Kinsale, | Saturday evening | July, 11th, 1841.
My dear Father
With gratitude I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 7th.1 It relieved my mind of a great load of anxiety. Things are not half so bad as they were represented to be. I heard that there was a woman shot in the thigh and an eye shot out of a man’s head and the whiskers shot off another. I heard also that the immense bail of £2000 was refused for him. This led me to conclude that his offence was a most aggravated one. I am extremely glad to find that my conclusion was a false one.2 I commend your determination of going to Carlow highly. You would be a fit object for the mob to wreak its fury on (oh I wish I was at home!) they will scarcely think of injuring my mother or Emma.
We had an election here this week, there was a mob collected of course. The rival candidates were Mr Atwood conservative,3 and Mr Watson radical4 – both Englishmen. Mr Atwood had been beaten by Lord John Russell in London.5 He was not here himself, his agent polled for him. The Radical was returned by a majority of 18. Had Atwood been here in time himself he would have been returned. The people here, even the radical voters, are not at all pleased with the manner in which Watson left town.6 They say he departed very shabbily.
He will be petitioned against without doubt will be thrown out, it is thought that it will not be defended. One day during the election I was attacked by a party of fishermen with green boughs7 in their hands a dozen of them gripped me, I thought to laugh them out of their holds, but to no purpose. I knew that it would be madness to strike one of them – that if I did so my clothes would be all torn – so I had to give them half a pint8 to appease them. The town at present is quite peaceable all excitement has subsided. It is just post time so I must bid you good bye.
Your affectionate son | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/10/3231
LT Transcript Only
yours of the 7th: letter 0073.
I heard … a false one: False rumours that circulated concerning the shooting of Mary McAssey and William Hackett by Caleb Tyndall. Some of the published accounts were equally overblown; for example, the Dublin Morning Register (3 July 1841, pp. 2-3) claimed that ‘the poor woman Mackessy … is past all hope of recovery’ while The Pilot (30 June 1841, p.3) insisted that the ‘poor man [Hackett] is dreadfully injured and is likely to lose the sight of his eye’.
Mr Atwood conservative: The previous MP, the Conservative Colonel Henry Thomas (see letter 0072, n. 8), had withdrawn shortly before the election and been replaced by Matthias Wolverley Atwood (1808–65), a banker from London who had previously represented Greenwich.
Mr Watson radical: The lawyer William Henry Watson (1796–1860) stood as the Reform candidate and defeated Atwood by 18 votes.
Lord John Russell in London: Four MPs had recently been elected to represent the City of London. Lord John Russell (1792-1878), the leading Liberal politician and future Prime Minister, had come fourth in the poll beating Atwood by just 9 votes (Morning Chronicle, 1 July 1841, p. 4).
the manner in which Watson left town: After the result was declared there were complaints that a number of bad votes had been cast and that Watson was not qualified to sit in Parliament. Watson did however represent Kinsale for the next six years.
green boughs: Green bows were a symbol of Irish nationalism.
half a pint: probably either beer or whiskey.
Please cite as “Tyndall0075,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0075