Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Montgomery Manuscripts (1603-1706), Vol. 1: Compiled From Family Papers by William Montgomery, of Rosemount, Esquire; And Edited With Notes
HE montgomery manuscripts were written by William Montgomery of Rose mount, in the county of-down, between the years 1696 and 1706, or during the last ten years of the author's life. Of this learned old gentleman's personal history nothing is known to the editor beyond the several curious autobiographical notices to be found in this volume, and to which the reader may have easy access by means of the Index at the end. His memoir of the first Viscount Montgomery contains a vivid sketch of the Scottish settle ment in the territory of ard-uladh, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and of the events which led to the extinction of the great house. Of o'neill in Upper 01 Southern Clannaboy. The memoir of the second Viscount is unfortunately lost, at least for the present, having been probably carried away to Australia by the author's lineal descendant, captain F rederick Campbell Montgomery, who settled in that colony about the year 183 5. The memoir of the third Viscount has reached us almost complete (although evidently wanting its introductory chapter), and is a truly valuable contribution to the history of Ulster, from the outbreak of the great Irish rebellion in 1641, until the period of the Restoration in 1660. The third Viscount, who had a commission as com mander-in-chief of the royalist forces in Ulster, was advanced to the dignity of an earl by Charles IL, and took mount-alexander as the name of his earldom, from the family residence near Comber, in the count}: of Down, which had been so called in honour of his mother, Iean Alexander, daughter of the first earl of Stirling. The memoir of the fourth Viscount, second earl of 'mount - Alexander, who died in 1716, appears to be complete, at least to the year 1706, the date'of the author's death. This second earl was appointed general of the northern Protestant forces in 1688, and his memoir, containing some curious particulars of the revolutionary struggle in Ulster, will be read with deep. Interest. The memoir of Sir James Montgomery is quite imperfect We havehere only: a copy of portions of the original. Iin a ms. Account of the Savages to which the editor had' access, there is a marginal reference to pp. 209, 210, of the Life qf Sir fame: Montgomery, but the fragment which has been preserved would not occupy, probably, more than fifty of the closely written quarto pages of William Montgomery's original memoir. The transcriber, however, has fortunately copied from the original such portions of the memoir as refer! Red to Sir James's public life, including an account of his military operations in 1641, which preserved the inhabitants of the Ards from pillage and' massacre, and kept that district open as an asylum for multitudes who had escaped the fury of the insurgents in other localities, throughout Down, and the adjoining counties. For' the memoirs above-mentioned the author derived ohis materials from such family. Papers as had not been'stolen or destroyed When Rosemount House was burned, in February, 1695.
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