Welcome to Down County Museum
The Gaol |
|
News |
|
Register with us |
|
Publications | Down Survey | 1998 Issue Contents Henry
Monro, commander of the United Irish army of Down At four o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday 16 June 1798, Henry Monro, commander of the United Irish army of county Down, was hanged outside his own house in his home town of Lisburn. He had been tried and convicted by court martial. Though charged with treason and rebellion, his revolutionary career had lasted barely one week.
Monro's role in the rebellion has been documented, but he remains something of an enigma. A last minute appointment to the insurgent command, Monro, about whom comparatively little is known, has not received thorough historical treatment.1 Nor indeed has he been elevated to the heights of the Antrim chief, Henry Joy McCracken, in the hagiography of 1798. This short essay is an attempt to do at least something about the former, exploring Monro's background and his radical credentials, before going on to examine his role as rebel general before and during the final engagement at Ballynahinch on the twelfth and thirteenth of June 1798. Henry Monro2 was born in Lisburn in 1758,3 the son of a Presbyterian father and an Anglican mother. He was brought up in the traditions of the latter, attending services at Lisburn Cathedral4. Educated in Lisburn, he served his apprenticeship in the business of a woollen draper, receiving also some instruction in the manufacture of linen. He later owned a draper's shop in the Market Square, Lisburn, dealing in brown linen and purchasing webs for two of the area's leading bleachers, William McCance and John Handcock5. Monro's business dealings would have taken him to the linen halls of Banbridge and Lurgan, where, no doubt, he came into contact with other linen drapers, such as John Magennis and Alexander Lowry6. The linen industry was to produce many of Ulster's insurgent leaders of 1798, a fact that was drawn to the attention of Lord Downshire by one of his correspondents as early as March 1798.7 In 1795 Monro married Margaret Johnston, the fourth daughter of Robert Johnston, a linen bleacher from Seymour Hill, one of whose other daughters, Katherine, had married John Templeton of Orange Grove, Belfast8. Templeton, a well-known botanist, was also a United Irishman and a friend of Thomas Russell, and it is probable that he and Monro were fully acquainted with each other. Monro is described as being athletic and adventurous, a man of action rather than words. His fondness for hunting, shooting, running and good company over literary interests, in a sense adumbrated his United Irish career. One anecdotal account relates how Monro liked to entertain his friends by jumping out of a barrel, notwithstanding the limited space for the bending of his knees to assist him in his endeavours9. In the late eighteenth century, Lisburn's continued growth under the sponsorship of the Marquis of Hertford had allowed the town to establish itself as the cradle of the linen trade in Ireland. Cotton too was crucial to the town's economic health, providing Lisburn with the greatest spur to mechanisation, and giving the impression of an industrial revolution. The first mechanised cotton mill in Ireland was opened at Lisburn in 1790 by a Yorkshire-man, James Wallace. A second was opened in 1793, employing fifty workers. The capitalists behind this development were George Whitla and Robert Sterling10. Lisburn's economic self-confidence and independence
in the 1780s was bound to breed political assurance there, as elsewhere,
and this was in part sustained by the plethora of Volunteer companies
that had been raised in the town. Formed initially to bolster Ireland's
defences against possible foreign invasion, Volunteer corps soon
began to flirt with the seductive liberalism of the American and
later the French revolutions. No fewer than eight Volunteer companies
were to be raised in Lisburn11. The first to be formed
was the Lisburn Volunteers (1778), and Henry Monro enrolled as a
member shortly afterwards,12 developing a taste for military
exercises, becoming firstly a drill-sergeant and then an adjutant13.
Finely attired in their scarlet, green and white uniforms, the Lisburn
Volunteers paraded in the town and attended reviews in the district.
Such were Volunteer sympathies in the borough that two officers,
William Sharman and William Todd Jones, were returned to the Irish
Parliament in the election of 1783, defeating the candidates sponsored
by the Marquis of Hertford. This spectacular result was a humiliating
setback for the local landowner, and reveals clearly the excitement
that the concessions won by Henry Grattan and his supporters had
had on the area. The Volunteers were at the forefront of radical
politics in Ulster, and, in the early 1790s, when they revived as
proxy vehicles for the dissemination of United Irish propaganda,
the Lisburn companies were doing their bit to bring about a unity
of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter in the town. For example,
in October 1792, the Lisburn Union corps paraded through the town
'willing to testify their approbation of every extension of the
Rights of Man'. Retiring to the Kings Arms Tavern, seventeen toasts
were offered, including: salutes to the Republic in France (three
cheers); a more equal representation for the people in the Irish
parliament; the societies of United Irishmen; the union of the people
of Ireland and President Washington, whose name received five cheers.
Another toast was drunk to two visiting Volunteers, 'our guests,
Captain Crawford and Lieutenant Monroe' who were, no doubt, enjoying
the revelry of the occasion, as well as subscribing to the political
sentiments being expressed.14 It is highly likely that
Henry Monro, a leading citizen and Volunteer in Lisburn, should
be invited as a guest to the events organised by another company.
His companion was Alexander Crawford, a physician from the town
who was to be arrested in April 1797, at the same time as Reverend
Sinclair Kelburn of Belfast and William Kean, a clerk at the Northern
Star,15 and taken to Kilmainham In November 1792, the Lisburn Volunteers demonstrated their respect for all traditions in Ireland by attending services at both the town's Presbyterian meeting house, and also the Catholic church where Mass was celebrated. The sermon preached in the former urged those in attendance to respect their fellow Irishmen, in language not wholly unlike that used by Wolfe Tone and others at the inauguration of the United Irishmen the previous year: In a word, cultivate union with every virtuous inhabitant of your native country - with all your Christian brethren of every sect, party and denomination. Remember that the grand design of CHRIST coming into the world was to establish peace and union among men.16 At Mass on 28 November 1792, Father John Magee addressed the Lisburn Volunteers, and he later wrote to them expressing his gratitude for their support for Catholic emancipation and for their 'liberality' in attending his church.17 Henry Monro's involvement in volunteering would certainly have raised his awareness of the political situation in Ireland, paving the way for his membership of the Society of United Irishmen and giving him the theoretical military knowledge which would later be in great demand. Monro's political outlook was also shaped by his membership of the Freemasons, a movement that was in the vanguard of the European Enlightenment and, locally, of the principles and ideals espoused by the United Irishmen. The lodge room allowed Protestants and Catholics to meet as equals, as brothers without religious distinction. Masonic lodges became barometers of local opinion in Ulster, taking on an overtly political identity, and publishing their resolutions in the Northern Star. This should not have been the case. The rules of Freemasonry state clearly that 'Polemical or political discussions shall not, under any pretence whatever, be permitted in any Masonic assembly,18 and indeed, not all Freemasons were political radicals. For example, Henry Sirr, town major of Dublin and unyielding opponent of the United Irishmen, was a Freemason, while Masonic Lodge number 552, which received its warrant in 1796, comprised members of the Monaghan Militia, which fought on the loyalist side at the Battle of Ballynahinch.19 Masonry was respectable in Ireland - the Grand Master was Lord Donaghmore - but it was also an organisation whose internal workings were confidential, and this allowed individual lodges to act subversively, in a manner which incurred the wrath of Grand Lodge, which circularised the following in 1793; 'Freemasons have sufficient opportunities of expressing their religious and political opinions in other societies and in other capacities, and should not, under any pretence whatsoever, suffer such topics to invade the secret retirement of a lodge'.20 Monro's own lodge, number 193, met in Lisburn, having been revived in February 1794,21 and members included Bartholomew Teeling, son of Luke Teeling, the Poleglass bleacher and leading radical.22 It is probable that lodge 193's agenda was shaped by people like Bartholomew Teeling, and Monro, as master of this lodge23 would have been at the forefront of any radical or seditious activities in which it was involved. Having established Henry Monro's Volunteer and Masonic background, it is not surprising that he should be initiated into the Society of United Irishmen in 1795.24 There had been United Irish activity in Lisburn before this. In January 1793, a correspondence committee of the movement refused a request from the United Irishmen of Lisburn for aid to equip themselves with guns and ammunition. The committee's advice was that the aims of the movement could best be achieved without recourse to arms.25 That the Lisburn men were countenancing the purchase of arms and ammunition at such an early date says much about the United Irishmen of the area, as also, perhaps, of the movement as a whole. On 8 October 1796, Reverend Philip Johnson, local magistrate, Orangeman and rector of Derriaghy, was slightly injured after a musket ball lodged in his chest as he was mounting his horse in a Lisburn street. Johnson's reputation as a staunch loyalist and a vociferous opponent of the United Irishmen was well known, and he was unpopular amongst those in the Lisburn area that subscribed to the radical cause. Two days after the attempted assassination, the people of Lisburn rallied round, and a £1000 reward was offered for information leading to the apprehension of those responsible. Over 300 contributors to the fund were listed in the Northern Star, and the names of prominent local citizens appeared; William Traill (former rector of the Cathedral), Daniel Mussenden of Larchfield, James Wallace, George Whitla, and Robert Sterling.26 Significantly, Henry Monro's name does not feature on the list of those 'holding in detestation and abhorrence all such wicked attempts', and this would surely not have gone unnoticed. Philip Johnson was not a man to be silenced easily, and he continued to harry the United Irishmen in Lisburn and its locality. On Saturday 6 November 1796, barely one month after the attempt on his life, Johnson was accompanied to Stoneyford by a party of dragoons, 'and a number of armed men who are reported to be Orange men'. There, he arrested forty-eight people at a potato digging organised to raise the crop of a recently widowed woman.27 These potato diggings were common occurrences in counties Antrim and Down at this time, and provided local United Irishmen with the opportunity to muster and drill in a defiant but semi legal manner. In 1797 the campaign to disarm Ulster led to Lisburn and its environs being targeted by the authorities under the Insurrection Act. In March, the Northern Star reported the sacking of Lambeg, Derriaghy and Dunmurry, and the seizure of weapons and regalia dating back to the days of the Volunteers.28 Two United Irish suspects from Lisburn, John Kearns and Francis Walsh were detained during searches of the town on 13 March.29 Tension in the town increased during April, with the arrest of Alexander Crawford and the searching of his home, which, incidentally, produced no incriminating evidence.30 Like much of Ulster, Lisburn was suffering the effects of government coercion, and the young Charles Teeling, himself the victim of arrest the previous year, painted a grim picture of overcrowded gaols and prison tenders stationed ominously off the coast of Belfast.31 But, despite the intense military activity in Lisburn, United Irish activists were busy undermining the crown forces garrisoned there. A bewildered Thomas Lane reported to Downshire that 'the ammunition belonging to those at Lisburn (2,600 cartridges) were all stole (sic) on Monday night.32 June 1797 was considered by some in Ireland
to be the most advantageous time to initiate a rising, with an invasion
fleet at the Texel and United Irish morale high after the Bantry
Bay expedition, which, although a failure, had demonstrated the
extent of French resolve. However, although the leadership of the
United Irishmen in Down were enthusiastic for rebellion, the Antrim On the eve of the rebellion in Ulster, which finally erupted on 7 June 1798, Lisburn was heavily garrisoned, with around 1,200 loyalists in the town, including a considerable detachment of the 24th Light Dragoons under the command of Lord William Bentinck, son of the third Duke of Portland.34 The close proximity of Blaris military camp gave additional succour to the loyalist population of Lisburn and there were many of them who opposed the United Irishmen and their designs. On 29 May, the government went on the offensive, with courts-martial commencing and floggings becoming commonplace, with the result that many citizens began to flee the town.35 Two old brass cannon of the Lisburn Volunteers (the Volunteers had been suppressed in 1793) were surrendered to the military36. Fear gripped the town, and the authorities were on the alert. On 3 June, Reverend Snowden Cupples informed the magistrate Foster Archer that Tho' we remain quiet hitherto, some apprehensions are entertained that an Insurrection is now in contemplation, several Bodies of men having been observed exercising at the White Mountain two miles from Lisburn, on the evenings of last Thursday and Friday. The troops in Blaris Camp and here have, in consequence been kept in redress to act at a moment's warning.37 Antrim was 'up' on 7 June and county Down on the ninth. On that date, Robert Ross informed Downshire (who was in London) that 'some thousands are going from the country around Lisburn to join the rebels'.38
Monro and the rebellion in county Down Monro's military reputation, though untested, was based on what he had acquired as a Volunteer, and as the rebellion loomed, he was to be much in demand. Madden quotes 'the nearest surviving relative' of Monro, who told him that Monro had been given a military appointment as a colonel in county Armagh.40 Despite this, Madden's source insists that when the insurrection did finally break out, Monro had no intention of joining the rebels.41 What is apparent is that Monro was being sought after by the United Irishmen in order to bring some sense of cohesion to a northern-command that had been seriously weakened on the eve of the rising. Robert Simms' resignation as the adjutant general for Antrim had thrown that county's preparations into disarray. Before Henry Joy McCracken seized the initiative there, United Irish emissaries had been despatched to seek out three possibilities for the vacant command - an unnamed gentleman from Larne, John Coulter from the Collin and Henry Monro. The first of these to be encountered was to be offered the position, but none of the three were appointed.42 The precise nature of Monro's appointment to the Down command is not easy to trace, and existing explanations have not been entirely satisfactory. Both Madden and Latimer assert that Monro had no intention of joining up with the insurgents that he was eventually to command, but that he left Lisburn in order to avoid the floggings that were being handed out by the authorities. A Lisburn tailor named Hood - one of Monro's Masonic colleagues - had been publicly beaten, and it is generally accepted that Monro, fearing that a similar fate would befall him, left the town. Madden goes on to say that Monro accidentally encountered the rebels at the Creevy Rocks on 11 June, and it was here that he was acclaimed leader by the assembled United Irish forces. According to Madden, Monro had, in fact, been recommended as the new commander by the Belfast leadership, but news of this appointment had not reached him. Latimer's view is that Monro reached Saintfield after falling in with a body of insurgents who were making their way towards the rebel encampments.43 Neither of these accounts is totally convincing, but they have formed the basis for subsequent historical narrative. It does seem implausible that Monro should stumble on the insurgents at Creevy Rocks. Rather, it is likely that Monro had been appointed to act as the rebel general after Sinclair's refusal to take the field. This vacuum was only filled after several days had elapsed, and by the time Monro was in position, the Down insurgents had already mobilised and had engaged the loyalist forces at Saintfield. At his court martial, Monro's defence was that he had been forced to act as the rebel general by one Townsend.44 James Townsend was a schoolteacher, resident in Greyabbey, and tutor to the children of the Reverend James Porter. He was active in the rebel army during the days of the rising in county Down, both as a promoter of sedition and as a military leader. Described as a 'major' by Nicholas Mageean, the Saintfield informer,45 Townsend had been despatched as a United Irish emissary in the days immediately preceding the Rising, with the brief of assisting in the location of a rebel general to replace Steel Dickson.46 Monro's claim at his court martial would suggest that Townsend had sought him out and made him the kind of offer that a proud and ambitious theoretical-soldier like Monro simply could not refuse. Henry Monro's arrival in the Saintfield district was therefore no accident,47 and the apparent acceptance of his command by the men would suggest that he had been expected.48 A close scrutiny of the account of the days of the county Down rising by the probationer David Bailie Warden, presents the historian with an added problem. Warden himself had been catapulted to the command of the Ards division as a consequence of the arrests and desertions that had seriously punctured the apex of the county's military structure. His heroic attempts to raise north Down in the days after 7 June have been quoted extensively by historians of the period. Within his narrative, Warden states that Monro and his force were in Saintfield on the morning of Monday 11 June, and that he received Warden and his men with 'kindness and respect' after their long walk from the Ards. After staying in Saintfield for a further four hours, Monro then ordered his army to march 'about a mile towards Ballynahinch', that is, to Creevy Rocks. Warden's account therefore implies that Monro had, in fact been appointed in Saintfield town, possibly on the tenth.49 Another contemporary account places Monro in Saintfield on 10 June, when he 'took upon himself the command as general'.50 At the Creevy Rocks, Monro set about the task of organising and disciplining the motley mass that constituted the republican army of county Down. Warden's narrative is full of references to the military indiscipline of the citizen soldiery, whom he likened to a 'mere country mob.'51 A revised command structure saw the emergence of new military leaders, last minute promotions for those who had either excelled themselves in the fight, or who had shown the leadership qualities required. Information given to the authorities in the weeks after the rebellion identifies Warden as one of Monro's aides-de-camp, while William Adair (a theological student from Ballygraffan and key player during the Saintfield skirmish) was described as being Monro's second-in-command.52 Evidence given to the authorities by William Parker of Saintfield described how a Lisburn man, Richard Vincent, was in a position of command at Creevy Rocks, and was drilling the pikemen there, 'having a ramrod of a gun in his hand'.53 Ballynahinch would be the venue for the final showdown with the crown forces, and, on 11 June, an advance force under James Townsend was despatched in order to dislodge the military presence there and occupy the town.54 Warden and another rebel leader that he referred to as 'Mr H' (probably James Hull, a Bangor probationer, were also sent to Ballynahinch, and it was these two who established the insurgent camp in the Montalto demesne of the Earl of Moira. Leaving a small party of men at Creevy Rocks to impede the progress of the military, Monro led his forces - about 6,000 in all - to Ballynahinch on 12 June. Musketeers under the command of Samuel McCance and Thomas Watson held positions at Windmill Hill on the approach road to the town, while the main part of Monro's army joined the force that had moved on to Montalto Hill the previous day. The inevitable arrival of the loyalist forces was heralded by the billowing smoke that could be seen in the distance, as the troops, under the command of Major General George Nugent, carved a destructive path through the countryside of county Down, setting fire to Saintfield. 55 Nugent's advance was checked by the sterling efforts of McCance and his musketry in the Windmill Hill sector, so much so, that he (McCance) was later reluctant to comply with Monro's instructions for a retreat.56 Monro's main task on Tuesday 12 June was to ensure that his men would be adequately prepared for the battle ahead. Reinforcements were sought and, in particular, it was hoped that the Defenders had mobilised and were making their way to the rebel encampment. That the Defenders had not appeared is suggested by Monro's note to Townsend that was later produced at his court martial.57 Defender elements had, however, assembled, forming most of what Charles Teeling called the 'central division' that had mustered close to Rathfriland, and were debating whether to go to Ballynahinch or wait for news.58 Money, as well as weapons and men, was important if the rebel army was to defeat the loyalist forces and help install a future republican government. Accordingly, Monro issued a proclamation, which was copied out by Alexander Brice, a carpenter in the employ of the Earl of Moira, ordering people 'Not to pay any rent to disaffected landlords as such rent is confiscated to the use of the National Liberty War'.59 Food was brought into the rebel camp by women and children, and the eyewitness account of James Thomson, writing anonymously in the Belfast Magazine thirty years later, conjures a vivid picture of the insurgent headquarters in the hours before the battle. Despite the obvious resolve of this serious and determined mass, we are never allowed to forget that Monro's army was poorly equipped amateurish and inexperienced.60 Monro's conduct at the Battle of Ballynahinch has attracted much criticism, from both contemporaries and later historians, who judged that the rebel leader wasted his opportunity of defeating the government army because of his flawed sense of military honour. His decision to forego a night attack on the loyalist forces in Ballynahinch, preferring instead to launch his assault against Nugent's army in daylight, was disputed by some of his colleagues and subsequently criticised by historians. With the drunken Monaghan Militia rampaging through the town, some of Monro's advisers, for example Valentine Swail from Ballynahinch, urged the general to send a body of men into the town to take advantage of this unexpected lapse in the discipline of the government force. Monro's reluctance to do this has been put down to his vanity and ambition, and to his desire to grace the pages of history.61 However, it is surely the case that a night attack would have been impossible for the rebel leadership to monitor. It would have been very difficult to effect, given the inexperience, indiscipline and indeed, the incompetence of many of the men at Monro's disposal. His controversial decision could just as well have been as much a product of his own assessment of the men under his command, as it was of his own quest for greatness.62 During the night of 12 June, the insurgent army was weakened by the desertion of significant numbers of men,63 and this seriously affected the morale of the remaining rebels, many of whom also deserted. It has been easy for commentators to attribute blame to Henry Monro for the insurgent defeat, but it has also been assumed that he squandered his chance of defeating the government forces. Closer scrutiny will reveal that victory was never as probable as glorious failure. Monro was confronting an enemy that was in position and which was swollen by reinforcements from Downpatrick. The government troops had time to prepare and get the measure of the opposition, and Nugent's considerable force meant that Monro was faced by a more formidable military presence than the one which lined up against McCracken at Antrim on the morning of 7 June. The loyalist artillery, in position and ready to fire, was also far greater than that of the United Irishmen, whose rusting and poorly-mounted guns were no match for the English howitzers and grapeshot. The absence of many senior rebel officers, either through arrest or a reluctance to turn out, plus the informer Mageean's attempts to neuter the movement, made Monro's task a difficult one. Even more-so when it is remembered that he had only assumed the command a few days before. Undeterred, the rebel force took to the field again on the morning of 13 June, and Monro conducted himself in a manner befitting his position, despite a mischievous attempt by George Stephenson, Downshire's land steward to suggest otherwise.64 Teeling noted that Monro had been at the head of a sizeable force of rebel pike-men who had charged at the loyalist contingent in the town centre, and that he and his men conducted themselves bravely despite being under sustained fire. Despite initial success, the insurgents were made to retreat and, finding few who would hold their positions, Monro too was forced into flight. The battle was lost. The only escape route open to the defeated rebels was into the open countryside or the Dromara Hills, where some refuge might be gained from the pursuing dragoons and their Culloden-style mopping-up operation. Monro and a companion, William Kean (a former employee at the Northern Star Offices in Belfast who had made his way to Ballynahinch from county Antrim)65 made for Slieve Croob, with the former allegedly stopping briefly at Burren to change his boots.66 A safe house was considered to be the best way of evading the military, and Monro and Kean were eventually to be concealed in an outhouse belonging to William Holmes of Clintnagooland, near Dromara, who received five pounds and a parcel of linen shirts for his trouble.67 The risks involved in harbouring suspected rebels were considerable. A proclamation from Nugent stressed that any persons caught hiding fugitives would be liable for summary execution themselves. Knowing that Monro would have a price on his head, Holmes decided to cash in, informing on Monro's whereabouts to four members of the loyalist 'Black Troop'. On 14 June, Monro and Kean were captured by these men, who refused to be seduced by offers of money from the rebel general in return for his freedom, and taken to Hillsborough from whence he was escorted to Lisburn by Crane Brush, a Dromore landowner and yeomanry captain.68 The authorities had got their man, but Monro had not been around for long enough to become truly notorious. Indeed, during the rebellion in county Down, the precise identity of the man in charge was not quite clear to the government side. Initial reports suggested that the rebel commander was a Hammy Moore (one of Downshire's tenants),69 and it was only later that the authorities discovered who their chief adversary was, a fact that no doubt would have disappointed Monro.70 Having been taken to Lisburn, Monro was confined in the 'French Church' in Castle Street,71 where his mother was briefly allowed to see him, and where he received a clean set of clothes from his old colleague from the linen trade, George Whitla. The prisoner's meals were provided by Reverend Snowden Cupples, the rector of Lisburn Cathedral.72 Given Nugent's pledge to deal harshly with the ringleaders of sedition, Monro must surely have known that he was a condemned man. Meanwhile, George Stephenson and Daniel Mussenden were busy accumulating evidence against him, and Stephenson was confident that the rebel commander would hang.73 The next day, Monro was taken to a house in Castle Street to meet his fate. Presiding over the court martial was Lieutenant-Colonel Wollaston of the 22nd Light Dragoons. Protestations of innocence would have been pointless. Two witnesses, Charles Kinnon and Robert Fullerton (later employed by the prosecution at the court martial in Lisburn of Reverend Thomas Ledlie Birch of Saintfield) testified that they had seen Monro on 12 June at the head of a number of armed rebels.74 Monro's letter to Townsend, sent on the morning of 12 June was produced. A third witness, John Johnston, confirmed that this note was in Monro's handwriting. Conducting his own defence, Monro admitted that he was guilty of the charges laid before him, but stated in mitigation that he had been forced to act as the rebel general by Townsend.75 He then offered to supply the authorities with whatever information they needed to extinguish the rebellion in the county, a most remarkable offer from the commander of the insurgents of Down, perhaps highlighting his loose attachment to a cause to which he came belatedly, or even revealing failing nerves.76 It is unclear whether the authorities availed of Monro's offer to give information to them. Certainly he was never likely to win his freedom that way; Monro was too big a catch. Accordingly, the presiding officer pronounced a sentence of death, and this was ratified by General Nugent. Monro requested that he receive the Sacrament before his execution, and this was duly administered by the Reverend Cupples, conscientiously attending to a member of his congregation with whose politics he vehemently disagreed. The prisoner was also allowed to converse briefly with his father-in-law, Robert Johnston, before finally being taken under heavy military guard to the Market Square, where a temporary gallows had been erected just yards from his front door.77 On military duty that day was William Blacker of Carrickblacker, county Armagh, the commander of the Seagoe Yeomanry which had been sent to Lisburn on 10 June. Blacker was positioned just yards from the gallows, and his account of the execution, worth quoting in full, dramatically recounts the last moments of Henry Monro's life. It is impossible to imagine anyone more cool and firm without anything of bravado. There was a barrel standing on the spot, on top of which he placed his shop books, which he caused to be brought to him, and settled his accounts with several persons with as much apparent attention to business as if he had been in his own shop. His last was a disputed one, with an old Captain Pointz (Poyntz) Stewart, whom he actually called from the head of his Corps, the Derriaghy Infantry, and made his point good after considerable argument. After this he said a few short prayers and made a kind of spring up the ladder - it was a crazy kind of one, the two lower rungs broke and he came to the ground, but instantly darted up again, exclaiming; "I am not cowed, gentlemen". A wretched devil of a person had been brought from the Guardhouse to perform the office of executioner. Having made fast the rope, he awaited Monroe's signal for throwing him off, which was to be the dropping of his handkerchief. He had not long to wait, for Monroe almost immediately dashed the handkerchief to the ground, saying: "Tell my country I deserved better of her". The miserable creature of a hangman on this attempted to turn the ladder, but was inadequate to it. To aid him was mercy to the culprit, and indeed under this feeling, I beckoned to my orderly-sergeant, Thomas Porter of the Seagoes, to put his hand as I did mine, and Monroe swung into eternity, and, although a light man, apparently without a struggle.78 General Monro had reassumed his commercial identity at the very last, sorting out his accounts before his death like any respectable Ulster businessman. Looking on in dignified silence were Monro's mother and his sister, Margaret (Peggy), herself an ardent proponent of radical ideas and later a prisoner at Carrickfergus. 79 After death his head was severed from his body and placed on a spike outside the Market House where it remained for some weeks before being buried. The precise location of Monro's grave has never been fully ascertained but it is likely to be, unmarked, in the Cathedral churchyard.80 Thus ended the extraordinary life of Henry Monro; Volunteer, Freemason and revolutionary leader. How should he be remembered? Though successful in business and popular through Volunteering and Freemasonry, it would appear that Monro had greatness thrust upon him. As a general, he presided over a disastrous defeat, but it would be erroneous to hold the view that this was due entirely to his own incompetence. Rather, as suggested earlier, factors outside his control combined to produce the outcome of the Battle of Ballynahinch. Monro faced overwhelming odds from the start, making defeat almost certain. Ireland though, is usually good to her historical losers. The destruction of his papers by the military has certainly made his life more of a mystery than the Antrim general's, leaving the historian with the difficult task of separating fact from legend when piecing together a picture of Henry Monro. That he did not achieve the same level of martyrdom as Henry Joy McCracken is perhaps due as much to Monro not having such a long lived sister like Mary Ann McCracken to sustain his memory, as to any difference in their conduct or ability. Kenneth Dawson: Head of History and Government and Politics at Down High School, Downpatrick; joint editor of 1798: Rebellion in County Down (Newtownards 1998) References
|
|
|