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121:
324:: he spoke of the approaching "overthrow of the Beast", the "Battle of Armaggedon" that would be the "prelude to a peaceful reign of 1,000 years." At the same time Birch asked his congregants to consider that "we live in a very advanced and enlightened period of the world, when ignorance and superstition are falling like lightening from heaven" and that, as a minster, he had a duty to bear witness against the corruptions of government.
483:
Representatives in the
Commons House of Parliament". But their "humble petitions" were ignored, and visited with "rapines, burnings, rapes, murders, and other sheddings of blood", the people were "goaded" into insurrection. "Nothing", they were persuaded, "will satisfy (no matter at what price) but a republican form of government".
926:
383:
Men of Down, we are gathered here today ... to pray and fight for the liberty of this
Kingdom of Ireland. We have grasped the pike and musket to fight for the right against might, to drive the bloodhounds of King George the German king beyond the seas. This is Ireland, we are Irish and shall be free.
347:
In 1797, eleven of Birch's congregation were charged with attacking the house of the McKee family, local loyalists who supplied the authorities with such information as they could gather on the activities of United
Irishmen. They were all acquitted thanks chiefly to the withering cross-examination of
545:
In
American revivalism, Birch may have recognized something of that which in Ireland he had observed in the "Seceders" who believed they were returning to the fundamentals of the faith. In a broadside published in 1796 he had denounced the excesses of their outdoor communion observations, suggesting
367:
Birch, as chaplain of the United Army in County Down, took to the field with his men on 8 June 1798. They converged a thousand strong on the McKee homestead. All eight members of the family died in a siege that saw the house set alight. A relief column of 300, consisting of
Newtownards Yeomanry
331:
that his congregation were completely converted to his views; and that they had celebrated French victories over the
Austrian and Prussian armies. Now, however, that the government was rendering both the Volunteer and United Irish movements illegal, they were "dissatisfied" with his comparative
399:
He faced a court-martial in
Lisburn where one observer contrasted his "long and blubbering defence" with the dignity with which Munro, preceding him, had made on the army officers present (Munro's last words on the scaffold were: "Tell my country I had deserved better of her"). Thanks to the
526:. Citing his United Irish past, Rev. John McMillan characterised Birch as a "fugitive from justice and an enemy of order". But "more fundamentally" the presbytery responded to Birch's hostility to a new American-frontier theology. Despite his own millenarianism (based on his reading of the
400:
intercession of his brother George who, in addition to being a
Yeomanry officer, was the physician to the Londonderrys, Birch and his 17-year old son George, who had also appeared among the rebels, were assured that they could avoid the worst by agreeing to remove themselves from country.
482:
Birch decried the "unnatural war" that, under the
British Crown, Irish Presbyterians had been forced to wage against their "brethren" in America. Their only wish was to be "indulged (like you) as citizens, in enjoying rights without religious distinctions, and fair vote of chusing their
478:
commitment to an understanding with
Britain. The Letter was addressed to an American audience and sought to counter Federalist propaganda in which the rebellion in Ireland was discredited as part of a larger effort to generate and sustain alarm over revolutionary developments in France.
263:. Birch, however, was soon disillusioned. While the new MP reacted to revolutionary events in France, and to the prospect of war with the new republic, by rallying to the government, Birch was persuaded that reform would have to be sought in an extra-parliamentary union with the
286:. He decried the "withholding of rights from our Catholic brethren" as "criminally unjust and impolitic", and declared he would rather transport himself to Botany Bay, "than live in a country which continued to keep itself in abject slavery, by its internal divisions".
224:, Tyrone. It expressed their joy that the Americans had succeeded in throwing off “the yoke of slavery” and suggested that their exertions had "shed a benign light on the distressed kingdom of Ireland". Washington returned his thanks.
379:, "Pike Sunday", Birch appeared among the rebel army assembled at Creevy Rocks, a hill outside the town. None testified to his preaching a sermon, but there is at least one record (possibly spurious) of his offering the following:
486:
Birch did not restrain himself from proposing that in this resolve, the people of Ireland "are inspired (as they think) with a well-grounded belief, and hope that the time is arrived, when the Prophecies concerning the
368:
Cavalry (in which Birch's elder brother George was an officer) and 270 York Fencibles was ambushed by the rebels (among them Birch's elder son John was killed in the skirmish) and obliged to retreat, withdrawing through
317:(4 January 1793) reported that the congregation unanimously applauded a proposal that "for the defence of their families and properties" a further 500 of their number "be added to the National Guards of Ireland".
298:
Resolved, that we will steadily pursue every reasonable, legal and constitutional means in our power, to obtain a more equal representation of the people in Parliament and a shorter period of parliamentary
255:
With other prominent Volunteers, in the 1783 and 1790 general elections Birch campaigned in Down for the candidates of the Stewarts, Presbyterians and relative upstarts among county gentry; first for
309:
Resolved, that we look upon our brethren Roman Catholics as men deprived of their just rights--that we highly approve of their present mode of proceeding and sincerely and heartily wish them success.
313:
An almost identical resolution was carried by Birch's church congregation, but with the anticipation that they would be opposed by the landowner-led yeomanry and loyalist vigilantes. The Belfast
240:
were mustered to defend against a French invasion, Birch recognised an opportunity to broaden the political franchise against both the Ascendancy, that monopolised representation in the
36:
503:
In the United States, Birch returned to the ministry, first in Philadelphia and then, unhappily due to various disputes, political and religious, with the Ohio Presbytery in
208:
heightened the sympathy he shared with his congregants for their American kin in the struggle for independence from Britain. In 1784, through a brother-in-law in
1116:
1136:
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in 1776, with 900 families one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in Ireland. He married Isabella Ledlie, a second cousin from Arboe,
1141:
349:
256:
304:
Resolved that a radical reform can never be affected, but by extending the right of suffrage to all sects and denominations of Irishmen.
1126:
335:
The conversion to Birch's political gospel, however, was not complete. Some of his congregation withdrew, joining the "Seceders" or
336:
339:. While refusing to bow their knee "to any king but Jesus" they were, at least in north Down, hostile to his overt republicanism.
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Belfast politics: or, A collection of the debates, resolutions, and other proceedings of that town in the years 1792, and 1793
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would occur in Washington in 1848), as in Ireland Birch robustly defended the Presbyterian orthodoxy. He was repelled by a
260:
474:. The politics of the Irish immigrant communities in Philadelphia and in New York City were democratic and opposed to the
252:
ministers in London. He became chaplain to the volunteer Saintfield Light Infantry, and called his manse "Liberty Hall".
408:
357:
1021:
859:
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Birch convened the Saintfield Society of United Irishmen and on Christmas Eve 1792 moved their first resolutions.
237:
1008:
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587:
504:
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522:. Together with most of the local shopkeepers, merchants and landowners, the elders and clergy supported the
360:. Finding the conduct of the prosecutor "base and malicious", the presiding judge at his subsequent trial in
927:
Presbyterianism and "Modernization" in Ulster, David W. Miller, Past & Present, No. 80 (Aug., 1978), P78
542:
that emphasised personal faith experience. The Ohio Presbytery repeatedly rejected Birch as "unconverted".
514:
The Ohio presbytery disapproved of Birch's radical republicanism, which he had translated into support for
245:
348:
prosecution witness the Presbyterian-turned-Anglican Rev. John Cleland, sub-sheriff and land agent of the
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on the trans-Atlantic crossing. It was end dated 26 October 1798, and published the following month in
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After some weeks on a prison ship in Belfast Lough where he encountered fellow Presbyterian clergy
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that their primary aim was "large collections", and had rebuked their reactionary politics.
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and vindicating the call for an Irish republic, it was the first published apologia for the
1111:
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174:
8:
693:
The Men of No Property Irish Radicals and Popular Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century
412:
392:, but returned the same day to Saintfield to help marshal reinforcements. After the
353:
850:
Dawson, Kenneth (1998). "Divided Loyalties in 1798: Observations on the Birch Family".
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531:
148:
87:
54:
553:, where a local paper records him officiating at a wedding in June 1819. He died near
1076:"A Rebel Amidst Revival:Thomas Ledlie Birch and Western Pennsylvania Presbyterianism"
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on Wednesday 13 June, Birch retired to his manse, where on the 16th he was arrested.
356:. Birch added drama to the proceedings by being arrested in the court on a charge of
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443:, was permitted the same consideration: permitted, later in the year, to sail for
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insurrection. In the United States, he found himself at odds with the spirit of
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Dissenting Voices: Rediscovering the Irish Progressive Presbyterian Tradition
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Dissenting Voices: Rediscovering the Irish Progressive Presbyterian Tradition
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Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society (Sessions 161/62-1963/64)
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According to witnesses at his subsequent court-martial, the day after the
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United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic
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415:(the Presbyterian licentiate who had led an attack upon the garrison in
582:(Originally published in Philadelphia ed.). Belfast: Athol Books.
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in 1836, and a last surviving son, Hamilton, died there in 1847. His
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650:
Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society
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151:. Forced into American exile following the suppression of the
352:, by the celebrity defence-counsel for the democratic cause,
1007:
Gilmore, Peter; Parkhill, Trevor; Roulston, William (2018).
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to defend a resolution in favour of immediate, unqualified,
743:
790:
The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down
1016:. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. pp. 61–70.
1010:
Exiles of '98: Ulster Presbyterians and the United States
723:. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. pp. 86–89.
419:), in August 1798 Birch sailed with other marked men for
1006:
941:, Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, pp.133-134
854:. Downpatrick: Down County Museum. pp. 14–15.
549:In 1804 Birch purchased a farm five miles west of
461:
289:
1098:
914:Kenneth Robinson, Chronology in Introduction to
227:
812:"Cleland, John | Dictionary of Irish Biography"
193:and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in
976:Kenneth Robinson, Introduction to Birch (2009)
953:"Glendy, John | Dictionary of Irish Biography"
609:
607:
605:
603:
601:
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499:Last years: at odds with American revivalism
204:His exposure in Glasgow to the ideas of the
695:. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 183.
320:Birch's visions from the pulpit were often
1002:
1000:
714:
712:
613:
388:On Monday, Birch marched with the army to
185:Birch was the sixth and youngest son of a
34:
1117:18th-century Irish Presbyterian ministers
1050:. Cornell University Press. p. 129.
744:William Bruce and Henry Joy, ed. (1794).
596:
950:
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216:with an address he had written for the (
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750:. Belfast: H. Joy & Co. p. 60.
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189:farmer and merchant. He studied at the
1099:
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896:, 1 May 1955. The source is not given.
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643:
616:"Thomas Ledlie Birch, United Irishman"
580:A Letter from an Irish Emigrant (1799)
489:Universal Dominion of Christ's Kingdom
431:. (Birch's counterpart in the west of
342:
111:A Letter from an Irish Emigrant (1799)
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1067:
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843:
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495:upon earth ... are to be fulfilled".
274:, intervening with them in a crucial
147:minister and radical democrat in the
1137:Irish emigrants to the United States
809:
684:
571:
557:in 1828. His widow Isabella died in
259:and then, with success, for his son
1142:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
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792:Belfast, Blackstaff Press, p. 181,
646:"The United Irishmen in Co. Tyrone"
466:Birch may have started writing his
364:directed his honourable discharge.
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394:rout of the rebels at Ballynahinch
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1127:Christian clergy from County Down
454:. He became a lieutenant in the
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916:A Letter from an Irish Emigrant
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462:A Letter from An Irish Emigrant
157:A Letter from An Irish Emigrant
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450:George later departed for the
290:Birch's Saintfield Resolutions
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578:Birch, Thomas Ledlie (2005).
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228:Volunteer and United Irishman
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7:
905:Stewart (1995), pp. 250-251
835:Stewart (1995), pp. 181-182
520:Democratic-Republican Party
458:, dying unmarried in 1808.
10:
1158:
951:Geohegan, Patrick (2009).
614:McClelland, Aiken (1964).
125:Society of United Irishmen
1044:Wilson, David A. (2011).
852:1798, Our Shared Heritage
270:In 1792 Birch joined the
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105:
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719:Courtney, Roger (2013).
644:McEvoy, Brendan (1959).
551:Washington, Pennsylvania
278:Day Volunteer debate in
985:Birch (2005) pp. 36, 56
937:Roger Courtney (2013),
536:Second Coming of Christ
246:Dublin Castle executive
892:quoted by J. C. Robb,
883:Stewart (1995), p. 205
874:Stewart (1995), p. 189
555:Freeport, Pennsylvania
534:he concluded that the
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337:Reformed Presbyterians
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206:Scottish Enlightenment
175:evangelical revivalism
69:Freeport, Pennsylvania
405:William Steel Dickson
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284:Catholic emancipation
191:University of Glasgow
162:Assailing the landed
810:Wood, C. J. (2009).
691:Smyth, #Jim (1998).
493:peaceful happy state
377:Battle of Saintfield
656:(2): 283–314, 285.
413:David Bailie Warden
354:John Philpot Curran
343:Rebellion and exile
141:Thomas Ledlie Birch
28:Thomas Ledlie Birch
994:Birch (2005) p. 60
763:, 26 December 1792
625:. Second Series, 7
212:, Birch presented
149:Kingdom of Ireland
143:(1754–1828) was a
134:Treason 1797, 1798
88:Kingdom of Ireland
55:Kingdom of Ireland
1057:978-1-5017-1159-6
445:Norfolk, Virginia
248:appointed by the
220:) Yankee Club of
214:George Washington
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1083:. Retrieved
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232:When in the
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107:Notable work
99:Presbyterian
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1112:1828 deaths
1107:1754 births
821:27 December
629:18 November
559:Cadiz, Ohio
452:East Indies
437:John Glendy
429:New Bedford
417:Newtownards
362:Downpatrick
327:Birch told
322:millenarian
315:News Letter
187:County Down
155:, he wrote
76:Nationality
51:County Down
1101:Categories
1085:21 January
1029:16 January
962:19 October
957:www.dib.ie
816:www.dib.ie
589:0850341108
565:References
540:revivalism
532:Revelation
507:, western
491:, and the
476:Federalist
329:Wolfe Tone
299:delegation
267:majority.
244:, and the
195:Saintfield
181:Early life
167:Ascendancy
95:Occupation
670:0488-0196
201:in 1783.
159:(1799).
49:Gilford,
788:(1995),
678:29740693
518:and his
276:Bastille
265:Catholic
164:Anglican
116:Movement
25:Reverend
774:Journal
441:Maghera
425:Harmony
280:Belfast
218:Masonic
90:, Irish
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468:Letter
433:Ulster
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