Life
1788-1850;
b. prob. Lisburn, to a Catholic family; br. of Bartholomew Teeling (1774), the United Irishman who landed in Ireland with Humbert and surrender at
Collooney, after the battle of Ballinamuck, being subsequently court-martialled
and hanged; Charles was arrested with his father, 16 Sept. 1796, by warrant
of Lord Castlereagh on suspicion of treason; earlier offered a commission
and refused; settled in Dundalk as linen-bleacher; m. Miss Carolan of
Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, 1802; his eldest daughter m. Thomas O’Hagan,
later Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and first Catholic in that office since
the Reformation; editor-proprietor Belfast Northern Herald; est.
Newry Examiner; editor-prop. Ulster Magazine, 1830-35; Personal
Narrative of the Rebellion of 1798 (1828), followed by a sequel
in 1832 (later published together in Glasgow, 1876); the work is considered
more valuable as the testimony of a witness than as a work of literature;
his History and Consequences of the Battle of the Diamond (1835)
is a pamphlet-account of events connected with the Orange Order; Lord
O’Hagan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in Gladstone’s 1st &
2nd administrations, married into the Teeling family, his own papers including
copious records of that family. DIW DIB OCIL
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Works
Personal Narrative of the Rebellion of 1978 ([Belfast: John Hodgson]
1828); Sequel to Personal Narrative of the “Irish Rebellion”
of 1798 (Belfast: John Hodgson 1832), xlviii. 326pp., 8o.; both rep.
as History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798: A Personal Narrative
(Glasgow & London: Cameron & Ferguson 1876) [infra]; rep. with intro.
by Richard Grenfell Morton as History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798:
A Personal Narrative [facs. rep. of 1876 Edn.] (Shannon: IUP 1972)
x, viii, 376pp., 22cm.; Stair eirghe-amach na n-eireannach i 1798:
cunntas pearsanta, Taidhg Ó Rabhartaigh a rinne an leagan Gaedhilge,
2 vols. (Baile Atha Cliath: Oifig an t-Solathair [1941]) [trans. presum.
of 1879 edn.]; Observations on the “History and Consequences”
of the “Battle of the Diamond” (Belfast: John Hodgson 1838),
62pp., 8o.
History Of The Irish Rebellion Of 1798, A Personal Narrative (Glasgow & London: Cameron, Ferguson & Co. 1878), 376pp. [include A Sequel ... &c.]. The book is dedicated to ‘my wife and children at whose request solely it has been undertaken ... the only inheritance which the enemies of my country have left me to bequeath', and signed, ‘Donogue Cottage 1828'. There is an epigraph from Thomas Moore: ‘Rebellion! foul dishonouring word / Whose wrongful blight so oft has stained / The holiest cause that tongue or sword / Of mortal ever lost or gained- / How many a spirit born to bless / Has sunk beneath that withering name / whom but a day's - an hour' success / Had wafted to eternal fame.' [The 1878 edition examined here belongs to the Library of Herbert Bell of Belfast.] The A Personal Narrative occupies the first section of this edition (pp.1-156) while the Sequel… occupies the rest (pp.161-376). The 20 chapters of Teeling's narrative proceed through ‘national indignation at removal of Lord Fitzwilliam', ‘arrests in Ulster', ‘magisterial atrocity', ‘French fleet at Bantry bay', ‘view of the Irish system towards the close of the year 1797', ‘Lord Edward' [Chap. XII], ‘Wexford campaign', ‘Hill of Tara', ‘effects of organised system on population of Ulster' with ‘barbarous pastimes of the soldiery', ‘Antrim and Down [and] Henry Joy McCracken', accounts of actions at Saintfield, Portaferry, Ballynahinch, and ‘total suppression of the United Irishmen in Ulster'. Sundry contents include adverse remarks on Lord Castlereagh, Judge Boyd and others; remarks on Henry Grattan, Lord O'Neill, Lord Carhampton, Secretary Cooke, Aylmer of Kildare, Lowry and Magenis [sic]. An Appendix to the first section contains 1] Original Declaration of the United Irishmen 2] Resolutions of Northern Whig Club, 16 April 1790 3] The trial of Hugh Wollaghan for the murder of Thomas Dogherty (acquitted). An Appendix material to the second section is 1] William Orr, tried and executed for administering oath 2] Sir Edward Crosbie, tried and executed 3] Sheares Brothers, tried before Lord Carleton 4] Negotiation between Govt. and State Prisoners' Samuel Neilson the ‘first mover in this negotiation' intended to ‘put a stop to further carnage [after] an insurrection which failed'. The ensuing text of this appendix is a ‘powerful document' from the pen of Arthur O'Connor, a prisoner, reporting that on 24th July Mr [Arthur] Dobbs and the Sheriff entered with a written paper, signed by 70 state prisoners, purposing to give information of arms &c., provided the lives of Bond and Byrne were spared. O'Connor refusing to sign. The whole document is addressed to Lord Castlereagh as being ‘sated with blood'. O'Connor concludes with these words, ‘Convince me that you are guiltless, that I am in error, and I will do you justice [&c.] signed Arthur O'Connor, prison 4 Jan 1799. (See Quotations, infra.]
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Notes
History Of The Irish Rebellion Of 1798, A Personal Narrative (Glasgow & London: Cameron, Ferguson & Co. 1878), Introduction of the second section: ‘In order to disabuse the minds of those who conceive “that
the wrongs of Ireland were exaggerated, or had they been of an extent
and enormity represented [by the author] a mild and beneficent Monarch
would have interposed between the crimes of his Ministers and the suffering
of the people”[,] I shall adduce such authorities as even the most
fastidious must consider conclusive.’ Teeling continues, ‘In their revolting
system of hypocrisy and oppression, the independence of the Irish legislature
was the uniform defence of the Ministers, for the acquiescence of the
crown in the violation of the rights of the subject; while the most unconstitutional
measures were exercised, with a shameless effrontery under the fallacious
pretext of veneration of constitutional privileges.’ (p.165.) Footnote on p.187 gives an extract
from a speech by Mr. Tighe in the Irish House of Commons: “The laws
which had been enacted in this country two or three years back, had been
of so severe and arbitrary a cast, as to have rendered the constitution
almost a name. But the manner in which those laws had been executed was
still more severe than the laws themselves [...]. In severity of legislation,
they had exceeded any nation in Europe; but in severity of execution they
had exceeded even the severity of that legislation.” [Tighe was the
MP for Woodstock and husband to Mary Tighe, the author of Psyche,
1805.] Further, ‘As the vigilance of the
government increased and the system of union became more pregnant with
danger, for the insurrection act had now attached to it the penalty of
death, the exertions of the people were redoubled. Music, to which the
Irish are so peculiarly attached, and which, if I may use the expression,
speaks the native language of their soul, was most successfully resorted
to on this occasion; and the popular songs of the day, suited to the temper
of the times, were admirably calculated to rouse the national spirit,
and elevate the mind to contempt of danger and the most enthusiastic feeling
which love of liberty and country could inspire.’ (History of the Irish
Rebellion, 1876 edn., p.11; quoted in Mary Helen Thuente, ‘The Literary
Significance of the United Irishmen’, Michael Kenneally, ed., Irish
Literature and Culture, Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1992, pp.35-62;
pp.44-45. Note that Thuente further quotes the song “Paddies evermore” sung by United Irishmen in prison.)
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), records that The Ulster Magazine (2 vols. 8vo.), was commenced by C. H. Teeling [in 1830] and continued for two years, publishing articles on current political events and general topics, as well as verse and stories, several being Irish interest including “The Castle of Strankally” and “The Bride of O’Cahan”.
COPAC lists History of the Irish rebellion of 1798; and, Sequel to the ’History of the Irish rebellion of 1798’ [by] Charles Hamilton Teeling [facs. rep. of 1st edns, Glasgow, Cameron and Ferguson, 1876 [with a new] introduction by Richard Grenfell Morton (Shannon: Irish University Press 1972), x, viii, 376pp., 23cm; Observations on the “History and consequences” of the “Battle of the Diamond” [a reply to an article by S. O’Sullivan in the Dublin University Magazine, vol.10, October 1837] (1838) [copy in Durham UL]; Personal narrative of the “Irish rebellion” of 1798 (London: Henry Colburn 1828), xv, 285pp.; [another edn.] (London: printed for the author 1828), xv, 285pp.; [Personal narrative trans. as] Stair eirghe-amach na n-eireannach i 1798: cunntas pearsanta, Taidhg Ó Rabhartaigh a rinne an leagan Gaedhilge Baile Atha Cliath: Oifig an t-Solathair, 2 vols. [1941].
British Library holds [1] History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 [... &c.] (Shannon: Irish University Press 1972 [ISBN 0 7165 0014 0] pp. x, viii, 376. 22 cm. [2] Observations on the “History and Consequences” of the “Battle of the Diamond.” [A reply to an article in the Dublin University Magazine]. John Hodgson: Belfast, 1838. pp. 62. 8o. [3] Personal Narrative of the “Irish Rebellion” of 1798. Title [Another edition.] History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, etc.. London, 1828. 8o. Glasgow, 1876. 8o. [4] Sequel to Personal Narrative of the “Irish Rebellion” of 1798.. pp. xlviii. 326. John Hodgson: Belfast, 1832. 8o. [5] Stair eirghe-amach na n-eireannach i 1798: cunntas pearsanta. Oifig an t-Solathair, [1941] 2 vols.
Ulster libraries: BELFAST LINENHALL holds Personal Narrative of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (1828); UNIV. of ULSTER (Morris Collection) holds The History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, a personal narrative [1828] (1876) 376pp.
Paul Bew, reviewing of Marianne Elliott, The Catholics of Ulster: A History (Penguin 2000), 622pp. Speaks of 5,000 document archive of Lord O’Hagan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in Gladstone’s first and second administrations who married into the prosperous Teeling family, not used here at all, though the Teeling’s eighteenth-century role is brilliantly discussed. Generally critical of the stance that Ulster Catholics can be seen as naturally loyal to the crown; Sir Charles Russell is seen to have poisoned Gladstone’s mind against Ulster Presbyterianism. (Times Literary Supplement, [Irish issue], 29 June 2001, p.11.)
R. F. Foster, ‘Remembering 1798’, [chap.] in The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland (Penguin 2001, 2002), quotes Bartholomew Teeling’s address at the foot of the gallow: ‘If to have been active in endeavouring to put a stop to the blood-thirsty policy of an oppressive government has been treason, I am guilty. If to have endeavoured to give my native country a place among the nations of the earth was treason, then am I guilty indeed. If to have been active in endeavouring to remove the fangs of oppression from off the heads of the devoted Irish peasant was treason, I am guilty. Finally if I [recte to] have strove [sic] to make my fellow men love each other was guilt, then I am guilty.’ (PRO HO 100/82/160, quoted in Liam Kelly, A Flame Now Quenched: Rebels and Frenchmen in Leitrim 1793-1798 (Dublin 1998), p.141 [appendix]; here p.212. Foster remarks: ‘it seems likely that this influenced Robert Emmet’s much more celebrated speech from the dock four years later.’
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)