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Parnell at Cambridge: the education of an Irish nationalist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Ged Martin
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Extract

Parnell remains an enigma to historians. As a protestant and a landowner, he would seem to have had every reason to oppose the home rule movement and certainly little incentive to take an active part in it. Nor does it appear that he had any clearly developed policies in mind to be followed in an autonomous Ireland. One simple explanation is that Parnell was driven by a strong dislike of England, and in particular of its upper class political leadership. Yet until the age of nineteen, when he went to Cambridge, Parnell had spent only relatively brief periods among the English—and these mainly at small private schools. He was briefly at school in Somerset at the age of six, and in Derbyshire when he was eight. At the age of fifteen he was sent to a private tutor and from there entered Magdalene College, Cambridge in October 1865. There he remained until May 1869 when he failed to return from rustication imposed after he had been successfully sued for asasult in a local court.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 73 , March 1974 , pp. 72 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1974

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References

1 ‘On the face of it, he was a most unlikely nationalist’—Lyons, F.S.L., Parnell (Irish History Series, no. 3, Dundalk, 1963), p. 3 Google Scholar; O’Connor, T.P., Charles Stewart Parnell: a memory (London, n.d.), p. 20 Google Scholar; Norman, E.R., A history of modern Ireland (London, 1971), p. 199.Google Scholar Since this study was written, an article on ‘The political ideas of Parnell’, by Professor Lyons, has appeared in Hist. Jn., xvi (1973), pp 749–76.

2 Parnell, J.H., Charles Stewart Parnell: a memoir (London, 1916), pp 27–9, 47–52.Google Scholar Parnell was admitted as a pensioner (a student not holding a college award) on 1 July 1865 (Magdalene College, Cambridge, Old Library, Magd. Coll. Admission Register, no 3., Jul. 31, 1716 to Apr. 19, 1894, p. 336). I am grateful to the master and fellows for permission to publish material from the records of the college. I have also to thank many of them as colleagues for encouraging me to study the subject while I was a fellow.

3 Lyons, E.g., Parnell, p. 4 Google ScholarPubMed; Barry O’Brien, R., The life of Charles Stewart Parnell 1845–1891 (2 vols, London 1898), i, 41:Google Scholar ‘Parnell’s English training had undoubtedly something to do in the making of him, and if it did not make him very Irish, it certainly made him very anti-English’

4 O’Connor, , Parnell, p. 21.Google Scholar

5 For a sidelight on admissions procedures, see ‘Magdalene in the sixties’ in Magdalene College Magazine, i, (Mar. 1910), pp 65–6.

6 Everett, W., On the Cam: lectures on the University of Cambridge in England (London, 1866), p. 151.Google Scholar In a copy of this book in the library of the Cambridge Union Society (Y 30.12) these comments have marginal additions in faded pencil: ‘damnable’ and ‘beastly cheek’.

7 [ Sproston, Samuel], ‘Magdalene in the sixties’ in Magdalene College Magazine, 1 65–6, 103, 65, 103–4.Google Scholar

8 Of 189 undergraduates admitted during the calendar years 1860-69, the largest category (57) was, like Parnell himself, privately educated. 29 came from traditional grammar schools, 26 from Eton, 20 from Shrewsbury, 1 f’#om Harrow, and the remaining 46 mainly from other public schools, some of them new and not yet fashionable foundations,

9 Hawke, Lord, Recollections and reminiscences (London, 1924), p. 34.Google Scholar

10 O’Brien, R.B., Parnell, 1, 40–43 Google Scholar; Parnell, J.H., Parnell, pp 52–53.Google Scholar His sister, a less reliable witness, said that his Cambridge days were ‘boyishly happy’ ( Dickinson, Emily Monroe, A patriot’s mistake, being personal recollections of the Parnell family, by a daughter of the house (Dublin, 1905), p. 49.)Google Scholar In 1910, the writer A. C. Benson, then a fellow of Magdalene, attempted to place a memorial plaque in ParnelPs rooms. Several undergraduates objected, and the plaque was not erected until 1967. The question of the exact location of the rooms was re-opened in 1920, and it was about then that an undergraduate from Ulster insisted on moving out of them (Memorandum by Benson, A.C., 9 May 1910, displayed in Magdalene College Library; Letter in Magdalene College Magazine, 5 (1920), p. 123 Google Scholar; information from the late Mr F. R. F Scott).

11 ‘Magdalene in the sixties’, p. 106. Wirgman, A.T., Storm and sunshine in South Africa with some personal and historical reminiscences (London, 1922), pp 16–17 Google Scholar; Purnell, E.K., Magdalene College (London, 1904), pp 195–6.Google Scholar

12 O’Connor, , Parnell, pp 21, 22–3Google Scholar; note by Ramsey, A.S., Magdalene College Magazine, 10 (1936), p. 253.Google Scholar Ten cricket matches involving Magdalene were reported in the Cambridge Chronicle during Parnell’s time. He played twice, scoring o against Peterhouse on 7 June 1867, and 19 against Trinity Hall on 3 May 1869.

13 Magdalene College Boat Club membership book, kindly lent to me by MrJones, I.H., ‘Magdalene in the sixties’, p. 103.Google Scholar

14 Dickinson, E.M., A patriot’s mistake, pp 49–59 Google Scholar; Harrison, H., Parnell vindicated: the lifting of the veil (London, 1931), pp 430–36Google Scholar; Ervine, St John, Parnell (London, 1925), pp 69–72.Google Scholar The story is also accepted by Abel, Jules, The Parnell tragedy (London, 1966), pp 21–22.Google Scholar

15 H. T. Parnell to master of Magdalene, 22 Feb. 1906 (Magdalene College Archives, bundle ‘C.S. Parnell 1906’).

16 H. T. Parnell to master of Magdalene, 27 Feb. 1906. There is no copy of Donaldson’s reply in the collection. Purnell was a house-master at Wellington, Donaldson had been one at Eton. For an example of confusion between Purnell and Parnell, see cricket report in Cambridge Chronicle, 8 May 1869. Henry Parnell continued to defend his theory of mistaken identity, arguing that Parnell was ‘a common name in England’ and ‘there might be half a dozen men of the same name at different colleges at the same time’ Actually there were only nine Parnells at the university in the whole century.

17 The letters were published in the Daily News, 6 Mar. 1906, headed ‘A Parnell mystery’. The letter from Donaldson to Parnell, 25 Feb. 1906, was apparently edited to remove the reference to Purnell. Newton’s letter to Donaldson, 25 Feb. 1906, also seems to have been edited. In an undated memorandum, Newton urged Donaldson to instruct Henry Parnell to ‘publish the whole & that he will not like to do!’ It had presumably contained unfavourable comments which were omitted. Peskett’s letter was dated 24 Feb. 1906. The president in Magdalene is the equivalent of vice-master.

18 Clark to Donaldson, 8 Mar. 1906 (Magdalene College Archives).

19 Henry ParnelPs letter of 27 Feb., and his letter in Daily News, 6 Mar. 1906. Avondale had been left to Charles, the second son, in 1859 m expectation that John, the eldest, would benefit from Howard’s will.

20 The Annual Reports of the Cambridge Union, 1865–1869, contain membership lists and details of debates. Here again Emily Dickinson’s reference to her brother’s enjoying ‘debating clubs’ seems wide of the mark (A patriot’s mistake, p. 50).

21 Cf. F. S. L. Lyons, op. cit., p. 4.

22 The account which follows is based on reports of the court case in Cambridge Independent Press and Cambridge Chronicle, 22 May 1869. The former seems more reliable. For a longer account of the affair, see Magdalene College Magazine and Record, n.s., 1969–70, pp 10–13.

23 Hamilton claimed to be a merchant of Harston, Cambridgeshire, who dealt in manure. Attempts to trace him in local directories and in census and land tax returns in the Cambridgeshire Record Office suggest that he was a transient figure. Davitt, who seems to have had the story from Parnell, called the two men ‘drunken drovers’. ( Davitt, , Fall of feudalism, p. 107).Google Scholar

24 Robert Bentley died a year later. ParnelPs behaviour may perhaps be explained as anxiety to protect a weak companion. This seems as plausible as Henry Parnell’s suggestion that his brother had suffered a nervous attack. (Daily News, 6 Mar. 1906)

25 Hamilton’s solicitor, quoted in Cambridge Chronicle, 22 May 1869.

26 Ibid. The reference to ‘hosts of friends’ seems to have been a reporter’s gloss on a demonstration of college solidarity.

27 ‘It was a most unfortunate thing that these young gentlemen should hire a fly to go to the station for the sole purpose of taking wine ; he did not say there was any moral turpitude in the act, but had they not committed this indiscretion then they would have escaped this unfortunate occurrence’ (Cambridge Independent Press, 22 May 1869).

28 Magdalene College, Old Library, College Orders and Memoranda, 1781–1906, entry for 26 May 1869, f. 221. Of five disciplinary offences dealt with by college meetings between 1862 and 1869, only one was treated more mildly (ibid., ff 197, 200, 206, 209, 216).

29 E.g. Gill’s account in O’Brien, i, 43; Purnell, E.K., Magdalene College, p. 196 Google Scholar; letters of Newton and Peskett, Daily News, 6 Mar. 1906; H. T. Parnell to master of Magdalene, 22 Feb. 1906 (Magdalene College Archives).

30 ‘Magdalene in the sixties’, pp 105–106; Parnell, J.H., p. 53.Google Scholar

31 H. T. Parnell to master of Magdalene, 22 Feb. 1906. But according to his evidence, Parnell did pay a brief visit to Wicklow between the fight and the court case. ‘Caution money ’ is a sum deposited by a student to ensure a college against any default on his debts.

32 Evidence of Carter, P.C., Cambridge Independent Press, 22 May 1869.Google Scholar

33 Davitt, Michael, Fall offeudalism, p. 107.Google Scholar