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28 History 30 1798 (24 September). BartholomewTeeling’s intended speech at the gallows before his execution. A contemporaneous copy of Bartholomew Teeling’s intended speech at the gallows before his execution (which he was prevented from delivering), inscribed “Teeling to the Court” and “Teeling’s Speech”, 2 pages, with integral blank, Whatman paper watermarked 1794, quarto. Untitled, undated address, it begins ’Fellow Citizens I have been condemned by a military tribunal to suffer what they call an ignominious death, but what appears from the number of illustrious victims to be glorious in the highest degree...’ Adjutant-General Sir George Hewett; Thence by descent; Bonhams, London, 26 June 2019, lot 17; Private collection. Condition: Very good, no apparent faults. This is the fourth contemporaneous copy identified to date; there are very minor variants between all four, the official one deemed to be the version in the UK National Archives, Public Record Office Home Office 100 papers. Bartholomew Teeling (1774-1798), born into an established Catholic gentry family of Lisburn, and a United Irishman, served as a captain-aide de camp to General Humbert during the French campaign in Ireland, 1798. After the French defeat at Ballinamuck (8 September), Teeling was taken prisoner and tried for high treason by court martial in Dublin (18-22 September). Humbert wrote to the court asserting that ‘by his bravery and generous conduct’ the prisoner had prevented excesses and saved civilian lives, and Teeling himself read out a statement in his own defence. The version in his own hand has survived (TCD), and along with two other very rare samples (French archives) confirm that the gallows speech offered here is one of several contemporaneous copies. His case had stirred some public sympathy, given the court had found him ‘not unworthy the mercy of the government’. None the less he was executed on 24 September at Arbour Hill, behind the then Royal Barracks. Even in establishment papers, he was referred to as the late ‘unfortunate’Teeling. Two days after the execution, Lord Castlereagh (acting chief secretary of Ireland), reported from Dublin Castle to London that Teeling had ‘attempted at the place of execution to read a very inflamed paper, a copy of which I enclose, but was prevented.’ (UK Public Record Office, Home Office papers). There are a handful of surviving copies (e.g. 1 copy in NLI), with some minor variants in the text. That Teeling was prevented from giving it was because it was indeed ‘inflamed’, but also spirited, dignified, and eloquent; the authorities rightly feared its potential effectiveness. It is also bold and incriminating: Teeling refers to an ‘oppressive government’ and proudly avers his guilt in having endeavoured to ‘give his native country a place among the nations of the earth.’ He closes by assuring his ‘Fellow Citizens’ that he leaves them ‘with the heartfelt satisfaction’ of having kept his oath as an United Irishmen. Some of his words would later be reprised by Robert Emmet. But to the establishment, this was also clearly the dying words of an unrepentant traitor. This would be demonstrated by circulated copies, which no doubt explains the presence of one among Hewett’s papers. Dr Sylvie Kleinman, March 2020. Estimate €800-€1200 (approx £730-£1,090) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 30