INTRODUCTION
Sir Edward Crosbie was from Wicklow and, sometime about the
year 1792 he leased the property
of Viewmount from Robert Browne of Browne’s Hill, Carlow.
The two estates were adjacent to each other, Viewmount being
to the left of the avenue going from Carlow with Browne’s
Hill on the right.
Sir Edward was of an independent nature
and remained aloof from the political scene at that time.
Apparently he was highly regarded, particularly by his
tenantry as William Farrell in his memoirs stated: “… he
did not approve of making the poor man and his little
offspring wretched…. He lived rather a retired life, and was
kind and affable to those in the middle and humbler ranks of
life…. He seldom associated with those in power….
On the night of May 24, 1798 the rebels,
on their way to attack the barracks in Carlow, congregated
in the grounds of Viewmount. He was accused by the
authorities of being in command of the rebels and of
addressing them from the steps of the house prior to their
departure for the town. There is a suspicion that this was
as a result of a duel some months before in which Sir Edward
was challenged to a duel by a son of the Lord Lieutenant for
the County, Sir Charles Burton, and Sir Edward, being a
crack shot, killed him.
This coupled with the fact that he was
kind and considerate to his tenants and refused to associate
or identify with the ascendancy or military classes against
the general populace probably made him a target for the more
extreme elements of those in power.
A private publication was produced and
printed in Bath and then in Dublin in 1802 entitled An
Accurate and Impartial Narrative of the Apprehension, Trial
& Execution, on the 5th of June, 1798 of Sir
Edward William Crosbie, Bart.
(His brother, Richard Crosbie, made the first
hot-air balloon flight in Ireland from Ranelagh
gardens, in 1785.)
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