self colonel of the so-called Kildare regiment, but induced Reynolds to take his place. The latter alleges that three months after his appointment he learned the intention of the conspirators to begin the rising by murdering eighty leading noblemen and dignitaries, and that to save their lives he gave the authorities information which led to the arrest, on 12 March 1798, at Oliver Bond's house, of the Leinster provincial committee. He does not state whether Fitzgerald was cognisant of the intended murders, but anxious for his escape he had on the 11th given him a vague warning and urged flight, whereupon Fitzgerald expressed a desire to go to France that he might induce Talleyrand to hasten the invasion. Owing perhaps to Reynolds's warning, Fitzgerald was not at Bond's meeting; but being told there was no warrant against himself was about to enter his own house, then being searched by the police, when Tony, on the look-out, gave him timely notice. So far from distrusting Reynolds, Fitzgerald, while in concealment, sent for him on the 14th and 15th, the first time to propose taking refuge in Kilkee Castle, the property of the Duke of Leinster, then occupied by Reynolds. Reynolds objected to the plan as unsafe, and next day took him fifty guineas and a case of pocket pistols. Reynolds clearly gave no information of these interviews, and Lord-chancellor Clare, if not other members of the Irish government, was also desirous of an escape. Fitzgerald, however, remained in or near Dublin, paid two secret visits, once in female attire, to his wife, who had prudently removed from Leinster House, walked along the canal at night, and actively continued preparations for a rising fixed for 23 May. The authorities were therefore obliged in self-defence to take more serious steps for his apprehension, and on 11 May they offered a reward of 1,000l. Madden gives reasons for thinking that the F. H. or J. H. (the first initial was indistinctly written in the original document from which he copied the entry) to whom on 20 June the sum was paid, was John Hughes, a Belfast bookseller, one of Fitzgerald's so-called body-guard. However this may be, the authorities knew that on the 19th he would be at Murphy's, a feather dealer. Fitzgerald, having dined, was lying with his coat off on a bed upstairs, and Murphy was asking him to come down to tea, when Major Swan and Ryan mounted the stairs and entered the room. After a desperate struggle, in which Ryan was mortally wounded, Fitzgerald was captured. Shot in the right arm by Major Sirr, who had also entered the room, his wound was pronounced free from danger, whereupon he said, 'I am sorry for it.' He was taken first to the castle and then to Newgate. Inflammation set in; his brother Henry and his aunt (Lady Louisa Conolly) were allowed to see him in his last moments, and on 4 June he expired. His remains were interred in St. Werburgh Church, Dublin, and Sirr, forty-three years later, was buried a few paces off in the churchyard. A bill of attainder was passed against Fitzgerald, but the government allowed his Kilrush estate, worth about 700l. a year, to be bought by Ogilvie at the price of the mortgage, 10,400l., and in 1819 the attainder was repealed. Fitzgerald was of small stature (Reynolds says 5 feet 5 inches, Murphy 5 feet 7 inches), and Moore, who once saw him in 1797, speaks of his peculiar dress, elastic gait, healthy complexion, and the soft expression given to his eyes by long dark eyelashes. He left three children: Edward Fox (1794-1863), an officer in the army; Pamela, wife of General Sir Guy Campbell; and Lucy Louisa, wife of Captain G. F. Lyon, R.N.
[Moore's Life of Lord E. Fitzgerald; Life of Thomas Reynolds; Madden's United Irishmen; Teeling's Personal Narrative of the Irish Rebellion.]
FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1770?-1807), Irish insurgent leader, born at Newpark, co. Wexford, about 1770, was a country gentleman of considerable means. At the breaking out of the insurrection in 1798 he was confined in Wexford gaol on suspicion, but on being released by the populace, commanded in some of the engagements that took place in different parts of the county during the occupation of the town, exhibiting, it is said, far better generalship than the commander-in-chief, Bagenal Beauchamp Harvey [q. v.] Madden commends his humanity to the prisoners that fell into his hands at Gorey. At the battle of Arklow he commanded the Shemalier gunsmen. He afterwards joined in the expedition against Hacketstown, and surrendered upon terms to General Wilford in the middle of July. With Garrett, Byrne, and others he was detained in custody in Dublin until the ensuing year, when he was permitted to reside in England. He was, however, re-arrested on 25 March 1800, imprisoned for a while, and then allowed to retire to Hamburg, where he died in 1807. In person Fitzgerald is described as a 'handsome, finely formed man;' he was besides a speaker of great eloquence.
[Madden's United Irishmen; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog. pp. 194-5.]
FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1809–1883), poet and translator, born at Bredfield House, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, on 31 March
