Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/570

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* B. m. JCXE 17, 1905.

Temple 1686. I shall be greatly obliged if any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' can give me further particulars of his life, the date of his death, and the names and birth-years of any children. P. MONTFOET.

Bescot, Rossall Beach, Fleetwood.

D'AVAUX. Can any reader tell me where I can see or procure a copy of ' Negociations de M. le Cornte d'Avaux en Irlaude,' issued about 1690 in Paris ? I know his ' Negocia- tions en Angleterre,' but this is a different work. JOHN S. CRONE.

PARKER FAMILY. I should be greatly obliged for any information as to (1) the life of Richard Parker, of Bellbroughton, a friend of George Fox, the Quaker; (2) Antony Parker, author of ' Literary Miscellanies' and of a commonplace book (Harleian MSS., No. 4048) ; (3) the Parkers of Hagley and Halesowen, 1600-50 ; (4) Walter Parker, born 1715, of Madeley, Salop, and possibly of New- castle, and of his descendants resident in the United States (?). G. P.

SARAH CURRAN, ROBERT EMMET, AND MAJOR SIRR'S PAPERS.

(10 th S. iii. 303, 413.)

THE note on the above subject from MR. H. SIRR affords a notable illustration of how the events of history are perverted, and the reputation of historical personages is un- deservedly besmirched. I refer, of course, not to MR. SIRR'S own statements, but to the letter by the Rev. J. D'Arcy Sirr, D.D., which he quotes in good faith from the papers of Major Sirr, in Trinity College, Dublin. In that letter we are told, on the authority of this clergyman, a son of the celebrated Town Major of Dublin in the troublous years at the close of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth centuries, that the corre- spondence between Robert Emmet, the young revolutionary leader, and his sweetheart barah Curran, seized by Major Sirr, " tied up and sealed in six or seven immense piles, and occupying a space of about a yard square,' was of so atrocious a character that it \va: burnt out of compassion for the girl's family It is asserted, indeed, by the Rev. J. D'Arcy birr, who leads us to suppose that he read the correspondence, that in one letter Sarah Curran "gloated with satisfaction" at the prospect of seeing her father, John Philpot Curran, hanging from a tree in his own orchard, on the ground, presumably, that he was opposed to the revolutionary movement

All this is an atrocious aspersion upon the memories of Robert Em met and Sarah Curran. The letters that passed between them which Fell into the hands of the authorities will be Found fully set out in ray recently published book 'The Viceroy's Post- Bag.' Of course, the calumnies of the Rev. J. D'Arcy Sirr are totally destitute of foundation. It is sufficient to say here that the ability, the light-hearted- ness, and the affection of the girl's letters to her lover impressed George III., to whom they were specially submitted because of their intensely interesting character. These letters I found in the Home Office papers, marked "most secret and confidential," to which I was permitted access by the Secre- tary of State. I do not at all doubt the story that Major Sirr himself wept on reading the correspondence. My book con- tains a graphic and dramatic report by Major Sirr to the Chief Secretary of the incidents of his visit, early one morning, to the Priory, Kilmainham, the house of John Philpot Curran, to arrest Sarah Curran and seize her papers, it having been discovered the night before that she was the writer of the unsigned letters found on Robert Emmet when he was tracked to his hiding-place by the Town Major. The report shows that Major Sirr was deeply moved by the most painful nature of the scene at the Priory. He is a personage of evil reputation in the eyes of the majority of the Irish people. In my opinion, as a student of that period of Irish history, that notoriety is undeserved. As chief of the Dublin police, he did no more than his duty in hunting down the revolu- tionaries. MICHAEL MACDONAGH.

149, Abbeville Road, Clapham Park, S.W.

The note which I contributed was intended to corroborate, by a reference to Major Sirr's papers, as suggested at the reference quoted by me, the declaration of Mr. Daly, though it would appear that Mr. Daly has been a little too sweeping. The Rev. Dr. D'Arcy Sirr's note refers to the correspondence be- tween Miss Curran and Emmet which was in Major Sirr's keeping, and, not only states it was deliberately consumed, but gives the reason. FRANCESCA now refers to letters which were discovered in a sealed box in the State Paper Office, and remarks it is fortunate they were not destroyed because they prove Dr. Sirr " was misinformed as to their con- tents." Dr. Sirr wrote from his own know- ledge, and obviously he did not refer to the letters discovered by Mr. MacDonagh.

FRANCESCA evidently does not agree with Madden and all those sympathizers with the Irish rebels who called Major Sirr " trucu-