Bagenal Harvey - Flight, Arrest and Execution

Flight, Arrest and Execution

On 7 June Harvey resigned at Sliabh Coillte, disgusted with his defeat and the ensuing Scullabogue Barn massacre. He was replaced as Commander-in-Chief by Philip Roche and returned to Wexford where he was appointed President of the town committee. Confident that a treaty would be negotiated on the rebels behalf by Lord Kingsborough, the captured loyalist commander of the North Cork Militia, he retired to his family home at Bargy Castle. Shortly afterwards he and John Henry Colclough, dressed as peasants, travelled to a cave on the Greater Saltee Island from whence they planned to escape to republican France. They were, however, betrayed and Harvey was arrested by Ralph James, an officer of the Irish Yeomanry, and brought to Wexford town. He was tried, convicted and hanged on Wexford bridge on 28 June 1798. His body was afterwards beheaded, the trunk thrown into the River Slaney and the head displayed on a spike on the courthouse. His corpse was recovered by his friends and buried in Mayglass cemetery, near Mountpleasant House, the house he lived in before he died.

In his memoirs Jonah Barrington listed Harvey as a rebel supporter in April 1798, before the rebellion started. Thomas Collins, the government spy in the Dublin Society of United Irishmen, had also informed Dublin Castle about his republican views as early as 1793.

The Rev John Graham wrote in his diary, for June 16, 1798: "The Wexford Rebels have taken the command away from Bagenal Harvey and given it to one Clinch, a Popish Priest", so it may be that Harvey did not resign his commission. Father Clinch of Enniscorthy was killed on 21 June on the retreat from Vinegar Hill.