Sir William Stewart, Viscount Mountjoy

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Stewart, Sir William, Viscount Mountjoy, was born in 1653. In 1682 he was raised to the peerage, and appointed Master-General of the Ordnance and colonel of a regiment of foot. In 1686 he served in Hungary at the siege of Breda. On his return to Ireland he was made a brigadier-general. Macaulay styles him "a brave soldier, an accomplished scholar. .. At Dublin he was the centre of a small circle of learned and ingenious men, who had, under his presidency, formed themselves into a Royal Society." In 1688 he commanded a portion of the royal army stationed at Londonderry. But as he was a Protestant, Tirconnell, fearing his influence in favour of William, sent him, at the outbreak of hostilities, on a diplomatic mission to France, secretly intimating that his detention would be desirable. He was accordingly thrown into the Bastile, and kept confined there until 1692. On his release, he joined King William's army in Flanders, and lost his life at the battle of Steenkirk, 24th August 1692, aged about 39.

Sources

54. Burke, Sir Bernard: Peerage and Baronetage.

196. Irishmen, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished, Rev. James Wills, D.D. 6 vols. or 12 parts. Dublin, 1840-'7.

223. Macaulay, Lord: History of England, from the Accession of James II. [to 1702]. 5 vols. London, 1849-'61.

Featured Books

An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

See more of our books »

The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

Show fewer titles