L30/11/329/33

Letter from Elizabeth Yorke, Lady Hardwicke to Lady Lucas, sent from Dublin Castle. [Typed transcript available]. The closing scene of [Robert] Emmett’s life – ‘his treasons and atrocities have met with the fate they deserved in this world and yet….his character is so strange a mixture that some degree of forbearance if not admiration will mix with my sentiments on this occasion.’

23 Sep 1803

From: 1803 To: 1803

Describes what happened following Emmett’s condemnation: it was intended that he should have been remanded to the jail at Kilmainham, but he remained in Newgate and was placed in the condemned cell without light or fire, and the windows secured by iron bars without glass. The writer hopes that this will in future be altered to coarse but decent accommodation. Lord Hardwicke ordered a strong guard to be sent to remove the prisoner to Kilmainham. Emmett went to bed and slept till 8 o’clock. Two clergymen then attended him and he seemed anxious and glad to have their company and assistance. One was Mr Gamble, the Ordinary of Newgate, and the other Mr Grant. The prisoner professed himself to be a believer in a future state and a Christian. He lamented the fruitless attempt but believed the lives lost as lives in battle, where you think you fight on the right side. Having joined in prayer and received the sacrament Emmett called their attention to his dying declaration – that as an erring man he felt and repented his faults but attested by the elements he hoped to receive and by the judgement of God before whom he was soon to appear, that he felt that he had engaged in a righteous cause and though he acknowledged he had fully incurred the penalty of death, he had acted from a strong sense of duty, and as such could not regret that he had sacrificed his life for it. ‘So strong was the conviction of these gentlemen [Gamble & Grant] that he was sincere in his wonderful perversion of judgement that they administered the sacrament leaving the truth of his asservation to God and his own conscience.’ Emmett was indulged with a coach to the place of execution, in order to prevent his having an opportunity of addressing the people had he been so inclined during his journey through the streets. He wished to renew on the scaffold the only oath he had ever taken in his life; the oath of a United Irishman. He was informed he would not be permitted to make a speech tending to so much disorder. He preserved the decorum of civility to the last. His head was severed ‘with the usual forms’. The writer is glad Lord Hardwicke objected to its being affixed to the market place in Thomas Street near the place of the execution; he equally objected to his body being given back to his friends and he was interred in the burial ground at Newgate. ‘He seems to have had, along with talents and learning, an imagination so perverted as to border on insanity..’ Just before he left the prison, Emmet wrote two letters. One letter was to Mr Wickham expressive of his gratitude for personal attentions. The other letter was to his brother and his wife; it included remembrances to his family, and asks that they protect Sarah Carran if circumstances deprive her of her natural protectors [Emmett had received letters from Sarah Carran]. The letter was shown to her Father, who requested it not be delivered, and that he would extend that degree of protection to his child ‘that shall prevent her being as on orphan, or of being obliged to claim the testamentary recommendation of a miscreant.’ It is believed Sarah Carran is in Wales. Emmett was much shocked and offended when he heard that Redmond had attempted to make away with himself. Remarks that the contents of the letter are confidential, but that it could be shown to various family members.

item

Yorke, Elizabeth,
Lucas, Amabel, Baroness,
de Grey, Amabel,
Emmett, Robert,
Gamble,
Grant,
Carran, Sarah,
Wickham,
Redmond

family correspondence, public disorder, Ireland, CRIME & PUNISHMENT, legal process, executions, treason