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(Belfast Born, Bred And Buttered)

Chapter Two

Edward Newell. Informer. Belfast 1798

 

Edward John Newell was born, 29th June 1771 at Downpatrick, Co. Down to parents, both of whom descended from Scottish parents who had fled from that country during the rebellion there to avoid persecution. At age 17 , his wretched selfishness was so apparent, as his father lay on his sick bed, feeling, as he wrote later, that his parents, particularly his mother had no love for him, he set off to live abroad. First he attempted to go to Spain, then America, but on both occasions his ship was boarded by British navy frigates who pressed many men on board into naval service, after a second attempt of boarding a ship for America, he gave up when the ship was forced to return to port, this same ship , by the way, later sank off the coast of Newfoundland, he spent some time in Limerick then Dublin where he worked for his father in his painting and glazing firm for about a year, before arriving in Belfast in 1796, aged 25, where he took up his trade of Miniature Portraiture, a trade he admitted he served no time to and apparently it brought little financial success to him as he lived almost like a waif in Belfast, where his much vocal admiration of the principles and aspirations of the United Irishmen afforded him the company of many local patriotic people, and indeed the sympathy and charity of them, he even wrote, “.. I suffered the greatest distress that poverty and sickness could inflict; yet such was the confidence reposed in me by the people, that at a time when my situation might have warranted suspicion they fully confided in me”, One of those whom he ’befriended’ was the infamous, Belle Martin, barmaid, informer and prostitute, whom the government employed as an informer on the soldiers from Blaris camp, near Lisburn, four of whom were executed as members of the Unitedmen.

He was enrolled into the Society of United Irishmen at the Mill Street home (Mill Street would now be the upper part of Castle Street) of Margaret Magee, a publican. Also living in Mill Street, with his wife and sons, Joseph and Bob, was George Murdoch, Hearth Tax Collector, but as well as collecting Taxes Murdoch and his family also collected information on the United Irishmen to pass onto the local Military. At some point in 1796 Newell became a lodger at the Murdoch home, indeed more like a member of the family than a mere lodger, one of the sons, Bob, is mentioned as being a very active informer, although Newell seemed to fit in so well with the Murdoch family in later life he was to describe the Murdoch’s, his ’friends’, as “..These blood thirsty cannibals..” The Murdoch house was perhaps the most armed home in Belfast, it was absolutely coming down with arms, so much so that the local Unitedmen had planned a raid for arms on it, a fact that Newell gleaned as a member of the Society and passed onto Murdoch who immediately had a military guard posted. It was not unusual for Murdoch to fire on people whom he thought to be Unitedmen if they passed his house late at night, It was at this point of ‘mutual consideration’ , that Murdoch told Newell that the authorities were well aware of his link with the United Irishmen and his life was in danger so perhaps he should come over to the side of the Government. There is little doubt that Newell was the most active, informer, and important, ever in the history of Belfast republicanism. Newell first began giving information to a Robert Kingsmill, Commandant of the Castlereagh Calvary, whom he described as “an honest Orangeman”. Newell’s information was considered so important that he was sent to Dublin to meet the highest authority. When Newell was introduced to Under-Secretary Edward Cooke in Dublin by Murdoch , Cooke assured Newell that, “You shall have unlimited powers, take up all you know, no matter about warrants, you can get them afterwards when we know their names. Gen. Lake and Col. Barbour will assist you in anything”. Then Cooke immediately dispatched an astonishing letter, dated, 15th April 1797, to no less a personage as the Officer commanding the British troops in the North, General Lake, it was nothing short of a Government commission to Newell, higher than the rank of General?.. And a blank cheque as well! in fact the rank he was given was Lieutenant ...the letter read in its entirety is quite startling …

“To Lieutenant-Gen. Lake. Belfast”.

“Mr. Murdoch, a firm friend of Government, accompanies a Mr Newell who has given us the most valuable information concerning the United Irishmen of the north; you will allow him any money or number of your men he may demand; they are to obey his orders and you are to take his advise in all affairs relative to this business”.

I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,

“Edward Cooke”

There is evidence that this order was resented by General Lake, but obviously fearing the consequences of refusing it, he delegated his subordinate, Col. Barbour to work with Newell, a task Col. Barbour entered into most enthusiastically, As an army Lieutenant Newell now had excess to military establishments and it was those that he first targeted to rid them of rebels or traitor’s as he seen them. A step that Gen. Lake was so vehemently opposed to, but Newell arrested and put on trial many members of the Monaghan Militia.

Then Newell took to the streets of Belfast in military uniform, his face blackened and covered by a handkerchief accompanied by a platoon of soldiers reeking havoc on the homes of people he claimed were United Irishmen or sympathisers, and thus Newell and his Terrorist Battalion was unleashed on the people of not only Belfast but parts of County Antrim and Co. Down and within one year he had sent 227 to languish in cell, Bastille or in the hold of a tender, not counting those whom he sent to their deaths, over 300 men and their families had to scatter to the winds, to hide in remote regions or seek shelter in far off lands, on learning that Newell was in pursuit of them. After every raid, in his own words, he said, “..we returned with the Colonel (Barbour) where with wine, loyal toasts and execrating of the rebels we spent the remainder of the night, and then in greatness of style, were guarded to our respective habitations”. All this did not go unheeded by the townspeople, in fact the “Northern Star”, newspaper of the United Irishmen published the following…“Belfast. Friday, April 28th 1797”..

”Though great rout has been made about people taking up arms with their faces blackened, yet there is no notice taken of a ruffian, who, with a handkerchief on his face, haunts the town to the ruin of peace and conviviality; and one, who, if we are informed right, is to receive £3,000, for swearing to every man obnoxious to the Government”

The following month, 5th May 1797, Robert Newell, Newell’s brother had the following inserted in the “Northern Star”, hoping to disassociate the Newell family from the obnoxious actions of his eldest brother…..

“I, Robert Newell, Jun, apprentice to Mr. Moore Echlin, attorney; having learned with unfeigned concern that my brother, Edward John Newell, miniature painter, has been for some time past, in the practise of going through the town of Belfast, disguised in the dress of a light horseman, with his face blackened, and accompanied by a guard of soldiers, pointing out certain individuals who have in consequence been apprehended and put in prison, and that this practise has been repeated night after night, and a number of inhabitants of the town have been so taken up and confined in barracks and military prisons. Now, howsoever, severely I feel the mortification of being driven to publish the misconduct of an unfortunate brother, I think it justice to my own character to express my abhorrence of so an unworthy a proceeding. If this unfortunate young man had become fairly acquainted with any fact, which in conscience and honour he thought necessary to public justice to disclose, I should never have censured him either publicly or privately, had he come forward, and had been fairly confronted with the accused, but to act the part of a secret and treacherous informer, is to do what in my mind is a violation of every principle of conscience, honour or manhood. This young man has been unluckily disconnected for some years past from his family, and I trust but for this circumstance, he could never have fallen into such company, or such a course of life as he appears to have led, Robert Newell. Jun. Great Britain Street, Dublin.”

All this had no effect on Newell, in fact, he published a reply saying the letter was merely signed by his brother, but was in fact, written by his father who was prompted to do so through fear of reprisals on the family by the United Irishmen, an organisation, he said, he knew him to despise, then he went a bit further hoping to sway his argument by saying that the reason he was disassociated from his family in the first place was because his father disowned him initially for being a member of the Society Of United Irishmen. A point I feel I must here inject, one that historians seem to miss out on, is that Edward Newell not only turned his back on his family but on their Presbyterian faith, for which generations of the family had suffered persecution to maintain, he had by now become an Anglican and referred to that church as “our Holy Church”, in a letter to George Murdoch, and in fact had became a member of the Orange Order. So Edward Newell was unrepentant for his cruelty and treachery, even at the expense of losing his family, for he had already turned his back on them and all they stood for. For the next eight months he continued with his reign of terror, backed and supported by the Government and local military forces and it is interesting to note even after eight months, since his brothers newspaper letter, he was still raiding homes and brutalizing people, of a particular raid he and Murdoch led, December 1797, in Holywood, Co. Down, Newell had this to write…. “As we had every liberty, it being a proclaimed County, Murdoch and I searched several houses for arms, etc, racking everything, burning and destroying at pleasure, treating the inhabitants with such brutality that some of the women on account of it, fell with violent and dangerous convulsions” , they went on to raid several more homes in the area, and Newell wrote of the terror and nakedness of the females of the houses, of the teasing and laughter of his troops, and ..“when tired of this virtuous and noble amusement, we retired, to drown in drink and exultation - our villainy, the terrors of darkness and any thought of regret that should chance to occur for the atrocious barbarity of our conduct”, this mention of women, bearing in mind that Newell through his association with Belle Martin and other local prostitutes through his later drunken period when he boasted of spending £2,000, which he received in payment from Cooke, a huge amount, on drunken debauchery, (his words) he had a history or using and abusing women , at one point he even ran off with Murdoch’s wife to Dublin where after a short period he tired off her and sent Murdoch a letter where to pick her up, so writers of early accounts of Newell merely hint, leaving it to their readers to ’read between the lines’ that this miscreant was busy in more than one kind of terrorism, with women coming in for special kind of treatment. On the issue of Mrs Murdoch, he had this to say, “A communication being now opened between Mrs Murdoch and me, she agreed and accompanied an elopement and after living with me for twelve days I found it necessary to quit the Kingdom and in order to get rid of her informed Murdoch where she was.” .. On receiving Newell’s letter Murdoch went along and brought his wife home.

As for Mrs Murdoch , she was no shrinking violet, for one must recall her actions at the home of the elderly Teeling parents, who, when after losing their home at Poleglass they took shelter in a house in Mill Street, near to the where the Murdoch’s lived, a loyalist crowd attacked the house, one of many such attacks, and Mrs Murdoch was reported to be seen dancing in the street holding a clock above her head and shouting, chanting, “I got their Clock, I got the croppies clock”. On another occasion while she and her family were returning from a visit to Dundonald, she leapt of her coach and brandished a sabre at three young men accusing them of being “croppies” forcing them to run for their lives. The Murdoch’s were cruel and ferocious loyalists. even in June 1797, at the King of England’s birthday celebrations they roamed the streets with local militia, wrecking the homes and business premises of those who had not specially illuminated their windows in celebration of the Kings birthday, among those premises wrecked was the jewellers shop of James McCabe, a Quaker, who lived at “Vicinage” and who is accredited with the having forced the pro-slavery business men of Belfast to abort their plans to enter into that obnoxious trade, he was also father of the noted patriot Putnam McCabe, on this occasion McCabe had the last laugh, the following morning he put up a sign at his shop which read…

”Thomas McCabe. The Irish Slave. Licensed to sell Gold & Silver”.

Newell paid repeated visits to Dublin Castle during 1798, where he wined and

dined most lavishly, often holding elaborate parties for his cronies and throughout this he received regular letters from Murdoch who on every occasion remarked, “Mrs Murdoch asks about you”… or Mrs Murdoch says “you should write more often” once she even threatened to ‘flog him’ if he didn’t write more often., all of which to an astute reader sounded quite ominous, but when a trunk Newell send up from Dublin, containing a lot of his personal things, to the Murdoch home, arrived in a wrecked condition and according to Murdoch, much was gone and contained just some old papers, alarm bells surely should have started ringing for Newell and Mrs Murdoch, and the sudden fits of jealousy that Murdoch began showing, ultimately accusing Newell of stealing his wife’s affections, for Newell well knew the trunk had contained some incriminating letters from Mrs Newell to him, surely Murdoch had came across the letters in the busted trunk. One can’t be sure just which Mrs Murdoch it was, was it old George’s wife or his son Joseph’s wife, most probably it was the son’s wife., as a line in Newell letter hints at this, oddly there is no reference anywhere of Joseph Murdoch, unlike his brother Bob, being involved in any of his family’s or Newell’s behaviour or actions but there is much evidence that if he was the husband of the adulteress, he was a very violent man, often beating his wife to a pulp over her Newell affair, even the brutal Newell was shocked by the violence.

The fits of anger by Murdoch seemed to blow over for a while after Newell slipped back to Dublin, returning some weeks later to continue his house raids with Murdoch.

In early 1798 Newell and another informer William Bird, alias “John Smith” appeared to go ‘on the turn’, and when a known United Irishman, Henry Haslett, walked free because neither of the evil pair would plead against him in court, rumours began to circulate that they had been bought over by wealthy United Irishmen. Newell was heard to make some insulting remarks about the establishments, to an inquiry Newell said it was Cooke who had set out for him what to do and say about people whom Newell ‘put the finger on’, and he rattled some when he referred to the Committee of the Lords, as being “..Composed by a set of old whores...”

This William Bird, an Englishman, was purely involved in informing for monetary gain, unlike some informers he didn’t try to conceal or attempt to clad his actions as some moralistic crusade, and believe it or not, this is why Newell so despised him, which was mutual, Newell considered Bird “ unprincipled” , and described Bird as, “ an informer from sentiment, he made it his private profession… He stole into the confidence of men, he insinuated himself into their good graces that he might know their sentiments and turn them to their ruin and his profit…who could with seeming friendship sit and smile at the face of the very man whose ruin he laboured to accomplish