124 guns handed over by rebels

September 19th, 1798: Magistrate W.B

September 19th, 1798: Magistrate W.B. Swan presents the names of 1,064 rebels at the bar of the House of Commons on the 13th to whom certificates of protection have been given by himself and Maj Sirr. Just 124 arms are handed into their Exchange Alley office by those, mostly Dubliners, who admit "having participated in the late rebellion".

A Cashel proclamation on the 14th warns that "several persons of this neighbourhood have lately been induced to desert their habitations at night by false reports of being attacked by orangemen". A sum of 100 guineas is offered for the agitators responsible.

Saunder's Newsletter notes the sterner document issued in Kilkenny by Maj Gen Asgill threatening death to those who propagate "false reports or alarms . . . in the present circumstances of the country".

Richard Annesley's belief that "above 200 of the King's County Militia" have defected to Holt is unfounded, but Col L'Estrange is so dismayed by the depth of the problem that he requests the removal of his regiment to Malahide and Balbriggan.

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"General Holt", Lord Shannon learns on the 14th, "is laying waste the county of Wicklow, and last night burnt Lord Waterford's Lodge" at Hollywood. A more reflective Judge Day tells the Grand Jury of Cork city assizes on the 15th that they "are called together at no ordinary or common crisis of the country. A horrid & unnatural Rebellion has desolated a great part of our once happy & flourishing K[ingdo]m" and claimed the lives of "30 or 40,000 wretched victims".

French soldiers taken at Ballinamuck are brought to the city on the canal and embarked for Portsmouth at Ringsend on the 16th. Finn's Leinster Journal reports that their officers, separated from the troops, "seemed highly amused at reading the abuse so liberally heaped on them in the morning print." Persons "of every description" crane for sight of these young "very well looking men" at the Mail Coach Hotel on Dawson Street. They are unaware of the presence off Donegal that day of 60 French soldiers who disembark with Napper Tandy on Rutland Island from the brig Anacreon.

On obtaining news of Humbert's defeat, the erstwhile liberators spend just one night on Irish soil before steering for France via the north coast of Scotland.

Freeman's Journal of the 18th carries a notice of an Orange Order meeting at Harrington's, Dublin, attended by lodges 176, 439, 473, 474, 505, 507, 532, 533 and 538. The Rev T. F. Knipe chairs as the wording of the Fifth Rule of the Association is amended to read "that no person do persecute or upbraid anyone on account of his religious Opinions, but that we will, on the contrary, be aiding and assisting to every Loyal Subject of every religious Description".

This indicates that the change is intended to distance the body from accusations of sectarianism. Knipe, John C. Beresford, Alderman James, Sir John Macartney, Isaac Dejoincourt, William Gamble Galway, Arthur Dunn, Humphrey Woodward and Harding Giffard form a committee to raise money for loyalist widows and orphans of the fighting in Sligo and Leitrim.

Aughrim is captured on the 19th by Holt, who crosses the mountains from Oakwood to drive Hunter Gowan's Wingfield and Thomas King's Rathdrum cavalry out of their quarters.

Both units are renowned for their atrocious conduct and in one June incident King's men slaughtered over two dozen local civilians on the Aughrim road.