the tories excited great animosity against him among some of his co-religionists. In 1670 he says: "I am obliged to conceal myself by assuming the name of Captain Brown, wearing a sword and a wig and pistols; this lasted two or three months.. No fewer than nine times have I been accused before the Viceroy on account of the schools, and for exercising foreign jurisdiction... In a certain emergency when an outburst of persecution was feared in Armagh, I had to burn all my foreign letters, even the brief of my consecration." In 1674 the clergy were everywhere obliged to fly to the woods and mountains to seek a refuge, and he wrote that in the city of Cashel there was not a single Catholic who could give lodging for one night, and that there was but one parish priest in the whole city. The Archbishop's correspondence with Rome continued even in the worst times of persecution, and is said to have cost him £25 a year — half the revenue of his see. In 1678, Catholics, excepting such as "for the greater part of the twelve months past had inhabited," were forbidden to reside in any corporate town. In July 1679 he was arrested in Dundalk, and committed to Newgate, Dublin, on the informations of two condemned friars, MacMoyer and Duffy. [See MacMoyer, Florence, p. 317.] He was charged with having compassed the invasion of Ireland by foreign powers; with having obtained money from the Irish clergy to maintain a French army of 70,000 men; and with having conspired to take all the forts and harbours in Ireland. In October 1680 the Archbishop was removed to England, and on the 3rd of May 1681 was arraigned at the King's Bench, when he pleaded not guilty. Five weeks were allowed him to procure witnesses, and on the 8th of June he was again brought up. His messengers had been long detained at Holyhead by stress of weather, and had not had time to gather in Ireland the scattered witnesses necessary to disprove the assertions of his adversaries. The trial proceeded notwithstanding; the jury after a quarter of an hour's consideration returned a verdict of guilty, and he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He bore himself with great dignity throughout the trial, and on its conclusion again maintained his innocence, and simply asked that a servant and some friends might be permitted to visit him. He was brought to Tyburn on 1st July (1681). Captain Richardson, Keeper of Newgate, testified as to his bearing: "When I came to him this morning he was newly awake, having slept
all night without disturbance; and when I told him he was to prepare for execution he received the message with all quietness of mind, and went to the sledge as unconcerned as if he had been going to a wedding." After making a long and dignified speech, pointing out the absurdity of the charges brought against him, he resigned himself to the executioner. Wood says in his Athenoe Oxonienses that Archbishop Plunket's remains rested in the churchyard of St. Giles'-in-the- Fields until 1683, when they were removed to Landsprug in Germany. His head is preserved in a shrine in the convent of St. Catherine at Drogheda. Subsequent events proved his entire innocence of the charges brought against him. Fox, in his History of James II., says, Charles II. "did not think it worth while to save the life of Plunket, the Popish Archbishop of Armagh, of whose innocence no doubt could be entertained." 128† 195 286* 312
Plunket, William Conyngham, Lord Plunket, Lord-Chancellor, was born at Enniskillen, Ist July 1764. Shortly after his birth, his father, a Presbyterian minister, was called to officiate at the Strand-street Chapel in Dublin. He died in 1778, leaving his widow and children poorly provided for. Young Plunket entered college about the same time as his friends Thomas A. Emmet and Yelverton. He became distinguished for his oratorical powers in the debates of the Historical Society, and in his third year obtained a scholarship. At his mother's house in Jervis-street, Burrowes, Bushe, Emmet, Magee (afterwards Archbishop), Tone, and Yelverton, constantly met on terms of the closest intimacy. In 1784 he entered at Lincoln's Inn, and two years afterwards was called to the Irish Bar. His progress was rapid and steady. In his memoirs it is mentioned that in 1791 he argued a case before a Committee of the House of Commons on which Arthur Wellesley and Lord Edward FitzGerald sat together. In 1797 he was made King's Counsel. In conjunction with Curran, in 1798, he unsuccessfully defended John and Henry Sheares. He was brought into Parliament by Lord Charlemont in 1798, and was one of the most strenuous opponents of the Union. In a speech made during the memorable debate of 22nd-23rd January 1799, he "in the most express terms" denied "the competency of Parliament to do this act... If, circumstanced as you are, you pass this Act, it will be a nullity, and no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately I repeat it, and I
