Ulster Archaeological Society

Remarks on Bodley's "Journey," and an Account of His Campaigns in Ireland with Mountjoy'sArmies, and His Connection with the "Plantation" of UlsterSource: Ulster Journal of Archaeology, First Series, Vol. 2 (1854), pp. 95-99Published by: Ulster Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20608712 .

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Dominus Morrisonus usque ad Dundrumum; cui

vale et iterum vale singuli diceutes, et idem a

longe' elevatis pileis supra caput vociferantes, ad

garisonos nostros properamus, ibique de negotiis

nostros singuli serio cogitamus.

RINs.

and Master Morrison accompanied us as far as Dundrum; to whom each of us bidding farewell, and again farewell, and shouting the same for a long way, with our caps raised above our heads,

we hasten to our quarters, and there we each co gitate seriously over our own affairs.

THE END.

REMARKS ON BODLEY'S "JOURNEY,"

AND AN ACCOUNT OF HIS CAMPAIGNS IN IRELAND WITH MOUNTJOY'S ARMIES, AND HIS

CONNECTION WITH THE "PLANTATION" OF ULSTER.

If the preceding extraordinary and unique production does not add much to our store of topo graphical archaology, still it is not without its interest, if we consider the very important period in Irish history when it was composed, and the prominent position which its author and his companions in arms and at table occupied in the exciting struggle, of which the north-east of Ireland was then the theatre. It not only offers us a curious peep at the barrack or mess-room life, the sayins and doings off parade and out of view of the eyes of history, of six officers of high rank and fame in Eliz abeth's veteran army, (one of these the founder of the noble house of Charlemont;) but it farther possesses an interest in the locality just mentioned, from the allusions to the wild and uncultivated state in which it then was, and the difficulties encountered in traversing it; as well as from the circum stance that, just at this time, the power of Irish Clanship was about to cease, by the submission of

Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, the last of the great O'Neills; and that, in the forfeiture of his estates, as well as those of the O'Donnell; O'Doherty, O'Cahan, and some other less important chieftains, origi nated the settlement and "plantation" of Ulster, with the establishment of which Bodley was, as willt explained, officially connected.

A short reference to the history of that time is requisite, as connected with the circumstances un, der which this comical journey was taken, and as bearing on the life and actions of our author. For reasons with which the reader of Irish history is familiar, but which need not be here recapitulated Hugh O'Neill, a junior branch of the great northern family who had submitted to the Queen, had held a commission in her army in the wars against Desmond in Munster, and been by her created Earl of Tyrone, had, contrary to former promise, assumed the title of " The O'Neill" and the chiefship of that clan, on the death of Turlough Leinogh O'Neill in 1595, and revolted from his allegiance.

He had collected a powerful force of his own name, and of many retainers in the northern counties, and was the last of those great chiefs who, by the mere influence of clanship and name, could array an army to oppose and defeat the well organized forces which were concentrated against him. On the 10th Aug. 1598, le had routed, with the slaughter of above 2000 men, thp Queen's forces at Belathaboy, near Blackwatertown, about 5 miles from Arnmagh, the Marshal Sir Henry Bagnall being amongst the slain; and, for a time, wasn master of that part of Ireland. To

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strengthen the remains of the Queen's forces, according to Fynes Moryson, a "certain old companies of 1050 men drawn out of the Low Countries," were sent to Ireland late in 1598. These were com

manded by Sir Samuel Bagnall, as Colonel, and under him were nine Captaois; Jephson being the first on the list, E3odley second, Sidney third, and Caulfield seventh. At the end of March 1599, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the Queen's favorite, came to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, and " had in special charge from the Queen to bend all his forces against the chief traytor Tyrone, and the Ulster rebels his confederates." He had also drafted from the Low Countries and sent over immediately before him, two regiments of old soldiers, and of one of them Sir Richard Morrison was

Lieut-Col. Thus we find that four of the six who held their symposia at Downpatrick, had been comrdes and brother warriors in the campaigns of the Low Countries, a few years before the date of the Journey to Lecale. b

a Fynes Moryson.?This author, so frequently quoted by writers on Irish affairs, was a literary man, a Fel low of Peter House, Cambridge, and brother to that Sir

Richard Morrison (or Moryson,) to visit whom the **

Journey to Locale'* was made. He having come, on account of his health, to stay some time with his brother, then Governor at Dundalk, and being there when the fight at Carlingford occurred, at which the Lord Depu ty Mountjoy's secretary was killed, he was appointed to that office, and has left a most quaint and minute narrative of the whole proceedings in Ireland, during the rise, progress, and suppression of Tyrone's Rebellion.

From that work nearly all the materials of these re marks are selected. It may be here added, that, in the notes to Connellan's translation of the Annals of the Four Masters, from 1595 to 1602, will be found an ex cellent condensation of the History of Tyrone's Rebel lion, in which frequent reference is made to the ex ploits of our hero and his comrades.

b Bodky's comrades*?We may here state shortly all that is now known of the six boon companions whose fame is perpetuated in the "

Journey.*' Sir Richard ifomso?,?Was, as his brother says,

** of great inwardness * with Mountjoy, who seeing his abi lities, had perhaps noticed him so favourably as to cre ate a jealousy in some quarters : for being taxed with being "ruled by young counsel (whereby he understood his three most familiar friends, Daver?, Moryson, and Godolphin,) he boldly answered, that he used the fami liarity of none which were not older than Alexander the Great when he conquered the world" Moryson was knighted immediately after his landing in Ireland, and was actively employed in Leix (in the Queen's County,) in the neighbourhood of Dnndalk, and at the siege of

Kinsale. On the surrender of that place by the Spa niards he was the person selected to carry Mountjoy's despatches to England. On a new garrison being es tablished in Lecale he was appointed governor, and there received and entertained our hero and his friends. On the submission of Tyroue, and the suppression of the Rebel lion, he was, (28 May, 1603) appointed Governor of

Waterford. In 1607 he was, in conjunction with the Earl of Thomond, appointed President of Munster, which office he held for a few years, and in 1613, he was M.P. for the borough of Bandon. He was again, in 1610, Appointed sole President of Munster, his patent declaring that the King was so well pleased with his former admi

nistration of that office, that he now appointed him, &c, &c. He held this office till 1624, when it is probable he

died, although we have no record of it, and the of&ce of President was vested in Commissioners.

Captain John Jephson,?Was the second son of William Jephson, of Froyle, in Hampshire, who was High She riff of that county in 1571. He succeeded his elder bro ther in his estates, and was M.P. for Hampshire in 1620, and for Petersfield in 1623 and 1625. He married the

daughter and sole heiress of Sir Thomas Norris (or Nor

reys) President of Munster, (who died of wounds recei ved in Munster in July, 1599,) and by that marriage acquired the Mallow estate, which has descended in di rect succession to the present owner, Sir Denham Jeph son Norreys, M.P., who, a few years ago, adopted the additional surname of Norreys, in commemoration of his ;descent from the President of Munster. Captain Jephson, commanding a portion of Lord Southampton's horse, was attached to the army which Essex sent, under Sir Conyers Clifford, to invade Counaught, and which

was nearly cut to pieces by the Irish, and Clifford slain, in the pass of the Corlew Mountains ;

" and no doubt,1* says Moryson, "the rest had ail perished if the horse had not valiantly succoured them. For Captain John

Jephson presently charged on the Causey, and to the very skirts of the wood, with such resolution, as the Re bels, either thinking horse could not have served there, or expecting advantages upon them in that boggy place, stood gaping on them and gave way without any resistance for a good space, in which our mm had leisure to retire over a ford into the plain where the carriages were. So

Captain Jephson all that night kept the ford, while our foot in the silent night retired, and in the morning, when

they were in safety, he, with the horse under his com

mand, went softly after them to the castle of Athlone." This appears to have been the only active service in which Jephson was engaged, until he marched from

Carrickfergus, where he lay during 1600*1-2, to attack Tyrone in the woods of Glenconkeine, as mentioned in the "Journey." Being under Sir Arthur Chichester's command, he must have been with him at the Fort of

Mountjoy, and from it came to Armagh, to join in the ex cursion to Lecale. We have no record of him after the

suppression of Tyrone's Rebellion, until we find him member of Parliament for Hampshire, in 1620, as before stated.

Captain Toby Oaul?eld?~Wa& of a respectable Oxford shire family. After his landing in Ireland he was atta ched to the force under the command of Sir Richard

Morrison; was at the fight at Carlingford, and at the

siege of Kinsale, and being still attached to Morrison's

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Josias Bodley, the chronicler of that Journey, was, according to Prince's Worthies of Devon, the fifth and young son of John Bodley, gent., and the eldest was Sir Thomas Bodley, who will be ever

memorable as the founder of the magnificent library at Oxford, named from him the Bodleian. The Life of Sir Thomas, written by himself, is so literally autobiographical that it never alludes to any members of his family, farther than stating that both his parents were of Devonshire, and lived at Exeter previous to the accession of Mary in 1553, when, dreading persecution on accouint of their holding the Protestant faith, they went to the Continent, and resided principally at Geneva until after the death of Mary, when returning to England they fixed their residence in London. Here it is probable our author was born, about 1560, being perhaps a few years senior to his comrade, Caul field, the only one of that party whose a can now be ascertained, and who was born in 15665. He

was educated at Merton College, Oofori, of which cllege his brotheT was a fellow, besides being Lecturer on Greek and Philosophy, and Public Orator to the University. Thomas Bodley became Gentleman-Usher to Queen Elizabeth in 1683, and mut have been of superior abilities, even in that era of gemus, as he was selected by Elizabeth at different times, from 1586 to 1594, to be her Ambasandor to nearly every court in Europe; and we may readily imagine that to

division, accompanied Mountjoy in his campaigns to the North in 1602, when the Fort of Charlemont was built, and Caulfield was appointed its first governor. In 1603 he was knighted, and shortly afterwards made a Privy Councillor, and, by patent, governor of Charlemont Fort and of the counties of Armagh and Tyrone. He now began to exhibit, on a more extended scale, those habits of acquisitiveness, which are instanced by Bodiey in alluding to his appropriation of the legs of the " well Stuffed geese/' In 1610, and the ensuing years, he got several grants of land, which were all confirmed by

one

general grant in 1620, of all his lands in the counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Monaghan, Deny, Antrim, Loutb, Cavan, Fermanagh, and Donegall. In 1613 he was M. P., for the county Armagh ; in 1614 Master of the Ord nance ; in 1616 one of the Commissioners for setting ont the Escheated Lands ; and in 1620 he was created a

Peer, as Baron Caulfield. He died a bachelor in 1627, at the'age of 62, and is interred in Christ Church, Dub lin. All his great acquisitions went to his nephew,

from whom the Earl of Charlemont is directly descended. Captain Henry Adderton,?&o called by Bodiey and

Dymmok, (or as Moryson and the Patent Rolls more

correctly spell it Atherton) makes his first appearance in Irish History in an account by Dymmok ( TreaUoe on

Ireland, published by Irish Archaeological Society) of

an expedition in 1599, under the command of Sir Henry Harrington, of 430 foot and 60 horse, against Phelim

MacPheagh O'Byrne, in Ranelagh, near Wickiow, where, coming to a sudden encounter with the Irish, a

panic seized the English soldiers who fled. Dymmok says that Captain"SVardman, "endeavourInge to reforme this disorder, and assisted (as they saye)

in his frustrate but honorable paynes by the reste of his ranke, left his dead bodye in that unfortunate place for an occnlar testy

money of his corage and vertu; of whose infortune

Captain Henry Adderton, Sergeant Maior to U? Regy? nent being an emulous witnes, never turned his face from the Rebells ; but the rest flyinge was {lyke another Codes) both to them and to himselte a buckler, untillhe was relieved by Captain Montacute." It may have been his office as Serjeant Major (or Adjutant as we now style it) to this regiment that causes the omission of his name in the lists of captains and their stations

given by Moryson, The next mention of Atherton is in the skirmish at the Moyry Pass, near Newry, on the I7th May, 1600, as given in the text. He was stationed at the newly-erected fort of Mountaorris, from Nov. 1600, and appears to have made it his head-quarters dur ing the remainder of Tyrone's rebellion; being appointed governor of it on 28th Oct. 1602: an appointment sub sequently confirmed by patent from James 1st, which is the last record we have of this valiant comrade of Bodley.

Captain Ralph Constable makes his first appearance in these wars at the battle in the Coriew mountains, (Aug. 1599,) so fatal to the English, and mentioned in note on

Jephson. Dymmok in his account of it says that Clifford having dispersed his army (fearing an ambus cade) appointed "to the angle of y? dexter Flancke Rafe Constable, (a gentleman deservedly esteemed of the governor for his vertu,) and not much distant from Mm Capt. Walter Fludde and Capt. Wmdsore giving them 40 men a-piece, with commandment that they should not abandon their places until they heard further from him self." He was afterwards attached to Morrison's divi sion, and appears to have still been under his command, and with him saw all the hard fighting going. He was at the fight at Carlingford ; at the skirmish on the Black water, (16th July, 1601,) where Mountjoy's chaplain was killed ; at the siege of Kinsale in the winter of that year ; and was now quietly resting hi Lecale after his cam paigns. From his position in the list of captains he ap pears to have been much the junior of the party assem bled, as we may also conclude from Bodley's allusions.

We can well imagine that Bodley must have considered him as great a puppy as any of his hounds, of which he was so fond as to keep them in his bed-room ; whilst Constable on the other han^must have thought it a " horrid bore^' to have himself and dogs so put about by the old stagers, who probably dispossessed both him and his dogs of their couches. He was, from his Chris tian name, probably one of the ancient family of Con stable, of Halsham, in Yorkshire, the head of which was ennobled by James 1st as Viscount Dunbar, a title which became extinct in 1700, and is now represented by the families of Clifford-Constable, and Haggerston, Baronets, as set forth in Burke's Baronetage.

p

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one of such embassies the youthful Josias was an attach when he witnessed in Poland that enforcement of "Lynch-law" against the delinquent who refused to pledge a health. His bro ther's position at the court of Elizabeth must have introdaoed our author as a witness to many of the eventful and stirring scenes which make the last quarter of the sixteenth century appear in the likeness of some great epic or romance rather than in the sober reality of history. We can imagine the inte rest with which the young Bodley would gaze on the armaments of Drake and Frobisher, starting on their voyage for the discovery of those miraculous regions of which wild traditions had only reached the old world, and the eagerness with which he would hail their return, and listen to their narrative of won ders and riches, hitherto undreamt of by the most visionary-confirmed, as they were by Raleigh mna few years after with his golden accounts of Eldorado; a romance then, a reality now, as witnessed in Aus tralia and California. Raleigh he must have seen in his glory-the scholar, orator, statesman, soldier, sailor-perfect in all; must have witnessed his decline, though he lived not long enough to see the grey hairs fall beneath the axe. He must have seen, and, perhaps, fought alongside the chivalrous Sidney, and may have witnessed his untimely fall. And Spenser, too, he must have pitied, and sympaohized with; -all English scholar, and a poet,-banished to the wilds of Desmond, to become an Irish landed proprietor: although we cannot imagine bim endowed with so much sentiment as to

make him admire either Spenser's or Sidney's poetry. Shakspeare would be more to his taste; whose star he saw rise; and whose birth, career, and death, were nearly contemporaneous with his own.

With what gusto and 4elight he must have hailed the first appearance of tat Jack Falstaff on the stage, (in 1 596;)-and truly he appears to have imbibed much of Jack's philosophy, as evinced by his eulogy on Wine, le saw the pride, pomp, and haughtiness of Leicester, and must have profession ally despised his inefficiency and cowardice ap a general. He saw the mustering of hosts to meet the

Armada, and may have formed one of Elizabeth's body guard at Tilbury Fort, under the command of Sir Roger Williams, " of worthy memory." Sir Roger and he had many feelings in common; a love of plain-speakinig being one. ie may have participated in many of the earlier daring and valo rous exploit6 of Essex, on the coast of Spain and at the Azores. It is certain that Essex was a warm friend to Sir Thomas Bodley, and endeavoured to influence the Queen to appoint Sir Thomas her Secretary instead of Robert Cecil, who subsequently, as Earl of Salisbury, was Prime Minister to James lst, and, as such, had the conferring of patents of. the forfeited estates in Irelanad on Bodley's brother offi3ers, but none fell to his lot; and he complains of unfair treatment in some lettcrs he ad dressed to Sir Michael Hich, Salisbury's Secretary. About 1594, Sir Thomas Blodley retired, as he said, from the turmoil of courts; and we may presme that our hero, Josias, about the same time, joined that army in the Low Countries, from which, as has been mentioned, he was drafted to Ireland. That he had superior military talents, education, and experience, is fully admitted by those writers who mention him. In those days, and till a far later date, not only were naval and

military commands indiscriminately undertaken by the same intdividual, but there was no distinction made between the several branches of the military semre, and consequently we are not surprised to find our hero nominally the captain of a company of Foot, but frequently discharging, the various duties now entrusted to Artillery, Sappers and Miners, Engineers, and Light Infantry or Rifles, and always distinguishing himself in these several capacities.

Essex, on his landing in Ireland, instead of prosecuting the war against Tyrone and the powerful force he had collected in Ulster, divided his forces, leaving a few garrisons in Ulster, one of them being Newry, where BIodley was quartered on his first coming to Ireland; and then, leading a small army into Munster, sent other divisions into Connaught. The consequence was that, in the short campaign of 1599, he lost an immense number of men, his regiments being cut off in detail by sour prises and ambuscades, and many of his generals killed; amongst others Sir Thomas Norris, or Norreys, the Vice-President of Munster, and father-in-law to Captain Jephson. He did not turn northwards till September, when he held the memorable conference with Tyrone (he. upon the river bank, and Tyrone up to his horse's girths in the stream) across the River Lagan, which divides the

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Counties of Louth and Monaghan, and where they agreed on a truce, inglorious and impoltic as regarded the Queen's interest. Essex, having received a letter from Elizabeth containing a severe reprimand for his disobedience of her commands, departed suddenly for London. His unexpected entrance into the palace, and his surprising the Queen in dishabille, with her grey hairs hanging about her ears, (an offence less pardonable than his misconduct in Ireland,) his subsequent attempt at insurrection, his trial, and execution, all form striking scenes in that great historical drama which is exhibited in the close of Elizabeth's reign. His successor was Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy,c a man of very great abilities, energy, and experience, but of such refined manners that they were attributed by the Irish to effeminacy. "Hewill losethe season of action," said Tyrone, " while waiting until breakfast is prepared to his mind l"-but Mountjoy soon proved himslf to be qualified in every respect for the important trust confided to him. He landed in Ieland on the24thFeb. 1600, andinstantly adopted most active measures for the capture of Tyrone. Jlaving got considerable re-inforcements from England, he determined on planting a number of garrisons throughout UlTster, which should keep Tyrone in check, and prevent his givingassistance orreceiving it from any of the other disaffected chiefs; whilst he himself tookthe field against him with a select army of about 3,000 foot and 300 horse. Up to this time Bodley had lain inactive in Newry, under the command of Sir Samuel Bagnall, with Captain Edward Blaney, (the ancestor of Lord Blaney,) as senior captain, and his fellow tourist, Captain Toby Caulfield, (the founder of the Charlemont family,) as his junior. His transference from the rich pastures, fat beeves, and wealthy cities of'Flanders, to the rocks and bogs of an out-post then beyond the confines of English civilization, andhis consequent change of cheer, may have prejudiced him against Newry, and so mis led him to that depreciation of its larders which appears in the " Journey," and which the fattest

mutton and best wine could not perhaps have propitiated.vWe can imagine him pinched in stomach and soured in temper, chafing at his short commons and compulsory inactivity; cooped up for 17 months within the defences of a miserable village, from which he conld not ramble a mile, even for a swim in the river or a coursing match on the hills, without the chance of being knocked on the head by some of Tyrone's light-footed kerues. But the time for active service had now arrived, and Bcd ley was to make acquaintance with the Irish system of warfare, which, we presume, was as little to his taste as Trish beef or mutton. Mountjoy began early in April to put his plan of operations into execution; and, having made his disposition of the garrisons, selected his own army for the field, amongst whom was Sir Richard Morrison, and Captains Bodley, Caulfield, and Atherton.

cMoun$oy,?Fynea Moryson gives a most Pepysian, or gossiping, sketch of this nobleman's personal appear ance and habits, which he was well qualified to do, having been so long his private secretary. He calls upon his reader to give him credit for candour, saying "that as, in the duty of a servant, I will not omit any thing I remember which may turn to his Lordship's honour^ so, in my love to truth, I will be so far from lying or flattering, as I will be bold, modestly to men tion some of his defeats? whereof the greatest worthies of the world cannot be altogether free." And he accor dingly enters on a sketch of Mount joy, even to the trim of his beard and the number of waistcoats and wor

sted stockings he wore in cold weather. He details his habits at table, with a regular dietary of his break fasts and dinners, from which we may conclude that he was far in advance of the coarse manners of his day : and hence may have arisen the allusion of Bodley to the superior skill of "the Lord Deputy's cook." The pic ture is too elaborate to be transferred to a note; but a judicious condensation of it is given in the first volume of Professor Craik's "Romance of the Peerage,'' (pp. 292, et seq.) where is also detailed the extraordinary circumstances of Mountjoy's marriage with Lady Pene lope Devereux, (sister of the unfortunate Essex, and divorcee of Lord Rich,) and his melancholy death.

[ETo be concluckd in the next Number.]

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