Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/584

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kindle war between England and Scotland; and, in particular, of raising an army in Ireland, nominally to fight the Scots, but really to crush the English, and enable the King to rule without Parliament and without the law. In the following March, according to Clarendon, "a committee was come from the Parliament in Ireland to solicit matters concerning that kingdom. This committee (most of them being Papists, and the principal actors since in the rebellion) was received with great kindness, and upon the matter added to the committee for the prosecution of the Earl of Strafford." The impeachment trial began on the 22nd of March and continued until the 14th April, the prosecution being urged with implacable hostility by Pym and other popular leaders of the House of Commons, while Strafford defended himself on every point with great ability. Ultimately it was resolved to abandon the impeachment trial and to proceed by Bill of Attainder. The Bill passed finally in the Commons on the 21st of April, by a vote of 204 to 59, and in the House of Lords, on the 8th of May, by 26 votes to 19. Popular feeling ran very high against the Earl, and the King, though he had assured Strafford that his life should be spared, abandoned him when it came to the point, and on the 10th signed the commission for giving the royal assent to the Bill. The Earl was beheaded on Tower Hill, 12th May 1641, and met his death with dignity and composure. He was 48 years of age. In private life the Earl of Strafford was a devoted husband and father, a true friend and a man of high cultivation and feeling. Many of his faults of temper arose from his shattered health, the result of agonizing accessions of inherited gout. His personal habits were naturally simple, but to sustain the honour of the King "before the eyes of a wild and rude people," he maintained almost regal magnificence, with a retinue of fifty servants and a body-guard of one hundred horse splendidly mounted and accoutred. The ruins of a princely mansion, begun by him, but never completed, may still be seen near Naas. He was long known in the traditions of the Irish peasantry as "Black Tom." 175 345 345*

Whaley, Thomas, sometimes known as "Buck Whaley," or "Jerusalem Whaley," a noted Dublin character, was born in Ireland in 1766. His father acquired the sobriquet of "Burn-Chapel Whaley," on account of his severities during the Insurrection of 1798. Young Whaley was elected member of Parliament for Newcastle, County of Down, in 1785, before he was of age, which was not then unusual in Ireland, and represented the borough until 1790. He sat for Enniscorthy from 1797 to June 1800. He was called "Jerusalem Whaley," in consequence of winning a wager, said to have been for £20,000, that he would walk (except where a sea passage was unavoidable) to Jerusalem, play ball against its walls, and return within twelve months. He started on 22nd September 1788, and reached home in the following June. He is said once to have leaped his horse over a stage-coach placed beneath the windows of his mansion (now the Catholic University) in Stephen's-green. In June 1800 he married a daughter of the first Baron Cloncurry. He was one of those bought over by the opposition stock-purse to vote against the Union, but, according to Barrington, was bought back by Castlereagh. He died 2nd November 1800, aged about 34. 23 76 87

Whalley, John, a notorious quack and astrologer, who flourished in Dublin in the latter part of the 17th century, was born 29th April 1653. He learned the trade of shoemaking; but found the compiling of prophetic almanacks, compounding quack medicines, and practising necromancy more profitable employments. He rendered himself peculiarly obnoxious to the Catholic Irish by his fanatical railings against them and their religion; and during James II.'s occupation of Dublin, consulted his safety by retiring to England. At the conclusion of the war Whalley returned to Ireland, and resumed his profession and the publication of almanacks and astrological pamphlets, at the "Blew Posts, next door to the Wheel of Fortune, on the west side of St. Stephen's-green," at the "Blew Ball", Arundal-court, just without St. Nicholas'-gate," and elsewhere in Dublin. He carried on a perpetual warfare with rival astrologers and almanack compilers in the city. In 17 14 he started a newspaper, styled Whalley's News-Letter. "The Doctor," as he styled himself, died 17th January 1724, aged 70. His widow continued to publish almanacks for some years in Bell-alley, off Golden-lane. 110

Whately, Richard, Archbishop of Dublin, was born in Cavendish-square, London, 1st February 1787. This learned writer and political philosopher was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin in 1831. "Dr. Whately," wrote the Bishop of Llandaff, "accepted the arduous station proposed to him, purely, I believe, from public spirit and a sense of duty. Wealth, honour, and power, and title, had no charms for him. He has great energy and intrepidity—a hardihood which sustains him against obloquy, when he knows he is discharging

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