Sir Edward Crosbie, 5th Baronet
Sir Edward Crosbie, 5th Baronet (c. 1755 – 5 June 1798)[1][2] was a Protestant gentleman executed in Carlow, Ireland, for alleged complicity in the United Irish Rebellion in May 1798.
[9]Crosbie was nevertheless accused of supporting the United Irishmen, on account of the seditious behaviour of his servants, Thomas Myler, and John Finn, who had joined the rebellious movement.
[7] Turtle Bunbury states that "on 24th May 1798, the Viewmount estate was the chosen location for over a thousand United Irishmen from across Leinster to meet in advance of the next days attack on Carlow Town.
"[2] J.J. Woods explains that the authorities assumed that the meeting had been orchestrated by Crosbie, who was "accused … of being in command of the rebels and of addressing them from the steps of the house prior to their departure for the town".
They entitled this: An Accurate and Impartial Narrative of the Apprehension, Trial & Execution, on the 5th of June, 1798 of Sir Edward William Crosbie, Bart.
[4] In preparing their evidence of Crosbie’s innocence, members of his family and friends wrote a footnote, stating: [10] Amongft the numerous reports of this nature we cannot forbear to mention the following: ─ That Sir Edward Crosbie, during the interval between his trial and execution, wrote a letter to Sir Charles Asgill, in which he acknowledged the justice of the sentence, and only requested that the mode of execution might be varied.
The court-martial proceedings have been recorded by J.J. Woods:[12] and at the conclusion of his trial, Crosbie stated: I most solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that I am not, nor ever have been, a Member of the Society of United-Irishmen; ...J.J. Woods continues: "By way of conclusion, therefore, we shall now sum up in one view the several particulars, which we consider to have been clearly substantiated in the preceding pages, relative to the harsh and injurious treatment Sir Edward Crosbie experienced with regard to his trial and the execution of the dreadful sentence consequent upon it, from which the impartial Reader will have seen — That Sir Edward William Crosbie was brought to his trial, without being previously informed of the charges that were laid against him.
That in consequence of this circumstance, and the unexpected precipitancy of his trial, contrary to the express engagement of the commanding officer Colonel Mahon, Sir Edward was destitute of proper counsel.
"This horrid spectacle [his dismembered head erected in view of his home, where his widow and children were unable to avoid witnessing it] remained indeed but a short time; ..." When the head was removed from its spike, his widow had to bury the dismembered parts of his body in her garden at View-Mount until, eventually, and "not without considerable opposition, ... the body was removed by a worthy and respectable clergyman of the Church of England to a neighbouring church-yard, that it might receive the rites of Christian burial in consecrated ground".
[12] Victor Hadden reports that "years afterwards when he [Thomas Myler] was no longer in danger and when Sir Edward was only a memory, he was cross-examined and after over a century has passed his statement is now on record for all to read.
No person dare propose such a thing to him and if the United Irishmen happened to be mentioned in ordinary conversation he would remark: 'Ah, they are foolish people; I pity them; they do not know what they are doing.'
But as respects the night of the insurrection, it was a rule with Sir Edward, when the business of the day was over, to go to his study and when he once went in we saw no more of him till next morning and he knew no more of what was doing in the house or about it during that time than a man twenty miles off."
