Life
1721-1812 [General Vallancey]; b. Windsor of Huguenot stock, military
engineer in Ireland, 1762; Secretary of Society of Irish Antiquaries,
1773 [var. fnd. Hibernian Antiquarian Society, 1779]; co-fnd. Royal Irish
Academy [RIA], 1782; with the object of examining ‘the ancient state
of arts and literature’ in Ireland; FRS 1784; initiated the scholarship
of Ogam in an essay on his findings at the Mount Callan stone, in 1785
(now deemed a hoax); launched and ed. Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis
(1770-1804), containing 50 papers of Irish antiquarianism including ‘Origin
and language the Irish and the learning of the druids’, ‘Anecdotes
of chess in Ireland’, and ‘Astronomy and the ancient Irish’,
et al.; Collectanea later evolved to become RIA Transactions;
inaugurated the Phoenician Scytho-Celtic school of Irish philology, based
on supposed kinship of Irish with Punic [i.e., Carthaginian] and Kabmuck
(the language of the Algonquin Indians); traced ressemblances by collating
Irish words with the text of Plautus’s Poenulus, though unaware
of similar collations by Tadhg Ó Neachtain; held Tara to be temple
of Mithras [viz., cult of Mithrades]; friend of Charles O’Conor of
Belanagare, whom he co-opted with Dr. Carpenter, the Catholic Archbishop
of Dublin, onto the Select Committee of the Dublin Society for Antiquities
of Ireland, 1763, and later proposed his grandson Charles O’Conor
as a full member of the RIA; Vallancey never learned Irish although he
owned a grammatical dictionary compiled by a school-teacher named Crab;
four times married, he had some twenty-seven children by three of his
wives; a son and namesake saw service as a lieutenant in the British Army
during the American War of Independence and later reported on the defences
of the southern Irish coasts to George III; a portrait of Vallancey is
included in the engraving of House of Commons in 1790 [as figure No. 172
in key], now preserved in Bank of Ireland (College Green); the character
and namesake based on Vallancey (d.1812) figures in James Anthony Froude’s
The Two Chiefs of Dunboy. DNB RAF [FDA] OCIL
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Works
‘An Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, being a Collation
of the Irish with the Punic Languages’ (1772), published in part
of Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis (1770-1804) [infra],
and reprinted together with O’Conor’s Remarks on An Essay
on the Antiquity of the Irish Language [3rd. edn.] (London: [n.pub.]
1818); A Grammar of the Iberno-Celtic, or Irish Language (Dublin:
R. Marchbank for G. Faulkner, T. Ewing and R. Moncrieffe 1773), 4o. [copy
presented to Marsh’s Library by the author, 6 May 1773], and Do.
[2nd edn.] A Grammar of the Iberno-Celtic or Irish Language to which
is prefixed an essay on Celtic Language; shewing the importance of the
Irish dialect, to students of history and the classics (Dublin; R.
Marchbank 1782), 8o. [TCD Lib.]; A Vindication of the Ancient History
of Ireland (Dublin: Luke White 1786); also A Treatise on Inland
Navigation (Dublin 1763).
Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis [normally 6 vols; here so-called ‘second edn.’ printed for family with an additional volume printed for family], with map and plates, Vol. I [2nd edn.], from Original Manuscripts, by the late General Charles Vallancey, LLD, Life President of the Dublin Society and Member of many learned societies, &c., &c., &c. &c., Dublin: printed orginally in numbers [i.e., serially] First published anno 1780 [this copy ms. corrog. to 1770], and concluded 1808 [corrig. to 1812]: Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Number I, A Chorographical Description of the County of Westmeath, written AD 1682, by Sir Henry Piers, of Tristernaght, Baronet; published from the MSS by Major Charles Vallancey, Soc. Antiq. Hib. Soc. Dublin, Thomas Ewing M.DCC.LXX; [Vol. I to p.126]; Number II, containing, 1. A Leter form Sir John Davis [sic], to the Earl of Salisbury; 2. Original and first Institution of Corbes, Erenachs and Termon-lands, by Archbihsop Usher [sic]; 3. An Account of two Ancient Instruments lately discovered, illustrated by a drawing; published from the MSS by Major Charles Vallancey, Soc. Antiq. Hib. Sec[retary]; Dublin Thomas Ewing, M.DCC.LXXIV; Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Number III, Criticio-Historical Dissertation, concerning the Antient Irish laws or National Customs, called Gavel kind and Thanistry, or Senior Government; Part I: shewing, the Nature and primitive intent of these laws, and the rational grounds of theiroriginal institutution. Illustated by other great and flourishing nations, both European and Asiatic; also, A short Sketch [from the leabhar na gCert, or Book of Right] of the Subsidies which were furnished by the Provincial Kings of Ireland, to the different Princes and Dynasts of their Respective Provinces, and of the State Retributions, and Fiscal Supplies annually paid to the Provincial Kings by those subaltern Princes and their People; the whole intended as an essay towards furnishing some lights for future enquiries into the Origins of the antient Irish native; Dublin: Thomas Ewing, M.DCC.LXXIV. Colleactanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Number IV, A Criticos-Historical Dissertation, concerning the Laws of the Antient Irish; Part II, containing The Tanistic law of Senior-Succession, illustrated in the Historical and Genealogical Account of the Kings of Munster, being, An Esay on the General History of Munster, fromthe Beginning of the Third Century, to the year 1541, when Morrough O’Brien, surrendered his Title of King of Munster to Henry VIII, and was created Earl of Thomond and Baron of Inchinquin; compiled chiefly from the Codex Momoniensis or Book of Munster, the Annals of Innisfallen, Tighernach, Magradan and the Chronicon Scotorum of Clonmacnoise; Interpreted with Observation of the various Tribes of Belgian, Livonians, Prussians, Pomerianians, Danes, and Norwegians, who invaded this country, at different periods, to the end of the Ninth Century; to which is added, Part of the Antient Brehon Laws of Ireland; The whole intended [.... &c., as above], Dublin: Thomas Ewing M.DCC. LXXV. [Continued to 7th Vol. from set of vols. in possession of Ciaran MacNally with altered titlepages and Vallancy family library plates; incls. in vol. 7 two extra essays.]
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Criticism
Seamus Ó Casaidhe, A Book of Irish and Scottish Gaelic Verse,
Bibliographical Society of Ireland pamplet, Vol. III no. 6 (1928).
J. H. Andrews, ‘Charles Vallencey and the Map of Ireland’, in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 132, Part 1 (March 1966), pp.48-61.
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986), pp.81, 334, 337, 339, 403, 418, 419-22, 423, 424, 427, 435, 437, & 487 [a major reassessment].
R. E. Ward and C. Ward, Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (1988), , pp.427, n.2, &c.
Siobhán de hÓir, ‘The Mount Callan Ogham Stone and its Context’, in North Munster Antiquarian Journal: Irisleabhar Seandáluíochta Tuahd-Mhumhan, XXV (1983), pp.43-57.
George A Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1957), p. 83]. See also reference under John O’Donovan.]
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), Charles Vallancey produced a literary curiosity when he included an Irish translation of the Punic speech from Plautus’ Poenulus in his Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language (1772).
Loreto Todd, The Language of Irish Literature, 1989), p.96.)
Roy Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch (London: Allen Lane/Penguin 1993), p.3.
Hubert Butler, ‘Lament for Archaeology’, in Roy Foster, ed., Butler, The Sub-Prefect Should Have Held His Tongue (London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press; Dublin: Lilliput 1990), p.171.
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography, call his son of French
protestant; officer of Engineers; engineer in ordinary in Ireland, 1762;
general, 1803; FRS, 1784; ignorant of Irish, published worthless tracts
[sic] on Irish philology and history, 1772-1802 [sic].
E. R. McClintock Dix, ‘The Beaufoy Sale’ (Vol. I; August, 1909), writes: ‘A fine copy of Vallency’s Collectanea (1770-1804), six vols. in five, went for £7.’
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, a biographical note on Vallancey’s is inserted as a footnote to an Anonymous essay on ‘Our Periodical Literature’ [FDA1 1265-68], warning against contributors ruining the Magazine of Mr Duffy if they ‘serve up hashed Vallancey or pilfered Petrie’ (FDA1 1267); Vallancey is here characterised by the FDA editor as a military engineer, surveyor, and eccentric antiquarian who claimed an affinity between the Irish and the ancient Carthaginians in An essay on the antiquity of the Irish language (1772) published in Collectanea de Rebus Hibernices [?sic] (1770-90); 978n. [Vallancey as source of J. C. Walker’s assertion that there were ‘Druith Righeadh, or Royal Mimics or Comedians’ at Tara (Col. de. Rebus Hib., vol. iii, p.531) [Cf. Peter Kavanagh, Irish Theatre, 1946), comments on earliest Irish drama]; 1054 [Thomas Moore explored the Irish past in eccentric fashion with the help of O’Halloran, Warner, and Vallancey].
Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast) holds Collectanea De Rebus Hibernicis Vol. 1 (1786) [?err.]; Vol. 6 (1790); Vol. 7 (1807), all printed in Dublin.
The Linen Hall Library (Belfast) holds Vallancey’s Collectanea, No. XIV (1786); also C. Vallancey, ed., E. Ledwich, Essay on the Study of the Irish Language [apparently an erroneous conflation of ‘Essay on the Study of Irish Antiquities’ by Ledwich, and ‘Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language’ by Vallancey]; also, ‘Japonese [sic] Language collated with Irish’ (in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicus, No 10, 1782); Prospectus for a Dictionary of the Aire Coti (1802); Dissertation concerning the Ancient Irish laws (1786).
University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds A Grammar of the Iberno-Celtic or Irish Language to which is prefixed an essay on Celtic Language (Dublin 1782).
Library of Sir William Gregory held Charles Vallancey, Prospectus of a Dictionary of the Language of the Aire Coti, or ancient Irish, compared with the language of the Cuti, or ancient Persians (Dublin 1802), 4o. (See Printed Books formerly in the Library at Coole [Sotheby & Co., 21 March 1972, p.61.)
Vallancey’s Green Book, MS in RIA, includes ref. to proposals
in 1750 to print a dictionary by a schoolmaster Crab, died. c.1762, compiled
about 1740; sold by his widow to William Burton Conyngham and presented
to Vallancey; Thomas Jones auctioned Vallancey’s library in Feb.
1813, Lot 1281 [in extant catalogue] being Dictionarium trilingue [sic] sive Dictionarium Anglo Latino Hibernicum, sive Lingua hibernica rediviva,
1747, or An English, Latin and Irish Dictionary, author’s
title; bought for a Dr Adam Clarke and removed to England, it was found
in Evans’s bookshop by Hardiman in 1829, having been sent for sale
from France; now preserved in RIA in three large vols. as 24q 19-21.
‘Plearaca Na Ruarach’ [O’Rourke’s Feast’], appears in Vallancey’s Irish Grammar [2nd edn.] (1781; reiss. 1782) in the Irish version (97ll., omitting l.60) along with Jonathan Swift’s trans. of same. The text was not included in the 1773 1st edn.).
Sir Samuel Ferguson made several investigations into the ‘alleged literary forgery respecting sun-worship on Mount Callan’ (Paper in Proceedings of RIA, 1875, et al.)
James Joyce cites Vallancey’s version of Irish linguistic origins in his essay on ‘Ireland, Isle of Saints and Sages’ (Ellmann, ed., Critical Writings, p.156): ‘This language is oriental in origin, and has been identified by many philologists with the ancient language of the Phoenicians, the originators of trade and navigation, according to historians. This adventurous people, who had a monopoly of the sea, established in Ireland a civilisation that had decayed and almost disappeared before the first Greek historian took his pen in hand. ... the language that the Latin writer of comedy, Plautus, put in to the mouths of the Phoenicians in his comedy Poenulus is almost the same language that the Irish peasants speak today, according to the critic Vallancey. The religion and civilisation of this ancient people, later known by the name of Druidism, were Egyptian.’ (Cited in Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, ‘British Romans and Irish Carthaginians: Anticolonial Metaphor in Heaney, Friel and McGuinness’, PMLA, March 1996, pp.222-36, p.227; also in Norman Vance, Irish Literature: A Social History, 1990, p.227; Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses, 1994, p.36-43.
Col. Coote’s RDS Survey of Co. Derry is dedicated. to Vallancey [copy held by W. E. Andrews in Borough Offices of Coleraine Town Hall.].
Lt. Charles Vallencey, a son of Colonel Charles Vallencey, saw active service in Francis Rawdon’s regt., the Volunteers of Ireland in America; see J. H. Andrews, ‘Charles Vallencey and the Map of Ireland’ in The Geographical Journal,Vol. 132, Pt. 1 (March 1966), pp. 48-61 [Ref. supplied by Brian McGinn.] Note further, The Atlas of the American Revolution contains a map of the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, South Carolina, based on a drawing by Charles Vallency, identified as an officer in a Tory regiment, presumably Lord Rawdon's Volunteers of Ireland who were involved in that battle. [Information supplied by Brian McGinn, April 1997.]
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco