From A Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878
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Jackson, William, Rev., born of an Irish family, possibly in England, in the middle of the 18th century. His father held a post in the Prerogative Court, Dublin. Early in life he maintained himself as a tutor in London, and afterwards, entering the Church, he became a popular preacher in Tavistock Chapel, Drury-lane. He was next chaplain to the Duchess of Kingston, on whose behalf he engaged in a controversy with Foote, the comedian. He went over to Paris on the business of the Duchess about 1790, and continued to reside there. Early in 1794 he came to Ireland on a secret mission to the leaders of the revolutionary party. Passing through London, he divulged his plans to an old friend John Cockayne, an attorney, who immediately entered into private communication with Pitt. In Dublin, Jackson and Cockayne had interviews with Tone, Rowan, and Lewins, relative to French assistance. Cockayne revealed everything that had passed to the Government, and on the 28th April 1794 Jackson was arrested on a charge of high treason, at Hyde's Coffee-house, in Palace-street, Dublin. He was tried a year afterwards, and upon Cockayne's evidence convicted.
Brought up to receive sentence, 30th April 1795, he managed before entering the court to swallow a quantity of arsenic — in the hope, we are told, that in dying before conviction his little property might be preserved to his family. As he entered the dock he whispered to one of his counsel: "We have deceived the senate." The scene that ensued was one of the most dramatic enacted in those exciting times. His fortitude did not forsake him to the last; for it was scarcely perceived by the spectators that he was ill, when he fell down in the agonies of death, and after a few minutes' struggle died in the dock. In his pocket was found a paper with a few verses from the 25th Psalm, commencing: "Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted." His remains were followed to St. Michan's (where his tombstone may now be seen) by an immense number of mourners. In Newgate before his trial he wrote a reply to Thomas Paine. A volume of his sermons was printed after his death. Cockayne was requited for the sacrifice of his old friend and client by a pension of £250.
Sources
331. United Irishmen, their Lives and Times: Robert R. Madden, M.D. 4 vols. London, 1858-'60.
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Truelove's Journal: A Bookshop Novella
From a sad, comfortless childhood Giles Truelove developed into a reclusive and uncommunicative man whose sole passion was books. For so long they were the only meaning to his existence. But when fate eventually intervened to have the outside world intrude upon his life, he began to discover emotions that he never knew he had.
This is a story for the genuine booklover, penned by an Irish bookseller under the pseudonym of Ralph St. John Featherstonehaugh.
Annals of the Famine in Ireland
Annals of the Famine in Ireland, by Asenath Nicholson, still has the power to shock and sadden even though the events described are ever-receding further into the past. When you read, for example, of the poor widowed mother who was caught trying to salvage a few potatoes from her landlord's field, and what the magistrate discovered in the pot in her cabin, you cannot help but be appalled and distressed.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger
This book, the prequel to Annals of the Famine in Ireland cannot be recommended highly enough to those interested in Irish social history. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, travelled from her native America to assess the condition of the poor in Ireland during the mid 1840s. Refusing the luxury of hotels and first class travel, she stayed at a variety of lodging-houses, and even in the crude cabins of the very poorest. Not to be missed!
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Henry Ford Jones' book, first published in 1915 by Princeton University, is a classic in its field. It covers the history of the Scotch-Irish from the first settlement in Ulster to the American Revolutionary period and the foundation of the country.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
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