THE HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT 1798 REBELLION PRIZE SWORD PRESENTED IN 1799 TO MAJOR WILLIAM BELLINGHAM SWAN, WHO DURING THE PREVIOUS YEAR, 1798, ALONG WITH THE ASSISTANT TOWN MAJOR OF DUBLIN, MAJOR HENRY CHARLES SIRR, HAD BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR POLICING THE STRICT ENFORCEMENT OF MARTIAL LAW, COMBATTING THE ACTIVITIES OF ORGANISED CRIME GANGS AND POLITICAL SUBVERSIVES. SWAN AND SIRR ORGANISING A SERIES OF PRE-EMPTIVE RAIDS ON THE LEADERSHIP OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN MOVEMENT IN DUBLIN, WHICH ENSURED THAT THE CITY REMAINED RELATIVELY TROUBLE FREE DURING THE REBELLION, BECOMING INSTEAD THE VITAL BASE FOR THE DEFEAT OF WHAT BECAME, AS A RESULT, A LARGELY RURAL REBELLION.
THOSE RAIDS INCLUDED THE 12TH MARCH 1798 OPERATION THAT ROUNDED UP VIRTUALLY THE ENTIRE LEADERSHIP OF THE UNITED IRISH MOVEMENT IN LEINSTER, AND THE 19TH MAY 1798 CAPTURE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT UNITED IRISHMEN LEADER STILL AT LIBERTY, LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD, MAJOR SWAN BEING SERIOUSLY WOUNDED DURING THE VIOLENT STRUGGLE THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE CAPTURE OF FITZGERALD.
SUBSEQUENTLY, MAJOR SWAN ALSO PLAYED A LEADING ROLE IN THE FOILING OF ROBERT EMMET'S PLANNED RISING ON 23RD JULY 1803, HIS INTERVENTION HELPING TO TURN WHAT HAD BEEN INTENDED AS A GENERAL RISING INTO A FAILED COUP.
The sword, of similar design and quality to the Lloyd's Patriotic Swords of the period, with 27 inch (38.5cn) curved blade, double edged toward the point, brightly finished and etched over half its length on one side with a cavalry officer on horseback, the figure of Victory, a garter star, figures and foliage, and on the other side with a cavalry officer, a fortification beyond, a lion, St George slaying the dragon, an urn and foliage, the forte signed in full on both sides "S. Brunn Sword Cutler to HR The Prince of Wales No. 55 Charing Cross", the gilt hilt comprising a cross-guard with quillons formed as Roman fasces, one quillon with lion head terminal, the other terminating with a ring to retain gilt chain knuckle-guard, both langets with an applied trophy of arms within a recessed panel, gilt lions head pommel, linked chain knuckle-guard, ribbed wire-bound hardwood grip, in its original blackened shagreen scabbard, the scabbard with ornate gilt mounts decorated with cusped borders pierced with stars within engraved double lines, the chape engraved with a panel of foliage on each side and with foliate drag, the locket signed in full on one side with maker's details “S. Brunn Sword Cutler to HR The Prince of Wales No. 55 Charing Cross", and with presentation inscription on the other "Presented by J.C. Beresford & Co. of Dublin, Bankers, to Major W.B. Swan as a Testimony of their Gratitude to him for his Effectual Exertions as a Magistrate in the Suppression of Bank note forgery anno Domini 1799", the scabbard with two rings for suspension, one fixed.
Some repairs to hilt, the lion head pommel and chain knuckle guard both professionally restored, some light overall service wear to both the sword and scabbard, otherwise good condition.
This sword’s scabbard has shrunk slightly, with the result that the sword will no longer insert fully into it, approximately 90% of the blade fitting into the scabbard (see photograph).
BANKNOTE FORGERY, BERESFORD'S BANK, AND THE 1798 REBELLION.
By 1798 the Irish currency, which the economy depended on to function, had been seriously compromised. At that time England and Ireland had separate currencies, and he English Pound traded at a substantial premium to the Irish Pound, with the result that full weight English gold and silver coinage only circulated in Ireland on a limited basis, and did so at a premium. With no gold coinage ever having been struck for general circulation in Ireland, no silver coinage since the reign of James I (1603-1626) and no base metal coinage having been issued for circulation since the copper halfpennies of 1782, by the late 1790s Ireland's circulating currency consisted principally of heavily worn, under-weight, English silver coins, worn copper halfpennies, many of them forged, privately issued copper and lead tradesmen's tokens and banknotes, many of which were also forged: a toxic mix that presented a serious, politically destabilising impediment to trade and prosperity. When the National Bank, the Bank of Ireland, ceased specie payment (the exchange of banknotes for English gold coins) in 1797, the resultant gap in the market was quickly seized on by the private banks, who flooded that gap with their banknotes. The relatively simple design of the various private banknotes, and their rudimentary security features, only encouraged the forgers, who redoubled their efforts. As a result, by 1798, over £200,000 worth of forged banknotes were in circulation, a sum somewhat greater than the value of genuine banknotes in issue. The vast increase in the money supply, and the problems caused by the large number of forged banknotes in circulation, further destabilised an economy already undermined by a compromised currency, further exacerbating the economic distress that was one of the principal causes of the widespread support for the 1798 Rebellion, the disturbances that took place in Dublin including the Beresford Bank riots, during which rioting mobs burnt forged Beresford banknotes that the bank had refused to redeem.
In addition to combatting the activities of the United Irishmen, Major Swan, as recorded in the inscription on his prize sword, also played a leading role in the arrest and prosecution of banknote forgers, his central role in that campaign being the subject of numerous newspaper articles about the raids he carried out and the enormous number of forged banknotes that he seized, many being forgeries of Beresford Bank banknotes. For instance, on Thursday 17th January 1799 the Freeman‘s journal reported
” A MOST IMPORTANT DETECTION. On Wednesday night last, Mr. Justice Swan, whose zeal in public service knows no pause, having been informed that a fabrication of forged Bank Notes to a most alarming and dangerous extent was carrying on in a house in Templeogue; that Magistrate repaired thither, and arriving there about 12 o’clock, he was fortunate enough to secure five of the persons concerned in this ruinous and criminal exercise of ingenuity, and on proceeding to a minute search of the house, he discovered the whole apparatus necessary to the work of forgery, rolling press, paper frame, plates of the Bank of Ireland, those of Beresford and Co., Sir Thomas Lighton, of one of the Waterford banks, of various sums, and an immense quantity of finished and unfinished notes, to the amount of several thousand pounds!!! with which, but for this most happy discovery, the public would have been inundated, and very many industrious individual and families probably brought to ruin.”
The following biographical sketch of Major Major William Bellingham Swan has been taken from the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
"Swan, William Bellingham (c.1762–1837), Deputy Town Major of Dublin and Senior Revenue Inspector, was probably born in Dublin, son of William Swan, of Kilrisk, Co. Dublin, and his second wife Jane (née Lees), widow of the Reverend Walter Chamberlane. His father appears to have been an army officer and had previously been married to Frances Horish. William junior joined the excise service in the 1780s and was based at Kilfinane, Co. Limerick.
Moving back to Dublin, he continued in the excise service there and served as a Militia officer and Justice of the Peace who, after 1791, emerged as a bogeyman to the newly formed United Irish movement. In August 1792 Theobald Wolfe Tone made reference in his journal to fear of ‘Capt. Swan’ whom he calls "a bloody peep o' day boy" (Protestant intimidator). Swan was a founder member in June 1796 of the highly influential Dublin No. 176 lodge of the Orange Order formed in the previous year to defend Protestant interests in Ireland. His fellow lodge members included Dublin Town Major Henry Charles Sirr. Based in Dublin Castle and acting for the military under Brigade-Major William Sandys, both Sirr and Swan had local police powers above and beyond the limited authority of the regular Dublin Constabulary. Assisted by another officer called Atkinson, a team of plain-clothes army Sergeants, and a zealous Corps of Yeomanry aimed chiefly at suppressing the seditious United Irishmen and Catholic radical Defenders, their collective vigour was motivated as much by anti-revolutionary sentiment as by their office.
Swan was indefatigable in rooting out conspiracy. Although described as having a slight appearance, he shared with Sirr a defiant, physical courage which frequently brought him close to death. He was a founder member (and later Assistant Grand Secretary) of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, which had its first formal meeting on 9 April 1798 at the Dawson Street house of No. 176 Lodge Master, Thomas Verner. At this preparatory stage of the United Irish rebellion, Swan already basked in notoriety: less than a week earlier he had raided a United group at Ely Place, and on 12 March had accompanied Major Sirr in arresting the United Irish Leinster executive at a secret meeting in the house of Oliver Bond on Bridge Street. His fateful coup, initiated by the informerThomas Reynolds, precipitated a confused reaction by the few Leinster leaders still at large. Of these, Swan assisted Sirr in the dramatic and bloody capture of Lord Edward FitzGerald on 19 May at a house in Thomas Street. Swan was stabbed by Lord Edward in the frantic struggle to restrain him, costing CaptainDaniel Frederick Ryan of the Yeomanry his life and Lord Edward a lingering death in Newgate prison from gunshot wounds inflicted by Sirr. Swan recovered the dagger used against him and kept it as a conversation piece. William Richard Le Fanu, brother of the Victorian gothic novelist Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, records in a memoir of 1893 that his mother, then a girl, on a family visit to Swan and his wife at their home on North Great George's Street, stole the dagger and kept it as a nationalist relic.
Swan was active throughout the 1798 rebellion, gathering intelligence from the Castle spy network, seizing arms and compiling lists of apprehended and pardoned rebels, including those to whom it was decided to offer the amnesty of military service abroad as an alternative to transportation or execution. In June 1799 he was made deputy Town Major of Dublin, and in subsequent years Swan continued in police activity but is listed in theDublin Directory as a senior excise officer, variously described as "inspector of licences" and (from 1802) "inspector-general of excise and licences in Ireland" until 1823. He was also a Dublin Grand Jury member. On 12 July 1802 he was assaulted in a clash between Yeomanry and public concerning a military commemoration of the battle of Aughrim (1691). In 1803 Swan was active against the elusive Robert Emmet and his Dublin followers. He intervened on the fateful night of 23 July, when Emmet's planned rising degenerated into an outbreak of mob violence on Thomas Street, resulting in the piking to death of the chief justice, Lord Kilwarden (Arthur Wolfe) and his nephew. Swan personally assured the dying Kilwarden of his daughter's safety and heard Kilwarden's plea that his assailants receive a fair trial. Swan was present at the subsequent execution of Emmet.
During the elections for parliament in May 1807, he led an armed Militia into the parliamentary borough of Downpatrick, Co. Down, to quell the rioting that was accompanying the canvass there. Later, he was accused of intimidating voters on behalf of the successful candidacy of his friend John Wilson Croker. Croker was returned for Downpatrick in 1807 but was defeated in the 1812 election, despite Swan again marching an armed Militia into the borough on his behalf. In 1813 the assizes at Downpatrick found Swan guilty of assaulting and threatening voters during the 1812 election.
His remaining years were less eventful. Late in life, as Assistant Grand Secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge, Swan was among those called to the 1835 House of Commons committee which investigated the existence of Orange membership in civil and military administration (an inquiry undertaken by a reforming whig administration anxious to conciliate Catholics). Swan confidently estimated that upwards of 200,000 Orangemen might be mustered in the army on the orders of a Grand Master and that numbers were increasing. In 1836 as a result of the inquiry the Grand Lodge disbanded the Orange Order in Ireland. Around 1786 Swan married Grace, daughter of Lieutenant-general Sir Eyre Coote, commander-in-chief in India; she predeceased him 22 December 1828. On 18 February 1830, he married Susannah Benfair in London. Living latterly in Holloway, London, he died in England on 12 January 1837 and was buried in the church of St Mary, Islington."
The following biographical sketch of Sir Henry Charles Sirr is taken from the Dictionary of Irish Biography -
Henry Charles Sirr (1764–1841), Town Major of Dublin, was born 25 November 1764, possibly in Dublin Castle, as his father, Joseph Sirr (1715–99), was then Town Major and housed there. His mother was Elizabeth Hall (1730–1790) from Skelton Castle in Cleveland, Yorkshire. Joseph Sirr, son of a silk merchant, joined the Royal Regiment aged about 15, was promoted to Lieutenant (1734), made Equerry to the Prince of Wales, and joined the 18th Royal Regiment of Ireland as Ensign (1742). Promoted to Lieutenant (1745), he exchanged into the 10th Foot (1756), and became a Captain in the 83rd Foot (1758). He came to Ireland in 1759 and was appointed Town Major of Dublin (1761–68). He also held other influential positions such as Pratique Master of the port, High Sheriff of Co. Dublin (1770), Deputy Judge Advocate, and Inspector of the Royal Hibernian Military School. In 1773 he was Junior Grand Warden of the Freemasons of Ireland, and in 1774 was elevated to Senior Warden. During the 1790s he had to resign most of these positions owing to failing eyesight. He died at his son's home in Camden St. on 10 November 1799 and was laid to rest in the Sirr–Minchin grave at St Werburgh's.
Henry Sirr was the eldest surviving son among six children, four of whom died in 1771; his sister later married the wine merchant Humphrey Charles Minchin (1750–1830). He attended Oswald's school at Dapping's Lane, and on 4 April 1778 joined the 68th Regiment of Foot, becoming Ensign on 6 June, and Lieutenant on 8 March 1780. After a posting in Munster, when he probably learned Irish (which was to prove very useful in his later career), his regiment was sent to lift the siege of Gibraltar in 1782. He became ADC to General George Eliott, a brother of his paternal aunt's husband. He may have met Lord Edward FitzGerald on his visit to the Rock in May 1787. On 21 July 1784 he was elevated to the degree of Master Mason in Lodge 441 in the 38th Regiment of Foot at Stafford, and in 1790 helped establish a lodge in his own regiment. In 1791 his regiment left Gibraltar, and he resigned his commission with the rank of Captain in 1792. He became a wholesale wine merchant and in 1797 was trading from his residence at 35 French St. (latterly Upper Mercer Street), Dublin.
His life as a respectable merchant was transformed by the rise in political agitation. In 1793 he filled the vacancy of James Napper Tandy on Dublin Corporation, having been nominated by the Holy Trinity Guild of Merchants. For several years he represented the Guild on the Common Council. Late in 1796, with the threat of a French invasion growing, he joined a yeomanry corps, the Stephen's Green Light Infantry, and shortly after became its Adjutant. On 4 January 1797 he formed a defensive association in his neighbourhood, the "French Street Association", with Minchin and his father. In November 1796 he became Deputy Town Major of the garrison of Dublin, in effect the capital's Chief of Police, and in 1797 moved his family to 77 Dame St., opposite Dublin Castle. He joined the Orange Order in 1798, forging important connections among prominent members of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, established in Dublin that year. For the next eight years he was forced to move his family no less than six times, possibly due to personal danger. Eventually he was given an official lodging inside the Palace Street gate of Dublin castle.
Running his network of informers and spies from his office in Exchange Alley, Sirr built up an unrivalled knowledge of Dublin radicals. He personally arrested many rebel leaders and came to embody the repression of radicalism. On 12 March 1798 he led the devastating swoop on a United Irish meeting at the house of Oliver Bond, arresting sixteen leaders of the Leinster Directory and seizing their papers. The hiding place of the only remaining leader at large, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was finally discovered and raided on 19 May by Sirr, Major William Swan, and Captain Daniel Ryan, all Dublin Orangemen. During a fierce struggle Sirr shot Fitzgerald in the arm as he wielded a dagger, inflicting the wound which eventually killed him. Moving swiftly he searched the home of William Lawless on 21 May, arresting John and Henry Sheares. He passed on to the Castle a rebel proclamation in John Sheares's hand, which convinced the authorities that a rising was imminent. During the rebellion Sirr remained in Dublin, searching incessantly for rebels and arms, and arresting many suspects. His actions contributed significantly to the complete failure of the rebellion in Dublin, and on 10 November 1798 the king granted him the rank of Major in the Dragoons. On that occasion, Lord Castlereagh assured William Wickham that the King had "not a more faithful officer than Major Sirr in his service", as the government had employed him "on every occasion which called for great personal exertions, discretions and courage", exposing himself to "very imminent danger". However, on 14 July 1800 Sirr was obliged to petition the government for compensation for services rendered during the rebellion, and that November suffered the humiliation of seeing his bid for a Deputy Judge Advocacy refused. Further reverses were to follow.
On 8 September 1801 he confronted and arrested John Hevey, a brewer and tobacconist in Dublin, who on his release issued a writ against the Major for assault, battery, and false imprisonment, suing for £5,000. In 1798 Hevey, then a Yeoman, had undermined evidence provided by Sirr against an insurgent. The case of Hevey v. Sirr was heard before Lord Kilwarden on 17 May 1802 and roused much public interest. The plaintiff was defended by John Philpot Curran, Jonah Barrington, and Leonard MacNally, and Sirr's heavy-handed methods in 1798 were exposed, it being even alleged that he had taken from MacNally a silver cup inscribed ‘Erin go Bragh’. The jury found in Hevey's favour, and awarded costs of £150 against Sirr, which the Castle met. Sirr's reverse was celebrated in Dublin with bonfires and the unauthorised ringing of the bells of St Bride's, a testimony of his unpopularity. Seeking to reestablish his reputation, he concentrated his activities on capturing Michael Dwyer in Wicklow, and was only ever seen in public at the head of a troop of horsemen.
Though the authorities were disbelieving about the possibility of a rising in 1803, Sirr had engaged his staff in a flurry of activity as early as June. Part of his growing legend was that he could appear in two places at the same time, and R. R. Madden even referred to him as "the Irish Fouché". His most celebrated achievement was masterminding the complex pursuit of Robert Emmet after the failed insurrection of 23 July 1803. On 25 August he raided the home of Ann ‘Biddy’ Palmer at Harold's Cross, and overpowered and arrested Emmet. Sirr was then sent to raid the home of John Philpot Curran on 9 September, in the hope of finding incriminating correspondence between his daughterSarah and Emmet. He stormed into her bedroom, causing her distress and considerable embarrassment to Dublin Castle, as her father was not at home. Her sister Amelia burned most of the letters before Sirr's officers stopped her, though Sirr's son Joseph D'Arcy would later claim that "out of respect for the feelings of all parties concerned, the correspondence of the unhappy lovers was consigned to the flames" by his father. That night, flanked by Minchin and a yeoman, Sirr arrested Emmet's co-conspirator Thomas Russell at 28 Parliament St.
In 1807 Sirr helped draw up a petition from the Orange Lodge in Dublin opposing a Whig proposal that Catholics be admitted to senior army posts. In 1808 he was appointed Assistant Magistrate to the new Dublin Police, in effect its nominal chief. Though he retained his title as Town Major, most of the privileges of that office were transferred to the military office of Brigade Major. Porter, a fellow police magistrate, recalled how Dublin folklore of the early 1800s was rich with anecdotes of the hatred felt for "the Major", and concluded that Sirr had been overzealous and unwilling to delegate to subordinates. Strong criticism of his methods was voiced during the 1823 Irish police debate in the commons, but Sir Robert Peel defended him as "unswervingly loyal, religious, and humane".
Sirr was in the habit of retaining papers and personal items seized during his many raids and was also an inveterate collector of fossils, shells, coins, ancient Irish artefacts, and paintings. He joined the Dublin Society in 1808. He espoused the age's evangelism, and was close to the methodist sect of the wealthy La Touches, serving on the committee of the Hibernian Bible Society; he was also involved with the Mendicity Institute and the Association for Discountenancing Vice. In 1818 he helped found the Irish Society for Promoting Scriptural Education in the Irish Language, and through this connection became a friend of Archbishop Power Le Poer Trench. For his religious zeal, and his role in repressing the rebellion, he was mercilessly lampooned in Cox's Irish Magazine throughout 1810, particularly for his habit of preaching to Dublin hackney carriage drivers. He retired as Town Major in 1826 on full pay, and was allowed to retain his house in Dublin Castle. He also had a residence at Elm Park, Cullenswood, Ranelagh.
Despite his reputation as an agent of repression, Sirr held liberal political views. He admired Daniel O'Connell, supported Parliamentary reform, and in 1831 he spoke out at reform meetings and "moved resolutions of the most liberal tendency". In later years he was less active in Masonic affairs but frequented a club connected to the Benevolent Society of the Friendly Brothers of Saint Patrick. He died 7 January 1841 in his rooms in Dublin castle and was buried in St Werburgh's churchyard. He married (16 August 1792) Elizabeth D'Arcy, of Hydepark, Killucan, Co. Westmeath, in St Mary's church, Dublin; they had two sons and two daughters. An engraved portrait of Sirr by John Martyn is in the National Library of Ireland.
John Claudius Beresford (1766-1846) was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.From 1783 Beresford served as a Storekeeper for the port ofDublin, subsequently being appointed Inspector-General of Exports and Imports. He was elected to the Irish House of Commons in 1790, representing the Swords constituency, and in 1798 he was elected as member for theDublin City constituency.
Beresford was one of the leading opponents of the 1798 Rebellion, during which he commanded a troop of Yeomanry which engaged the rebels on numerous occasions. He also owned a riding school in Dublin, to which many rebels were taken to be tortured in order to extort information, Beresford was a partner in the Dublin bank Beresford and Company from 1793.
The private bank Beresford & Company, established in 1793, was one of four banks in Dublin in 1798. The bank merged with Ball & Company in 1810, the amalgamated entity remaining in business until taken over by the Northern Banking Company in 1888.
A similar 1798 period presentation prize sword was sold by the Adam’s Salerooms, Dublin 16th–19th April 2016 (lot 40). That prize sword, awarded by The Corporation of Limerick to Colonel Charles Vereker, who commanded the Limerick city militia during the decisive victory over French troops under the command of General Humbert at the battle of Collooney, 5 September 1798. The Vereker prize sword sold for €29,000 (€36,000 approx. including auctioneers fees) in 2016
