Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/281

 F I T F I T 271 reputation for personal courage, readiness of resource, and humane feeling. He was severely wounded at the battle of Eutaw Springs. After the surrender of York Town he joined the staff of General O Hara at St Lucia, and the same year (1783) returned to Ireland. He was soon returned as member for Athy to the Irish parliament ; but the high hopes which he had cherished of serving his country faded away at the spectacle of political corruption and suppression of all genuine representation by the penal laws against lloman Catholics. In 1787 he set out for a visit to the south of Europe, went afterwards to America, and in 1790 returned to England, and soon resumed his scat in the Irish parliament. The French Revolution had broken out, and Lord Edward was one of those ardent spirits that welcomed with enthusiasm the promise of its first days. In 1792 he was attracted to Paris, and made the acquaintance of the most famous leaders of the Revolu tion. Having publicly renounced his title of nobility and avowed his sympathy with the republicans, he was dis missed, with other officers, from the English army. It was during this visit to Paris that he was introduced to the lady then known as &quot; Pamela,&quot; the daughter of Madame de Geulis, by the duke of Orleans ( &quot; Egalite&quot; &quot;). In December 1792 they were married at Tournay, and returned to Ireland in January 1793. After a period of singular happiness spent in a country home, his sympathies with the struggles of his countrymen led him out to the troubled arena of politics. He joined in 179G the society of United Irishmen, was sent to France to negotiate a treaty with the Directory for a French invasion of Ireland, and urged on with the utmost zeal the preparations for an Irish insurrec tion. But the scheme was betrayed, several of the leaders were arrested, and Fitzgerald concealed himself in a house at Dublin, still continuing to direct the movement. A price was set on his head, the place of his retreat was dis covered, and after a severe struggle he was captured by police officers (May 19, 1798) and committed to prison. There he died on the 4th of June, of the wounds which he had received ; a bill of attainder was immediately passed against him, and his estates were confiscated ; but the attainder was at a later time reversed. His widow married Mr Pitcairn, American consul at Hamburg ; but the union was an unhappy one, and ended in a separation by mutual consent. Lady Fitzgerald henceforward lived in retirement at Montauban till 1830, when she removed to Paris, Louis Philippe, the associate of her childhood, having become king of the French. He, however, refused to see her, and she died poor in 1831. An interesting narrative of The Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, by Thomas Moore, was published in 1831, in 2 vols. 8vo. A cheap reprint in 1 vol. was issued in 1875. FITZGERALD, LORD THOMAS (d. 1536), was vice- deputy of Ireland for his father, Gerald, ninth earl of Kil- clare, in. the reign of Henry VIII. He appears to have accompanied his father to London early in 1534, on occasion of the third summons of the earl to answer grave charges of maladministration as lord deputy. But after the earl s committal to the Tower he was sent back to Ireland to take the place of vice-deputy in his father s absence, with secret instructions to raise a rebellion against the English Government. He was at this time hardly of age, and his amiable manners and accomplishments had pro cured for him the appellation of &quot; Silken Thomas.&quot; He was, however, of a high spirit and fiery temper, and fiercely resented the English rule. As soon as he arrived in Ireland, he cleared the way by formally surrendering his office and the sword of state, and then openly proclaimed a rebellion. He obtained possession of Dublin city before the end of July, and formed the siege of the castle, into which the English governor had withdrawn. Archbishop Allen, the primate who had been appointed by Henry VIII. to keep watch over Kildare and to report his proceedings, sought safety in flight and sailed for England. But the ship was run aground, and the archbishop was seized by the young Lord Thomas and massacred in his presence with his English chaplains and attendants. This murder was reported by a special messenger from Fitzgerald to the pope and the emperor, the former being asked for absolution if necessary, and the latter for assistance. Sentence of excommunica tion was pronounced on Fitzgerald for this murder of the archbishop. In August Fitzgerald was forced to relinquish the siege of Dublin Castle, and hasten to defend or recover his own domains which the earl of Ormond had invaded. He tried in vain to seduce Ormond from his allegiance, but obtained a truce, of which he took treacherous advan tage to attack him. He then again besieged Dublin, which had closed its gates against him. On October 14, in con sequence of Ormond s renewed invasion of Kildare, he was compelled to raise the siege. Three days later the English army landed at Dublin, and was enthusiastically welcomed. Fitzgerald withdrew into the country ; but taking advan tage of the inactivity of Skeffiugton, the new deputy, he approached Dublin again and burnt two villages near the city (November). The old earl had been attainted, and he died in the Tower soon after hearing of his son s rebellion and excommunication. The deathblow to the rebellion was at length given by Skeffington, who in March 1535 stormed the castle of Maynooth, the chief stronghold of the &quot; Geraldines.&quot; Lord Thomas, who had now succeeded his father, but did not assume the title, retreated into Thomond, intending to sail for Spain and plead with the emperor. This scheme he relinquished, and after leading a wandering life for some mouths, with a price set upon his head, he surrendered without definite conditions to Lord Leonard Grey (August), and was at once conducted by him to England. He was committed to the Tower with his five uncles ; and the six Geraldines were hung at Tyburn as traitors (February 3, 1536). An act of attainder was passed against the earl of Kildare, Lord Thomas, and others, in 1537; but the family estates were restored by Edward VI., and the attainder was repealed by Queen Elizabeth. Moore has pointed out, in his Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, some remarkable points of re semblance between liis story and that of his ancestor, Lord Thomas. FITZHERBERT, SIR ANTHONY, an eminent English lawyer, was born at Norbury. After studying at Oxford, he was called to the English bar, and in 1523 became justice of the court of common pleas, the duties of which office he continued to discharge till within a short time of his death in 1538. As a judge he left behind him a high reputation for fairness and integrity, and his legal learning is sufficiently attested by his published works. He is the author of Lc graundc abridgement, a digest of import ant legal cases written in Old French, iirst printed in 1524 ; The Office and Authority of Justices of the Peace, first printed in 1538, last ed. 1794 ; the New Natura Brcvium, 1534, last ed. 1794, with a commentary ascribed to Sir Matthew Hale and the, Book of Husbandry, 1523, the Iirst published work oil agriculture in the English language. FITZROY, ROBERT (1805-1865), a vice-admiral in the English navy, distinguished as a hydrographer and meteor ologist, was born at Ampton Hall, Suffolk, July 5, 1805, being a grandson, on the father s side, of the third duke of Grafton, and on the mother s, of the first marquis of Londonderry. He entered the navy from the Royal Naval College, then a school for cadets, on the 19th October 1819, and on the 7th September 1824 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After serving in the &quot; Thetis &quot; frigate in the Mediterranean and on the coast of South America, under the command of Sir John Phillimore and Captain