Perhaps of interest...
Rebellion wise, how a family spread itself over both sides of a conflict, firstly my namesake and his unfortunate end...
Sourced: The United Irishmen, their lives and times – Richard
Robert Madden pp 505-513.
J. Madden & Co., Leadenhall-Street., 1843
MEMOIR OF JOHN COLCLOUGH OF BALLYTEIGUE.
Taylor truly
describes Mr. Colclough as a gentleman of respectability, and one who bore a
very excellent private character. He was a relative of Sir Vesey Colclough, who
had represented Wexford and Enniscorthy in four successive parliaments. "He
was in his stature of a full middle size, had rather a long visage, wore his
own hair, which was tied behind. He was about thirty years of age, of a
cheerful aspect and polished manners. Mr. Colclough was also executed on the
28th of June." When Colclough and
his lady, along with Bagenal Harvey, were brought into Wexford after their
capture, the latter appeared pale and dejected ; but "Mr. Colclough's
fortitude," says Taylor, " did not apparently forsake him until he
approached the gaol, where he beheld his friend Keogh's head on a spike. On
inquiring whose head it was, and hearing it was Keogh's, he seemed like a man
electrified, and sank into all the anguish of despair and guilt, and never
recovered any show of spirits." The only charge brought against him was,
that he had been seen in the rebel forces at the battle of Ross. He admitted
having been compelled to attend the general-in-chief to that place; but he
proved that, at an early period of the day, he had taken the first opportunity
afforded him of quitting the insurgent force, and returning to Wexford. The
defence was of no avail; his death, like that of Grogan and Harvey, had been
previously determined. John Henry Colclough left a widow and an infant child.
His property was not large, and, being chiefly leasehold, no attainder was
issued. His widow married a Mr. Young, a magistrate of the county, the late
occupier of Ballyteigue. It is stated by Sir Richard Musgrave that, a short time
before his execution, he directed his son to be brought up in the Protestant
religion: no such direction was ever given by Mr. Colclough. The circumstance
of his being unattended at the place of execution by a clergyman of the church
to which he belonged, was taken by Sir Richard Musgrave as an evidence of his
conviction of "the errors of Romanism," and a probable reason for his
alleged desire to have his child brought up in another religion. The fact is
that Colclough, up to the last moment, expected a respite, from his intimacy
with some of the officers of the army then at Wexford, whose interference in
his behalf he relied on. This expectation prevented him from calling to his
assistance a Roman Catholic clergyman; he thought if he had done so it would
operate against him. It is only to be lamented that any consideration should
have so far weighed with one in his awful circumstances, as to deprive him of
that spiritual assistance which he stood in need of at his last moments. One of
the Wexford loyalists of the name of Jackson, who was charged with being an
Orangeman, and condemned to suffer death, while the rebels were in possession
of Wexford, gives the following account of Colclough's execution : " 27th
June, 1798. — Before I went on board the vessel I saw Mr. Colclough, who had
been tried and convicted, brought by himself to the place of execution, at the
bridge, between five and six o'clock this evening. As soon as he came to the
foot of the gallows, he addressed the spectators with a firm, distinct voice,
and without the least change of countenance, nearly as follows: ' Gentlemen, I
am now come to that time which is the most awful that man can experience. Thank
God, I am not afraid to die! I can smile at the gallows and at the rope with
which I am to be executed! I wish to feel if it be strong enough. [He took hold
of the rope and proceeded.] I shall thank you, gentlemen, for a little water,
as I desire to drink a toast before I die. [Some water was immediately brought
him, and he took the mug in his hand.] Here' said he, ' is success to the king
and constitution, and I hope my fate will be a warning to all mankind not to
attempt to interfere with the order of government, or to disturb the peace of
their country. As I shall answer it to God, before whom I must shortly appear
[here he laid his hand upon his breast], I declare that I did not know of the
rebellion breaking out till within three hours of the time when arms were taken
up. But I acknowledge the justice of my sentence, for about three years ago I
was one of the principal abettors in this business. I have now, gentlemen, only
one favour to ask of you, which is, that you will not take off my coat and
waistcoat, as I have only an old, borrowed shirt under them, and I wish to
appear decently before the people.' All the other criminals, it should be observed,
had been stripped to their shirts before their execution. "He then knelt
down and prayed a few minutes, after which he was drawn up, and I quitted the
spot while he was suspended. " The persons whom I have already mentioned,
and two others, were all that were executed while I remained in Wexford.
Messrs. Harvey, Keoghe, Grogan, and Colclough were Protestants. Mr. Colclough
was of a very respectable family, and possessed considerable property in the
county of Wexford, and was very much esteemed by all who knew him, as a worthy
and ingenuous man." Charles Jackson, in his narrative of transactions in
the Wexford rebellion, has the following reference to the trials and executions
on the 27th and 28th of June : " Wednesday, 27th June. — The adjourned trial
of Mr. Grogan recommenced, and lasted four hours (in the whole nine hours),
when he was found guilty…" A party, consisting of a sergeant's guard
belonging to the 29th regiment, was now ordered to march to the quay to receive
Mr. Harvey and Mr. Colclough, who had been taken prisoners in the Saltee
Islands; and about three o'clock this afternoon they arrived. Great numbers of
officers belonging to the different corps now in the town had assembled on the
quay to see men who had become so notorious. "On their landing, Mr. Harvey
appeared to be very much dejected, and scarcely spoke to anyone. Mr. Colclough,
on the contrary, seemed to be in very good spirits. On hearing many persons
inquiring which was Mr. Harvey and which Mr. Colclough, he pulled off his hat,
and bowing in the most polite manner, said, ' Gentlemen, my name is Colclough.'
They were then both taken to the gaol. "Some of the soldiers who had been
of the party sent to the Saltee Islands to apprehend Mr. Harvey and Mr.
Colclough, informed me, that when they came to the island they found but one
house upon it, in which lived an old man and family ; that upon their landing
they heard somebody holloa, as if to give warning to others ; and they then saw
the old man run across a field into his house. The soldiers followed him, and
endeavoured by every entreaty to prevail upon him to discover to them the place
where the fugitives were concealed, but without effect. Finding they could get
no intelligence by this mode of address, and having certain information that
the persons they sought for were there, they tied him up, and gave him two
dozen lashes, when he acknowledged that Mr. Colclough and Mr. Harvey were in a
cave in a rock close to the sea. He then conducted them to the other side of
the island, where they found the cave; but it was so situated that it was impossible
to approach the fugitives without a deal of trouble and danger. It was then
thought most prudent to call to Mr. Harvey, who making no answer, the commander
of the party told those within that resistance was vain, that he had a large
body of men with him, and should immediately order them to fire into the cave
if those who were concealed there did not come out. On this Mr. Colclough
appeared, and he and Mr. Harvey surrendered themselves. "The soldiers were
of opinion that if he had defended himself, by firing through the chinks of the
rock, he might have killed several of them before they could possibly have shot
at him with any effect. When he was taken, he had an old musket, a pocket
pistol, and two cutlasses. Colclough's wife was with him. There was a very neat
feather-bed, blankets, and sheets, in the cave, and a keg of whiskey ; also a
jar of wine, a tub of butter, and some biscuits ; a large pound-cake that
weighed above twenty pounds, a live sheep, and a crock of pickled pork ; also
tea, sugar, &c. The two chests of plate were also found near the cave;
these were brought in a boat to town, and placed under the care of a magistrate.
Mrs. Colclough was not brought to Wexford with her husband and Mr. Harvey.
"In the evening the trial of Mr. Harvey commenced, and notwithstanding the
notoriety of his guilt, such was the candour and forbearance of the
court-martial that his trial lasted eight hours, when he was found guilty Mr.
Colclough's trial and execution followed. " Mr. Colclough was in stature
of a full, middlesize ; but rather of a long visage. He wore his own hair,
which was of a sandy colour, and tied behind. He was about thirty years of age,
of a cheerful aspect, and of pleasant manners." Gordon states that
"Harvey and Grogan were executed together on the 28th of June ; Colclough,
alone, in the evening of the same day." Hay states that Grogan and Harvey
and a Mr. Pendergast, a rich malster of Wexford, were executed on the 27th of
June; and that Colclough was tried the same day and executed the day after, the
28th of June. I discovered the tomb of John Henry Colclough in the old
burial-ground of the church in Wexford (no longer existing) that was called St.
Patrick's Church, after many fruitless inquiries, strange to say, of all the
persons in the town who might have been expected to know where the remains of
their judicially-murdered townsmen were buried. The following is the
inscription on his tomb : Here lieth the body of John Henry Colclough, Of
Ballyteigue, who departed this life The 27th of June, 1798, In his 29th year.
In the same place of burial there is a tomb with the following inscription —
perhaps in memory of one of the family of Bagenal Beauchamp Harvey: Captain
Pierce Harvey, died The 23rd of October, 1816, Aged 87 years. There is also in
this churchyard a monument " To the memory of the North Cork militia
officers killed at Oulart." To the honour of the medical profession be it
said, very few of its members were unfaithful to the interests of humanity, or
forgetful of the duties imposed on them by their calling. I wish I could say as
much for the members of two other professions. A wretch of the name of Waddy, a
physician of Wexford, was an exception to the rule that applies to the medical
profession. He crawled out of the place of concealment in which he skulked,
when Wexford was delivered from the rebels and fell into the hands of the
king's troops, and volunteered to set out on an expedition to the Saltee
Islands, in search of two fugitive gentlemen with whom he had been long
previously on terms of intimacy — Messrs. Col-clough and Bagenal Beauchamp
Harvey. The base man, having abandoned his professional duties for the pursuit
of a man-hunter, set out, no doubt furnished with private information obtained
by treachery. He was a keen ascendancy sportsman; the scent of rebel blood was
a trail not to be misled by the medical man -hound of Wexford. He set his prey,
secured it, and bagged the blood- money that was offered for it. Like the
gallant Captain John Warneford Armstrong, after he had consigned his two friends
and dupes to death, Dr. Waddy was feasted, eulogized, and extolled. Gentlemen
spoke of him on the magisterial bench and in the grand jury room as a virtuous
citizen of great energy of character. Dr. Waddy's honours and laudations could
not fail to be highly gratifying, for the time being, at the hands of the
Orange potentates of Wexford, just recovering from their recent panic, and that
worst kind of fear, the poltroonery of fanaticism, inciting to acts base,
bloody, and brutal. The good service done by the discovery and capture of his
old acquaintance, Bagenal Harvey, and the young gentleman, John Colclough,
whose family he only knew in his medical capacity, was deemed worthy of civic
honours and after-dinner orations in the company of half-drunken Orange loyalists-
But a year and a-half had not passed over before the doctor's peace of mind was
disturbed, not by remorse, perhaps, but by constant dread, and perturbation of
spirits, rather exacerbated than relieved by recourse to stimulants, which at
times produced excitement that amounted to a state of disordered intellect. In
one of those fits of temporary insanity so induced, an unfortunate friar lost
his life at the doctor's hands, attempting to escape, as Waddy alleged, after
an attempt to murder him. But as dead friars tell no tales, the monk's version
of this tragical occurrence is not on record, in this world. The following
version of it is the mundane one of the northern organs of Orangeism of the time,
taken from a Dublin communication, dated 28th December, 1799: " An
occurrence of a very extraordinary kind took place a few days since in the
county of Wexford, at Clougheast, the seat of Dr. Richard Waddy. Dr. Waddy
having rendered himself very obnoxious to the rebels by his active loyalty
during the rebellion, particularly by having been principally concerned in the
apprehension of Bagenal Harvey, found it necessary, for the safety of his life,
to reside in the old vaulted castle of Clougheast, where the entrance of his
bed-chamber was secured by an antique portcullis. Thus fortified, Dr. Waddy had
hitherto defied all threats of assassination which came against him from every
side. A few days ago, a mendicant Popish
friar of Taghmon, named Burn, visited the doctor at his castle, and was
hospitably entertained at dinner. Burn begged to be allowed to remain, and,
after some difficulty on the part of his host, was permitted to lie in a second
bed in the vaulted chamber. While the doctor and the friar were going to their
beds, the friar expressed great anxiety that his host should say his prayers, a
duty which the doctor, who drank freely, seemed disposed to neglect. In the
middle of the night, Dr. Waddy heard somebody drawing his cavalry sword, which
hung at his bed's head, and immediately after was attacked by the friar, who
had arisen from his bed, dressed himself, and was now endeavouring to murder
his host. The latter received several wounds on the head and arm, and at length
the friar, supposing he had accomplished his purpose, attempted to escape under
the portcullis. Dr. Waddy had just strength enough left to loose the cord which
supported it, and it fell on the priest with such violence as almost to sever
his body, which fell down lifeless into the apartment below. The next morning
the body of the friar was found, and the servants coming into their master's
room, found him covered with his own blood. Immediately medical aid was had,
and we have the satisfaction of learning that Dr. Waddy is out of danger. A
coroner's inquest was held on the body of Burn, and the jury (composed of the
Roman Catholic inhabitants of the neighbourhood) found a verdict of accidental
death." A kinsman of John Henry Colclough, Mr. John Colclough of Tintern
Abbey, was the nephew of Mr. Cornelius Grogan, and in 1798 was at the head of
the family interest, which was very considerable, in the county of Wexford.
Before the outbreak of the insurrection he and Mr. Thomas McCord, a respectable
gentleman of the same county, left Ireland, and had taken up their abode at
Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire. It was respecting their' residence, perhaps
the following notice of a catastrophe in his family may account for Dr. Waddy's
terror of assassination. Mr. Samuel Waddy of Jamesville, in the county of
Wexford, was murdered in his house, on the night of the 1st of May, 1793, by a
man of the name of Spain, who had been recently discharged from his service.
For particulars see Exshaw's Magazine, May, 1793. hence there that a remarkable
correspondence took place, which I now refer to. The Duke of Portland addressed
the following letter to the magistrates at Haverfordwest : " Whitehall,
22nd June, 1798. " Gentlemen — I have received your letter on the subject
of the late influx of persons in your county from Ireland, and am extremely
sorry to observe that there are so many young clergymen and able-bodied men
among them. The conduct of such persons, in remaining out of Ireland at a
moment like the present, is very much to be censured; and I desire that you
will use your best endeavours to impress them with a due sense of the dangerous
tendency of such an example, and of the dishonourable and disgraceful
imputations to which it obviously exposes them; and, at the same time, that you
will make known to the clergy that their names will certainly be reported to
their respective diocesans. With respect to Mr. Colclough and Mr. McCord, I
desire that they may have full liberty either to go to Ireland or to stay in
the country; and that all persons for whom they will answer, as well as all
infirm men, women, and children, may be admitted to the same indulgence. “I am,
gentlemen, " Your most obedient, humble servant, " Portland. " To
Messrs. Jordan and Bowen, at Haverfordwest." When the Wexford gentlemen
got information of this correspondence, the Protestant gentlemen of the county
were summoned to a general meeting in the town of Wexford, on the 7th of July,
1798, by General Lake. A copy of the duke's letter was laid before them : Dr.
Duigenan says they were all struck with amazement, and they determined
unanimously to send a letter to the duke on the subject, of which the following
is a copy — it was signed by the high sheriff of the county : " The
committee of gentlemen of the county of Wexford, appointed by General Lake,
having read a copy of a letter from his Grace the Duke of Portland to Messrs.
Bowen and Jordan, magistrates in the town of Haverfordwest, South Wales, dated
22nd June ult., .and which appears to have been in answer to a letter received
by his grace from those gentlemen, cannot avoid testifying their hearty sorrow
at the censure thrown upon the clergy of their dioceses in said letter, and
their indignation at the gross misrepresentations which must have occasioned
it. They are unanimous in a high opinion of the loyalty, patriotism, and proper
conduct of the clergy, and strongly feel the necessity of their flight and
absence during the continuance of the rebellion which so unhappily raged in
this country; as, had they not effected their escape, they have every reason to
conclude that they would have shared a similar fate with those unhappy few of
that body who early fell into the hands of the insurgents, and were afterwards
massacred in cold blood. " They lament that men of such unblemished
character and conduct should, from the secret representations of persons no way
qualified, be proscribed that protection and asylum so liberally bestowed on
the persons of Mr. John Colclough and Thomas M'Cord, men who were and might
have remained in perfect security in his majesty's fort at Duncannon, and whose
characters are by no means free from imputation in this country, and on whom
they are sorry to find such favour lavished by the English cabinet ; as they
are certain no favourable account of their conduct could be made to government,
save by themselves. " Edward Percivall, "Sheriff, and Chairman of the
Committee." "Wexford, 7th July, 1798." "To His Grace the
Duke of Portland, Whitehall." To this letter his grace never condescended
to return any answer. The following paragraph was inserted in the Waterford
newspaper of the 10th July, 1798 : " Yesterday, Mr. John Colclough of
Tintern Castle, county of Wexford, was brought here from Milford, in custody of
two king's messengers ; he was escorted by a party of the Union cavalry to
Thomastown, on his way to Dublin. Mr. McCord, who was implicated in the charge
for which the former was apprehended, had made off ; but it is said that there
was no probability of his avoid ing the vigilance of his pursuers. These are
the two gentlemen who were spoken so favourably of in a letter from the Duke of
Portland to Messrs. Jordan and Bowen, of Haverfordwest. "Clericus
Wexfordiensis."
