Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Emily Butler, Lady Caher, to Lady Morgan, 6 November 1813
November 6, 1813.
My dear Lady Morgan,
You see that I do not lose a moment in obeying your
orders, and be assured that you ought to give me some credit, as I am in
general but a bad correspondent. Your inquiries as to whether you are to make
Mr. Shee your hero, has amused me considerably. The
Evening Post inserted a long list
of lies upon his subject, at which I laughed heartily at the time. You
certainly could not have applied to a better person than myself for information
with respect to him, as I know his birth, parentage and adventures, perfectly.
He is of a low family. One of his sisters was bound to a milliner, at Kilkenny,
and used to bring ribbons, gauzes, &c., to the Miss
Bensfords, when their father was Bishop
of Ossory. Another of his ![]()
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sisters was
married to a coachmaker. His brother was foreman to the said coachmaker, and is
now elevated to the rank of ganger in the excise by Lord Cahir’s interest. The hero was in the Irish brigade
at St. Domingo; but as to his prodigies of valour, I never heard anything of
them. He came to London starving. Lord Cahir fed him with
money till he was rather tired of so doing, and offered to get him a commission
in the army, which he declined, unless the Duke of
York would give him a majority at once. Lord
Cahir was induced to present a memorial to this effect, and the
answer was, that it was then unheard of in the service, but that a cornetcy was
at Lord Cahir’s command. Shee
declined it. He then married the daughter of a button maker, by whom he
expected to get some cash. Being also disappointed in this, and fighting
considerably with the lady and her buttons, he packed up his portmanteau and
set off to France, where he entered the French service, and became aidde-camp
to General Clark, who is a distant relation of his. He has since been made a
lieutenant-colonel of a regiment, and was mentioned in some of the French
generals’ despatches in Spain, as having eaten up the English army. By
some extraordinary accident, however, Lord
Wellington has “lived to fight another day;” and
should the hero Shee be taken, which is by no means impossible, he will swing
on Tyburn tree. Nothing, in my mind, can justify a man in fighting against his
own country,—not even your seducing pen can make it palatable to my old
English prejudices, particularly when he had a very reasonable sufficiency ![]()
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in this country; for I have forgotten to state that
Lord Cahir gave him a farm near Cahir, out of which he
at this moment receives a very handsome profit rent. Had he chosen to have gone
into our service, Lord Cahir would have pushed him
forward; as it is now fourteen years since he was offered a commission, he
might have been as high in the English as he is now in the French service,
without the stigma of being a traitor, and without the certainty of being
hanged, if taken. Lord Cahir did push on another brother
to the rank of major in our army, in which rank he died. So much for our hero.
And now I have only to request you to burn this letter, as I have no
inclination to be quoted in anything that concerns him.
Excuse me now, if from being over anxious for the fate of
a work, which, coming from your pen, will, I am sure, have so much to recommend
it, I venture an opinion. Do not mix anything of religious or political
opinions in a work intended only to amuse,—it will lay you open to
animadversion, and party may influence opinion.
Yours truly,
William Beresford, first baron Decies (1743-1819)
The son of Marcus Beresford, first Earl of Tyrone; educated at Trinity College, Dublin,
he was Bishop of Dromore (1780), Bishop of Ossory (1782) and Archbishop of Tuam (1794). He
was raised to the peerage in 1812.
Emily Butler, countess of Glengall [née Jeffreyes] (d. 1836)
The daughter of James St John Jeffreyes of Blarney Castle; in 1793 she married Richard
Butler (1775-1819) eleventh baron Caher and first earl of Glengall. She was the original of
Lady Singleton in Lady Morgan's novel
O'Donnel.
Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827)
He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the
scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.
