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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
In the midsummer of 1763 six of the nine counties of Ulster temporarily passed out of the control of the landed élite and into that of the Hearts of Oak. People gathered in their thousands across most of Ulster, with the exclusion of Counties Antrim, Donegal and most of Down, to protest at the levels of the taxes levied by the grand juries, the collection of small dues by the clergy of the established church and the compulsory six days’ labour on the roads. At the time one Dublin newspaper expressed its horror at this outbreak among the ‘loyal Protestants of the North of Ireland’ and warned that ‘our neighbours [might] be glad to make a handle out of this to our great prejudice and scandal, as they did about the Whiteboys last year’. Among many observers the belief was that these embarrassing disturbances by Ulster’s Protestants, particularly by the Presbyterians — who had long been seen as a difficult element — should quickly be put down and the insurrection regarded as an aberration.
The scale of subsequent events in late eighteenth-century Ulster made it easier to forget the Oakboy disturbances. They were neither as long-lasting as the Steelboy outrages, nor as violent as the later clashes between the Peep o’ Day Boys and Defenders. In the early nineteenth century the narrators of rural unrest, Richard Musgrave and George Cornewall Lewis, believed the Hearts of Oak disturbances to be of little importance, while historians like Lecky saw all agrarian rioters as largely cut from the same apolitical cloth. This was to remain the perception until the late 1970s and 1980s and a series of groundbreaking articles, several of them resulting from the research of James S. Donnelly. These showed a fresh insight into eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Irish agrarian troubles, accompanied by a willingness to use theoretical models of unrest in pre-industrial societies and the responses of their legal systems.
1 A letter in Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, carried in the Belfast News-Letter (henceforth B.N.L.),15 July 1763.
2 Musgrave, Richard, Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland (London, 1802)Google Scholar; Lewis, George Cornewall, On local disturbances in Ireland (London, 1836)Google Scholar; Lecky, W E. H.,A history of Ireland in the eighteenth century (5 vols, London, 1892), ii, 41–50 Google Scholar.
3 See Donnelly, J. S., ‘The Whiteboy movement, 1761–5’ in I.H.S., xxi, no. 81 (Mar. 1978), pp 20–59 Google Scholar; idem, ‘Irish agrarian rebellions: the Whiteboys of 1769–76’ in R.I.A. Proc., lxxxiii (1983), sect. C, pp 293-332Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Rightboy movement’ in Studia Hib., xvii-xviii (1977-8), pp 7–73 Google Scholar; Brie, Maurice, ‘Priests, parsons and politics: the Rightboy protest in County Cork 1785–1788’ in Past & Present, no. 100 (1983), pp 100–123 Google Scholar; Connolly, S. J., ‘The Houghers: agrarian protest in early eighteenth-century Connacht’ in Philpin, C. H. E. (ed.), Nationalism and popular protest in Ireland (Cambridge, 1988), pp 139–162 Google Scholar; Clark, Samuel and Donnelly, J. S. (eds), Irish peasants: violence and political unrest, 1780–1914 (Manchester, 1983)Google Scholar.
4 Thompson, E. P., ‘The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century’ in Past & Present, no. 50 (1971), pp 76–136 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘The moral economy reviewed’ in his Customs in common (Harmondsworth, 1993), pp 259–351 Google ScholarPubMed; Hobsbawm, E.J., Bandits (Harmondsworth, 1972)Google Scholar; Hay, Douglas et al. (eds), Albion’s fatal tree: crime and society in eighteenth-century England (Harmondsworth, 1977)Google Scholar; Bartlett, Thomas, ‘An end to moral economy: the Irish militia disturbances of 1793’ in Past & Present, no. 99 (1983), pp 41–64 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. That conclusion is supported by Smyth, Jim, The men of no property: Irish radicals and popular politics in the late eighteenth century (Dublin, 1992), p. 34 Google Scholar, and Tesch, Pieter, ‘Presbyterian radicalism’ in Dickson, David, Keogh, Dáire and Whelan, Kevin (eds), The United Irishmen: republicanism, radicalism and rebellion (Dublin, 1993), pp 33–48 Google Scholar.
5 Donnelly, J. S., ‘Hearts of Oak, Hearts of Steel’ in Studia Hib., xxi (1981), pp 7–73 Google Scholar.
6 The run of the B.N.L. for 1763 was lost and is now available only on microfilm in the Linen Hall Library, Belfast. In addition, a detailed calendar of the crucial papers of Sir Robert Wilmot (resident secretary to the lord lieutenant, 1740–72) is now available in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
7 Thomas Waite to Sir Robert Wilmot, 9 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., Wilmot papers T/3019/4634).
8 B.N.L., 12 July 1763.
9 These figures are taken from the Armagh grand jury presentment book (P.R.O.N.I., C&P ARM/4/1/1) for 1763.
10 Robert Lowry to [William Stewart], 9 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4633).
11 B.N.L., 9 July 1763.
12 Thomas Verner to Lord Charlemont, c. 20 July 1763 (H.M.C., Charlemont, i, 94–6).
13 B.N.L., 15 July 1763.
14 Ibid.; Isaac Corry to [Waite], 12 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4636).
15 Samuel Blacker to [Waite], 18 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4643).
16 [William Congreve] to [Waite], 19 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4642).
17 Tullaghogue would have been an important landmark in the popular mind, being the place where the O’Neill chieftains had once been inducted with elaborate ceremonies.
18 Andrew Stewart to [William Stewart], 8 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4631); James Gledstones to [William Stewart], 8 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4632).
19 The ‘full and circumstantial account’ of Theodorus Martin is printed in Crawford, W. H. and Trainor, Brian (eds), Aspects of Irish social history, 1750–1800 (Belfast, 1969), pp 34-6Google Scholar.
20 Capt. Pierce Butler to Waite, 19 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4650); Thomas Rankin and John Downing to Lord Forbes, 21 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019//4653).
21 James Hamilton to lords justices, 18 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4645).
22 Burdy, Samuel, Life of Rev. Philip Skelton (Oxford, 1914), p. 145 Google Scholar; Waite to Wilmot, 21 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4640); Sir Ralph Gore to Nathaniel Clements, 20 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/6459/740).
23 The events can be followed in Christopher Robinson to Waite, 19 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4647); Charles Coote to Thomas Tenison, 19 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4648); Col. Philip Roberts to Waite, 19 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4649); Coote to Abp Stone, 22 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4660);Thomas Donaldson to, 26 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4669). A glowing description can be found in [Rev. Samuel Bayly], A genuine account of Charles Coote, esq., in pursuing and defeating the Oakboys in the counties of Monaghan, Cavan and Fermanagh (Dublin, 1763)Google Scholar.
24 A former chief secretary, Richard Rigby, heard about the events and Coote’s actions, which he believed merited reward: Rigby to Wilmot, 4 Aug. 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4681).
25 Rev. William Henry to [Abp Stone], 15 July 1763 (ibid., Alnwick papers, T/2872/5).
26 Lieut.-Col. David Wedderburn to Waite, 25 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4658).
27 Rev. William Pilkington to Rev. John Benson, 26 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4670).
28 Armagh grand jury presentment book (ibid., C&P ARM/4/1/1); Crawford, W. H., ‘Economy and society of eighteenth-century Ulster’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 1982), pp 204-32Google Scholar.
29 The figures per acre in Armagh from 1758 to 1761 show that levels varied from just under 1d. to over 6d. in Drumcree parish in Oneilland West barony: Armagh grand jury presentment book (P.R.O.N.I., C&P ARM/4/1/1).
30 Quoted in Crawford & Trainor (eds), Aspects of Irish social history, p. 35.
31 See Bric, Maurice, ‘The tithe system in the eighteenth century’ in R.I.A. Proc., lxxxvi (1986), sect. C, pp 271-88Google Scholar.
32 29 Geo. II, c.12; 1 Geo. III, c.l7. These actions were not confined to Ulster in the summer of 1763, the County Tipperary grand jury offering rewards of up to 20 guineas to arrest those intimidating tithe farmers in that county, which they blamed on the incitement of Catholic priests: B.N.L., 2 Aug. 1763.
33 Donnelly, ‘Hearts of Oak’, p. 17.
34 B.N.L.,16 Apr. 1771.
35 Ibid., 2, 5 Aug. 1763.
36 Campbell, William, ‘History of Irish Presbyterianism’ (MS, Queen’s University Library, Belfast), pp 203-4Google Scholar.
37 Waite to Wilmot, 23 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4655).
38 William Henry to Abp Seeker, 19 July 1763 (ibid., T/2872/9); Charles O’Conor to John Curry, 23 Aug. 1763 ( The letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare, ed. C.C. and Ward, R.E. (2 vols, Ann Arbor, 1980), i, 83)Google Scholar.
39 ’Copies of the 1766 religious returns for Counties Armagh and Tyrone’ (P.R.O.N.I., T/3709/1).
40 These figures come from a variety of sources: indictment book for Tyrone grand jury (ibid., C&P TYR/4/2/1); County Armagh indictment book, vol. 1 (Robinson Library, Armagh, KH. 11. 3); Rushe, Denis, History of Monaghan for two hundred years, 1660–1860 (repr., Monaghan, 1996), pp 65-9Google Scholar.
41 Second letter on the subject of tithes ... with a particular address to the Dissenters of Ulster (Dublin, 1758), pp 5–6 Google Scholar.
42 [Bayly], Genuine account, p. 7.
43 For Nesbitt see Livingstone, Peadar, The Monaghan story (Enniskillen, 1980), pp 158-9Google Scholar; minutes of the session and baptismal register of Cahans Presbyterian meeting-house, 1751–1802 (Presbyterian Historical Society, Belfast). The call to Clarke was signed by twelve of those indicted in Monaghan in 1763 on charges connected with the Hearts of Oak disturbances.
44 The Presbyterian congregation of Markethill, County Armagh, placed an advertisement in the B.N.L., signed also by Archibald Acheson, exculpating themselves from blame for a threat sent to Samuel Blacker and talking of unnamed others (B.N.L.,5 Aug.l763).
45 Loughridge, Adam, The Covenanters in Ireland (Belfast, 1984), pp 10–20 Google Scholar.
46 Stewart, David, The Seceders in Ireland (Belfast, 1950)Google Scholar; Brown, L. T., ‘The Presbyterian dilemma: politics in Counties Cavan and Monaghan since 1690’ in Clogher|Rec., xv (1995), pp 7–23 Google Scholar. Brown notes that the Seceder minister was arrested for refusing to swear oaths in 1759 and that their meeting-house was burnt in 1763 and 300 of the congregation emigrated with Clarke in the ‘Cahans exodus’ in 1764.
47 Langford, Paul, A polite and commercial people: England 1727–1783 (Oxford, 1992), pp 733-1Google Scholar. But for evidence of an earlier usage by Tories in England at the Buckinghamshire election of 1713 see Daily Courant, 31 Aug. 1713; Post Boy, 5–8, 8–10 Sept. 1713 (I owe these references to David Hayton).
48 For the American examples see Hutson, J. H., ‘An investigation to the inarticulate: Philadelphia’s White Oaks’ in William & Mary Quart., xxviii (1971), pp 3–26 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davidson, Philip, Propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763–1783 (Chapel Hill, 1941), p. 189 Google Scholar.
48 ‘A Copy of Verses [by a Country Gentleman], on the Boys call’d the Hearts of Oak’ (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4663). The handbill was apparently printed by the ‘Doctor of the Blue Stone’, possibly a reference to the Blue Stone of Lylo, near Lurgan, supposedly used by General Schomberg on his passage through County Armagh in 1690.
50 The quoted item be compared with a ‘Song of the Levellers’, collected in March 1763 by Justice Morison (ibid., T/3019/6458/715).
51 A memorial of the Magherafelt Oakboys states that they will ‘always and ever do prove faithful until life expires, in suit of any other Insurrection that may prove disaffected’ (ibid., T/3019/4651).
52 ’The State, Case and Proceedings, of the Hearts of Oak; for Liberty and Property: Humbly offered to all true Sons of Hibernia’ (ibid., T/3019/4662).
53 Henry was a strong defender of the established church against both Catholics and Presbyterians, while Golding had been ordained by the heterodox Bishop Hoadly in 1738 and was described by Mrs Delany in 1758 as a Methodist. For the two clergymen see Leslie, J.B., Derry clergy and parishes (Enniskillen, 1937), pp 156-7Google Scholar, 302; for the address, P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4672.
54 The reference to ‘Gentlemen Oakboys’ draws a comparison with the ‘Gentlemen Rightboys’ identified in Bric, ‘Priests, parsons and politics’, pp 105–8.
55 B.N.L., 16 Apr. 1771.
56 William Henry to [Abp Stone], 17 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/2872/7); William Congreve to [Bp Garnett], 19 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4641).
57 John Bowes to Abp Seeker, 29 July 1763 (ibid., T/2872/16).
58 [Bayly], A genuine account, p. 3.
59 B.N.L., 12 July, 2 Aug. 1763. See also Andrew Stewart to [William Stewart], 8 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4631).
60 The most accurate lists of militia officers were copied by Tenison Groves (P.R.O.N.I., T/808/15235) and T. G. F. Paterson (Armagh County Museum, Paterson Miscellanea, vol. 7).
61 B.N.L., 12 July 1763; Waite to W. G. Hamilton, 23 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4646).
62 Samuel Blacker to Lord Charlemont, 3 Apr. 1756 (R.I.A., Charlemont papers, MS 12/R/9, f.56).
63 [SirCaldwell, James], An address to the House of Commons of Ireland by a freeholder (Dublin, 1771), p. 32 Google Scholar. The pamphlet was the target of a fierce rebuttal in the B.N.L., used by Professor Donnelly for other points (B.N.L., 14 Apr. 1771).
64 Christopher Robinson to [Waite], 24 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4661).
65 ’Summons to the inhabitants of the parish of Donagheady from the Heart of Oak’, [July 1763] (ibid., T/3019/6459/732) (my italics).
66 Donnelly, ‘Hearts of Oak’, p. 22.
67 Lady Moira to Lord Townshend, 14 Mar. 1772 (P.R.O.N.I., Moira papers, D/4009/3/1).
68 See the excerpts from Byrne’s, J. account of the ‘Armagh Troubles’ in Miller, D. W. (ed.), Peep o’ Day Boys and Defenders (Belfast, 1990), p. 13 Google Scholar.
69 ’List of troops and companies quartered in the north of Ireland’, 29 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4667).
70 Waite to Wilmot, 21 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4641).
71 Hardy, Francis, Memoirs of the political and private life of James, earl of Charlemont (2nd ed., 2 vols, London, 1812), i, 188-90Google Scholar.
72 Ibid., p. 189.
73 Coote to Tenison, 19 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4648); Blacker to [Waite], 18 July 1763 (ibid., T/3019/4643).
74 B.N.L., 15, 29 July 1763.
75 Sir Ralph Gore to Nathaniel Clements, 20 July 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/6459/740).
76 Waite to Wilmot,23 July 1763 (ibid.,T/3019/4655). Similar arguments were heard in the wake of the anti-union riot in Dublin of December 1759, when a riot act for Ireland was discussed, and during the Whiteboy disturbances. For this see Rigby to Wilmot, 6 Jan. 1760 (ibid., T/3019/3673); Wilmot to Rigby, 22 Jan. 1760 (ibid., T/3019/3682); Waite to Wilmot, 10 Apr. 1762 (ibid., T/3019/4323); Halifax to Egremont, 13 Apr. 1763 (ibid., T/l060/8).
77 John Bowes to Abp Seeker, 29 July 1763 (ibid., T/2872/16).
78 The respective charges given to the grand jury of County Armagh at the assizes of 13 July 1763 from Mr Justice Robinson and Mr Justice Tenison (Dublin, 1763)Google Scholar.
79 Sir Capel Molyneux to Lord Charlemont, 28 Aug. 1763 (H.M.C., Charlemont, i, 142); Rushe, History of Monaghan, p. 69; Lord Abercorn to James Hamilton, 16 Aug. 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, T/2541/IK/7/97); B.N.L., 16 Oct. 1763.
80 B.N.L., 28 Mar. 1765. Magee’s fine was paid by his local congregation.
81 William Stewart to Lord Abercorn, 16, 25 Feb. 1768 (P.R.O.N.I., T/2541/1A1/8/18, 27).
82 Armagh grand jury presentment book (ibid., C&P ARM/4/1/1); letter to Mr Barclay from his nephew, 8 Mar. 1772, quoted in Crawford & Trainor (eds), Aspects of Irish social history, pp 38–9.
83 Commons’ jn. Ire. (1796-1800), xiii, 37–8.
84 Ibid., pp 897–901.
85 Magennis, E. F., ‘Politics and government in Ireland during the Seven Years War, 1757–1763’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 1996), pp 263-9Google Scholar.
86 The quotes are from [SirCaldwell, James], Debates relative to the affairs of Ireland in the years 1763 and 1764 (2 vols, London, 1766), ii, 650-59Google Scholar.
87 It is important to note that the Belfast News-Letter was owned by the Belfast Presbyterian Joy family, while Charles Lucas and the Dublin radicals were the force behind the Freeman’s Journal.
88 Freeman’s Journal, 13 Sept. 1763; B.N.L., 16 Sept. 1763.
89 Freeman’s Journal, 14, 17, 21, 24, 28, 31 Jan., 7 Feb. 1764; Bric, ‘Tithe system’, pp 275–8.
90 [Caldwell, ], Debates, ii, 714-15Google Scholar.
91 Crawford, ‘Economy & society’, pp 27–31; Miller, (ed.), Peep o’ Day Boys, pp 131-9Google Scholar.
92 The latter can be found in an oath enclosed in [William Congreve] to [Bp Garnett], 19 My 1763 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4641). For the union question see Kelly, James, ‘The origins of the Act of Union: an examination of unionist opinion in Britain and Ireland, 1650–1800’ in I.H.S., xxv, no. 99 (May 1987), pp 236-63Google Scholar; Murphy, Séan, ‘The Dublin anti-union riot of 3 December 1759’ in O’Brien, Gerard (ed.), Parliament, politics and people: essays in eighteenth-century Irish history (Dublin, 1989), pp 46–68 Google Scholar.
93 The list is taken from [SirCox, Richard], The proceedings of the late House of Commons in rejecting the money bill (Dublin, 1753)Google Scholar. The constituencies which the listed M.P.s represented were, in order: County Armagh, County Tyrone, County Cavan, Clogher, County Monaghan, Dungannon, County Down, County Donegal and Dublin University.
94 For this see Remarks on a late pamphlet entitled Advice to the Patriot Club of Antrim (Dublin, 1756)Google Scholar.
95 B.N.L., 4 Mar. 1755. A similar message can be found in A layman’s sermon preached at the Patriot Club of County Armagh (Dublin, 1755)Google Scholar.
96 For example Previous promises inconsistent with a free parliament and an ample vindication of the last parliament (Dublin, 1760)Google Scholar; Bowes to Wilmot, 3 Dec. 1761 (P.R.O.N.I., T/3019/4237).
97 For this see Magennis, ‘Politics and government’, pp 232–46.
98 Donnelly, ‘Hearts of Oak’, p. 22.
99 Earlier versions of this paper were delivered to the staff/postgraduate seminar in the School of Modern History, Queen’s University, Belfast, and to Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha. I am grateful to Allan Blackstock, Neal Garnham, David Hayton, David Hempton and Peter Jupp for their comments.