Whiteboys
Encyclopedia
The Whiteboys were a secret Irish
agrarian organization in 18th-century Ireland
which used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer land rights for subsistence farming. Their name derives from the white smock
s the members wore in their nightly raids, but the Whiteboys were as usually referred to at the time as Levellers
by the authorities, and by themselves as "Queen Sive Oultagh's children", "fairies", or as followers of "Johanna Meskill" or "Sheila Meskill", all symbolic figures supposed to lead the movement. They sought to address rack-rents, tithe collection, excessive priests' dues, evictions and other oppressive acts. As a result they targeted landlords and tithe collectors. Over time, Whiteboyism became a general term for rural violence connected to secret societies. Because of this generalization, the historical record for the Whiteboys as a specific organisation is unclear. There were three major outbreaks of Whiteboyism: 1761–64; 1770–76; and 1784–86.
in November 1761 and quickly spread to counties Tipperary
, Cork
, and Waterford
. A great deal of organization and planning seems to have been put into the outbreak, including the holding of regular assemblies. Initial activities were limited to specific grievances and the tactics used non-violent, such as the levelling of ditches that closed off common grazing land, the digging up of ley lands and orchards, although cattle houghing was often practiced as the demand for beef had prompted large landowners to initiate the process of enclosure
. As their numbers increased, the scope of Whiteboy activities began to widen, and proclamations were clandestinely posted under such names as "Captain Moonlight
", stipulating demands such as that rent not be paid, that land with expired leases not be rented until it had lain waste for three years, and that no one pay or collect tithe
s demanded by the Anglican Church. Threatening letters were also sent to debt collectors, landlord
s, and occupants of land gained from eviction
, demanding that they give up their farms.
March 1762 saw a further escalation of Whiteboy activities, with marches to "disaffected and treasonable tunes" about the countryside, entering towns at night to fire guns and taunt garrisoned troops. At Cappoquin
they fired guns and marched by the military barracks playing the Jacobite
tune "The lad with the white cockade". These processions were often preceded by notices saying that Queen Sive and her children would make a procession through part of her domain and demanded that the townspeople illuminate their houses and provide their horses, ready saddled, for their use. More militant activities often followed such processions with unlit houses in Lismore
attacked, prisoners released in an attack on Tallow
jail and similar shows of strength in Youghal
.
was sent to Munster
to crush the Whiteboys.
On April 2, 1761 a force of 50 militia men and 40 soldiers set out for Tallow, "where they took (mostly in their beds) eleven Levellers
, against whom Information on Oath was given." Other raids took 17 Whiteboys west of Fruff, in County Limerick
and by mid April at least 150 suspected Whiteboys had been arrested. Clogheen in County Tipperary
bore the initial brunt of this assault as the local parish priest, Fr. Nicholas Sheehy
, had earlier spoken out against tithes and collected funds for the defence of parishioners charged with rioting. An unknown numbers of "insurgents" were reported killed in the "pacification exercise" and Fr. Sheehy was unsuccessfully indicted for sedition
several times before eventually being found guilty of a fabricated charge of murder, and hanged, drawn and quartered
in Clonmel
in March 1766.
In the cities, suspected Whiteboy sympathisers were arrested and in Cork
loyal citizens formed an association of about 2,000 strong which offered rewards of £300 for capture of the chief Whiteboy and £50 for the first five sub-chiefs arrested and often accompanied the military on their rampages. The leading Catholics in Cork also offered similar rewards of £200 and £40 respectively.
However, Lord Halifax was soon expressing concern that the repression was going too far: "so many People are directly or indirectly concerned in these illegal Practices and so many have been seized on Information or Suspicion, that in several Places, the Majority of the Inhabitants have been struck with the utmost Consternation, and have fled to the Mountains, insomuch that at this Season, from the almost general Flight of the labouring Hands, a Famine is, not without Reason, apprehended.". Similarly, the Dublin Journal reported at the same time that the south east part of Tipperary
"is almost waste, and the Houses of many locked up, or inhabited by Women and old Men only; such has been the Terror the Approach of the Light Dragoons has thrown them into."
In Thomas Flanagan's novel The Year of the French, the "Whiteboys of Killala" are referenced many times. Many of the Whiteboys are central characters within the story. Led by Malachi Duggan, the Whiteboys attempt to reverse their oppressed state through guerrilla acts in County Mayo. Following the landing of a French force under Humbert
in 1798, some local Whiteboys join the rebellion against the British and fought alongside United Irishmen and French soldiers.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
agrarian organization in 18th-century Ireland
Ireland 1691–1801
Ireland 1691–1801 was marked by the dominance of the so-called Protestant Ascendancy. These were the descendants of British colonists who had settled in the country in the wake of its conquest by England and colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland...
which used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer land rights for subsistence farming. Their name derives from the white smock
Smock
Smock may refer to one of the following:* Smock-frock, a coatlike outer garment, often worn to protect the clothes* Smocking, an embroidery technique in which the fabric is gathered with thread or embroidery floss, then embroidered with decorative stitches to hold the gathers in place*Chemise, a...
s the members wore in their nightly raids, but the Whiteboys were as usually referred to at the time as Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
by the authorities, and by themselves as "Queen Sive Oultagh's children", "fairies", or as followers of "Johanna Meskill" or "Sheila Meskill", all symbolic figures supposed to lead the movement. They sought to address rack-rents, tithe collection, excessive priests' dues, evictions and other oppressive acts. As a result they targeted landlords and tithe collectors. Over time, Whiteboyism became a general term for rural violence connected to secret societies. Because of this generalization, the historical record for the Whiteboys as a specific organisation is unclear. There were three major outbreaks of Whiteboyism: 1761–64; 1770–76; and 1784–86.
First outbreak, 1761–63
The first major outbreak occurred in County LimerickLimerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
in November 1761 and quickly spread to counties Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
, Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, and Waterford
County Waterford
*Abbeyside, Affane, Aglish, Annestown, An Rinn, Ardmore*Ballinacourty, Ballinameela, Ballinamult, Ballinroad, Ballybeg, Ballybricken, Ballyduff Lower, Ballyduff Upper, Ballydurn, Ballygunner, Ballylaneen, Ballymacarbry, Ballymacart, Ballynaneashagh, Ballysaggart, Ballytruckle, Bilberry, Bunmahon,...
. A great deal of organization and planning seems to have been put into the outbreak, including the holding of regular assemblies. Initial activities were limited to specific grievances and the tactics used non-violent, such as the levelling of ditches that closed off common grazing land, the digging up of ley lands and orchards, although cattle houghing was often practiced as the demand for beef had prompted large landowners to initiate the process of enclosure
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
. As their numbers increased, the scope of Whiteboy activities began to widen, and proclamations were clandestinely posted under such names as "Captain Moonlight
Captain Moonlight
Andrew George Scott , Aka Captain Moonlite, was an Australian bushranger.-Early peregrinations :Scott was born in Rathfriland, Ireland, son of an Anglican clergyman, but of Scottish descent...
", stipulating demands such as that rent not be paid, that land with expired leases not be rented until it had lain waste for three years, and that no one pay or collect tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s demanded by the Anglican Church. Threatening letters were also sent to debt collectors, landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
s, and occupants of land gained from eviction
Eviction
How you doing???? Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction, eviction may also be known as unlawful detainer, summary possession, summary dispossess, forcible detainer, ejectment, and repossession, among other terms...
, demanding that they give up their farms.
March 1762 saw a further escalation of Whiteboy activities, with marches to "disaffected and treasonable tunes" about the countryside, entering towns at night to fire guns and taunt garrisoned troops. At Cappoquin
Cappoquin
Cappoquin, also spelt Cappaquin or Capaquin , is a small town in west County Waterford, Ireland. It is on the Blackwater river at the junction of the N72 national secondary road and the R669 regional road. It is positioned on a sharp 90 degree bend in the river and nestles at the foot of the...
they fired guns and marched by the military barracks playing the Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
tune "The lad with the white cockade". These processions were often preceded by notices saying that Queen Sive and her children would make a procession through part of her domain and demanded that the townspeople illuminate their houses and provide their horses, ready saddled, for their use. More militant activities often followed such processions with unlit houses in Lismore
Lismore, County Waterford
Lismore is a town in County Waterford, Ireland. It is located where the N72 road crosses the River Blackwater.-History:It was founded by Saint Mochuda, also known as Saint Carthage. In the 7th century, Lismore was the site of the well-known Lismore Abbey. It is also home to Lismore Castle, the...
attacked, prisoners released in an attack on Tallow
Tallow, County Waterford
Tallow is a small town in west County Waterford, Ireland, situated near the County Cork border. It is on the road between Lismore, County Waterford and Youghal, County Cork.-Amenities:...
jail and similar shows of strength in Youghal
Youghal
Youghal is a town in County Cork, Ireland. Sitting on the estuary of the River Blackwater, in the past it was militarily and economically important. Being built on the edge of a steep riverbank, the town has a distinctive long and narrow layout...
.
Reaction of the authorities
Whiteboy disturbances had occurred prior to 1761 but were largely restricted to isolated areas and local grievances, so that the response of local authorities had been limited, either through passive sympathy or, more likely, because of the exposed nature of their position in the largely Roman Catholic countryside. The events of March, however, prompted a more determined response, and a considerable military force under the Marquis of DroghedaCharles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda
Field Marshal Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda KP, PC was a British peer and military officer, styled Viscount Moore until 1758.-Military career:...
was sent to Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
to crush the Whiteboys.
On April 2, 1761 a force of 50 militia men and 40 soldiers set out for Tallow, "where they took (mostly in their beds) eleven Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
, against whom Information on Oath was given." Other raids took 17 Whiteboys west of Fruff, in County Limerick
County Limerick
It is thought that humans had established themselves in the Lough Gur area of the county as early as 3000 BC, while megalithic remains found at Duntryleague date back further to 3500 BC...
and by mid April at least 150 suspected Whiteboys had been arrested. Clogheen in County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
bore the initial brunt of this assault as the local parish priest, Fr. Nicholas Sheehy
Nicholas Sheehy
Nicholas Sheehy was an 18th century Irish Roman Catholic priest who was executed on charge of accessory to murder. Father Sheehy was a prominent opponent of the British Penal Laws, which persecuted Catholics in Ireland.- Family :...
, had earlier spoken out against tithes and collected funds for the defence of parishioners charged with rioting. An unknown numbers of "insurgents" were reported killed in the "pacification exercise" and Fr. Sheehy was unsuccessfully indicted for sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
several times before eventually being found guilty of a fabricated charge of murder, and hanged, drawn and quartered
Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III and his successor, Edward I...
in Clonmel
Clonmel
Clonmel is the county town of South Tipperary in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county. While the borough had a population of 15,482 in 2006, another 17,008 people were in the rural hinterland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked both...
in March 1766.
In the cities, suspected Whiteboy sympathisers were arrested and in Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
loyal citizens formed an association of about 2,000 strong which offered rewards of £300 for capture of the chief Whiteboy and £50 for the first five sub-chiefs arrested and often accompanied the military on their rampages. The leading Catholics in Cork also offered similar rewards of £200 and £40 respectively.
However, Lord Halifax was soon expressing concern that the repression was going too far: "so many People are directly or indirectly concerned in these illegal Practices and so many have been seized on Information or Suspicion, that in several Places, the Majority of the Inhabitants have been struck with the utmost Consternation, and have fled to the Mountains, insomuch that at this Season, from the almost general Flight of the labouring Hands, a Famine is, not without Reason, apprehended.". Similarly, the Dublin Journal reported at the same time that the south east part of Tipperary
Tipperary
Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....
"is almost waste, and the Houses of many locked up, or inhabited by Women and old Men only; such has been the Terror the Approach of the Light Dragoons has thrown them into."
Later history
A pattern of rural unrest continued, feeding into both rebellion and loyalism:- A fixed resolution to avoid the very appearance of digression in these annals prevents my referring to various sporadic Irish combinations of the 18th century--Whiteboys, Steelboys, Oakboys, Peep-o'-day Boys, Defenders--some Catholic, some Protestant, some mixed; but each representing an inarticulate protest against agrarian or ecclesiastical aggression.
- The latter half of the 18th century in Ireland saw the formation of a whole myriad of rural secret societies, of "Whiteboys", "Steelboys", "Peep O'Day BoysPeep O'Day BoysThe Peep o' Day Boys was a Protestant secret association in 18th century Ireland, active in the 1780s and '90s and a precursor of the Orange Order.-Origins:The Peep-of-day Boys arose in the year 1784, in County Armagh, Ireland...
" and the like. Most were purely economic, formed to exert pressure on isolated landlords as well as perceived outsider groups, but some combined economic and political ends. Religious differences between Protestant and Catholic, combining a social division which was wide at the top but, significantly, becoming less and less at the bottom, were, of course, a ready-made source of division. Within Ireland, Co. Armagh held a unique position as centre of religious and social tension. All the economic pressures outlined above - rural industrialisation, a rising rural population, increased competition for farmland (a period of long term land-lease renewals pushed competition for land to new heights) concentrated themselves in this one small area during the early 1790s, sparking off the first cycle of large-scale sectarian violence.
- Protestant "Peep O'Day" gangs (or fleets) attacked isolated Catholic farms and Catholic "DefenderDefenders (Ireland)The Defenders were a militant, vigilante agrarian secret society in 18th century Ireland, mainly Roman Catholic and from Ulster, who allied with the United Irishmen but did little during the rebellion of 1798.-Origin:...
" gangs (fleets) retaliated in kind. This cycle culminated in the "Battle of the DiamondBattle of the DiamondThe Battle of the Diamond was a violent confrontation between the Catholic Defenders and a Protestant faction including Peep o' Day Boys, Orange Boys and local tenant farmers that took place on 21 September 1795 near Loughgall, County Armagh, Ireland. The Protestants were the victors, killing...
" (in reality a particularly vicious rural riot) near Loughgall in the summer of 1795 and the formation of the Orange Order immediately afterwards.
In Thomas Flanagan's novel The Year of the French, the "Whiteboys of Killala" are referenced many times. Many of the Whiteboys are central characters within the story. Led by Malachi Duggan, the Whiteboys attempt to reverse their oppressed state through guerrilla acts in County Mayo. Following the landing of a French force under Humbert
Jean Joseph Amable Humbert
General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert was a French soldier, a participant in the French Revolution, who led a failed invasion of Ireland to assist Irish rebels in 1798....
in 1798, some local Whiteboys join the rebellion against the British and fought alongside United Irishmen and French soldiers.
See also
- Defenders (Ireland)Defenders (Ireland)The Defenders were a militant, vigilante agrarian secret society in 18th century Ireland, mainly Roman Catholic and from Ulster, who allied with the United Irishmen but did little during the rebellion of 1798.-Origin:...
- Peep O'Day BoysPeep O'Day BoysThe Peep o' Day Boys was a Protestant secret association in 18th century Ireland, active in the 1780s and '90s and a precursor of the Orange Order.-Origins:The Peep-of-day Boys arose in the year 1784, in County Armagh, Ireland...
- RibbonismRibbonismRibbonism, whose adherents were usually called Ribbonmen, was a 19th century popular movement of Catholics in Ireland. It was active against landlords and their agents, and was ideologically and sometimes violently opposed to the Orange Order.-History:...
- Molly MaguiresMolly MaguiresThe Molly Maguires were members of an Irish-American secret society, whose members consisted mainly of coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from approximately the time of the American Civil War until a...
(Irish-American rural unrest) - Black DonnellysBlack DonnellysThe Black Donnellys is the common nickname of the Donnelly family who emigrated from County Tipperary, Ireland, to Canada in about 1845–1846, and who participated in a notorious feud in Biddulph Township in Middlesex County, Ontario, which culminated in a massacre in which five family members were...
(Irish-Canadian family entangled in a feud with American Whiteboys) - Hatfield–McCoy feud