Temple, John (Sir); F. Dickson, R. King (Dr.)

THE IRISH REBELLION: OR, AN HISTORY OF THE BEGINNINGS AND FIRST PROGRESS OF THE GENERAL REBELLION RAISED WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND UPON THE THREE AND TWENTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER IN THE YEAR 1641. TOGETHER WITH THE BARBAROUS CRUELTIES AND BLOODY MASSACRES WHICH ENSUED THEREUPON. TO WHICH IS ADDED: THE STATE OF THE PROTESTANTS OF IRELAND UNDER THE LATE KING JAMES'S GOVERNMENT; IN WHICH THEIR CARRIAGE TOWARDS HIM IS JUSTOFIED, AND THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF THERI ENDEAVORING TO BE FREED FROM HIS GOVERNMENT, AND OF SUBMITTING TO THEIR PRESENT MAJESTIES IS DEMONSTRATED. Bound together with a pamphlet: “A CALL TO THE HUGONITES: OR, A MEMENTO TO ALL, THAT CAN SEE, AS FAR AS TO CALAIS A=DOVER, &cc” (4 pp.) [then] “HEADS OF THE DISCOURSE” (19 pp., unpaginated) [and] Bound together with "THE STATE OF THE PROTESTANTS OF IRELAND (4 pp.) [then} THE STATE OF THE PROTESTANTS OF IRELAND UNDER THE LATE KING JAMES’S GOVERNMENT IN WHICH THEIR CARRIAGE TOWARDS HIM IS JUSTIFIED, AND THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF THEIR ENDEAVOURING TO BE FREED FROM HIS GOVERNMENT, AND SUBMITTING TO THEIR PRESENT MAJESTIES IS DEMONSTRATED” (344 pp. with separate titlepage.Undated.)"

Dublin, Ireland: Patrick Campbell, 1713. Sixth Edition. Hardcover. THREE books-in-one. NOT in Bradshaw

Octavo, 6 x 8 in., pp. (8 - unpaginated "Preface") + 1- 176 + 1-4 + (19 unpaginated, "Heads of the DIscourse, An Introduction") + [1] + 1-344. Rebacked full calf with embossed frame in blind to front and rear. Gilt title to spine. Five raised bands to spine. Publisher's red stain to edges; red is well worn. Replacement cream endpapers. Two old inked signatures, struck-through, to top margin of titlepage. First page of preface partially detached. Age-toning to pages.

At the end of this essay, a footnote reads: 'Reprinted by F. Dickson at the Union of Cork-Hill, 1712." Very Good Plus. Item #85728

Rare text. Not in Bradshaw. John Temple (1600 - 1677) was born in Ireland...and educated at Trinity College, Dublin and spent some time travelling abroad.[1] On his return he entered the personal service of Charles I and was knighted. Temple returned to Ireland and on 31 January 1640 succeeded Sir Christopher Wandesford as Master of the Rolls in Ireland and was admitted to the Privy Council of Ireland. When the Irish Rebellion of 1641 broke out in October he served the government in provisioning the city. On 23 July 1642 he was elected Member of the Irish House of Commons for Meath, being described as of Ballycrath, County Carlow. He tended to support the Parliamentary side and in August 1643 he was suspended from his office by the Lords Justices, Sir John Borlase and Sir Henry Tichborne, acting on instructions from King Charles. He was imprisoned in Dublin Castle with Sir William Parsons, Sir Adam Loftus, and Sir Robert Meredyth. The main charge against him was of writing in May and June two scandalous letters against the King, which suggested the King had favoured the rebels.[ After a year's imprisonment he was exchanged, and in 1645 was chosen MP for Chichester in the Long Parliament of the English House of Commons in compensation for the harsh treatment he had undergone. He received special thanks for the services he had rendered to the English interest in Ireland at the beginning of the rebellion.

In 1646 Temple published his Irish Rebellion; or an history of the beginning and first progresse of the generall rebellion raised within the kingdom of Ireland upon the … 23 Oct. 1641. Together with the barbarous cruelties and bloody massacres which ensued thereupon, which created an immediate and great sensation. Its statements were received with unquestioning confidence, as the work of a professed eye-witness who could speak with authority, and did much to inflame popular indignation in Britain against the Irish.

Subsequently, the truth of many of its statements have been questioned and it became viewed as a partisan pamphlet rather than an historical treatise. Temple's Irish Rebellion was often praised by authors hostile to Roman Catholicism, including John Milton and Voltaire. The Irish were so incensed against the book that one of the first resolutions of the Patriot Parliament of 1689 was to order it to be burnt by the common hangman. (Dictionary of Irish Biography)

In the author's preface, Sir John Temple briliantly expounds: "...Most men are great lovers of themselves and such constant admirers of their own actions, as they think they do well to be angry at any thing that shall (though never so truly) be reported to their disadvantage. They consider not their own natural imbecillilties, their passions, distempers, or ill affactions which lead them on to advise or act things of an ill fame; but are ready to fly in the faces of those who shall even in the fairest characters represent or leave any impressions of them. Hence it is that the truth of things comes quite to be overshadowed with false colours, and so to remain as it were buried alive, or otherwise to appear extreamly disfugured through gross errors, base flattery, or willful mistakes. For most men that are present adventurers in this kind, are wise enough to apprehend their own danger; and thereupon departing fromt he common interest that every other man hath in their story, reflect only upon their own particular,and suffer themselves to be overawed with the humour of the present times; or so far transported, either with the benefits or private injuuries received from particular persons, as they transmit very imperfect and weaker relations, or otherwise fill them up with such counterfeit stuff, as posterity will owe little to their information..."

Price: $950.00