CHAPTER XXX

THE DEFENDERS
The Whiteboy movement was a southern organization, and was in a sense contemporaneous with two agrarian outbreaks in Ulster that were completely independent of it. The first of these was the Oak Boy movement in 1763, a revolt against the system of forced labour on the public highways. It was suppressed without much difficulty after a short time. The second, known as the Hearts of Steel, was more serious in its after effects. It arose in the year 1770 on the extensive estates near Belfast belonging to the Marquis of Donegall, where the tenants had been dis¬ possessed at the end of their leases in favour of wealthy Belfast merchants who bid higher rents with the intention of making their profit out of the lands as middlemen.
The tenant-farmers were beaten, of course, and a goodly number hanged or transported, as was bound to happen when all the armed power of Government was marshalled in defence of the sacred rights of landed property; but retribution was exacted a few year later on the other side of the Atlantic, whither the Ulstermen had emigrated in their thousands after the suppression of the Hearts of Steel. There were no more bitter or more irreconcilable soldiers among the American revolutionists than these expatriates.
Though both the Oak Boys and the Hearts of Steel adopted the Whiteboy plan of swearing in recruits perforce, and no doubt took an oath of fidelity among themselves, no standard form of words has been preserved, nor seemingly was admission to either body accompanied by the use of any particular form of ritual, such as is hinted at in the Whiteboy oath. Beyond a mention they can, therefore, claim no place in this book. It is quite otherwise with the society, also an Ulster one, that next calls for notice.
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The defenders
221
In the early eighties of the eighteenth century there arose in the county of Armagh a Protestant association which was known as the “ Peep-of-Day Boys.” In 1795 these militant Ulstermen changed their title, though not their policy, and formed themselves into the still, existent and very powerful Orange Society, which will be described later. While the latter body possesses a ceremonial and ritual based on the model of a much older society, there is no evidence to show that the progenitors of the Orangemen, the Peep-of-Day Boys, had any such secrets.
The proceedings of the Peep-of-Day Boys in the early days of their existence were directed towards two ends : the disarming of their Roman Catholic neighbours, and then the inducing them to migrate to the less dangerous if less arable soil of Connaught. To further these ends it was the custom of the Peep-of-Day Boys to collect in armed bands and raid Roman Catholic houses at the hour of dawn in order to confiscate any arms they might find; whence the name “Peep of Day.” Another of their prac¬ tices was to affix a notice to the door of any Roman Catholic whose room was preferred to his company; the set form of this document ran:
“Peter Brady, you have. . .days your goods to sell, and get to Connaught or hell, for here you may not dwell.”1
Blessed with such neighbours, it is hardly surprising that the Roman Catholics should have formed a secret society among themselves to counter outrage by outrage. They did so; and thus arose the association known as the Defenders.
At first they were a purely Catholic society, but later on, in the seventeen-nineties, they joined hands with the United Irishmen who were undenominational. The following extracts from Madden will give a summary of the history of the Defenders.
“The Defenders had their origin in the year 1785, but they were hardly known as a distinct and formidable body
1 Latocnaye, Tour in Ireland, 1797.
222 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
till the year 1792; their first object, as their name imports, was self-protection, when the exterminating system was carried into effect by the Ascendency party in the north. But as their strength increased, their views became more political, and resistance to aggression led them to offensive measures against their enemies, and the Government which protected the latter.”1
“The association of Defenders about 1792 had changed its character from that of a society engaged in religious feuds to one actuated by political motives, and the change was effected by the endeavours of the United Irishmen to reconcile the ultra-Protestants and Catholics. Their views, however, continued so indistinct that inquirers were ignorant of their objects, except that a general notion prevailed amongst them that ‘something ought to be done for Ireland.’ They had no persons in their body of the upper or even middling class in life. The only man known among them above the condition of a labourer, was a schoolmaster in Naas, who was executed in 1796. . . . In the same year, Napper Tandy, on the part of the United Irishmen at Dublin, had an interview with the Defenders at Castle- bellingham, in the County of Louth, when the oath of secrecy was administered to him. The object of Tandy was to ascertain their real objects, and (though the fact has not been avowed, it cannot be concealed from any persons enquiring into the matter) to turn the strength of the association into the channels of the ‘Union’.2 One of the Defenders who was present when Tandy was sworn lodged informations against him, and he was fortunate enough to effect his escape out of the kingdom. The Defenders gradually merged into the United Irishmen, and in a short time there was no distinction between them.”3
Madden has another passage about the Defenders which will have to be quoted since it refers to something in con¬ nection with their secret ceremonies that is, to say the least of it, unexpected. If his statement is correct, and he was particularly well informed on such matters, an affection
1 Madden, op. cit.
i.e. The United Irishmen’s Plot. 3 Madden, Op. cit.
THE DEFENDERS 223
for the House of Stuart was still alive in Ireland a hundred years after its last king had fled from the Boyne.
“The Defenders were at first opposed to Republican principles, their chief end and aim was, as their name implied, defence against their persecutors. . . . The idea, however, seems never to have been wholly eradicated from the minds of the people who entered into these associations, that the descendants of James II had not ceased to be entitled to their allegiance, and they seem to have had a vague notion that the French king represented the interests of the dethroned Stuarts. ... It is difficult to under¬ stand the allusions to French subjects, in their test and secret pass-words, and cabalistic jargon, without supposing that some slight tincture of the old Jacobite principles of 1689 was still mixed up with their modern views and projects.”1
The statement that the Defenders were connected with Jacobitism must have been made by Madden on the authority of some evidence which has not found its way into print, and seems hard to credit when we bear in mind the period at which they flourished. Indeed, the next documents that have to be considered — they are probably authentic, though their recorder is Sir Richard Musgrave, a bitter partizan — tend to prove a direct contrary, to wit, that the Defenders in their early days were quite prepared to be loyal to the Hanoverian Succession, if they were permitted to enjoy the ordinary rights of a citizen.
What follows is a description of how the Defenders were extended over Ulster in the year in which the French Revolution began.
“The following discovery made in the year 1789 clearly proved that the Defenders were systematically organized.
. . . One of their plans or constitutions was found in the year 1789, by a magistrate of the County of Armagh, on one of their leaders of the name of Sharky, and dated the 24th April of that year at Drumbanagher. ... It must
1 Madden, United Irishmen, Second Series, London, 1843, II., 401.
224 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
have taken up some time to bring this system to maturity, and they were probably numerous in the County of Armagh, as Sharky’s lodge is No. 18. There must have been an intercourse and a communication between the lodges of different counties; for in this plan there appears a certi¬ ficate that Michael Moor was a brother Defender, and he is recommended to the committee of Carrickarnan, No. i, in the county of Louth. Sobriety, secrecy, the accumu¬ lation of arms, and the giving assistance to each other on all occasions, seem to have been leading objects with them. They were exclusively of the Roman Catholic religion. They knew each other by secret signs: they had a Grand Master in each county, who was elected at a general annual meeting, and they had also monthly meetings.”
Constitution Of Defenders
(This prospectus of the Defenders was found by Doctor Allot, Dean of Raphoe, and was sent to Government during the administration of the Marquis of Buckingham.)
“I, A.B., of my own free will and accord, do swear to be true to one another, will assist one another abroad and at home, and there are none to be admitted without the consent of the Committee appointed by the said body: and they must, in all things, be under subjection to the said Committee in all things that are lawful, and not other¬ wise; and all words and signs to be kept secret from all that are not concerned, or forfeit this oath ; and we are to meet once a month where the committee thinks proper, and we are to spend what is agreeable to the company; and any person giving a lawful reason for his absence is not to be under censure; and all persons entering must be under all rules and regulations appointed by the said committee; and as in our former oath we are bound to his Majesty King George III and his successors to the crown, so for this present year 1 789 we promise faithfully the same obedience, and also while we live subject to the same Govern¬ ment.
Rules To Be Observed
“ 1st, There is no defender to strike one another upon any account; or if they do, to be excluded from the company as long as the committee thinks proper.
THE DEFENDERS
225
“2nd, There is no person to come to the meeting drunk; or if they do, to pay sixpence, and to be excluded for three months.
“3rd, There is no person on any account to swear or speak loud in the company; and for every oath they are to pay what the committee thinks proper.
“4th, There is no person that formerly belonged to another body (that is to say a strange body) to be accepted without a line from the body he formerly belonged to. “5th, There is no person to let any one know who belongs to their body, but those who went under the obligation. “6th, There is no body of men to go to a challenge without leave of three of the committee at least.
“7th, There is no body to get a copy of these without the leave of the grand master appointed by the general year’s meeting, or deputies appointed by the said grand master, or his committee.
“8th, Let no person know no words or signs without being concerned; and they are not empowered to give or make known by either words or signs or tokens any that may hereafter come forth, or make it known to any company or body but ourselves, or our body, “gth, There is no defender to make himself known as a defender after being excluded, under fear of perjury; and each man continuing six months from this day must find a gun and bayonet, with other necessary accoutre¬ ments, or be excluded at the option of the committee.
“Given under our hands, the Grange committee to the committee of Carrickarnan, body of defenders No. 1, for the county of Louth.”
“We, the committee of No. 18, do certify the bearer, Michael Moor, that he has gone through the rules and obligations of a brother defender; and at his request he desires to be discharged that he may join your body.
“ Given under our hands at Drumbanagher, this 24 th day of April, 1789.
“N.B. — This prospectus and Michael Moor’s certificate were signed by fifty-one names in addition to the above, who were present and members of Lodge No. 18. 1,1
1 Sir Richard Musgrave, Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in Ireland. Dublin, 1801.
226 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
It will be noticed that in this obligation the initiate pledges himself to secrecy regarding the modes of recog¬ nition — “words and signs.” He promises to be regular in his attendance at meetings; and he swears allegiance to the reigning House of Hanover. In view of this last clause, it is hard to understand how the Defenders can have been considered Jacobites.
Such were the regulations of the Defenders in the year 1789. From the year 1791 onwards efforts were in progress to amalgamate them with the society of United Irishmen. This took place to a large extent, and it will be apparent from some evidence to be produced later that the contact of the two societies had an effect upon the ritual of the Roman Catholic Secret Society.
An oath corresponding very closely to the one given above was quoted by Colonel W. Verner at the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1835 as having been administered by one James Weldon, a Defender, who was hanged for high treason in 1795. The witness went on to state, that the means by which the Defenders were known to one another consisted in the following questions and answers :
“I am concerned. So am I.
“With whom? The National Convention (meaning thereby the National Convention of France).
“What is your designs? On Freedom.
“Where is your designs? The foundation of it is grounded on a rock.
“What is your designs? Cause to quell all nations,
dethrone all - ngs (meaning thereby all kings), to plant
true religion in the hearts, be just.
“Where did the cock crow when the whole world heard him? In France.
“What is the pass-word? Eliphismatis.”1
If the foregoing catechism is approximately correct, the influence exerted upon the Defenders after their joining
1 Compare with this unintelligible word the one found later in the possession of a Limerick “Whiteboy.”
THE DEFENDERS 227
forces with the United Irishmen is patent, since the latter body was for French intervention in Ireland, a matter of which some account will be given in the next chapter.
So far as the Defenders are concerned, they cease to be heard of after the year 1800. There can be little doubt that they had by then assumed a new title and became known as the Ribbon Society. Their subsequent history will be treated under that heading.