On September 6, 1798, a division of the Leicestershire Militia comprising almost six hundred men under the command of the 5th Duke of Rutland, passed through Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The officers travelled in horse-drawn carriages, followed by the privates in thirty-eight wagons, ammunition carts, and supply wagons. The population made a collection and gave each man bread, cheese, and a pint of ale. The troop had dined off the same menu at Burton upon Trent the previous day.
At Liverpool, the duke and part of the regiment boarded the Thorn Sloop of War. The remainder followed in five transport vessels. Rutland volunteered their services to help suppress the rebellion in Connaught. On September 11, the entourage arrived in Dublin, two weeks after the Battle of Castlebar and crucially, three days after the defeat of the Irish-French force at Ballinamuck. They had missed the rebellion. This, however, was not the first planned campaign by a Duke of Rutland to the west of Ireland. The duke's father made it to Castlebar just over a decade earlier.
Charles Manners (see image ) was born in England in 1754. He served as an MP between 1774 and 1779 when he became the 4th Duke of Rutland. A close ally and friend of William Pitt, Manners used his patronage to secure a seat in parliament for his friend. When Pitt became Prime Minister, he rewarded Manners by elevating him to the lord lieutenancy of Ireland in 1784.
Rutland proved to be both competent and popular. His popularity was tied to his cheerful and welcoming personality, a charming and beautiful wife, and a reputation for extravagance, drinking, and gambling. His sumptuous dinners and receptions at Dublin Castle and the Vice Regal Lodge in the Phoenix Park were the talk of Georgian Dublin.
In 1785, Manners' efforts to have legislation enacted to facilitate free trade between Ireland and Britain, failed, leaving Manners feeling dejected. With an eye to the future, Manners warned Pitt that the connection between Britain and Ireland would be broken in twenty years in the absence of a legal union. In the summer of 1787, Manners embarked on a lengthy and arduous tour. Travel in Ireland was fraught with discomfort, and this and Manners' fondness for the Claret Jug took its toll.
On September 17, 1787, Manners and his touring party arrived in Castlebar. As lord lieutenant, he would have gained significant insight into the town and its many curious personalities from the trials of George Robert Fitzgerald and others a year earlier. Fitzgerald was not there to greet him, having been hanged in June 1786.
During the visit, the Portrieve, Burgess, and Corporation of Castlebar, presented an address to the duke. The Corporation thanked Manners for 'his condescension in visiting a place so remote from the seat of government' and did not hold back on the praise, adoration, and fawning for the duke and his government – (it was not every day that the lord lieutenant visited Castlebar ), stating: "It is with infinite satisfaction we behold the son of that illustrious and distinguished nobleman, who fought our battles and established the military fame and reputation of these kingdoms by his heroic achievements; and we eagerly seize this fortunate event to testify our approbation at having a Chief Governor who inherits not only the virtues of his ancestors but who has given them an additional lustre by conduct as a Statesman."
The lengthy address continued in the same vein and concluded with congratulations to the duke for restoring peace and order throughout the kingdom. The Corporation requested permission from the duke to 'enrol the name of Manners amongst our Citizens' and to do them the honour of accepting the 'Freedom of this loyal Corporation'. Manners accepted the offer of the Freedom of Castlebar. Not surprisingly, newspaper reports did not record what disloyal citizens thought of the celebrity duke. They would have their say in August 1798.
Manners completed his tour and returned to Dublin. He died of liver disease a few weeks later, at 33. His son John Henry Manners missed the rebellion in 1798 but saw his father's wish for a union between Ireland and Britain fulfilled in 1800.
