55. Washington, The Mad King (George III) & Newenham - Part II

55. Washington, The Mad King (George III) & Newenham - Part II

As per the previous post that had ties to "Hamilton" the musical, new information or should I say a new perspective, has been found, about Sir Edward Newenham's dealings in Politics. Many of these blogs have very similar tie-ins to each other, but with Newenham & his vast communications, whilst the blog post may sound the same, they have different aspects or different points of view to them.

On many occasions, that I researched in the past few years, I just couldn't find the story on why Newenham was the way he was. He was chanting & raving on one hand, but quite the opposite on the other hand.
"Hamilton" the musical, helped visualise the dealings with people at that time. In particular, the "Mad King" George III & the way he dealt with the American Independence (Separation from England).

Newenham was part of the political "Irish Patriot Party" culture of the mid to late 1700's.
At first, I didn't understand the Party's mantra, but it is explained easily by "wikipedia" :

 "primarily supportive of Whig concepts of personal liberty combined with an Irish identity that rejected full independence, but advocated strong self-government within the British Empire".

James Kelly's book on Newenham & various sources easily attainable, show that Newenham was going a little bit more than just "wanting Ireland to self govern under English rule". He was advocating instances of wanting to separate England & Ireland, in a somewhat political way. But in understanding this, Newenham was a bit more vocal about it, in particular with total separation, than his Patriot Party was willing to go along with, particularly from the very late 1770s & 1780's on.
It was here I understood, that Newenham most possibly was in the wrong Political Party, because Grattan & Flood, were all about "Irish identity" & did not take the view of becoming fully independent from England, they seemed to quash any sort of full independent talks  - it was only done in a political/legislative way.
Newenham was quite outspoken & went a bit further outside his Party's mantra, whereby it seems that he was the only one doing the talking, some felt he was "silly" when he spoke outside his party's views. I felt that he had become separated from his fellow party members, because no-one backed him up or atleast showed interest in it. His party stood their ground & Newenham his. As I noted in the previous post, this type of rhetoric was picked by John Adams & Marquis Lafayette, who made commentary on Newenham's motives. James Kelly highlights that Lafayette did offer a base of substance by saying that King George's "tyrannical" ruling did offer such a response from Newenham's views, but the Irish revolution for Independency "was not ripe" to be had. The irony of Lafayette's wording, was just a few years before, the events of '98.

It was around the time of 1780-1783, that I believe the "knight in shining amour" had arrived & inspired a vision for Newenham.
It was George Washington - Chief Commander of the Continental Army & his big white valiant horse named "Independence".

Newenham was all over George, like a rock band groupie of the 1960's. He wrote very spirited letters of gratitude / daily life / farming & poetry aimed at England's woes & America's rising up to be a superpower. When Washington responded to Newenham's letters, Newenham glowed like nuclear reactor on high, with nothing but admiration for the General. I suppose, "puppy love" at it's foremost part.

It was when I saw this style of friendship form, along with other Founding Fathers of America, I had seen a shift in how the British saw Newenham, on a personal level & political level.
Case in point, those who know the "Benedict Arnold / Major Peter Andre" affair, would also understand how the British would see an Irish MP who, communicates with American Founding Fathers showering them with glowing admiration, along with motives to separate Ireland from England.
As in the previous post, I noted that the Duke of Rutland noticed Newenham conversing with the Founding Fathers, in what could be claimed as "treasonous behaviour" against England. That is, "treasonous" being said from the English side, not the Irish. Rutland noted Newenham's correspondence & fowarded his views to William Pitt (Prime Minister). Pitt then told King George III & they placed Newenham on a watch list.

Newenham had also personally written to King George III & also was very vocal about when King George was "going mad", that a Prince Regent should be appointed in Ireland, whereby it would be in Ireland's favour to do so.

Next post will be about the Washington Letter to Newenham, discussing the "Montgomery Introduction" & the letter's ramifications 150-200 years later.
It's taken 10 years to get a story out of this 1 piece of paper & I feel that I've finally got to the deep core, of how this letter came about. The last few months has opened quite the deep story, something that I did not expect to find. Literally blew my mind.




 

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54. Hamilton The Musical & Newenham - "Not throwing away my shot" & "Washington on your side"

Hamilton The Musical & Newenham
"Not throwing away my shot" & "Washington on your side"

A recent visit to see the hit musical "Hamilton", has re-invigorated a lot of thoughts, with historical documents via relative Sir Edward Newenham & some of the stories that relate to the Found Fathers of America.

It's not so much about Hamilton himself that set it off, but it's the way the songs were written & portrayed in the Musical. I got lost in a few songs, because my historical research with my somewhat "politically controversial" relative - Sir Edward Newenham, he had a lot of similarities of the time, to that of Alexander Hamilton's story.

The lyrics of the songs, opened up a plethora of feelings, thoughts & most of all "visions", on how to perceive the events unfolding in the newly Independent America. Comparing Hamilton's story, to that of Newenham, gives a good insight, into how the inner sanctum of politics & war worked with the Leaders of America, is. Even though you could say - "Hamilton" is not 100% accurate to base off, it still did carry the story the narrative of my thoughts. Certain things in the musical didn't fit with how the songs were to be played out, so some slight lyric adjustments were made to fit with the vibe of the story.

But, it also keyed a thought that I had never entertained - Did Hamilton ever communicate with or by chance know of Newenham?

  

In the short, there hasn't been any documentation found to date, to suggest that Hamilton & Newenham had any form of communication between them.

However, with the circles of communication & including the people in "the room where it happens", there is every chance that Hamilton may have come across the name or character of Newenham, but most possibly by verbal form only.

My reason is that there is so much communication between Franklin, Washington, Adams & Lafayette, including others, who all knew of Newenham, and would have discussed Irish affairs at some point in their meetings, with the context of how hard the Irish Nation had suffered under England's tight grip. In particular, in the scenarios that are played out in the "Founders Online" Archive, many letters written by the circle of Founding Fathers did not mention Newenham directly in regards to Hamilton.
But he is mentioned or referenced in footnotes, concerning that particular article (the footnote usually references a letter between Newenham & Washington or Franklin, to give concept to that article).

Not knowing much of Hamilton, my initial introduction to Hamilton, was a couple of years ago, when I listened to a podcast called "Presidencies of The United States" by Jerry Landry. He draws on his own interpretation of Hamilton and how he fits in with the narrative. Part of his podcasts went over the "Reynolds Affair", where for me, it got interesting.

In particular to the extortion part & how Hamilton procured funds to pay off James Reynolds is just too intriguing. It opened a plethora of thoughts, about how he got into that mess or more so, how he tried to get out of it.

And because of this part, I was so intrigued by how a Musical, could portray this scene. Would it be very factual, somewhat factual, or just be a very loose dramatisation of the events. I was happy with the way it was portrayed, as it helped visualise, Jerry Landry's depiction of the events. And from what I know, Newenham didn't have a "Reynolds" story either.

  

About 1-2 weeks after seeing the musical, I could not get some of the songs out of my head. They were very catchy tunes. So catchy, they sit in your head for days, even weeks. 

For me, what sold it, was in the 3 songs from George III (The Mad King).

The lyrics in "You'll Be Back", show that George III is telling the Founding Fathers, that you may not come back now, but eventually you will come back to me - because "You belong to me".

And if you don’t - "I will send a fully armed Battalion, to remind you of my love" & "I will kill your Friends & Family, to remind you of my love".

It highlights, pure quintessential childish "madness" - where a person doesn't get their way, they will hurt or kill everyone.

Information within James Kelly's book on Newenham, shows that Newenham was subjected to a similar circumstance.

It is noted that Duke of Rutland, had suspicions of Newenham's "extensive foreign correspondence" with the newly separated American "Founding Fathers". Rutland briefed William Pitt (Prime Minister). Pitt, then discussed it with George III, that Newenham was entangled with a plan, to get Ireland to follow suit of America, with becoming Independent from the Monarchy. That sent George into a tizzy, where he placed Newenham on a "Watch List". But it seems as time went on, the evidence against Newenham, became less & less, and Ministers realised it wasn't really what they thought it was. They realised Newenham wasn't of importance anymore, so they dropped him off the list.
But needless to say, this "Watch List", I wonder what the outcome would have been for Newenham if George III or Pitt took it any further?

 

Newenham was a true "fanboi" of Washington. And Washington was very fond of his Irish friend.
Washington even made the friendly implication to Newenham "Hey buddy, you can stay at my house & we can play".
If fate had its way, my 4th Great Grandfather should have been an American, under this letter's ideals.
Another Hamilton song lyric sits exactly here "It must be nice..It must be nice...to have Washington on your side". Never a truer word said here, that indeed, Washington was on his side - for many years.

Newenham was so besotted with the idea of becoming independent from England & his greatest idol - Washington, actually managed to get the job done. It became almost like a Painting on Steroids for Newenham. Picasso or a Warhol maybe?

But for some reason, Newenham followed this dream alone. His Party seemed to have held back from Newenham's commentary. From what I can make of it, Newenham didn't have the backing from others, with his ideals of separating Ireland from England. But as Lafayette colloquially put it to Washington, Newenham's voice was just "Parliamentary Barking". John Adams had a taste of Newenham's words too, but I found it confusing to interpret in which manner he meant it. Adams noted it as "Foundations of another Revolution".

I don't know if Adams, was supporting Newenham's notion for it or critiquing the comment, to say that Newenham is stirring things up so much, that it's quite dangerous for 1 person to pursue?

Like Hamilton, Newenham had 3 documented "quarrel ending" Duels. But it is unsure if there were any more.

2nd Jan 1774 saw the first duel with Benjamin Geale - ironically held near church grounds in Dublin. James Napper Tandy was Newenham's "second".

Just 6 weeks later, Newenham still steaming after Geale's encounter, seemed very irate at Sheriff John Tucker & went a pistoling again. Pistols fired & the shots missed (unknown if intentional or not), Newenham was still so pissed, that he drew his sword, but no one was injured from this fracas. 

1778 saw the 3rd Duel, with John Beresford (Beresford challenged Newenham). Shots were fired & Newenham came away alive, but with a grazed leg.

Did Newenham “throw away his shot”. Hard to interpret the details, but I think from the 2nd & 3rd encounter, I think the aim was much "tighter" than the first.

With all these Duels happening, it was well after my lineage was born, so if Newenham was mortally wounded in the same circumstance as Hamilton, we would have still survived.

Newenham even lamented his Dueling days with Washington, by saying "Public Meetings & Private Duels have much injured my bones & frame". At the time he was writing this letter, it seems he was a little bit drunk. He was drinking Claret & toasting to Washington & became very sentimental, about the fact that he wished to visit Mount Vernon, for him to be in pure happiness.

Mount Vernon seemed to soothe Newenham's pain, from life. His eternal nirvana I think.

I think there is still more to discover with the communication between Newenham & the Founding Fathers, that this blog is just a "taster", to what still lies undiscovered. And this blog may be updated at a later date, where extra details exist.

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