History of the Irish Church from James II. to Emigration of Presbyterians to America, 1725 (2)

From Scotch and Irish Seeds in American Soil by Rev. J. G. Craighead

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CHAPTER VIII. … continued

While these events were taking place in Ireland, the prince of Orange had landed in England. The Presbyterian ministers of Ulster were the first in the kingdom to hail his arrival, and to transmit an address to him congratulating him on his success and beseeching him to take speedy care for their preservation and relief. To their petition an answer was returned, addressed to the Protestants in the north of Ireland, approving of their past conduct and promising them effectual support. On the reception of this communication, they proclaimed William king in all the towns subject to their authority, and Ireland now became the grand scene of conflict for the sovereignty of the three kingdoms. Here the power of James was predominant, and here he hoped to regain his throne. But to attempt to give an account of the various battles between the troops of the two contestants for the possession of the country would lead us away from the purpose of this sketch. The superiority in numbers and discipline of Tyrconnel’s army enabled him to overrun most of the kingdom, only a few fortified places, which had been seized at the first alarm of the massacre, being held by the Protestants.

Of these, as previously stated, Derry was by far the most important, and every preparation was made by their enemies to wrest it from them. King James and his formidable army laid siege to it on the 18th of April, 1689, and continued the investituer for a period of one hundred and five days. The siege was closely pressed and the city subjected to frequent bombardments, but it was valorously defended by its brave garrison. By far the larger number of the officers were Episcopalians, while among the soldiers and citizens there were fifteen Presbyterians for one Episcopalian. So resolute and successful was their defence that the enemy resorted to an inhuman expedient to secure the surrender of the city. All the Protestants who could be collected within ten miles, men, women and children, were driven under the walls, and ordered to be kept there without shelter, protection or food until the terms of capitulation should be accepted.

This barbarous act was of no avail, for the governor of the city erected a gallows on the walls and threatened to hang the Irish prisoners in his possession unless these wretched people were permitted to return to their homes. But the garrison, as well as the inhabitants, were now suffering from scarcity of provisions.[5] Nearly all their resources of food had been exhausted, such had been the closeness of the blockade maintained by the enemy, and the relief sent to the people from England had failed to reach them by reason of the incompetency or treachery of the commander of the squadron. Although disappointed in their expectations of relief from the fleet from day to day, and with their numbers fearfully reduced by famine and sickness and death, the brave garrison resolved to perish rather than surrender the city. History shows few parallels to the valor and endurance exhibited on this occasion, and rarely have more memorable services been performed in behalf of civil liberty than by the brave and heroic defenders of Derry.[6] At length, through the urgent representations and remonstrances of the Rev. James Gordon, Major-General Kirk was induced to permit an attempt to be made to relieve the city, and two vessels of the English fleet, the Mountjoy and Phoenix, reached the quay in safety, to the great joy of the famishing garrison. Two days afterward the Irish army abandoned their trenches and raised the siege of the city.

Enniskillen was defended with similar bravery and success. Its stubborn defence compelled James to divide his forces in order to cut off all communication between Derry and the former place, and this division contributed to the security of both. In one of their many severe conflicts with the enemy, and only three days after Derry had been relieved, the Protestants gained a decisive victory over the Irish, routing their army, whose strength was three times that of their own, and killing nearly two thousand men, besides capturing the general and most of the officers. After this signal defeat the several sections of James’ army that had been engaged in the sieges of Enniskillen and Derry beat a hasty retreat, plundering and burning everything in their way. Inspirited by this success, the adherents of William employed more vigorous means to drive the enemy out of the country. In this they were aided by the arrival of a formidable armament from England, consisting of ten thousand horse and foot commanded by the duke of Schomberg. Most of the strongholds of the enemy were quickly wrested from him, and James and his Irish forces retired to Dublin.

Although defeated and driven to take shelter in Dublin, the forces of James were still formidable, and he had the promise of large reinforcements from France to assist him to subdue his rebellious subjects. At this juncture King William announced his purpose to repair to Ireland and conduct the war in person. He was received on landing with every possible demonstration of joy and welcome, and one week after his arrival he took the field and conducted his military operations with his characteristic vigor. Within a fortnight the two armies were brought face to face in battle array on the banks of the Boyne. Here, on the first day of July, 1690, was fought that memorable battle the results of which were the total defeat of the Irish army, the flight of James to Dublin, his subsequent retirement to France, and the occupation of the metropolis of Ireland by the troops of King William. Thus was the power of James II. finally overthrown, and in the very quarter where he expected an easy triumph, and the prince of Orange secured in possession of the crown, and the liberties of the empire once more established on a constitutional basis. During all these troubles and conflicts the Irish Presbyterians vindicated their claims to the sympathy and gratitude of the English king, as well as the English people.

Episcopal bishops and curates hastened to congratulate King William just as soon as they saw that victory perched upon his banners. Within a day or two after reaching Dublin he was waited upon in his tent by an Episcopalian committee, who, in their address, assured him that during King James’ reign in Ireland they had been “guilty of no compliances but such as were the effects of prudence and self-preservation” and that they now acknowledged William to be their king and prayed for his prosperity. Such an assurance was certainly needed, for only a few months before, nearly the same persons had presented an address to James in which they declared their “resolution to continue firm to that loyalty which the principles of their Church obliged them to, and which, in pursuance of those principles, they had hitherto practiced.” Whatever may be thought of the sincerity of their professions to William, they were undoubtedly sincere in the avowal of their principles before King James. They were believers in the doctrine of non-resistance, and were keen to discover whose kingly fortunes were in the ascendant, and their “prudence and self-preservation” led them speedily to range themselves on the side of the victorious monarch. When James’ authority dominated in Ireland, they prayed for him and his reputed son, the prince of Wales, and that all his enemies, William included, might be brought into confusion.

In the course of a single week, so rapid a change had the sword wrought on the banks of the Boyne that these same clergy were praying, with the same apparent fervor, for William as their lawful king, whom they had so recently denounced as a usurper and his supporters as rebels. As each contestant for the crown obtained the ascendency the prayers of the Established Church had to be changed to suit the new condition of affairs, and thus its clergy in Ulster had been, as stated by one of their own number, “four times in one year praying forward and backward, point-blank contradictory to one another.” But all were not so inconsistent or inconstant in principle and conduct. Many were the warm friends and most determined and valiant defenders of constitutional liberty when imperiled by the illegal measures of James. Of these the Rev. Dr. Walker, the celebrated governor of Derry during its siege, was a worthy and noted example.

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NOTES

[5] Speaking of the endurance of these brave men, Froude says: “Fever, cholera and famine came to the aid of the besiegers. Rats came to be dainties, and hides and shoe-leather were the ordinary fare. They saw their children pine away and die. They were wasted themselves till they could scarcely handle their firelocks on their ramparts.”

[6] “Now was again witnessed what Calvinism, though its fire was waning, could still do in making common men into heroes. Deserted by the English regiments, betrayed by their own commanders, without stores and half armed, the shopkeepers and apprentices of a commercial town prepared to defend an unfortified city against a disciplined army of twenty-five thousand men, led by trained officers and amply provided with artillery.”—Froude, vol. i., pp. 81, 82.