Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T14:48:03.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

APPENDIX: BIOGRAPHIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Fottrell was born on 6 February 1849 and educated at Belvedere College and the Catholic University, where he was president of the Literary and Historical Society. After training as a solicitor at the King's Inn Law School from 1865, he joined his father's firm of George D. Fottrell & Sons at 46 Fleet Street, Dublin. In 1872, he married Mary Watson, with whom he had one son and five daughters. He quickly established himself within Dublin's emerging Catholic professional class at a time when its influence over Irish public affairs was growing. Recent study of the Catholic elite of this period has demonstrated the importance of the university question to its ‘cultural and political awakening’. In educational matters, Fottrell was a secularist who wished to develop what he described as ‘a free and independent lay Catholic public opinion’. He was critical of reforms that tended to tighten the grip of ecclesiastical schools upon Catholic higher education and argued that sufficient funding for the Catholic University in Dublin was necessary to enable its graduates to compete on an equal footing with the predominately Protestant graduates of Dublin University. Alongside T.D. Sullivan and John Dillon, Fottrell took a leading role in the Catholic University's Bono Club, which aimed to create common ground between the ecclesiastical establishment and the educated laity, and Fottrell was assured by Cardinal Newman that

You will be doing the greatest possible benefit to the Catholic cause all over the world, if you succeed in making the University a middle station at which clergy and laity can meet, so as to learn to understand and to yield to each other.

In 1872, Fottrell tried to formulate reforms that might prove acceptable to both Protestant and Catholic opinion by proposing two universities for Ireland – the Queen's University and an amalgamation of Trinity College, Dublin and the Catholic University. He argued that Gladstone's University Education Bill, which proposed a single university for Ireland, would fatally damage the higher education of Catholics because it would denude the Catholic University of students. In 1879, he advised Gladstone to provide endowments for lay professorships in the Catholic University so as to enable Catholic students to escape the influence of ecclesiastical schools. Fottrell pursued his interest in Irish university education for many years, becoming an organizer of the Catholic Lay Committee of 1903 and publishing an influential tract on the subject two years later.

Type
Biographies
Information
Royal Historical Society Camden Fifth Series , Volume 33 , December 2008 , pp. 321 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 2008

George Drevar Fottrell

Fottrell was born on 6 February 1849 and educated at Belvedere College and the Catholic University, where he was president of the Literary and Historical Society.Footnote 1 After training as a solicitor at the King's Inn Law School from 1865, he joined his father's firm of George D. Fottrell & Sons at 46 Fleet Street, Dublin. In 1872, he married Mary Watson, with whom he had one son and five daughters. He quickly established himself within Dublin's emerging Catholic professional class at a time when its influence over Irish public affairs was growing. Recent study of the Catholic elite of this period has demonstrated the importance of the university question to its ‘cultural and political awakening’. In educational matters, Fottrell was a secularist who wished to develop what he described as ‘a free and independent lay Catholic public opinion’. He was critical of reforms that tended to tighten the grip of ecclesiastical schools upon Catholic higher education and argued that sufficient funding for the Catholic University in Dublin was necessary to enable its graduates to compete on an equal footing with the predominately Protestant graduates of Dublin University.Footnote 2 Alongside T.D. Sullivan and John Dillon, Fottrell took a leading role in the Catholic University's Bono Club, which aimed to create common ground between the ecclesiastical establishment and the educated laity, and Fottrell was assured by Cardinal Newman that

You will be doing the greatest possible benefit to the Catholic cause all over the world, if you succeed in making the University a middle station at which clergy and laity can meet, so as to learn to understand and to yield to each other.Footnote 3

In 1872, Fottrell tried to formulate reforms that might prove acceptable to both Protestant and Catholic opinion by proposing two universities for Ireland – the Queen's University and an amalgamation of Trinity College, Dublin and the Catholic University.Footnote 4 He argued that Gladstone's University Education Bill, which proposed a single university for Ireland, would fatally damage the higher education of Catholics because it would denude the Catholic University of students. In 1879, he advised Gladstone to provide endowments for lay professorships in the Catholic University so as to enable Catholic students to escape the influence of ecclesiastical schools. Fottrell pursued his interest in Irish university education for many years, becoming an organizer of the Catholic Lay Committee of 1903 and publishing an influential tract on the subject two years later.Footnote 5

During his early legal career, Fottrell built up a large practice that specialized in property transactions and developed personal relationships with a number of Irish nationalists, one of his clients being the veteran Fenian Charles Kickham. Having sat on the council of the Irish Home Rule League since 1874, Fottrell joined advanced nationalists such as Patrick Egan, Joseph Biggar, and Charles Stewart Parnell in Charles Russell's stormy but successful parliamentary campaign at Dundalk in 1880. He was a close friend of John Dillon, for whom he acted as solicitor and visited in prison in 1881 and 1888, and was one of a select group who met with Dillon and Parnell upon their release from Kilmainham Jail in May 1882.Footnote 6 Fottrell was also acquainted with Michael Davitt, on whose behalf he joined Charles Russell and James Bryce to mitigate the circumstances of his imprisonment and secure his release in 1882. While Fottrell claimed to be ‘wholly unconnected with the Land League’ and criticized the violent tactics to which some of its supporters resorted, he supported the campaign to improve conditions for tenant farmers. He believed that future peace and stability in Ireland could only be secured if a large class of peasant proprietors was created and argued that effective land purchase measures were therefore essential. In evidence to a select committee of the House of Lords he stated, ‘I think so long as the relation of landlord and tenant continues to be the almost universal relation in Ireland, you must have a state of unstable equilibrium in politics.’Footnote 7

Fottrell came to public prominence in August 1881 when he was appointed solicitor to the Irish Land Commission, which was established to adjudicate rent levels under the Land Act. However, his close connection to the leaders of the Land League made him an object of suspicion in governing circles. After dining at the Chief Secretary's Lodge in November 1881, Florence Arnold Forster, the daughter of the Chief Secretary, commented ‘He is said to be “smart”, but is certainly not an attractive young man – vulgar, I thought – “a snake in the grass” Father says, but this of course I had no means of judging.’Footnote 8 Fottrell's stock at Dublin Castle fell further when a pamphlet he had written and distributed under the auspices of the Land Commission came to the attention of the House of Lords. The pamphlet, How to be the Owner of Your Own Farm, consisted of a collection of articles from the Freeman's Journal and was reprinted at Fottrell's request for distribution to the sub-commissions. Forster was concerned that an official publication containing what he regarded as a partisan view of the land question would undermine landowners’ confidence in the Land Act and it was decided that the pamphlet should be withdrawn.Footnote 9

On 11 February 1882, Fottrell resigned but, in the ensuing parliamentary debate, Lord Randolph Churchill revealed that Fottrell had previously acted on behalf of Parnell in transacting the purchase of the Land League's newspaper United Ireland, a publication that was subsequently suppressed by the Government. Fottrell was referred to in a letter written by Richard Pigott, the previous owner of the business, as ‘the confidential solicitor of the Land League’, a charge that was refuted on Fottrell's behalf by Edmund Dwyer Gray.Footnote 10 Forster subsequently claimed that he had questioned Fottrell about his connection with the Land League before appointing him but had not been told of this transaction. This provoked a correspondence with Fottrell over the accuracy of this statement and Forster was forced to amend his account of events.Footnote 11

Although this incident was to cause lasting resentment, Fottrell continued to supply information on Irish affairs to leading Liberal politicians and published valuable guidelines on current land and transport legislation.Footnote 12 He returned to public service as Clerk of the Crown for the County and City of Dublin in October 1884, which required him to administer the court of assize and grand jury for criminal business and supervise the quarterly commissions of the Court of Queen's Bench. Fottrell held the post on a temporary basis until 1893, when he assumed the additional role of Clerk of the Peace on a permanent basis.Footnote 13 Meanwhile, he continued in private practice and transacted the first sale of land under the Land Purchase Act at Cookstown, Co. Tyrone in November 1885, with, as The Times commented, ‘a rapidity not very usual in legal transactions’.Footnote 14 Fottrell subsequently wrote a number of books and articles on the subject of land purchase,Footnote 15 provided John Dillon with a penetrating critique of the Land Bill of 1887, and advised on the resettlement of tenants evicted as a consequence of the Plan of Campaign. He also furnished Lord Spencer with valuable advice on the land question by tirelessly canvassing opinion among progressive landowners.Footnote 16 When the Liberals returned to power in September 1892, Fottrell was considered for the prestigious position of Judicial Land Commissioner. However, upon consulting John Redmond, the Chief Secretary discovered that, while the Parnellite leader regarded Fottrell as highly qualified, he did not consider him to be the best candidate for the post. Nevertheless, Fottrell continued to work on behalf of tenant farmers and, after giving evidence before the Evicted Tenants Commission, was appointed to the Royal Commission on Irish Land in 1897.Footnote 17

Fottrell was a valuable source of information on Irish politics for home rule Liberals concerned by the consequences of Unionist government for Ireland, as he continued to ‘test the views of men’ of different political camps. He was a guest at Althorp House on several occasions and continued to correspond with Lord Spencer for many years.Footnote 18 Fottrell remained on terms with both wings of the Irish Parliamentary Party after the Parnell split in 1891 and maintained a keen interest in home rule and the devolution of power within empires.Footnote 19 He tried to ensure that home rulers secured places within the Irish administration as, in 1908, when his brother was considered for a post at Dublin Castle, he reminded John Dillon that it would be useful to have such ‘a genuine friend of Irish nationality’ at the ‘centre of the web’. Similarly, in 1914, he warned John Redmond against allowing the recently established National Volunteers to pass ‘into the control of selfish, or narrow minded, or mischievous men’ who might frustrate the aims of the home rule party.Footnote 20

While Fottrell is unlikely to have welcomed the subsequent ascendance of Sinn Fein in Ireland, it was said that the new government appreciated ‘the enormous help which he gave in transforming the work of the [Central Criminal] Court’, and he remained prominent within the Irish legal establishment up until his death. He earned the respect of the Irish judiciary for his efficiency as an administrator and was well regarded by members of the legal profession, to whom he gave sound advice based on long experience. In 1919, he was created a KCB in recognition of his services to the Crown. Fottrell was greatly interested in music and closely followed the fortunes of the Feis Ceoil as he campaigned for the provision of a concert hall for Dublin. A member of the Reform Club, the St Stephen's Green Club, Dublin, and the Royal Irish Yacht Club, Kingstown, he was sufficiently well known in Dublin society to feature in the ‘Cyclops’ and ‘Circe’ episodes of James Joyce's Ulysses.Footnote 21 Sir George Fottrell died on 1 February 1925.Footnote 22

Robert George Crookshank Hamilton

Hamilton was born on 30 August 1836 at Bressay in the Shetland Isles, where his father, Rev. Zachary Macaulay Hamilton, was minister.Footnote 23 He was educated at University and King's College, Aberdeen. After obtaining an MA in 1855, he joined the War Office and was posted to the Crimea as a clerk in the commissariat department. He subsequently rose through the ranks of the civil service and served in the Office of Works, where he specialized in education and finance, and as accountant of the Board of Trade, where he reorganized the Board's financial department, before being appointed assistant-secretary in 1872. In 1878, Hamilton became Accountant-General of the Navy, where he clarified the process of naval book-keeping and, having served on the Earl of Carnarvon's Royal Commission on Colonial Defence in 1879, was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty in May 1882.Footnote 24 A few days later, he was offered the position of Under-Secretary of State for Ireland, following the assassination of Thomas Burke. Burke, an Irish Catholic who had spent his entire working life in Dublin Castle, had been the lynchpin of the Irish administration and a strong man was required to replace him. Gladstone recommended Hamilton who, as secretary to the Irish Civil Service Enquiry Committee, had investigated schemes for the reorganization of Dublin Castle in 1874. Hamilton was reluctant to go to Dublin and his acceptance of the post was later described by Lord Northbrook as ‘as fine an instance of public spirit I know’.Footnote 25

Hamilton's secondment was intended to last for six months, but in August 1882 it was extended at Spencer's request until 1 May 1883. By March, however, Hamilton was eager to return to Whitehall and, so it was rumoured, would not remain in Dublin ‘at any price’. Spencer was aware of the paucity of administrative talent within Irish government departments and the reluctance of first-class civil servants to leave London. He regarded Hamilton's ‘balanced judgment and excellent commonsense’ as indispensable and anticipated that his loss would greatly disrupt his administration.Footnote 26 Spencer therefore secured Northbrook's agreement for Hamilton to become the permanent head of the civil administration in Ireland, and persuaded the Treasury to substantially improve the under-secretary's salary.Footnote 27 Although the position was inferior in rank to Hamilton's previous position, he was in urgent need of funds to educate his seven children and, upon being assured that Spencer would continue to act as Viceroy, he accepted the post.Footnote 28

Over the next two years, Hamilton's services were highly valued by Spencer, who considered him cool and reliable under pressure and believed that his balanced judgment was informed by sound common sense. Hamilton was described by Lord Lingen as ‘the most all-round man’ he knew, and by Sir Thomas Farrer as ‘one of the ablest, if not the ablest, administrator I have met with during a life spent in the public service’. Hamilton was rewarded with a CB in April 1883 and a KCB in January 1884.Footnote 29 In spite of being manoeuvred from office in November 1886, at which point he would have preferred retirement, Hamilton threw himself into his new duties as Governor of Tasmania.Footnote 30 In the course of his term as governor (11 March 1887–30 November 1892), he encouraged industrial development, public works, and the investment of British capital in the colony. As President of the Royal Society of Tasmania, he fostered the advancement of science and public education and helped to found the University of Tasmania. An enthusiast of Australian federation, he presided over the Federal Council of Australasia at Hobart in 1887, and even considered entering Australian politics.Footnote 31 While abroad, Hamilton maintained his close interest in Irish affairs and remained convinced that Liberal policies would ‘ultimately triumph’ and that home rule was ‘perfectly assured’. In November 1891, he offered to assist in the development of Liberal policy and, if circumstances allowed, to resume his post as Irish Under-Secretary.Footnote 32 Upon his return to England, he abandoned a plan to stand for Parliament and placed himself at the disposal of the Liberal ministry. He sat upon commissions of inquiry into the working of the constitution of Dominica and the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland; and, having been considered for the post of Deputy Master of the Mint, he was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Customs in 1894. Sir Robert Hamilton died in London at the age of 58 on 22 April 1895, and was buried in Richmond, Surrey.Footnote 33

Edward George Jenkinson

Jenkinson was born in 1836, the eldest son of Rev. J.S. Jenkinson, Vicar of Battersea, and Harriet Grey, daughter of Sir George Grey and sister of the future Home Secretary, to whom, Lord Spencer was to remark, Jenkinson bore a strong resemblance.Footnote 34 He was educated at Harrow School and Haileybury College and, in 1856, entered the service of the East India Company and was posted to Benares in northern India as an assistant magistrate. On the outbreak of the Sepoy rebellion in June 1857, Jenkinson raised a force of 150 English and Indian horsemen, which he led into action at Chanda and Amereepur under the direction of Brigadier General Franks. He served on the staff of General Lugard and was awarded the Indian Mutiny medal. In 1865, he married Annabella, daughter of Captain Thomas Monck Mason RN, with whom he had three sons.Footnote 35 He subsequently enjoyed success as a magistrate, collector, and settlement officer at Mirzapore, Farukabad, and Serahrunpore where he settled numerous difficult land claims, supervised improvements to sanitary conditions, and suppressed dacoits. He served as Commissioner of Revenue and Circuit in the Jhansi division of Oudh and, in January 1879, was appointed Commissioner of the Fyzabad division.Footnote 36

After returning to England in July 1879, Jenkinson retired from the Indian service due to ill health and took up a position as private secretary to his cousin Lord Northbrook, the First Lord of the Admiralty, with responsibility for non-naval matters. Having followed Irish politics closely, Jenkinson next secured the post of private secretary to the new Irish Viceroy, Lord Spencer, in May 1882. He witnessed the Phoenix Park murders and distinguished himself during the crisis that followed, chairing an important committee of inquiry into police organization.Footnote 37 In August 1882, a vacancy for the recently created post of Assistant Under-Secretary for Police and Crime arose. Although Spencer was concerned about the political effect of appointing an ‘Indian’ to the post, Jenkinson's varied experience as an administrator and his liberal outlook meant that he was preferred to more experienced candidates.Footnote 38 He assumed responsibility for the administration of the Irish police and rapidly improved the Constabulary's crime detection and intelligence capabilities by establishing a Crime Special Branch. This enabled the authorities to prosecute suspected members of republican and agrarian secret societies that had been active during the Irish Land War, including the ‘Invincibles’ who had assassinated the Irish Chief and Under Secretaries in Dublin. Armed with the wide-ranging and severe powers of the Crimes Act, the Irish police had, by mid-1883, suppressed all significant opposition to the law in Ireland.Footnote 39 This has been described as ‘one of the most distinct British successes of the later nineteenth century’, and Spencer fully acknowledged the role that Jenkinson had played in this, telling him in 1885, ‘from the first moment of our landing until the end of my administration, you contributed as much, if not more than anyone to whatever success attended my efforts to make the law respected’.Footnote 40

In March 1883, Jenkinson was seconded to the Home Office to reinforce security measures against Fenian dynamite attacks in Great Britain and to assist in the establishment of a new Irish Bureau within the Metropolitan Police CID, the origin of what later became the Special Branch. On his return to Dublin, he assumed responsibility for all anti-Fenian operations in Ireland, America, and the Continent and became known as ‘the soul and centre of what may be called the Spy system of the Empire’.Footnote 41 In March 1884, Jenkinson went back to the Home Office to co-ordinate anti-Fenian operations by the Irish and British police and to reorganize the CID at Scotland Yard – tasks for which, as the Home Secretary put it, ‘there was no other man living except Jenkinson who could take the responsibility’. Although he was exceptionally well paid, Jenkinson became disillusioned as friction with the London Metropolitan Police and the Home Secretary progressively increased.Footnote 42 While he achieved some success against the dynamitards in 1883–1884, he was given neither nominal authority nor a permanent position within the Home Office. In recognition of the ‘singular success’ of his ‘very exceptional’ services in Ireland, however, Jenkinson was awarded a CB in January 1884 and a KCB in June 1888.Footnote 43

After leaving government service in January 1887, Jenkinson joined the Board of the Manchester Ship Canal Company and became Chairman of its Finance Committee in 1894.Footnote 44 During this time he was plagued by controversies arising from his secret service work. In November 1887, the Birmingham Watch Committee investigated charges that he had manufactured evidence against John Daly in 1884.Footnote 45 It was also alleged that he had employed agents provocateurs in the ‘Jubilee Plot’ of 1886 and is thought to have been active in collecting evidence in favour of Parnell during the Special Commission investigations of 1888–1890.Footnote 46 In the midst of rumours that he was to return to head the secret service, Jenkinson briefly pursued a political career but failed to secure the parliamentary seat of East Grinstead at the general election of 1892.Footnote 47 The following year, he was examined as a witness in a court case involving an alleged filibuster plot to annex territory in Baja California during his time as the Chairman of the Mexican Land and Colonization Company.Footnote 48 Exonerated of any involvement in the plot, he went on to have a long and successful career as a company director and trustee and ended his career as Chairman of the Daimler Motor Company in April 1906.Footnote 49 A veteran swordsman, he was President of the Epee Club of London from 1900 and died on 1 March 1919.Footnote 50

John Poyntz Spencer, fifth Earl Spencer (1835–1910)

While Earl Spencer served twice as Viceroy of Ireland (1868–1874, 1882–1885) and sat in four Liberal Cabinets as Lord President (1880–1882, 1886), Viceroy (1882–1885), and First Lord of the Admiralty (1892–1894, 1894–1895), a full biography has not yet been written of this important politician and administrator. Readers are therefore directed to an extensive survey of his career and correspondence in Peter Gordon (ed.), The Red Earl: the papers of the fifth Earl Spencer 1835–1910, 2 vols (Northamptonshire Record Society, 1981 and 1986) and Gordon's article in H.G.C. Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), LI, pp. 871–877.

References

1 See his Inaugural address delivered before the Literary and Historical Society of the Catholic University of Ireland, at its opening meeting, on Friday, 2nd December, 1870.

2 Paseta, Senia, Before the Revolution: nationalism, social change and Ireland's Catholic elite, 1879–1922 (Cork, 1999), p. 22Google Scholar; Fottrell to Gladstone, 21 July 1879, 15 January and 26 February 1873: GP, Add MS 44460, fos 276–277, Add MS 44437, fos 27–28, 246–247.

3 Larkin, Emmet, The Roman Catholic Church and the Emergence of the Modern Irish Political System, 1874–1878 (Washington, DC, 1996), pp. 167–168, 246Google Scholar; Dessain, C.S. (ed.), The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Cardinal Newman, XXVI (Oxford, 1974), pp. 393–394Google Scholar.

4 See his Letter Containing a Scheme of Irish University Reform Addressed to the Most Noble Marquis of Hartington, Chief Secretary of Ireland (Dublin, 1873), and Paseta, Before the Revolution, pp. 33–34.

5 Fottrell to Gladstone, 4 April 1879; 21 July 1879: GP, Add MS 44460, fos 221–224, 276–277. See also GD, IX, p. 427; Morrissey, Thomas J., Towards a National University: William Delany, SJ (1835–1924): an era of initiative in Irish education (Dublin, 1983), pp. 224–227Google Scholar; Fottrell, George, What is a National University? (Dublin, 1905)Google Scholar.

6 Comerford, R.V., Charles J. Kickham: a study in Irish nationalism and literature (Portmarnock, 1979), p. 176Google Scholar; Irish Times, 5 September 1874, p. 3; Freeman's Journal, 29 March 1880, p. 5; O'Donnell, F. Hugh, A History of the Irish Parliamentary Party, 2 vols (New York, 1910), I, p. 464Google Scholar. T.H. Burke to Fottrell, 17 May 1881; F.W.D. Mitchell to Fottrell, 24 July 1888: TCD, Dillon Papers, MSS 6800/44a, 6800/155a; Irish Times, 6 May 1882, p. 4.

7 Fottrell to Davitt, 10 February 1881, 5 May 1882: TCD, Davitt Papers, MSS 9346/468, 30/2552; The Times, 29 April 1882, p. 7; Land Law (Ireland): First Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords: PP 1882, XI, 1, p. 244.

8 Moody, T.W. and Hawkins, R.A.J., with Margaret Moody (eds), Florence Arnold-Forster's Irish Journal (Oxford, 1988), p. 314Google Scholar.

9 Warren, Allen, ‘Gladstone, land and social reconstruction in Ireland, 1881–1887’, Parliamentary History, 2 (1983), p. 113Google Scholar; Moody and Hawkins, Irish Journal, pp. 368–369, 374–375. Forster to Justice John O'Hagan, 7 February 1882; O'Hagan to Forster, 8 February 1882: Land Commission (Ireland) (Mr. Fottrell): PP 1882, LV, 301, pp. 1–2; The Times, 15 February 1882, p. 10. Fottrell confirmed that he had written the articles to the Select Committee on Land Law: PP 1882, XI, 1, p. 247.

10 Hansard, CCLXVI, cols 440–441, 468–470, 480, 790–794; CCLXVII, cols 1280–1282, 1292–1293. The transaction was later examined during the investigation of The Times’ allegations against Parnell: Special Commission Act, 1888: reprint of the shorthand notes of the speeches, proceedings and evidence taken before the Special Commission appointed under the above named Act, vol. 6, pp. 548–549.

11 Fottrell to Forster, 11, 14, and 17 February 1882; Henry Jephson to Fottrell, 13 and 16 February 1882: PP 1882, LV, 301, pp. 4–6; Hansard, CCLXVI, cols 441, 469, 790–794; Moody and Hawkins, Irish Journal, pp. 368, 374–375.

12 Journal (11 April 1886). Fottrell to Spencer, 2 September 1882; Fottrell to Hamilton, 28 September 1883: AP, Add MS 77152; and see his A.B.C. Guide to the Arrears Act, 1882 . . . for the use of Irish landlords and tenants (Dublin, 1882) and (with John Fottrell) Handbook of Law and Practice under the Irish Tramways Acts (Dublin, 1883).

13 Fottrell replaced Edward Geale at a salary of £1,500: CSO RP 1884/22365; Hansard, CCCIX, col. 297. The office was granted by letters patent and, while usually held for life, could be revoked at the Crown's pleasure. From 1877, clerkships of the Crown and of the Peace were amalgamated on the death or retirement of either official, the holder of the joint office becoming a civil servant appointed by the Lord Lieutenant: CSO RP 1893/769, 1893/8213, 1893/8929.

14 The Times, 11 November 1885, p. 7.

15 Land Purchase Tables (Dublin, 1886); A Practical Guide to the Land Purchase Acts (Ireland), 1870–1891 (Dublin, 1889); and ‘Land purchase in Ireland’, Nineteenth Century, 40 (November 1896), pp. 829–837.

16 John Dillon's diary (21 June 1887); Fottrell to Dillon, 22 January 1892: TCD, Dillon Papers, MSS 6587, 6819/10. Fottrell to Lord Spencer, 4 and 9 April and 4 June 1887, 12 July 1889, 26 June and 1 July 1891; Spencer to Fottrell, 28 June 1887: AP, Add MS 77152.

17 MacBride, Lawrence W., The Greening of Dublin Castle: the transformation of bureaucratic and judicial personnel in Ireland, 1892–1922 (Washington, DC, 1991), pp. 43–44Google Scholar; The Times, 6 December 1892, p. 6; 13 July 1897, p. 10.

18 Fottrell to Spencer, 4 December 1887 and memorandum of 25 January 1888; and see Fottrell to Spencer, 31 July 1887, 2 February, 18 and 19 June, and 29 November 1888, 14 January 1890, 31 March and 1 December 1892, 27 August 1894, 7 September and 6 November 1903, 15 October 1904: AP, Add MS 77152.

19 See his ‘Local autonomy and imperial unity: the example of Germany’, Nineteenth Century, 59 (February 1906), pp. 331–344.

20 Fottrell to Dillon, 22 August 1908: TCD, Dillon Papers, MS 6775/1147; Fottrell to Redmond, 10 June 1914: NLI, Redmond Papers, MS 22187.

21 Joyce, James (ed. Rose, Danis), Ulysses (London, 1999), pp. 328, 430Google Scholar; his character briefly appears in the cinematic version of the book made in 1967.

22 Irish Times, 2 February 1925, p. 8; 4 February 1925, p. 3; The Times, 4 February 1925, p. 9; Who Was Who, 1916–1928, II (4th edition, London, 1967), p. 372.

23 His father, a cousin of Lord Macaulay, became an honorary DD of Edinburgh University in 1864.

24 Dictionary of National Biography: second supplement (London, 1912–1913), II, p. 382. With John Ball, he published an influential book entitled Book-keeping (Oxford, 1868).

25 Spencer to Gladstone, 7 and 8 May 1882; Gladstone to Spencer, 8 May 1882 (telegram); Spencer to Northbrook, 7 May 1882: AP, Add MSS 76854, 76918; Mallet, B., Thomas George, Earl of Northbrook (London, 1908), p. 165Google Scholar.

26 Spencer to Northbrook, 21 August 1882, 22 February 1883; Spencer to Gladstone, 3 and 31 August 1882; Spencer to Hugh Childers, 25 February and 17 April 1883; Spencer to George Trevelyan, 4 March 1883; Spencer to Lord Granville, 14 March 1883: AP, Add MSS 76918, 76855, 76914, 76915, 76952, 76883.

27 Hamilton received £600 in personal allowances and a salary of £2,000. A proposal to pay Hamilton a gratuity was quashed by the Treasury, as the last Irish civil servant to have been so rewarded was Sir Charles Trevelyan after the Great Famine, a fact that had ‘been quoted against the Treasury from that day to this!’: Childers to Spencer, 18 April 1883; Sir Ralph Lingen to Childers, 18 April 1883: AP, Add MSS 76914, 76915; Trevelyan to W.H. Smith, 26 April 1883: CSO RP 1883/23763.

28 Northbrook to Spencer, 23 February 1883; Spencer to Trevelyan, 13 April 1883; Spencer to Gladstone, 22 April 1883; Hamilton to Edward Hamilton, 9 May 1883: AP, Add MSS 76858, 76918, 76954, 76857. Hamilton was married in 1863 to Caroline Jane Ball (d. 1875) and in 1877 to Teresa Felicia Reynolds.

29 The Times, 31 July 1886, p. 5. Spencer to Childers, 25 February 1883; Spencer to Gladstone, 22 April 1883; Gladstone to Spencer, 30 December 1883: AP, Add MSS 76914, 76857, 76858.

30 Document 47; Hamilton to Spencer, 10 September 1887: AP, Add MS 77061.

31 A.F. Pollard, rev. David Huddleston, ‘Hamilton, Sir Robert George Crookshank’, in Matthew, H.G.C. and Harrison, Brian (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), XXIV, pp. 895–896Google Scholar; Pike, Douglas (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, IV (Melbourne, 1972), pp. 331–332Google Scholar.

32 Hamilton to Spencer, 2 May and 25 July 1888, 1 November 1891, 13 February and 6 November 1892: AP, Add MS 77061. See his, ‘The Irish question from an administrative standpoint’, The Speaker, 7 (13 May 1893), pp. 536–538.

33 Hamilton to Spencer, 11 August 1894: AP, Add MS 77061; Balhman, Dudley W.R. (ed.), The Diary of Sir Edward Walter Hamilton, 1885–1906 (Hull, 1993), pp. 269–270Google Scholar; The Times, 23 April 1895, p. 13.

34 Sir George Grey (1799–1882), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1841, 1859–1861), Home Secretary (1846–1852, 1855–1858, 1861–1866), Colonial Secretary (1854–1855). Harriet's sister Jane married Francis Thornhill Baring, first Baron Northbrook (1796–1866): Spencer to Gladstone, 3 August 1882: AP, Add MS 76855.

35 His youngest son, Harry Grey Jenkinson, a midshipman on HMS Canada, drowned at Bedford Basin on 10 July 1887 (The Times, 21 July 1887, p. 1); and his eldest son, Lt. Edward John Jenkinson, died of typhoid fever in India four months later. Captain John Jenkinson was killed in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt at the Battle of Loos on 13 October 1915: The Times, 27 October 1915, p. 11.

36 Hansard, CCLXXIII, cols 689–695; The Times, 24 April 1865, 8 January 1870, 31 May 1880, 1 July 1892; The India List, Civil and Military (London, 1877–1880).

37 Spencer to Jenkinson, 2 May 1882; Jenkinson to Spencer, 3 May 1882; Spencer to Gladstone, 3 August 1882; Spencer to Queen Victoria, 2 August 1882: AP, Add MSS 77031, 76855, 76831. See also Jenkinson's report of 12 May 1882: CSO RP 1882/34096.

38 Spencer to Trevelyan, 1 and 2 August 1882: AP, Add MS 76948. The Chief Secretary had first to refute allegations from Nationalist MPs that Jenkinson had participated in atrocities committed in suppressing the Indian Mutiny: Hansard, CCLXXIII, cols 686–698.

39 The number of agrarian outrages fell sharply from 7,872 (including 57 homicides) in 1881–1882 to 1,632 (including two homicides) in 1883–1884. For the development of police intelligence in Ireland, see Hawkins, Richard, ‘Government versus secret societies: the Parnell era’, in Williams, T. Desmond (ed.), Secret Societies in Ireland (Dublin, 1973), pp. 100–112Google Scholar; Stephen Ball (ed.), A Policeman's Ireland: recollections of Samuel Waters, RIC (Cork, 1999) and ‘Policing the Land War: official responses to political protest and agrarian crime in Ireland, 1879–91’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 2000), pp. 287–312.

40 Vincent, John, ‘Gladstone and Ireland’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 63 (Oxford, 1977), p. 206Google Scholar; Spencer to Jenkinson, 1 July 1885: AP, Add MS 77036.

41 ‘Our secret police’, PMG, 8 January 1887, p. 8.

42 William Harcourt to Spencer, 4, 6, and 8 March 1884; Spencer to Harcourt, 5, 6, and 7 March 1884: AP, Add MS 76933; The Times, 22 May 1884, p. 11. Jenkinson received a total annual payment of £3,000 for his duties as Assistant Under-Secretary in Dublin and ‘Government Agent’ in London: Godfrey Lushington to Childers, 23 February 1886: TNA, HO 144/721/110757.

43 Horace Seymour to Spencer, 19 December 1883; Spencer to Gladstone, 27 December 1883; Gladstone to Spencer, 30 December 1883: AP, Add MS 76858; Belfast Newsletter, 16 January 1884, p. 7; The Times, 4 June 1888, p. 6.

44 The Times, 19 November 1887, p. 11; 16 April 1894, p. 4.

45 See Document 2; Harcourt to Spencer, 3 November 1887: AP, Add MS 76934.

46 William O'Shea to Joseph Chamberlain, 28 December 1888: JC8/8/1/117; Chamberlain to O'Shea, 31 December 1888: NLI, MS 5752, fos 376–379; Harcourt to Spencer, 10 October 1890: AP, Add MS 76935; Porter, Bernard, The Origins of the Vigilant State: the London Metropolitan Police Special Branch before the First World War (London, 1987), pp. 73–75, 191Google Scholar. For a colourful account of Jenkinson's role in these episodes and other aspects of his career in the secret service, see Campbell, Christy, Fenian Fire: the British Government plot to assassinate Queen Victoria (London, 2002)Google Scholar.

47 Glasgow Herald, 2 December 1893, p. 5; The Times, 11 July 1892, p. 6. He did, however, remain an active Gladstonian and a member of the National Liberal Federation: see The Times, 21 February 1893, p. 5; Liverpool Mercury, 11 March 1893, p. 5.

48 The Times, 16 January 1894, p. 10; Chaput, Donald, ‘The British are coming! or, the army of India and the founding of Ensenada’, Journal of San Diego History, 33, no. 4 (Fall 1987), pp. 151–164Google Scholar.

49 Other companies included Manchester Liners Ltd, North Worcestershire Breweries Ltd, and the Railway Rolling Stock Trust Ltd: The Times, 16 April 1894, 16 May 1896, 19 August 1897, 24 April 1898, 3 September 1900, 29 November 1901, 3 February 1902. On his retirement, Jenkinson was presented with a portrait painted by Sir Hubert von Herkomer: The Times, 9 November 1906, p. 14.

50 ‘Epee-De-Combat’, in Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition, London, 1911); The Times, 4 March 1919, p. 12.