William and Mary Proclaimed at Enniskillen
From Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689 by Thomas Witherow
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CHAPTER VI...continued
WILLIAM AND MARY PROCLAIMED.—March 11th, 1689.
Early in March the news arrived that the Committee of Estates in England had voted King James's desertion of the kingdom as an abdication, and had acknowledged William and Mary as joint sovereigns. Upon the receipt of this news, the town took immediate action. On the 11th of March, William and Mary were proclaimed at Enniskillen with all joy and solemnity, and the inhabitants pledged their allegiance to the new King and Queen.
Colonel Lundy was then regarded as Commander-in-chief of the Williamite forces in the North-west of Ulster; and, not long after the proclamation, a letter from him was received at Enniskillen, enclosing a copy of Osborne's letter of the 9th of March, addressed to Lord Mount-Alexander, which was in the same terms substantially as that of the same date addressed to Sir Arthur Rawdon and already given.[19] Accompanying this was a copy of the following letter from the Gentlemen of the North-east, addressed to Lundy, and dated at Loughbrickland, March 9th, 1688/9:—
"SIR,—Since our last to you, dated the 6th, we have this day received the enclosed; and Mr. Osborne was here himself and confirms the contents with several circumstances, which persuades us of the truth of it, and therefore we most earnestly entreat you to march up towards Newry, with all possible diligence, with what men you can, and with as much provisions and necessaries as can be carried; and let us know by express of their march and their numbers. —We remain, your humble Servants,
"MOUNT-ALEXANDER.
JAMES HAMILTON.
WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM.
RICHARD JOHNSTON.
MAR. MIDLETON.
"Sir, you are desired to give notice to all friends.
"To the Hon. Colonel Lundy, in Derry."[20]
Accompanying these enclosures was a letter from Lundy himself, addressed to the Gentlemen of the County Fermanagh.
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NOTES
[19] See p. 62. In the letter to Mount-Alexander, the greater part of the last paragraph is omitted.—Further Account, p. 27.
[20] Further Account, p. 26.
Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689
Thomas Witherow's thoroughly researched and well-annotated work is a classic account of the Siege of Derry, from the shutting of the gates against the Jacobite forces by the thirteen apprentice boys to the relief of the city by Major-General Kirke's fleet in July 1689. The defence of Enniskillen and the counteroffensive actions of the Enniskilleners is also ably documented.
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Fighters of Derry
William R. Young’s Fighters of Derry has for decades been one of the most overlooked works on the Siege of Derry and as a local genealogical resource. First published in 1932, the book was the product of ten years’ research into identifying participants at the siege which the author undertook when suffering from ill-health in the latter part of his life.
The book is essentially divided into two parts: the first contains 1660 biographical entries relating to the defenders of Derry, tracing, where possible, the family lineage; and the second part includes 352 entries on the Jacobite side. Apart from individual accounts of eminent protagonists in the siege, such as David Cairnes, Rev. George Walker, the Duke of Schomberg, Patrick Sarsfield, etc., there is also background given to many of the most influential families involved in the conflict.
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The Actions of the Enniskillen-men
While the epic siege of Derry is usually accorded its proper place in history, the contemporaneous exploits of the Enniskillen men are often overlooked. This is manifestly unjust because the Enniskilleners demonstrated bravery and heroism in battle at least equal to that of the defenders of Londonderry. Some, of course, rate the actions of the Enniskillen men more highly. As far as Revd Andrew Hamilton, the Rector of Kilskeery and author of A True Relation of the Actions of the Inniskilling Men (1690), was concerned ‘The Derry men saved a city but the Enniskilleners saved a kingdom.’
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