SEARC'S WEB GUIDE - Peter Finnerty (1766-1822)

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Searc's Web Guide to 19th Century Ireland - Peter Finnerty (1766-1822)

Peter Finnerty [sometimes Finerty] was born in County Galway. He became a journalist and founded The Press newspaper in Dublin in 1797. The following year he was arrested for printing a letter in The Press signed 'Marcus' which attacked Lord Castlereagh's conduct in the case of William Orr, James Orr's brother, who was executed in 1797. Finnerty was tried on a charge of libel and sentenced to two years in prison on a Ł1000 security to be paid before his release. When Finnerty was publicly pilloried after his trial Arthur O'Connor stood beside him upon the scaffold, and held an umbrella over his head while Finnerty declared: 'My friends, you see how cheerfully I can suffer anything provided it promotes the liberty of my country'.
On his release Finnerty went to London and in 1809 he joined the Walcheran Expedition as a reporter for the Morning Chronicle & Statesman Report. While at sea Finnerty was informed that he was ordered home at the request of Lord Castlereagh. He returned to London, published a letter about the affair in The Morning Chronicle on the 23rd of January, 1810 and was immediately arrested, tried for libel and sentenced to two years imprisonment.
Finnerty wrote The Case for Peter Finnerty including a Full Report of all the Proceedings which took place in the King's Bench (1811) in Lincoln Gaol. This extract is from Finnerty's letter to The Morning Chronicle as published in The Second Case of Peter Finnerty in the Court of the King's Bench, July 10th, 1811 (1811).©

In the course of Lord Castlereagh's administration of the Government of Ireland, I was persecuted in consequence of a publication which appeared in a newspaper, entitled The Press, with which I was connected. In that publication the Government of Lord Castlereagh was censured for the following act. A Mr Orr, who was a respectable and intelligent farmer of the County of Antrim, was tried, and a verdict was returned that he had administered an unlawful Oath to a common informer of the name of Wheatley, who swore, that having met Mr.Orr casually on the public highroad, he was taken home by him, and that Mr Orr at once committed himself by administering the unlawful Oath alluded to.
The verdict of the Jury upon such evidence was, however, accompanied by a strong recommendation, of the prisoner to mercy; but soon after the verdict, three of the Jurymen made a solemn affidavit before the Judge who tried the cause, that liquor had been conveyed into their room; that they were imposed upon by some of their fellow jurors, and threatened by others if they did not find the prisoner guilty and that under the influence of imposture and threats, and being old men, worn down by watching in intoxication, they had given a verdict against him, although they believed him in their own conscience to be innocent.
Affidavits were also made by a Mr Elder, a Protestant Clergy man and a Mr Montgomery, that Wheatley, being in distress and apprehensive of the approach of death, had stated to them that his conscience was much distressed in consequence of his having been guilty of perjury and murder.
These affidavits, together with a recommendation to mercy from the jury, seconded by a strong recommendation by the judge were transmitted to the Government of Lord Castlereagh and yet Mr Orr was executed.
This, which is a matter of undisputed history, was the proceedings animadverted upon in the paper I alluded to; and is it possible that a newspaper could be found in England, even in the most degenerate of the press, which would not report such a proceeding?
Yet for that reproduction I was arrested and committed to prison; and while there, previous to my trial, every effect of intimidation, persecution and proffered bribes, was made use of to extract from me the name of the author of the article I have referred to; Too was I taken from my prison in the most ex-judicial manner, to the office of the Super Intendant Magistrate of Dublin where, surrounded by a group of police, magistrates and other agents of Lord Castlereagh's government, I was threatened with a variety of prosecutions for libel and more rigorous confinement if I did not betray the author of the article for which I was imprisoned and also the names of the several gentlemen whom I knew to have written for The Press. Threats being found unavail, I was offered pecuniary relief and instantaneous release from prison if I would comply with the wishes of this assemblage; But I spurned at their proposals and for this I was persecuted.
Because I would not betray my friend - because I would not violate confidence, because I would not abandon the cause of liberty, of truth, of humanity and of my country, because I would not be guilty of a breech of professional duty and private honour I was subject to every degradation of ill treatment and injury that rigour beyond the law could inflict. Š Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008

19th Century Ireland Irish History Index
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