26 December 2018

A curious link between Askeaton
and a plot to kill two kings

Askeaton Castle … for most of the 17th and 18th century, Askeaton was a ‘rotten borough,’ sending two MPs to the Irish House of Commons in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Askeaton was a parliamentary borough that sent two MPs to the Irish House of Commons.

The vote was confined to a handful of people, who seldom had any direct connection with Askeaton, but it was an arrangement that continued until the Act of Union and the abolition of countless ‘rotten boroughs’ throughout Ireland.

Recently, as I was researching the story of the abbey and church ruins in Croagh, Co Limerick, I came also across the story of John Minchin-Walcott (1700-1753) and his connections with one of the most bizarre conspiracy theories in England.

Minchin-Walcott, who was MP for Askeaton from 1747 until he died in 1753, had inherited the Croagh estates and was also the grandfather of Lady Eleanor Pery, whose husband, Sir Vere Hunt (1761-1818) of Curragh Chase, was also MP for Askeaton (1798-1800).

John Minchin-Walcott was born John Minchin. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, was called to the Irish Bar in 1726, and he married into prosperity and landed wealth when he married Eleanor Fitzgerald, the daughter of William Fitzgerald of Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, and his wife, Catherine Minchin. When Eleanor’s uncle, John Walcott of Croagh, died in 1736 without having any children as heirs, he left his large estates to his niece’s husband, John Minchin, who promptly changed his name to John Minchin-Walcott.

But the Walcott family was also involved in a more uncharitable and highly contentious plot in 1683 to assassinate King Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, later King James II. Colonel Thomas Walcott (1625-1683) was born in Warwickshire, the fourth son of Charles Walcott and Elizabeth Games. He was a Puritan and during the English Civil War he became a colonel in Cromwell’s Parliamentary Army.

During the Cromwellian era, Walcott came to Ireland, and married Jane Blayney, daughter of Thomas Blayney, niece of Edward Blayney, 1st Baron Blayney, and grand-niece of Adam Loftus of Rathfarnham Castle, Archbishop of Dublin and first Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Walcott bought Ballyvarra Castle in 1655, and by 1667 he had settled at Croagh, where he had an estate that provided an income of £800 a year. He also had lands at Amigan in Co Limerick.

His neighbour, Sir Hardress Waller (1604-1666), who was the Governor of Askeaton in 1641, was one of the regicides who signed the warrant for the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Waller was later condemned to death, and died in prison in Jersey.

Colonel Walcott was offered the post of Governor of the Province of Carolina in North America by his political ally, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, but declined. Walcott was arrested in 1672, accused of planning a Dutch invasion of Ireland, and he spent eight months in Tower of London before he was exonerated and went into exile.

Walcott visited the Earl of Shaftesbury in his self-imposed exile in the Netherlands in 1682. A year later, he was arrested in England on 8 or 10 July 1683 for his part in the Rye House Plot, a conspiracy to assassinate Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, the future James II. After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, some former Cromwellians and MPs feared Charles II’s links with Catholic France were too close. Anti-Catholic fears were stoked by the conversion of his brother James in 1673. Rumours of plots and conspiracies abounded.

Richard Rumbold was the tenant of Rye House, near Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, in 1683 when it became the setting of the Rye House Plot to murder King Charles II, and Walcott and Rumbold were among the accused conspirators. The plan was to conceal a force of men in the grounds of Rye House and to ambush King Charles and the Duke of York on their way back to London from the horse races at Newmarket. The royal party was expected to make the journey on 1 April 1683. However, a major fire on 22 March destroyed half the town of Newmarket, the races were cancelled, and the royal party returned early to London.

Although the planned attack never took place, the plot was uncovered and the suspected conspirators were rounded up. Thomas Walcott was one of the accused conspirators. He stood trial on 12 July 1683 in the Old Bailey, London. He was found guilty of high treason and was hanged, drawn and quartered on 20 July 1683 at Tyburn Hill in London and his head displayed publicly on a spike at Aldgate. He was the last man in England to undergo this punishment.

In all, 12 conspirators were executed – some were hanged, drawn and quartered, some were hanged, two were beheaded and one was burnt at the stake. Two were sentenced to death but later pardoned, 11 were imprisoned, nine were exiled or fled to the Netherlands, one escaped from the Tower of London, one cut his throat in the Tower, and many more were implicated. The final trial was that of Charles Bateman, who was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1685.

Walcott’s cousin, William Russell, Lord Russell, was also convicted and executed. Algernon Sidney was convicted on weaker evidence by Judge George Jeffreys, who was brought in as Lord Chief Justice in September 1683.

Many historians suggest the story of the plot may have been largely manufactured by King Charles or his supporters to allow the removal of most of his strongest political opponents. Popular reaction to the vengeful excesses in its suppression later contributed to Williamite Rebellion of 1688.

Thomas Walcott’s eldest son, John Walcott (1655-1736) of Croagh, and his brother William Walcott, fought alongside William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In a cruel irony, it is said that after his defeat at the Battle of Boyne, James II slept a night at Amigan Castle, near Croagh.

Eventually, Thomas Walcott was exonerated posthumously with the reversal of his attainder in favour of his eldest son, John Walcott, during the reign William III in 1696. John Walcott was restored to his father’s estates, and he became Deputy Lieutenant of Co Limerick.

A mortgage dated 1698 refers to John Walcott of Gray’s Inn, Middlesex, son of Thomas Walcott of Croagh. By then, the Walcott family owned over 1,000 acres in Co Limerick and had extensive lands in the Burren in Co Clare.

When John Walcott died without heirs in 1736, he left his Irish estates to his niece’s husband, John Minchin-Walcott, MP for Askeaton from 1747 until he died in 1753.

In 1755, his eldest daughter, Jane Minchin-Walcott, married as his first wife the Revd William Cecil Pery (1721-1794), later Dean of Derry (1780-1781), Bishop of Killala and Achonry (1781-1784) Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe (1784-1794), and 1st Baron Glentworth. They were the parents of Edmund Pery, 1st Earl of Limerick, while their daughter Eleanor married Sir Vere Hunt (1761-1818) of Curragh Chase, who was also MP for Askeaton (1798-1800).

Other family members included the naturalist John Walcott (1754-1831) of Croagh, a friend of Dr Erasmus Darwin of Lichfield, grandfather of Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of the Species.

By the 1790s, the Walcotts were leasing Croagh to Gerald Fitzgerald of Croagh and his son, also Gerald Fitzgerald. Samuel Lewis refers in 1837 to John Walcott of Clifton, Bristol, but originally of Croagh House. This John Walcott of Croagh House built three almshouses in Ballylin for six poor widows of Croagh parish, and each was endowed with half an acre of land for a garden, and a weekly allowance of a shilling to each widow, with an extra l0 shillings each at Easter and Christmas, payable for ever out of his estate at Croagh.

Most of the Walcott estates in Co Limerick and Co Tipperary were sold in the 1850s.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is the Church of Ireland priest in Askeaton and a former professor of liturgy and church history in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and Trinity College Dublin

The gatehouse is all that survives of the 15th century Rye House, on the edges of Hoddesdon … but did the plot ever exist? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This paper was first published in ‘ABC news’ 2018 (December 2018), the annual magazine of Askeaton/Ballysteen Community Council Munitir na Tíre, pp 14-15.

Praying at Christmas with USPG
and Lichfield Cathedral
(2): 26 December 2018

Saint Stephen Walbrook in London … Sir Nikolaus Pevsner lists it as one of the 10 most important buildings in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas is not over … yet. Today is the Second Day of Christmas. But instead of expecting ‘two turtle doves’ today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr in the Church [26 December 2018].

Throughout the season of Advent this year, I spent a short time of prayer and reflection each morning, using the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency, USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), and the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar for 2018 being used in Lichfield Cathedral. I am continuing this practice for the next few days.

USPG, founded in 1701, is an Anglican mission agency supporting churches around the world in their mission to bring fullness of life to the communities they serve.

USPG is the Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities worldwide in God’s mission to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential, and champion justice.

Under the title Pray with the World Church, the current USPG prayer diary (7 October 2018 to 16 February 2019), offers prayers and reflections from the Anglican Communion.

The USPG Prayer Diary began this week with a reflection on Anglican Heritage by Bishop Dato’ Dr Charles Samuel, Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of West Malaysia.

The USPG Prayer Diary:

Wednesday 26 December 2018, Saint Stephen, Deacon:


Give thanks that so many in our Anglican tradition are dedicating their lives to sharing God’s love around the world.

The Piazza Santo Stefano in front of the ‘Sette Chiese’ or Seven Churches in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)

Lichfield Cathedral Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar:

Lichfield Cathedral’s Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar for 2018 suggests you light your Advent candle each day as you read the Bible and pray. It suggests setting aside five to 15 minutes each day.

Buy or use a special candle to light each day as you read and pray through the suggestions on the calendar. Each week there is a suggestion to ‘eat simply’ – try going without so many calories or too much rich food, just have enough. There is a suggestion to donate to a charity working with the homeless. There is encouragement to pray through what you see and notice going on around you in people, the media and nature.

The calendar is for not only for those who use the Cathedral website and for the Cathedral community. It is also for anyone who wants to share in the daily devotional exercise. The calendar suggests lighting your Advent candle each day as you read the Bible and pray.

Today’s suggested reading is Matthew 10: 17-22.

The reflection for today suggests:

Pray for all who have witnessed to Jesus through suffering and death. Pray to have a share in their courage and their assurance of God’s love and purpose.

The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland being are:

II Chronicles 24: 20-22; Psalm 119: 161-168; Acts 7: 51-60; Matthew 10: 17-22.

The Collect:

Gracious Father, who gave the first martyr Stephen grace to pray for those who stoned him: Grant that in all our sufferings for the truth we may learn to love even our enemies and to seek forgiveness for those who desire our hurt, looking up to heaven to him who was crucified for us, Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Advocate, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord, we thank you for these signs of your mercy, we praise you for feeding us at your table and giving us joy in honouring Stephen, first martyr of the new Israel; through Jesus Christ our Lord..

Yesterday’s reflection.

Continued tomorrow.