John Colclough of Ballyteigue

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."