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also be consulted in Harris's Jlibernica^ (Dublin, 1 747). The last-mentioned edition* is especially valuable on account of Harris's appendix, giving a list of " such English and Welsh adventurers as assisted in the reduction of Ireland during the first sixteen years of the invasion." Eegan's narrative breaks oflF abruptly. It is probably but a fragment of a longer manuscript. ^ '^*
Bieid, James Seaton, D.D,, a Presby- terian clergyman, was born at Lurgan in 1798. He ministered to congregations at Donegore and Carrickfergus from 181 8 to 1837. For the next four years he was Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Belfast Institute, and from 1841 to 1851 Professor of Ecclesiastical and Civil His- tory in the University of Glasgow. He died near Edinburgh, 2nd April 1 851, aged 52. He was the author of a History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, pub- lished in 1834, afterwards continued to the year 1853 by Dr. Killen. For par- ticvdars of the controversy between Dr. Reid and Dr. Elrington regarding conflict- ing statements in the History and Dr. Elrington's Life of Ussher, see Notes and Queries, 3rd Series. ^ '■»* -54
Beynolds, Thomas, the principal informer against the United Irishmen in 1798, was born in Dublin 12th March 1 77 1 . [We take the following particulars mainly from his Life, by his son, 2 vols. London, 1839 — ^ work containing much interesting and valuable information re- garding the times of which it treats.] He appears to have belonged to a wealthy Catholic family, and to have been educated at a Jesuit College in Flanders. During subsequent visits to the Continent he wit- nessed some of the principal events of the French Revolution. Upon his marriage to a sister of Wolfe Tone's wife, in 1 794, he estimated his property at £20,000, apart from business. Reynolds settled at Kilkea Castle, County of Kildare, which he held on lease from the Duke of Leinster. He was a member of the Catholic Convention of 1 792 ; but retired with the Earl of Fingall when more cautious counsels began to prevail, and soon afterwards became a Protestant. At the solicitation of Lord Edward FitzGerald, he joined the United Irishmen, was appointed treasurer of his district, and colonel of an insurgent regi- ment. Only then, as he states, fully in- structed as to the designs of the t^nited Irishmen, and overcome at the thought of the horrors impending over the country, he in March 1798 gave the informations that led to the arrest of the Leinster Di- rectory. He then retired to Kilkea. During the Insurrection the Government troops,
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for no assigned reason, occupied and wrecked the castle. He computed his losses at ;£ 19,7 60. His son says: " It has been my father's lot since then to witness the ravages of war in the Peninsula, where Spaniards, French, Portuguese, and Eng- lish, with their German auxiliaries, men trained to rapine, alternately plundered and devastated the country ; but in aU that disorder of which he was an eye-wit- ness during six years, he has frequently assured me that he never saw such cool- blooded, wanton, useless destruction as was committed [by the King's troops] at Kilkea and the surroimding country." Some attempts are said to have been made to assassinate him; and at length, harassed and worn out, he unreservedly went over to the government side, was lodged in the Castle, and openly gave evi- dence. In October 1798 the freedom of the city of Dublin was presented to him. His son feelingly descants upon the in- gratitude with which he was treated by Government, the lukewarmness of his friends, and the virulence of his enemies and political opponents. A yearly pension of £1,000 for his life and the Uves of his sons was settled upon him. He was for a time Postmaster at Lisbon, and was sent as Consul to Iceland. His sons also received official appointments. Eevnolds spent the last few years of his life on the Continent. His death in Paris, on i8th August 1836, at the age of 65, is described as having been truly edifying. Letters from the Earl of Chichester, the Marquis of Camden, and other persons of note testify to the high appreciation in which he was held. •* 33' Rice, Thomas Spring, Lord Mont- eagle, a prominent politican, was born in Limerick, 8th February 1790. He was educated at Cambridge, and studied for the Bar. In 1820 he entered Parliament for Limerick, which he continued to re- present in the Whig interest until the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, when he was returned for Cambridge. He sat for that borough until his elevation to the peerage in 1839, lending his support to nearly every liberal measure. He was Under-Secretary for the Home Department in 1827; Secretary of the Treasury from November 1830 to June 1834; Secretary of the Colonies, and a Privy-Councillor, 1834 ; and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839, when he was appointed Comptroller of the Exchequer, and raised to the peerage. He never occupied a more prominent place in the public mind than in 1834, when, as an Irishman, he may be said to have led the opposition to O'Connell's motion favouring the Repeal of 451
