Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/116

Fitzgerald Epigram's,' with a dedication 'To his True Friend Tho: Fletcher of Lincoln's Inn, Gent.;' and at the end of the epigrams is another copy of commendatory verses by Stephens. 'The Third Booke of Humours: Intituled Notes from Black-Fryers,' opens with an epigram 'To his Lou : Chamber-Fellow and nearest Friend Nat. Gvrlin of Lincolnes-Inn, Gent.' The notes are followed by some more verses of Stephens, the epilogue 'The Author for Himselfe,' and finally a verse 'Post-script to his Book-binder.' Twelve copies of the little volume were reprinted, from the edition of 1620, for E. V. Utterson at the Beldornie Press in 1843.

 FITZGERALD, DAVID (d. 1176), bishop of St. David's. [See the Second.]

FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1763–1798), Irish rebel, was one of the seventeen children of James Fitzgerald, viscount and first duke of Leinster [q. v.], by Emilia Mary, daughter of Charles, duke of Richmond. His father died in 1773, and his mother married William Ogilvie. The Duke of Richmond lent his house at Aubigny in France to the family, who resided there till 1779; Ogilvie undertook Edward's education, which had been commenced by a tutor named Lynch. The boy had a marked military bent, and on returning to England joined the Sussex militia, of which his uncle, the Duke of Richmond, was colonel. He next entered the 96th infantry as lieutenant, served with it in Ireland, exchanged into the 19th in order to get foreign service, and in 1781 went out to Charleston. His skill in covering a retreat got him the post of aide-de-camp to Lord Rawdon, on whose retirement he rejoined his regiment. At the engagement of Eutaw Springs, August 1781, he was wounded in the thigh, was left senseless on the field, and might have succumbed had not a negro, Tony, carried him to his hut and nursed him. Tony was thenceforth, to the end of Fitzgerald's life, his devoted servant or slave. After his recovery Fitzgerald was on O'Hara's staff at St. Lucia, but soon returned to Ireland, where his eldest brother had him elected M.P. for Athy. He voted in the Dublin parliament in the small minority with Grattan and Curran. After a course of professional study at Woolwich a disappointment in love drove him to New Brunswick to join his regiment, the 54th, of which he was now major. Cobbett was the sergeant-major, and was grateful to Fitzgerald for procuring him his discharge, describing him to Pitt in 1800 as the only really honest officer he had ever known. Infected by the fashionable Rousseau admiration for savage life, Fitzgerald made his way by compass through the woods from Frederickton to Quebec, was formally admitted at Detroit into the Bear tribe, and went down the Mississippi to New Orleans, but was refused the expected permission to visit the Mexican mines. On returning home he found himself M.P. for Kildare, became intimate with the whig leaders in London, joined in April 1792 their Society of the Friends of the People, shared their enthusiasm for the French revolution, and in October 1792 visited Paris. He stayed at the same hotel as Paine, took his meals with him, and at a British dinner to celebrate French victories joined in Sir Robert Smith's toast to the abolition of all hereditary titles. Cashiered from the army for attendance at this revolutionary banquet, he was not, however, so immersed in politics as to neglect the theatres. Hence his brief courtship and his marriage, 27 Dec. 1792 [see ]. He took his bride over to Ireland, and six days after his arrival at Dublin caused a scene in parliament by describing the lord-lieutenant and the majority as 'the worst subjects the king has.' He was ordered into custody, but refused to make any serious apology. When not attending parliament he enjoyed the society of his wife and child and of his flowers at Kildare. His dismissal from the army and the political reaction consequent on the atrocities in France converted the light-hearted young nobleman into a stern conspirator. Early in 1796 he joined the United Irishmen, who now avowedly aimed at an independent Irish republic, and in May he went with Arthur O'Connor to Bâle to confer with Hoche on a French invasion; but the Directory, apprehensive of accusations of Orleanism, on account of Pamela's supposed kinship with the Orleans family, declined to negotiate with Fitzgerald, who rejoined his wife at Hamburg, leaving O'Connor to treat with Hoche. Returning to Ireland he visited Belfast with O'Connor, then a candidate for Antrim, but in July 1797 he declined to solicit re-election, telling the Kildare voters that under martial law free elections were impossible, but that he hoped hereafter to represent them in a free parliament. In the following autumn the United Irishmen became a military organisation, 280,000 men, according to a list given by Fitzgerald to Thomas Reynolds, being prepared with arms, and a military committee, headed by Fitzgerald, was deputed to prepare a scheme of co-operation with the French, or of a rising if their arrival could not be awaited. Fitzgerald was 