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c a r p p NUI MAYNOOTH O IIi c b II n> hC lna» Mi Nuid THE VOLUNTEERS 1778-1793: ICONOGRAPHY AND IDENTITY’ by STEPHEN O’CONNOR THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH Head of Department: Professor R. V. Comerford Supervisor of research: Professor Jacqueline R. Hill 15 August 2008 Volume I of II i Table of contents Acknowledgements: ii List of figures and tables: iii List of plates: iv List of abbreviations: xvi Glossary: xvii Introduction: 1 Chapter one, Uniforms: 12 Chapter two, Flags: 68 Chapter three, Iconography and symbolism: 96 Chapter four, Portraits: 145 Chapter five, Ceramics: 198 Chapter six, Prints: 244 Conclusion: 293 Bibliography: 302 Acknowledgments This work would not have been possible without the guidance and assistance of a great many people. Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation for the professional guidance, knowledge and support of my supervisor, Prof. Jacqueline Hill. Funding for this work was most kindly bestowed by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, in the form of a three year postgraduate scholarship. Collation of sources for this study would have been impossible without the help of many different curators (a complete list of the museum collections consulted can be found in this volume), but I would like to extend my particular thanks to Glenn Thompson and Audrey Whitty of the National Museum of Ireland, Kim Mawhinney of the Ulster Museum, Shiela O’Connell of the British Museum and Keith Beattie of Ballymoney Museum. I would also like to extend my most sincere thanks to the Knight of Glin and Peter Francis for lending their considerable experience in the fields of art history and fine ceramics respectively. Warm appreciation must also be extended to many private collectors, who so kindly spared me their time and access to their collections, without which many artefacts in this study would have gone unnoticed. Thanks must also be offered to the staff of the National Library of Ireland. Thanks are also extended to the departmental staff and postgraduates of NUI Maynooth Department of History, for their support in this long and often difficult task. Appreciation must also be expressed for the many conference organisers and delegates who have viewed my papers in the last four years. In particular, gratitude is extended to the Irish History Students Association and the Eighteenth Century Ireland Society for repeatedly allowing me to present research papers at their annual conferences. List of figures and tables Tables: 1.1 The primary colours of Volunteer coats p.44 2.1 Breakdown of the decoration of Volunteer colour centrepieces p.70 2.2 Wreath composition of Volunteer company colours p.72 2.3 Breakdown of Volunteer guidon centrepieces p.81 2.4 The breakdown of Volunteer guidon wreath compositions p.82 3.1 Breakdown of crowning motifs for a Maid of Erin harp from the sample p. 105 5.1 Stock decoration on Volunteer ceramics p.211 5.2 Personalized decoration on extant Volunteer ceramics p.223 Figures: 1.1. Facing colours of British Infantry Regiments during the American War of Independence from a total sample of 70. Source: Reid and Zlatich, Soldiers of the revolutionary war, pp 157-165. 1.2. The facing colours of scarlet coated British cavalry regiments during the American War of Independence from a total sample of 34. Source: Reid and Zlatich, Soldiers o f the revolutionary war, pp 200-206. 1.3. The facings of Volunteer coats with a scarlet coat colour. 1.4. The facing colours of blue Volunteer coats. List of plates Chapter one 1.1 ‘The Butchers wife dressing for the Pantheon’, W. Humphrey of London, 1772, engraving (Library of Congress, Washington). 1.2 ‘The Estates General’, Louis-Charles Auguste Couder, 1839, oil on canvas (Chateau de Versailles). 1.3 ‘Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellamont (1738-1800), in the robes of the Order of the Bath’, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1773-1774, oil on canvas, 245 x 162cm (National Gallery of Ireland). 1.4 ‘The Irish House of Commons’, Francis Wheatley, 1780, oil on canvas (Lotherton Hall, Leeds). 1.5 A detail from ‘The Dublin Volunteers on College Green, 4th November 1779’, Francis Wheatley, 1779 to 1780, oil on canvas, 175 x 323cm (National Gallery of Ireland). 1.6 A detail from ‘Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1782, oil on canvas (National Gallery, London). 1.7 A detail of the Kilkenny Rangers jug showing the felt hat and ostrich plumes of the company (National Museum of Ireland). 1.8 Leather light infantry helmet, 1770s, 5th Regiment of foot (Wallis and Wallis Heritage Centre, Sussex). 1.9 A detail from Wheatley’s College Green showing the men of the County Dublin Light Horse (National Gallery of Ireland). 1.10 A lacquered brass cavalry helmet of the Armagh Light Dragoons, 1770s (Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 3rd series, v (1942), p.56). 1.11 A button of the Gort Light Dragoons, County Galway, from the coat of Richard D ’Arcy, one of its members (National Museum of Ireland). 1.12 An advertisement for Volunteer buttons made by the Dublin jeweller Nicholas Butler, D u b lin Evening Post, 5 June 1779 (National Library of Ireland). 1.13 ‘The Lurgan Volunteer’, Strickland Lowry, late 1770s, oil on canvas (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.14 A belt-plate of the Lisburn Volunteers, late 1770s to early 1780s (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.15 A belt plate-plate of the Dublin Volunteers, late 1770s (National Museum of Ireland). 1.16 A silver gorget of the British 25th Regiment of foot, 1770s to 1780s (United Services Museum, Edinburgh). 1.17 A line drawing of a silver gorget that once belonged to Lieutenant John McBride of the Rathfriland Volunteers (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.18 A gorget of the Belfast Third “Union” Volunteer Company, late 1770s (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.19 The sword presented to James Napper Tandy on his entry into Sir Edward Newenham’s Liberty Volunteers in April 1780 (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.20 An unidentified Volunteer officer by John Trotter, late 1770s to early 1780s, oil on canvas (Private Collection). 1.21 A grenadier of the 5th Regiment of Marines from the 1740s (Reid and Zlatich, Soldiers of the revolutionary war, p.171). 1.22 A grenadier of a company of marines in the late 1770s (Mollo and MacGregor, Uniforms of the American Revolution, p.79). 1.23 A detail from Wheatley’s painting of College Green showing the men of the County Dublin Light Horse (National Gallery of Ireland). V 1.24 ‘William Robert Fitzgerald, second Duke of Leinster in the uniform of the Dublin Volunteers’, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, 1779 to 1780, chalk on paper (Private collection). 1.25 A detail from Wheatley’s College Green Volunteers. This detail features the duke in the centre, with the white coated musician of the company to his right (National Gallery of Ireland). 1.26 A musician’s coat of the Gort Light Dragoons, County Galway (National Museum of Ireland). 1.27 ‘Captain Waddell Cunningham’, of the Belfast First Volunteer Company, by Robert Home, 1784, oil on canvas (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.28 ‘Lieutenant Robert Hugh Hyndman’, of the Belfast Third “Union” Volunteer Company, by Joseph Wilson, early 1780s, oil on canvas (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.29 A National Volunteer of 1792-1793 by an unknown artist (National Museum of Ireland). 1.30 A Parisian Sans-Culottes of the early 1790s (Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf (eds.), A c ritic a l dictionary of the French Revolution (London, 1989)). 1.31 ‘Rev William Bruce of Lisburn’, Joseph Wilson, late 1780s, oil on canvas (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.32 A detail from ‘Lord Aldborough on Pomposo’, by Francis Wheatley, 1782, oil on canvas (Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire). 1.33 An officer of the 17th Light Dragoons, late 1770s (Mollo and McGregor, Uniforms of the American Revolution, p. 102). 1.34 A gunner of the Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery, 1780s (Reproduced with permission of Glenn Thompson). 1.35 A corporal of the French Santoigne Regiment, early 1780s (Mollo and MacGregor, U niform s of the American Revolution, p. 141). 1.36 A fusilier of the 33rd Reiment of foot of the Prussian army, 1760s-1770s (Phillip Haythomwaite and Bryan Fosten, Frederick the G reat’s army, 2, Infantry (Osprey, 1991), p.31.). 1.37 A private soldier of the British 9th Regiment of Foot (Mollo and MacGregor, Uniforms of the American Revolution, p. 109). 1.38 An officer of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment from the American forces (Mollo and McGregor, Uniforms of the American Revolution, p.77. 1.39 A soldier of the Queen’s Rangers (Mollo and MacGregor, Uniforms of the American Revolution, p.135). 1.40 A detail of Wheatley’s Irish House of Commons. Colonel Eland Mossom is seated on the back bench on the far right (Lotherton Hall, Leeds). 1.41 The Henry Joy McCracken coat of the Belfast First Volunteer Company, early 1790s (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.42 A fragment of the Volunteer fabric (Ulster Museum, Belfast). 1.43 ‘Volunteer demonstration in the old High Street of Belfast, 1793, in honour of the destruction of the Bastille’, John Carey, 1907 (National Library of Ireland). 1.44 A tempestuous meeting in Belfast Assembly rooms in the mid-1780s (Bill Rolston, ‘ ‘A lying old scoundrel’ Waddell Cunningham and Belfast’s role in the slave trade’ in History Ireland, vol. xi, no.l (Spring 2003), pp 24-7). Chapter two 2.1 ‘William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland’ (Anne S. K. Brown military collection, Brown University). 2.2 King’s colour of the British l l lh regiment of foot, 1751 (Sumner and Hook, British colours and standards, (2), infantry, p.35).