The unrest in Ireland and particularly in the County of Limerick led to the passing by the British Parliament of the Insurrection Act 1822. Thus my g g grandfather, Edward Markham, had the dubious honour of being the first person arrested there, before dawn on the day of promulgation of the Act on 28 February 1822. The record of his arrest and trial and other contemporary incidents and issues is worth reading to obtain some knowledge of the circumstances of the time.
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Lord Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland wrote a series of Despatches to the UK Government. [British Parliamentary Papers (BPP) 1822 (XIV) 743 et seq. and BPP (XIV) 764 – 770.] Reports were submitted also by Major Wilcocks and the Magistrate Torrens. The summary includes items also from The Times (London) and Limerick Chronicle. Some Wilcocks items taken from papers made available at the Four Courts Building, Dublin, in 1972 and 1978.
To read these extracts, click here.
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Furthermore, the background to the period leading up to the Insurrection Act 1822 is well set out in
“Wellesley, Whiteboys and the Brampton Men” by Dr. Jennifer Harrison, Dept of History, The University of Queensland.
See also
“Ireland’s Forgotten ‘Rockite’ Rebellion” by Peter Berresford Ellis.
Two other informative articles are available through the National Library of Australia website’s electronic resources to those who have a Library Card. [To obtain a card, go to NLA homepage and click on “Get a Library Card”.] The articles are :
New Hibernia Review. Volume 11 No 4, Winter 2007
“Captain Rock: The Origins of the Irish Agrarian Rebellion of 1821–24”
by James S. Donnelly.
Field Day Review. Volume 2 (2006) pp40-53.
“Irish Melodies and Discordant Politics: Thomas Moore’s ‘Memoirs of Captain Rock’.”
by Emer Nolan.