Subject: gentleman aristocrat
Culture: Anglo-Irish Protestant
Setting: Protestant Ascendancy, Georgian Ireland 18thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Hurley 2007 p53
"Eagerness rather than reluctance to heighten standing predominated. Sticklers tried in vain to curb the promiscuous use of the appellation of 'gentleman'. The Recorder of Dublin explained that 'the word "gentleman" is a style, addition or designation whereby men of fashion, substance and education in this kingdom are distinguished and designed in deeds ... from merchants or men of inferior callings'. This liberality, even laxity, continued to worry. In 1721, a caustic eye was cast over a published list of subscribers to a proposed national bank. Of thirty-seven styled 'esquire', twenty were alleged to be so 'little known' that their qualifications should be referred to the King at Arms. Those who had assumed or been accorded the dignity were mocked as unworthy of it. The confusion cried out for regulation, but with the heralds powerless to degrade upstarts, little could be done. Instead, alternative criteria for separating gentlemen from squires, the gentle or genteel from the unmannerly, and the quality form the rest were proposed. The trouble was that neither the group to be measured nor the measures to be used were universally agreed. Squires might form a discrete band; the 'gentry' or 'quality' did not. Ancestry offered one device for evaluation, but increasingly there was reluctance to accord precedence simply on grounds of pedigree. Office-holding or professional qualifications offered more solid evidence of substance. So, too, did income. At the same time, subjective qualities were invoked."
* Miller 2017 p13
"Just like members of the ancient Catholic order, the relatively newer Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy -- which governed Ireland throughout the eighteenth century -- would also become part and parcel of the island's dueling culture. A complex picture of Ireland's Protestants -- as a group -- emerges when factoring in the complexities of the island's cultural and genealogical history. The so-called 'Old English' or Seanghaill, descended from twelfth-century English, Welsh, and Norman settlers, had long intermixed with, and been absorbed into, the native Irish Catholic population. Likewise, some Anglo-Irish Protestants -- in addition to those of Welsh and Scottish descent -- were themselves partly descended from the old Gaelic Irish who had adopted Protestantism in order to keep their lands, and to reap the legal and societal benefits that being Protestant afforded. Thus, Ireland's Protestant culture had long been intermeshed with the island's history, and, considering this socio-cultural complexity, it is difficult to know what influence Welsh, Scottish, and English dueling traditions may have had on Irish ones, or vice versa. As early as 1690, dueling was in full force among Ireland's Protestants, prompting the Lord Justices of Ireland to publicly decry the 'Quarrels and Duels [that] have frequently happen'd between the Officers and Soldiers of the Army in this Kingdom,' and to issue a Dublin proclamation warning those 'who shall send, receive, or deliver any Challenge, or give any real Affront to any other.' By contrast, Irish Protestants -- just like their Catholic brethren -- as a group preferred the sword for use in duels up until at least the year 1750. One prejudiced author, writing in the Dublin University Magazine, theorized that the Irish propensity for dueling was innately embedded in the native character, and infected any person -- or group -- who lingered long within the confines of its shores. To this, Ireland's Protestants were not considered exempt. During the last quarter of the eighteenth century ... Irish Protestants became, in many respects, the arbiters of Ireland's dueling culture, and the ones most responsible for guiding its precepts."
* Hurley 2007 p44
"... European style dueling was so popular among the Anglo-Irish Protestant aristocracy, that it may have influenced the Gaelic Irish, who -- as a fallen aristocracy -- in many ways conformed their behavior to that of Europe's aristocracy."
Costume
* National Museum of Ireland -- Decorative Arts & History > The Way We Wore
"WEARING YOUR WEALTH In the 18th century rich men displayed their wealth and culture by wearing luxurious clothing. Wealthy men ... competed to display their lavish embroidery and expensive accessories. The current fashion dictated even tiny details -- the amount of handkerchief to hang from a pocket or the length of ribbon in the hair.
"These extravagant French fashions provided many opportunities for display. Fabrics, buttons, lace and ribbons (often smuggled to avoid paying duty) helped create the total look. Irish journalists frequently ridiculed this style of dress, as many preferred the more conservative English fashions."
* National Museum of Ireland -- Decorative Arts & History > The Way We Wore
"Eighteenth-century Clothing Prosperous people in eighteenth-century Ireland wore expensive clothes both in public and in private. Men displayed their wealth and culture in the fine fabrics and elaborate decoration of their own clothes, and through the fashionable costume of their wives. Both sexes adorned the body, from the powdered and curled wig, to silver-buckled high-heeled shoes."
"Éadach san Ochtú hAoais Déag Chaitheadh daoine gustalacha éadach costasach go poiblí agus go príobháideach. Léirigh fir a rachmas agus a gcultúr i bhfabraicí míne agus i maisiú ornáideach a gcuid éadaigh agus i bhfeisteas faiseanta na mban céile. Mhaisigh fir agus mná a gcolainn, ón bpeiriúic phúdaraithe chas go dtí na bróga lena sála arda agus a mbúclaí airgid."
* Barnard 2003 p41
"By 1742, 'persons of quality and distinction' in Dublin had resolved to show a patriotic benevolence by wearing only clothes of Irish manufacture."
Sword
* Miller 2017 p36-37
"During the eighteenth century, duels in Ireland were fought primarily with the smallsword, rapier, broadsword, and pistol. Sometimes the sword and pistol were used in combination, and, occasionally, combats were fought on horseback. Irish dueling weapons were often treated with reverence by their owners, and were passed down within families from generation to generation. Johah Barrington recounted:
Every family then had a case of hereditary pistols, which descended as an heirloom, together with a long, silver-hilted sword, for the use of their posterity ... The family rapier was called 'skiver the pullet' by my grand-uncle, Captain Wheeler Barrington, who had fought with it repeatedly and run through different parts of their persons several Scots officers, who had challenged him all at once for some national reflection. It was a very long, narrow-bladed, straight cut-and-thrust, as sharp as a razor, with a silver hilt and a guard of buff leather inside it. I kept this rapier as a curiosity for some time, but it was stolen during my absence at Temple.
Likewise, according to oral tradition in County Clare,
It was usual for every respectable family to have, as its most cherished possessions, pistols and swords that were used in [dueling]. They were always kept clean and oiled. The handles were often notched, telling the number of encounters they were in.
[....] Prior to 1750, the sword was the most popular weapon of choice in Irish duels; afterwards, the pistol came to predominate, although sword-duels still remained fairly common. In 1782, a poet published a series of stanzas criticizing a prominent Dublin producer of dueling pistols, lauding the sword as a more humane weapon:
Some room is left to shew the fencer's art;
Honour more often than revenge is sought;
The pistol aims directly at the heart;
No pow'r of saving when the battle's fought."
Cane
*
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