Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/359

Tandy By this the hospital was closed after 1 June 1872, annuities were given to existing pensioners, and it was provided that 80l per annum should in the future be paid to out-pensioners of the same class.

A full-length portrait of Tancred, a photograph of which is contained in Hailstone's 'Yorkshire Worthies,' hangs in the manor-house, Whixley, which is now occupied by a bailiff on behalf of the governors. [Foster's County Families of the West Hiding of Yorkshire; Hargreave's Hist. Knaresborough; information kindly afforded by G. E. Frere, esq., clerk to Tancred's Charities.]

 TANDY, JAMES NAPPER (1740–1803), United Irishman, born at Dublin in 1740, was the son of a respectable merchant in that city. The name of Napper he owed probably either to his mother or to the connection that had for many years subsisted between his father's family and that of Napper of county Meath. Both families had long been settled in Ireland, and from an inquisition post mortem taken at Clonee in September 1695 it appears that their properties in that county adjoined each other. The Nappers of Loughcrew were probably the more influential, and from 1695 to about 1750 represented the boroughs of Trim and Athboy in parliament. Afterwards the name seems to have disappeared from the list of landed gentry in the county, though surviving in that of Napper-Dutton and Napper-Tandy, the former having come into possession of Loughcrew.

Tandy, after receiving a fair commercial education, began life as a small tradesman in Dublin ironmonger, it is supposed but he very soon interested himself in politics. 'His mind turned more towards the expansion of the rights of the people than the extension of his own commercial concern.' Subsequently he disposed of his business and established himself as a land agent and collector of rents. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Charles Lucas [q. v.], and, having been elected a representative of the guild of merchants on the common council, he acquired considerable notoriety by his assaults on municipal corruption. His name figured regularly in the list submitted to the mayor and aldermen from which the sheriffs of the city were annually selected, and was as regularly passed over by them. But in the city itself he was extremely popular, and his influence more than once turned the scale in favour of the popular candidate both at municipal and parliamentary elections. As a speaker on these occasions he was forcible, fluent, and pointed, but his language was coarse and often incorrect. On the outbreak of the American war in 1775 he declared himself warmly on the side of the colonies, and four years later, when, in consequence of the severe restrictions placed on Irish commerce, the industrial enterprise of the country was paralysed to such an extent that Dublin swarmed with beggars and bankrupt merchants, he came forward with a proposal pledging Irishmen not to purchase or use goods of English manufacture till the obnoxious restrictions were withdrawn. He threw himself heart and soul into the volunteer movement, being one of the first to join the regiment of which the Duke of Leinster was elected commander. But subsequently becoming dissatisfied with what he regarded as the duke's political lukewarmness, he withdrew from the regiment, and was shortly afterwards appointed to the command of a small volunteer corps of artillery. When the critical day, 27 May 1782, arrived on which parliament met to receive the decision of the ministry touching its claim to legislative independence, the duty of guarding the approaches to the house was assigned to Tandy and his corps of artillery. He played an equally conspicuous part on 10 Nov. 1783 when the volunteer convention, with the bishop of Derry as the most prominent figure, proceeded through the streets of Dublin to the Rotunda for the purpose of discussing, and it was hoped of settling, the question of parliamentary reform.

That day saw Tandy at the height of his fame. With the decline of the volunteer movement his influence began to wane. Being charged in parliament by the attorney-general, John Fitzgibbon (afterwards Earl of Clare) [q. v.], with having fomented the riots that took place in Dublin at the beginning of the Duke of Rutland's administration in 1784, Tandy denied the allegation in a public advertisement couched in the most offensive language. Fitzgibbon, who regarded him with undisguised contempt, took no notice of his abuse, and merely kept out of his way when Tandy, in order to fasten a quarrel on him, paraded the lobby of the house with a sword significantly displayed at his side. In the autumn of 1785 Tandy headed an agitation against the amended commercial propositions, and at his instigation the corporation, to Rutland's in ignation, passed a set of resolutions condemning them. He was admitted a member of the Whig Club, and at the general election in 1790 contributed very largely by his exertions to the return of the popular candidates, Lord Henry Fitzgerald and Grattan for the city, and Sir Edward Newenham and