James Bartholomew Blackwell (1763–1820) was an Irish officer in the service of France who received commissions from Louis XVI, the First French Republic and later Emperor Napoleon.
Following service in defence of the Republic, at the behest of United Irish emissaries, he twice sailed for Ireland: in advance of the Rebellion of 1798 with General Hoche in December 1796, and with Napper Tandy after its defeat in September 1798.
At the age of eleven, James left Ennis for Paris, and there he entered the Collège des Lombards on the burse founded by his late granduncle, Dr. Murray, and he began his ecclesiastical studies.
[2] Lecky observed that they returned to Ireland 'with a real and varied knowledge of the world ... the manners and feelings of cultivated gentlemen and a high sense of clerical decorum.
Correspondence during the decade preceding the French Revolution gives the impression of an academic world deeply concerned about the number of prizes the Irish were awarded each year.
'[4] "Irish Catholics," Swords writes, "or at least the strong farmers and well-off shopkeepers who insisted on sending their sons to Paris to be educated – were very loath to pay for them.
Dr Charles Kearney, who became superior of the Collège des Irlandais in 1782, complained that often they sent their sons of thirteen or fourteen years of age with only one half-term or quarter-term's fee and that nothing ever followed despite frequent solicitations.
"[5] Some scholars' financial destitution is further illustrated when, in 1789, Henry Essex Edgeworth wrote to his friend bishop Francis Moylan of Cork on behalf of one Fitzgerald, a medical student who was obliged to borrow five guineas, to persuade his father to send him money to pay his debts and return fare home.
At 8 am on 29 October 1792 the two deputies who had been authorised to supervise the election of a new administrator by the students arrived at Collège des Irlandais and called upon Truchon, substitute procurator of the Commune, to join them.We assembled all the young Irish bursary-holders of the said establishment in the chapel, we read to them there out loud article 8 of the rules of the establishment and in pursuance of the said article obtained from them the prescribed oath, by which they swore to elect, according to their conscience, the most suitable persons, swayed neither by personal interest nor solicitation and we then proceeded to the nomination of a Provisor-Superior, by means of a ballot.
When John Baptist Walsh reopened the college after the Treaty of Amiens (1802), instead of founding bursaries 'which experience had taught him, proved of little value to the Irish mission', he devised what he called 'annual pensions of encouragement.'
[citation needed] Presumably this is what happened to James Blackwell as in 1786 he subsequently joined the Regiment de Walsh, part of the Irish Brigade (France) in the French army, becoming, at the same time, a naturalized citizen of his adopted country, a fact that undoubtedly saved his life later on.
According to the Irish historian Richard Hayes (politician), "Before the outbreak of the Revolution, Blackwell had associated himself with the reform party, becoming an intimate friend of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins and the other leading spirits of the clubs who helped to precipitate the insurrection of the fourteenth of July 1789.
In the popular mind, the Bastille was conceived as a symbol of royal despotism, as attested to by Eoghan O Néill's comment: 'Whatever the designs of the founders the use of it is in the end a disgrace to any nation.
'[12] Hayes relates that: "Early on that day a section of the Faubourg Saint Antoine – a district noted as the nursery of Paris revolutions – chose James Bartholomew Blackwell as their leader for the attack on the Bastille.
James Bartholomew Blackwell's name, however, is absent from the official list of heroes, les vainqueurs de la Bastille consisting of 863 other signatures.
[14] When the Regiment de Walsh disbanded in 1791 Blackwell became a captain in the Hussards Braconniers, or Poacher Hussars, an irregular cavalry corps raised by Jean Landrieux 'who placed it at the disposal of the Jacobin committees that were then relentlessly pursuing the proscribed nobles as traitors to France.
They also won a decisive victory over the Austrians in the Battle of Jemappes on 6 November, 'which placed the country at their mercy and made clear their intentions of carrying their revolution abroad.
Blackwell and his peers denounced Kearney to the Committee of Public Safety, accusing him of encouraging the students to join the army of the Princes and of giving them money and letters of recommendation for that purpose; of receiving refractory priests, giving them food and lodgings, allowing them to preach against the constitution and 'poison the minds of the students with aristocratic maxims' and permitting ordinations by refractory bishops; of misappropriating and squandering college revenues, running the college into debt, reducing the bursary-holders to destitution and failing to present accounts; and finally of receiving and harbouring the property of émigrés.
[16] Swords suggests that: "It was probably Madgett who advised the rebels to appeal the decision to restore Kearney to the National Convention [and that] in this they were supported by two deputies, Santhonax and Léonard-Bourdon.
"But subsequently," Hayes continues, "at the height of the Terror, when Murat was in danger from his enemies, who tried to bring him under the law of suspects by proving that he was of aristocratic lineage, Blackwell sheltered him from their fury and saved his life.
And when Murat was seeking to be appointed Commander of the new Cavalry Guard of the Directory of Paris, a memorial was drawn up by the officers of the regiment, which, headed by Blackwell's name as Captain, recommended him for the post by reason of his ability, courage and patriotism.
He was put in charge of the Anacreon, one of the fastest sailing corvettes in the French navy, to rush stores to Jean Joseph Amable Humbert's forces and those Irish expected to flock to his standard.
This was opposed by the spies Orr and Murphy who according to Rupert J. Coughlan, "…begged to be allowed to take to the mountains for the purpose of fostering the cause of liberty and preparing the people for the arrival of General Hardy's expedition that was to follow.
Perry's colleague, Thomas Dowsett, corroborated this by reporting that Blackwell said that the conduct of the expedition fell chiefly on him as "N. Tandy was always drunk and incapable of acting."
[29] In fact, had Tandy been incapable he could not have prevented Blackwell from killing Murphy for disputing the re-embarkation order; the total absence from the ship amounted to less than six hours in all, with much needing to be done during that brief period their itinerary could not afford a visit to the island inn; Blackwell was an experienced professional soldier with a thorough knowledge of the language, Napper Tandy, in the circumstances, was obliged to place more than usual reliance on him – hence the 'leading strings' allegation; and lastly, the post of adjutant-general is an office and not a rank.
[37] Weber informs us that among the letters found upon Blackwell's person, there is one unfinished, the completion of which appears to have been prematurely prevented during those early hours of the twenty-fourth: "He must have left Lady Pamela's home in a state of emotional confusion" and, influenced by "a guilty conscience, wrote, 'there, dear Madam, let us have none affliction in the common of two.'
[42] Weber writes: "The distinguishing feature of his letters is the intrepid persistence with which he maintained his political convictions, and yet, one simply cannot avoid being filled with wonder in the face of Blackwell's eccentric patriotism.
[citation needed] In March 1800 Blackwell propositioned the English government with the possibility of an exchange for some British officer of equal rank held by France.
In the year 1806, when the Irish legion was based at Boulogne-sur-Mer prior to their departure for the Spanish campaign, Blackwell was advancing on Warsaw in an effort to crush what remained of Prussian resistance.
It is also possible that he participated in the Russian Campaign, and was probably wounded, for an Order dated September 1813 appoints him Commander of the town of Bitche in Northeast France (Alsace) "when his period of convalescence would have expired".