Richard John Uniacke - Early Years

Early Years

Born in Castletown, County Cork, Ireland, located just four kilometres from the family estate of Mountuniacke, created by his grandfather, Captain James Uniacke.

The FitzGerald-Uniackes were a long standing landed gentry family which included Mayors of Youghal. The origins of the family name are uncertain but may come from the area named after St. Unicus in Brittany. The family arrived in Ireland during the Norman invasions of the eleventh-century. Another story is that one of the Fitzgeralds took the lead of a successful military attack when no others would do so. Thereafter Fritzgerald was known as "Unicus est" or "the only one". The plea-roll records from Bermingham Tower, Dublin Castle, for the 14th centuries list a series of Uniackes starting with Bernard de Uniak listed as a resident at Cork in 1305.

Richard attended school at Lismore, County Waterford. At the age of sixteen he came under the influence of a Catholic priest and as this was abhorrent to his Protestant family, his father had him sent to Dublin where he was articled with the law firm of Thomas Garde. In Dublin Richard became fascinated with the movement for greater Irish political autonomy and he eventually joined with the Irish nationalists. This caused a rupture in the relationship with his father and being cut off from his allowance. Refusing to return home, Richard being penniless, prematurely abandoned his studies and decided to seek his fortune elsewhere. (In 1777, after living in Nova Scotia he returned to Ireland to complete his legal training. Uniacke was admitted to the Bar in Nova Scotia and appointed solicitor in 1781.) In December 1773 he boarded a ship to the West Indies (where one of his brothers, who had joined the army, was stationed), arriving in St. Kitts in early 1774. In short order, Richard not having found any profitable opportunities for himself, sailed for Philadelphia. There he fell in with Moses Delesdernier who convinced Richard to accompany him to Nova Scotia. By the fall of 1774 Richard was in business with Delesdernier in the upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy at Hillsborough, New Brunswick (prior to partition in 1783, New Brunswick was part of the colony of Nova Scotia). There Uniacke met Delesdernier's twelve year old daughter, who in 1775 he married.