William
Orr
Taken from Speeches from the Dock: Or Protests of Irish Patriotism.
(My
book is old, no ISBN numbers, published in Waterford, Ireland)
Twelve
months before Wolfe Tone expired in his prison cell, one
of the bravest of his associates paid with his life the penalty
of his attachment to the cause of Irish independence. In the subject
of this sketch, the United Irishmen found their first martyr; and
time has left no darker blot on the administration of English rule
than the execution of the high-spirited Irishman whose body swung
from the gallows of Carrickfergus on the 14th of October,
1797.
William
Orr was the son of a farmer and bleach-green proprietor, of Ferranshane,
in the county of Antrim. The family were in comfortable circumstances,
and young Orr received a good education, which he afterwards turned
to account in the service of his country. We know little of his early
history, but we find him, on growing up to manhood, an active member
of the society of United Irishmen, and remarkable for his popularity
amongst his countrymen in the north. His appearance, not less than
his principles and declarations, was calculated to captivate the peasantry
amongst whom he lived; he stood six feet two inches in height was
a perfect model of symmetry, strength, and gracefulness, and the expression
of his countenance was open, frank, and manly. He was always neatly
and respectably dressed – a prominentfeature in his attire being
a green necktie, which he wore even in his last confinement.
One
of the first blows aimed by the government against the United Irishmen
was the passing of the Act of Parliament (36 George III.), which
constituted the administration of their oath a capital felony. This
piece of legislation, repugnant in itself to the dictates of reason
and justice, was intended as no idle threat; a victim was looked
for to suffer under its provisions, and William Orr, the champion
of the northern Presbyterian patriots, was doomed to serve the emergency.
He
was arraigned, tried, and convicted at Carrickfergus, on a charge
of having administered the United Irishman's oath to a soldier named
Wheatly. The whole history of the operations of the. British
law courts in Ireland contains nothing more infamous than the record
of that trial. We now know, as a matter of fact, that the man who
tendered the oath to Wheatly was William M'Keever, a well-known
member of the society, who subsequently made his escape to America.
But this was not a case, such as sometimes happens, of circumstantial
evidence pointing to a wrong conclusion. The only evidence against
Orr was the unsupported testimony of the soldier Wheatly; and after
hearing Curran’s defence of the prisoner there could be
no possible doubt of his innocence; But Orr was a doomed man - the
government had decreed his death before hand; and in this case as
in every other, the bloodthirsty agents of the crown did not look
in vain for Irishmen to co-operate with them in their infamy.
At
six o'clock in the evening the Jury retired to consider their verdict.
The scene that followed in the jury room is described in the sworn
affidavits of some of its participators. The jury were supplied
with supper by the crown officials; a liberal supply of intoxicating
beverages, wines, brandy etc., being included in the refreshments.
In their sober state several of the jury-men, amongst them Alexander
Thompson of Cushendal,
the foreman – had refused to agree to a verdict of guilty.
It was otherwise, however, when the decanters had been emptied,
and when threats of violence were added to the bewildering effects
of the potations in which they indulged Thompson was threatened
by his more unscrupulous companions with being wrecked, beaten,
and “not left with sixpence in the world,” and similar
means were used against the few who refused with him to return a
verdict of guilty, At six in the morning, the jury, not a man of
whom by this time was sober, returned into court with a verdict
of guilty, recommending the prisoner at the same time in the strongest
manner to mercy. Next day, Orr was placed at the bar, and sentenced
to death by Lord Yelverton, who, it is recorded, at the conclusion
of his address burst into tears. A motion was made by Curran in
arrest of judgment, chiefly on the grounds of the drunkenness of
the jury but the judges refused to entertain the objection. The
following is the speech delivered by William Orr after the verdict
of the jury had been announced
“My
friends and fellow countrymen - In the thirty first year of my life
I have been sentenced to die upon the gallows, and this sentence has
been in pursuance of a verdict of twelve men, who should have been
indifferently and impartially chosen. - How far they have been so,
I leave to that country from which they have been chosen to determine;
and how far they have discharged their duty, I leave to their God
and to themselves. They have, in pronouncing their verdict, thought
proper to recommend me as an object of humane mercy, , In return,
I pray to God, if they have erred, to have mercy upon them. The judge
who condemned me humanely shed tears in uttering my sentence. But
whether he did wisely in so highly commending the wretched informer,
who swore away my life, I leave to his own cool reflection, solemnly
assuring him and all the world, with my dying breath, that that
informer was foresworn.
The law under which I suffer is surely a severe one – may the
makers and promoters of it be justified in the integrity of their
motives, and the purity of their own lives! By that law I am stamped
a felon, but my heart disdains the imputation.
My comfortable lot, and industrious course of life, best refute the
charge of an adventurer for plunder; but if to have loved my country
– to have known its wrongs -to have felt the injuries of the
persecuted Catholics, and to have united with them and all other religious
persuasions in the most orderly and least sanguinary means of procuring
redress - if those be felonies, I am a felon, but not otherwise Had
my counsel (for whose honorable exertions I am indebted) prevailed
in their motions to have me tried for high treason, rather than under
the insurrection law, I should have been entitled to a full defence,
and my actions have been better vindicated; but that was refused,
and I must now submit to what has passed.
To the generous protection of my country I leave a beloved wife, who
has been constant and true to me, and whose grief for my fate has
already nearly occasioned her death. I have five living children,
who have been my delight. May they love their country as I have done,
and die for It if needful.
Lastly, a false and ungenerous publication having appeared in a newspaper,
stating certain alleged confessions of guilt on my part, and thus
striking at my reputation, which is now dearer to me than life. I
take this solemn method of contradicting the calumny. I was applied
to by the high-sheriff, and the Rev. William Bristow,
sovereign of Belfast, to make a confession of guilt, who used entreaties
to that effect; this I peremptorily refused. If I thought myself guilty;
I would freely confess it, but, on the contrary; I glory my innocence.
I trust that all my virtuous countrymen will bear me in their kind
remembrance, and continue true and faithful to each other as I have
been to all of them. With this last wish of my heart – nothing
doubting of the success of that cause for which I suffer,hoping for
God's merciful forgiveness of such offences as my frail nature may
have at any time betrayed me into - I die in peace and charity with
all mankind.”
Hardly
had sentence of death been passed on William Orr, when compunction
seemed to cease on those who had aided in securing the results.
The witness Wheatly, who subsequently became insane, and is believed
to have died by his own hand, made an affadavit before a magistrate
acknowledging that he had sworn falsely against Orr. Two of the
jury made depositions setting forth that they had been induced to
join in the verdict of guilty while under the influence of drink;
two others swore that they had been terrified into the same course
by threats of violence.
These
depositions were laid before the viceroy, but, Lord Camden,
the then Hon. Lieutenant, was deaf to all appeals. Well might Orr
exclaim within his dungeon that the government “had laid down
a system having for its object murder and devastation.” The prey
was in the toils of the hunters, on whom all appeals of justice and
humanity were wasted.
Orr
was hung, as we have said in the town of Carrickfergus on the 14th
of October, 1797. It is related that the inhabitants of the town,
to express their sympathy with the patriot about being murdered
by law, and to mark their abhorrence of the conduct of the government
towards him, quitted the town ‘en masse’ on the day of
his execution.
His
fate excited the deepest indignation throughout the country; it was
commented on in words of fire by the national writers of the period,
and through many an after year, the watchword and rallying cry of
the United Irishmen was
“Remember Orr”
