Frescati House - Lord Edward FitzGerald

Lord Edward FitzGerald

It was the favourite place of residence of Lord Edward FitzGerald, a prominent commander of the United Irishmen. He was Emily’s son and had spent much of his childhood here. Emily was fearful for her children’s health, so they spent most of their time in Blackrock and were educated there. Emily was a strong devotee of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile, which preached the importance of practical lessons from the real world rather than rigid book learning. Emily decided that Blackrock would be the perfect place to practice the Rousseau ideals of education on her children. The Duchess, who was no stranger to extravagance, invited Rousseau himself to Frescati to be her children’s tutor. He declined, so Emily hired a Scottish tutor instead. The tutor, named William Ogilvie, was told to bring Emile to life in Blackrock. She later shocked and scandalised her family by marrying Ogilvie six weeks after her husband’s death. Lord Edward married his wife Pamela in Tournai in December 1792. After spending some time in Hamburg, the couple came to Frescati in 1793. The couple rarely had a permanent home during their time together, due to Lord Edward FitzGerald’s involvement with the United Irishmen. Pamela, widely believed to be the illegitimate daughter of Duke of Orleans, seems to have been a mysterious and complicated character. She was described as “elegant and engaging in the highest degree” and of “judicious taste in her remarks and curiosities”. She never lost confidence in her husband all through the feverish events, which took place one after the other. At the time, Britain was very wary of the wave of events in France. For this reason, Lord Edward’s family wished her connections with the Orléans family to be kept secret. Frescati House served as the venue for some of the key United Irishmen meetings. Thomas Paine, the author of The Rights of Man visited Lord Edward in Frescati House. Lord Cloncurry, who lived nearby in Maretimo, was also a frequent visitor to the house. This is a passage from a letter FitzGerald wrote to his mother in 1793:

Wife and I are come to settle here. We came last night, got up to a delightful spring day, and we are now enjoying the little book room, with the windows open, hearing the birds sing, and the place looking beautiful. The plants in the passage are just watered: and with the passage door open the room smells like a greenhouse. Pamela has dressed four beautiful flower-pots, and is now working at her frame, while I write to my dearest mother; and upon the two little stands are six pots of fine auriculas, and I am sitting in a bay window with all those pleasant feelings which the fine weather, the pretty place, the singing birds, the pretty wife and Frescati give me.

When he returned to the house in 1797, he wrote:

I can’t tell you how pleased I was to see this place again. In a moment one goes over the years; every shrub, every turn, every peep of the house has a little history in it. The weather is delightful and the place looks beautiful. The trees are all so grown and there a thousand pretty sheltered spots, which near the sea in this season is very pleasant. The birds sing, the flowers blow, and make me for moments forget the world and all the villainy and tyranny going on in it.

It was as a direct result of a crucial meeting at Frescati on 24 February 1798, that Fitzgerald’s revolutionary plans were betrayed by Thomas Reynolds. By March 1798, the United Irishmen had been infiltrated by spies. At this time, members of the Leinster committee were arrested. Lord Edward Fitzgerald escaped and went on the run. However an informer, attracted by the £1000 reward, was responsible for Fitzgerald’s arrest in Dublin's Thomas Street on the 19 May. He shot one of his attackers, in his attempt to escape, but he received a gunshot wound in the process. He died later from his untreated injuries in Newgate Prison on the 4 June. Frescati’s greatest historic attraction lies in its association with this popular Irish hero.