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| Viscount Lifford the
1st |
Meenglas Castle - click
to enlarge |
Viscount Lifford the
4th |
The first Viscount Lifford was born James Hewitt in
April 1712, the son of a Coventry draper. He started
work as an Attorney's Clerk and progressed through the legal
profession. By 1742, he was a barrister at-law, and
after various appointments over the years, he was made Lord
Chancellor of Ireland. In 1768, he was created
Baron Lifford and, in 1781, elevated to Viscount.
It would appear that the second
and third Viscounts Lifford had relatively uneventful lives,
or at least, little input to the history books - or perhaps
more specifically, little dealings with Ireland.
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| Meenglas Bridge, Ballybofey
- 2002 |
The fourth Viscount Lifford, also James Hewitt, was a resident
of the Raphoe Diocese, his principal place of residence being
Meenglas, Ballybofey. And reside in style he did! His
Irish acreage amounted to over 11,000 acres of prime land,
which (like so many of his peers) he had gifted to him by
his English benefactors, making him the prominent landowner
in the area.
However, in the case of Lifford, the vastness of his acreage
gained him no popularity with the native Irish, whose lands
were confiscated.
A member of the Protestant Anglo-Irish "Ascendancy,"
Lord Lifford wrote a series of letters to the London Times
in September 1880 against Home Rule. This excerpt is from
the last of those letters.
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Lord Lifford
to the London Times, September 1880
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...But the great evil of the Land Act, going as it
did far beyond the bounds of justice, was, that it was
"like giving blood to a tiger." I said this
in the House of Lords last year, and what is called
the national Press rang with abuse of myself, saying
that I called my fellow-countrymen tigers. I never did
so; I know my fellow-countrymen too well, and have reason
to love them too well, at least as regards this neighbourhood.
But I appeal to this last year and its agrarian troubles
whether what I stated was not literally the truth...I
must state my conviction that every point surrendered
by the Government to the Home Rulers, every attempt
at conciliation, is looked on by the mass of the Irish
people, not as a matter of gratitude to the Government,
but as an achievement by the Home Rulers - as a step
to something beyond, which will lead to the expulsion
of the Saxon, as they suppose, they themselves being
for the most part Saxons, but which must inevitably
lead to poverty and bloodshed - Ireland repeating its
sad history again.
...There is one comfort in this, and that is, though
the evil is great, it is easily quelled. One stroke
of real power combined with firmness would do it. It
would be hard that the poor classes should suffer and
those who trade on their follies go free...Suspend the
Habeas Corpus Act, and deal with the source, and not
the stream, from which flow poverty, lawlessness, and
crime.
In these letters I have endeavoured to lay before your
readers, not opinions, but facts - facts, perhaps too
local, and apparently trifling, but they are types of
the social condition of Ireland. I have done so because
the only hope of Ireland is in the strong sense of the
people of Great Britain. "Put not your trust in
Princes," still less in Ministries; but if once
it is known that the people of England will insist at
any cost on what Mr. Froude terms "a firm, just,
and consistent administration" in Ireland, we shall
certainly have it, be the amount of obstruction what
it may.
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It must be said, however, that the English landlord system,
which reigned supreme in Ireland at the time, was not all
bad. Indeed, some government representatives were enlightened
enough to know that England could not
and should not rule Ireland.
One
such man was Isaac Butt. He was a Tory barrister who came
from Glenfin, where his father was a Church of Ireland clergyman.
He was one of the most eminent and respected barristers to
live and work in Ireland during the heyday of the English
landlord system. Once in a letter to Lord Lifford, Butt wrote:
"...the personal
character of a landlord is but a poor security for the tenant".
This very simple statement reflects the sensitivity and understanding
which Butt displayed towards the Irish situation. One must
remember that Butt was a Tory through and through, yet he
displayed an intelligence and capacity for experience that
was uncommon to most Irish Tories. He was not above thinking
that the Irish deserved to be independent. When given the
chance, he never failed to make his feelings known…in
true Glenfin style!
Butt founded his views on his own first-hand experiences,
and the belief that the Irish people were easily influenced
by good example, authority of station and the power of intelligence.
He made it clear that in his opinion, many landlords did not
exercise these qualities. In his opinion, the Irish revered
high lineage - and this is still true today. He believed that
the estrangement of classes at the time led to a mutual distrust
between landlord and tenant because, as he said himself:
"There is in the Irish gentry, a hereditary distrust
of the Irish people. They are taught from their youth up,
to believe in 'Irish contempt of law, and the rights of property'.
The people reciprocate the hostile feelings of the gentry".
Butt believed that many landlords were placed in situations
whereby they were "unfitted" to rule and control
the lives of their tenants.
Today, the Irish memory of Isaac Butt is justifiably as
"The Father of Home Rule". On the other hand, the
memory of Lord Lifford could more be likened to the memory
of his peer, Lord Leitrim...fondly remembered in this well
known Donegal toast:
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Here's to the hand
that made the ball
That shot Lord Leitrim in Donegal
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What remains of
Meenglas Castle - 2002
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In his heyday, Lord Lifford, together with his fellow
landlord, Sir Samuel Hayes of Drumboe Estate, Stranorlar,
helped to expand Ireland's railways of the 1850's.
Their representations at parliament helped to secure funding,
to begin what became the Finn
Valley Railway Company in May 1860. The construction
of the line between Strabane and Stranorlar began at the end
of the summer of 1861, and after a lot of hold-ups,
infighting, and huge expense, the line was officially opened
on 7th September 1863.
Viscount Lifford was married twice. His first wife, Lady
Mary Acheson, whom he married in July 1835, gave
birth to five sons and two daughters. Lady Mary died in March
1850. In December 1851, losing no time, he married
Lydia Coote, a widow, and by her had two sons and four
more daughters.
Several locomotives of the Finn Valley Railway Co. were named
after various members of Lifford's family. 'Isabella'
and 'Alice' were the names of his daughters, 'Blanche'
was the name of his son's wife and 'Lydia ' was the
name of his second wife.
Today, very little memory of Lord Lifford remains. He is
buried in the lee of the beautiful little St
Anne's Church of Ireland, Crossroads, Killygordon. In
death, he lies in splendid (if neglected) isolation...fenced
in on all sides, thus - as in life - removed from those perceived
by his ilk as 'lesser mortals'.
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