Books and Manuscripts

Great Britain's Plan to Defend Ireland from a French Invasion During the American Revolution

No place, March 27, 1778. Tall 4to. 92 total pages, including a 58-page manuscript document in a secretarial hand of General Sir David Dundas's report on the defense of Ireland, being "Considerations, with regard to the Invasion, and Defence, of Ireland in Case of a Rupture with France"; 26-page "Memorandum", also of Dundas's, dated July 1, 1779, in a different secretarial hand; eight blank pages. Manuscript notations in margins of pp. 7, 10, and 12 attributed to British General Sir Henry Clinton; with numerous additional later marginal pencil notations and underlining in another hand. Contemporary stiff marbled wrappers, detached but present, original thread intact; all edges trimmed.

The Treaty of Alliance of February 6, 1778 between France and the fledgling United States changed the direction of the American Revolution and gave a once regional conflict global dimensions. French intervention not only posed an immediate danger to Great Britain's success in North America, but also threatened territorial holdings throughout their empire, most urgently in the British Isles themselves, including Ireland and the English mainland. An invasion of Ireland, whose defenses were weak, would provide a prime location for an invasion of England itself, but even if unsuccessful, could potentially destabilize a populace whose support for England was tenuous. In March 1778, with war with France imminent, plans were frantically drawn up to counter this potential invasion.

The task of assessing Ireland's vulnerabilities and required defenses fell to British General Sir David Dundas (1735-1820), then Quartermaster General in Ireland, who drafted this report that was then sent to London. Understanding the stakes, Dundas states the consequences of a French invasion in stark terms in the opening statement: "It seems probable, that the beginning of a French War, will be the End of an Offensible American one." A French invasion would be disastrous for Great Britain, with Dundas asserting that, "It is the general and avowed opinion in France that at home we are most vulnerable. The invasion of England or Ireland will certainly be in their contemplation…the internal convulsions and distress which the landing of ten, or twelve thousand men would occasion in our open and defenseless country, the decided effect it would have on the operation of the empire at large, whose sole attention it would engage, their knowledge of the present situation of this country, the certainty of assistance from the Roman Catholic inhabitants. For though the gentlemen of property, enlightened and sensible of the advantages they enjoy under our present mild government, might concur most heartily in its support..." Dundas lays out three points the British government needed to address to counter a French invasion of Ireland: identify possible points of French attack; preparations needed for defense; resources needed to repel an invasion. In the remainder of this document, as well as in a memorandum dated three months later, Dundas, in great detail, answers these questions, including the number of troops needed and where they're to be requisitioned, rations to be gathered, magazines to be established, and hospitals to be created, etc.

As Dundas elsewhere concludes, it is "probable, that an Invasion of Ireland, will be their principal object, in which if successful, the Consequences would be the most favorable to France," to which one of the notes in the margins states, "on the Contrary France will no doubt invade Ireland, & if she loses her army, there she will gain by the loss..."

Sir Henry Clinton (1730-95) was a British officer and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in North America during the American Revolution, and was the longest serving British Commander during the conflict. He first arrived in Boston in 1775 and served under Thomas Gage and William Howe, and was noted for his tactics in the Long Island campaign. Following Howe's recall, in 1778, Clinton was appointed to the top role overseeing British forces. With French intervention, Clinton directed a Southern strategy, but due to the global demands on British forces, he received only a small number of troops. This, with other tactical failures, ultimately resulted in British defeat at Yorktown. Following the war he served in Parliament in 1790, and in 1793 until his death, was Governor of Gibraltar. His son, General William Henry Clinton served as Quartermaster General of Ireland between 1804-06.

One of possibly three known extant manuscript copies of this unpublished text. In addition to this copy, there is one in the National Library of Ireland (held in NLI MS 14306, "Considerations with regard to the Invasion, and Defence of Ireland, 27 March 1778"), and another in the British Library (BL Add Mss 33118 fol. 35: "David Dundas, Quartermaster-General: Observations on the defence of Ireland: 1779-1780"), although the dates are later and the title is different in the British Library copy.

A copy of the manuscript was sold in London at Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, by Henry Clinton's heirs on March 7-8, 1882 ("Property of the late Colonel Henry Clinton"). In the March 1882 issue of the Magazine of American History (Vol. VIII, No. 3, p. 200), the contents of the sale are described, and they specifically note the sale of "a 'Plan of Defence for Ireland in the event of a French invasion' (MSS. notes in the margin by Sir Henry Clinton)". A previous cataloguer has noted in pencil on the title-page of our copy, "with MSS. notes in the margin in the handwriting of Sir Henry Clinton" (within a larger pencil note, now partially erased). On February 22, 1927, antiquarian bookseller Charles Frederick Heartman sold a copy of this manuscript (item 199) with similar pagination to ours. Laid in to our copy is a typed catalogue description done by historian, collector, and former president of the Manuscript Society, Justin G. Turner, describing this copy as having "various marginal notations" that "resemble the handwriting of General Clinton." Finally, this manuscript was most recently in the collection of bibliophile Dr. Otto O. Fisher (1881-1961). Of the approximately 80,000 items in Fisher's original collection, he either donated, sold, or gave away all but roughly 650. EV Stamps sold those remaining items on December 5, 2021, including this manuscript (162).

An important document detailing the global repercussions of American independence.