally falls to a soldier's lot.
The square stone house, then forming three sides of
a paved court-yard, is now a heap of ruins. Ivy
drapes the roofless walls; the barred doorway through
which the faithful Danny-man went in and out about
his work attending to his master's horses, is gone ; a
pile of loose stones and weed-choked crevices alone
mark the spot, but the little brook still winds its way
in tiny leaps and bounds down the steep hillside—
sin ripples over its stony bed, widening as it reaches
the foot of the old grey tower of the ruined castle of
the Knights of Glin, and under the high-arched bridge
* Colleen Bawn, a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffin's novel,
" The Collegians."

10

A VETERAN OF 1812.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.

to the broad river below, Is merrily at the end of the
nineteenth as during the latter years of the eighteenth
century.
In some of the family letters extant, James FitzGibbon's descent is spoken of as being in the direct
line from the White Knight, but I have no positive
knowledge of the family tree beyond the three preceding generations. At the time of his birth, the
property herd by his father was little more than the
Small freehold and the old stone farm-house at Glin.
His father and grandfather, both Geralds, were
good classical scholars, and though James' early
recollections of his childhood are of the village school
where Ned FitzGerald dispensed learning to the lads
of the village and neighboring district, his education
was not by any means entirely dependent upon that
pedagogue. James owed much to his maternal grandmother, who must have been a superior woman,
much looked up to, loved and honored by her sons.
His mother was a Wyndham, a name well known in
Jacobite annals in the '45. In after years, when a
member of the Highland Society, James often declared his claim to election should be derived from
his maternal grandfather's connection with the " true
men " of that day, he having only escaped attainder
and loss of property through arriving too late to take
part in the battle of Culloden.
James was the second son. Of his elder brother,
John, we hear little. He died unmarried at the age
of nineteen. The third son, Gerald, afterwards was

.

11

the well-known Irish Master in Chancery, and father
of the present Lord Justice FitzGibbon. Thomas and
Henry, the latter father of the present Judge and
Recorder of Belfast, and three sisters. These made
up the home-circle at Glin.
Gerald Griffin drew his character of Danny-man in
" The Collegians " from the hunch-backed stable-boy
at the stone house, and that of Lowry Looby from
another of the family retainers, who followed their
fortunes when they moved to Prospect Lodge, near
Limerick.
" The earliest recollection of my childhood," writes
James, " was that of a bird being brought me by one
of the laboring men. The eagerness with which I
grasped it, my delight in the bright eye and beautiful
plumage, made a lasting impression, never forgotten
in after life. Again, sometime later—one of those
landmarks of childhood's memories, which stand out
like mile-stones by the roadside—one of the men took
me with him in his cart to a distant farm. The way
lay over a neighboring hill Turning to look behind
me as we reached the summit, I was filled with surprise and awe at the vast extent of land and water
spread so far below me. It was a mild, beautiful, but
cloudy autumn day. The broad Shannon, the distant
hills beyond, melting, as it were, into the soft grey
sky, roused a hitherto unknown sensation. I felt as
if my body and spirit were alike swelling into a vast
magnitude. The delight of perception, the sense of
the beautiful, the dawning knowledge of the greatness

12

13

A VETERAN OF 1812.

HIS FIRST SALMON.

and grandeur of nature, and the dimly conscious,
although unrealized, sense of the spirit to feel it, was
a revelation to me.
" The first book I ever read, and which forms my
only recollection of my first reading, was the 'History
of Troy's Destruction.' I yet well remember the
difficulty in understanding the first few pages. I
read, or rather spelled, it over and over, until I believed I understood it. It was a small volume of not
more than forty or fifty pages. I had no other book
except my spelling book, and I read it again and
again. It contained four prints, of Agamemnon,
Achilles, Hector, and Penthesilia, to me objects of
great wonder and admiration. I found incidents in
it at the second perusal which, in my ignorance, I
thought had, by some miracle, been inserted since my
first reading. I kept my little book hidden away
from others, and read it to pieces unaided by any
explanations.
" In those days the only books sold in the village
shops, beside the ' Primer Spelling Book' and the
`Child's New Plaything,' were such as 'The Seven Wise
Masters of Greece,' The Seven Champions of Christendom,"The History of the White Knight,"Parismus
and Parismenus,' The Arabian Nights' Entertainment,'
and a few others of the like character. I soon gained
the reputation of being the greatest reader in the
school. I found a new world opening before me, and
looked with avidity for a new book. The boys from
the neighboring farms and mountains came to me to

help them to select one whenever they had the money
to purchase it, and I, with childish wisdom, invariably
chose one hitherto unknown to me, that I might
borrow and read it, too. Thus in time I read every
book brought into the school or possessed by my companions, often incurring the schoolmaster's displeasure
by absenting myself from school to lie under the
hedge and read a tale so absorbing as to render me
forgetful of all else.
", At eleven years of age, I was taken from school to
help my father and elder brother on the farm and in
carrying on a small branch of the linen manufacture.
I read the ' History of Telemachus,' by candle light
during the long winter evenings, my father pointing
out to me the derivations of the words, and rousing
an intense interest in the connection between the
Latin and English languages and my first attempts
at the construction of sentences. I used to save and
hoard the candle ends that I might pursue my
unaided studies when the household were asleep."
James was as fond of out-door life as other boys.
He always retained an affection for the yellow wallflower, as it reminded him of the bright blossoms he
had climbed the old stone tower of Glin to gather
when little more than a baby. He describes, with a
keen sense of pleasure in the excitement, his delight
in his first salmon.
" I was paddling barefoot in the brook which raid..
down through the meadows and round the foot of
the castle, when I spied a fine salmon lurking under

-

14

15

A VETERAN OF 1812.

HIS FIRST TESTAMENT.

a big stone. To climb down round the boulder and
make a grab at him was the work of a moment. I
did not catch him, but the startled leap he gave cast
him at the very edge of the brook ; I flung myself
bodily upon him and caught him by the gills. After
a hard fight I dragged him up on the bank, gaffed
him with a rusty old knife, and carried him home in
triumph. I have no recollection of his weight, but
remember his length was more than I could lift from
the ground—although I was a tall boy for eight years
—but trailed his shining body along the grass."
Of his early religious impressions the first mention
among his papers shows, also, the dawning reasoning
faculties and clear judgment which were afterwards
his strongest characteristics.
" One day, while working in the field, my attention
was drawn to the conversation between the hired
laborers on the subject of the Protestants and Englishmen and their religion.
I already knew that Protestants and Englishmen
were disliked, nay, hated, as the Irish had but one
were
word in their language to express either. I knew no
Protestants (all in the village were Roman Catholics),
and I knew that, could they do so with impunity,
few among these men would hesitate to take the life
of a Protestant.
" ' Why do you hate the Protestants ?' I asked.
" ' Because they are heretics and go to hell.'
" To this reply I made no answer, but thought,
' Surely you ought rather to pity them—blame them

—for being such fools as to live in this world for
seventy-five years as Protestants only to be sent to
hell for seventy-five million '
" My mind dwelt long on what I thought was the
unaccountable insensibility of these Protestants. In
those days, about the year 1790, the judges going to
the circuit were escorted and guarded by a troop of
mounted men bearing halberds and pikes. A trumpeter rode in advance, and upon approaching a village
sounded his trumpet.
"This procession was to us boys a splendid spectacle,
and looked for every half year with lively anticipation. When I learned that these judges were Protestants, my surprise was great. That men so wise as
they must be could so disregard their future salvation
for any present wealth or power seemed incredible,
and the information that the king, who in my childish
faith, must of necessity be the wisest man living, was
also a Protestant, filled me with amazement. It was
about this period that I read for the first time the
parable of the good Samaritan, and, though ignorant
that the Jews hated the Samaritans, the conviction
was impressed upon me that the Catholics were
wrong, and by hating their neighbors were not following the teaching of our Saviour. This was the
first doubt raised in my mind of the infallibility of
my teachers."
The boy's anxiety for new books had by chance put
him in brief possession of a New Testament. He
purchased it from a travelling pedlar, who probably

16

HATED ENGLISHMEN.

A VETERAN OF 18I2.

was very glad to find a customer for such unsalable
stock in that part of the world.
James crept under the hedge with his treasure, and
was soon absorbed in the wonderful story. '
Here he was discovered by the parish priest, who,
spying the boy and curious to know what study he
was so deeply immersed in, accosted him. Unfortunately I cannot
any detailed account of the discussion between'them
them over the right of the parishioner
as well as the priest to the privilege of reading the
Bible for themselves, but I have heard those who had
the story from FitzGibbon say, that " he got the best
of the priest in the argument, but the priest got the
better of the boy in size, for the Testament was
forcibly confiscated, but what he had read was indelibly fixed in his memory."
Some years afterwards, about 1795 or 1796, the
people of Ireland were called to arms and formed
into yeomanry corps to defend the country against
the threatened invasion of France.
" My father enrolled his own, his eldest son's and
my name, although I was only fifteen. With the
' military bias already given to my mind by my early
reading, this excited me very much. On entering the
corps each had to take the oath of allegiance, part of
which contained the following words : ' And I do
further swear that I do not believe that any Pope,
--Priest or Bishop has power to forgive sins.'
" My father, my brother and I took the oath without hesitation, as did many others, but many refused.

17

" On the following Sunday the priest proclaimed
from the altar that all might take the oath, as it was
only upon condition of confession and repentance
that the priest could absolve the sinner.
-" Some time after the yeomanry corps were raised,
the French fleet, with a large land force on board intended for the invasion of Ireland, anchored in Bantry
Ba; . Troops were sent, for the first time in the centur into that remote part of Ireland, and the first
regim nt that appeared in our village was the Devon
and Co wall Fencibles. We had thus an opportunity
of enco tering the 'hated Englishmen'--hated to the
extent o a proverb, of which the literal translation
is, ' An E lishman is not more hateful to me than
thou art.'
" A serge t and two privates presented their billet
at my fath Ir's door and were admitted, not only
rooms but meals also being provided for them. Their
quiet behavio, their gratitude for my father's kindness and hospitality, astonished me. Could these be
the dreaded tnglishmen ? My former fears were
changed into admiration.
" The sergeant often spent an hour or two in the
evening drilling us boys in the old stone-paved
kitchen, and my military ambition and desire to be
one day a soldier was fanned into a flame.
" A storm driving the French fleet to sea again, it
was feared their coming to Bantry Bay was but a
feint to draw off our troops from the north, where
they meant to land without opposition.
,

18

A VETERAN OF 1812.

" In the uncertainty the troops were marched and
counter-marched from one place to another, and the
Fencibles often again passed through or were quartered in our village. Our former hatred became
friendship and liking ; no one of our own militia
regiments were greater favorites with us than these
English soldiers.
" About this time the corporal who drilled the yeomanry corps to which I belonged, was ordered to
join his regiment, and we were without a teacher.
Our captain, the Knight of Glin, who had hitherto
been in England, returned soon after the corporal's
departure. The first time he inspected us in the field,
he attempted to put us through our exercises. He
gave orders of which we knew nothing. Not having
learned the new system ordered for the instruction of
the army in 1792, he was following the tone acquired
with the volunteers at the close of the American war.
In striving to obey him, we fell into confusion and
disorder. He flew into a violent passion and swore
roundly at us, declaring, with an oath, that if he had
the ' scoundrel ' who had drilled us within reach, he
would 'cleave his flesh from his bones with his sabre.'
"A good landlord, an excellent and just magistrate,
to whose active exertions we were indebted for the
peace of the surrounding country during the rebellion
of 1798, the knight was yet a hot-tempered man,
whose rage sometimes found expression in hard blows
as well as in words. His language was so offensive
on this occasion that, unable to endure it longer, I

A BOLD STEP.

19

stepped out from the ranks and said : ' The men are
not to blame, sir. You are giving us words of command we have never heard. The man who drilled us
was a good teacher, and were he here, he could make
us appear to greater advantage.'
" For a moment I thought my bold words would
bring the knight's wrath upon my head, but, reflect, ing that my father was a freeholder and no man's
tenant, though inwardly quaking I stood my ground.
" After a pause, probably of astonishment at my
daring, he asked if there was anyone there who
could put the men through their exercises. Upon
my replying that I did not know, he asked me to
show him what they could do. I did the best I could,
and the men did well. He then desired me to go on
drilling them until he could procure another instructor
from the arity. A sergeant and twenty men were soon
after added to the corps, and, on returning from my
work some days later, I found a sergeant's pike,
sword and sash sent to me with an order appointing
me sergeant. Thus was I, at the age of seventeen,
promoted over my father and elder brother. What
wonder that my boyish enthusiasm was greatly increased by such unexpected honor."
In 1798, the first lieutenant of the corps obtained
a company in the Tarbert Fencibles, then being raised
by Sir Edward Leslie, and James was easily persuaded to join him ; an additional inducement being
offered in the promised appointment of pay-sergeant
to the company.