FOOTNOTES:

[1] For fisheries in the cases of CORAL, OYSTER, PEARL, SALMON,

SPONGES and WHALE, see these articles; for fishing as a sport see

ANGLING.

[2] Estimated as regards about one-third of the total.

[3] Including the Newfoundland fishery.

[4] Excluding the voyages of the fleeting trawlers which supply

London by means of carriers.

FISHERY (LAW OF). This subject has (1) its international aspect; (2) its

municipal aspect. On the high seas outside territorial waters the right

of fishery is now recognized as common to all nations. Claims were made

in former times by single nations to the exclusive right of fishing in

tracts of open sea; such as that set up by Denmark in respect of the

North Sea, as lying between its possessions of Norway and Iceland,

against England in the 17th century, and against England and Holland in

the 18th century, when she prohibited any foreigners fishing within 15

German miles of the shores of Greenland and Iceland. This claim,

however, was always effectively resisted on the ground stated in Queen

Elizabeth's remonstrance to Denmark on the subject in 1602, that "the

law of nations alloweth of fishing in the sea everywhere, even in seas

where a nation hath propertie of command." The enunciation of this

principle is to be found, also, in the award of the arbitration court

which decided the question of the fur-seal fishery in Bering Sea in

1894. (See BERING SEA ARBITRATION; ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL.) The

right of nations to take fish in the sea may, however, be restrained or

regulated by treaty or custom; and Great Britain has entered into

conventions with other nations with regard to fishing in certain parts

of the sea. The provisions of such conventions are made binding on

British subjects by statutes.

Instances of these are the conventions of 1818 and 1872 between Great

Britain and the United States as to the fisheries on the eastern

coasts of British North America and the United States within certain

limits, and the award of the Bering Sea arbitration tribunal under the

treaty of 1892; the conventions between Great Britain and France in

1839 and 1867 as regards fishing in the seas adjoining these

countries, the latter of which will come into force on the repeal of

the former; the agreement of 1904 with respect to the Newfoundland

fisheries (see NEWFOUNDLAND); the convention of 1882 between Belgium,

Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain and Holland, regarding the

North Sea fisheries; that of 1887 between the same parties concerning

the liquor traffic in the North Sea; and the declaration regarding the

same waters made between Great Britain and Belgium for the settlement

of differences between their fishermen subjects in such

extra-territorial waters. At the instance of the Swedish government

the British parliament also passed an act in 1875 to establish a close

time for the seal fishery in the seas adjacent to the eastern coasts

of Greenland.

Cases have come before British courts with regard to the whale fishery

in northern and southern seas; and the customs proved to exist among the

whaling ships of the nations engaged in a particular trade have been

upheld if known to the parties to the action. In territorial waters, on

the other hand, fishery is a right exclusively belonging to the subjects

of the country owning such waters, and no foreigners can fish there

except by convention.

(a) _Tidal Waters._--In British territorial waters, it may be stated,

as the general rule, that fishery is a right incidental to the soil

covered by the waters in which that right is exercised.

The bed of all navigable rivers where the tide flows and reflows, and

of all estuaries or arms of the sea, is vested in the crown; and

therefore, in Lord Chief Justice Hale's words, "the right of the

fishery in the sea and the creeks and arms thereof is originally

lodged in the crown, as the right of depasturing is originally lodged

in the owner of the waste whereof he is lord, or as the right of

fishing belongs to him that is the owner of a private or inland

river." "But," he continues, "though the king is the owner of this

great waste, and as a consequent of his propriety hath the primary

right of fishing in the sea and the creeks and arms thereof, yet the

common people of England have regularly a liberty of fishing therein

as a public common of piscary, and may not without injury to their

right be restrained of it unless in such places or creeks or navigable

rivers where either the king or some particular subject hath gained a

propriety exclusive of that common liberty." (_De Jure Maris_, ch.

iv.).

This right extends to all fish floating in the sea or left on the

seashore, except certain fish known as royal fish, which, when taken in

territorial waters, belong to the crown or its grantee, though caught by

another person. These are whales, sturgeons and porpoises; and grampuses

are also sometimes added (whales, porpoises and grampuses being "fishes"

only in a legal sense). In Scotland only whales which are of large size

can be so claimed; but the rights of salmon fishing in the sea and in

public and private rivers, and those of mussel and oyster fishing,

except in private rivers, are _inter regalia_, and are only enjoyable by

the crown or persons deriving title under it. As salmon fishery was

formerly practised by nets and engines on the shore, and the mussel and

oyster fisheries were necessarily carried on on the shore, the opinion

was held at one time that angling for salmon was a public right, but the

later decisions have established that the right of salmon fishing by

whatever means is a _jus regale_ in Scotland. In England the crown in

early times made frequent grants of fisheries to subjects in tidal

waters, and instances of such fisheries belonging to persons and

corporations are very common at the present day: but by Magna Carta the

crown declared that "no rivers shall be defended from henceforth, but

such as were in defence in the time of King Henry, our grandfather, by

the same places and the same bounds as they were wont to be in his

time"; and thus bound itself not to create a private fishery in any

navigable tidal river. Judicial decision and commentators having

interpreted this statute according to the spirit and not the letter, at

the present day the right of fishery in tidal waters prima facie belongs

to the public, and they can only be excluded by a particular person or

corporation on proof of an exclusive right to fish there not later in

its origin than Magna Carta; and for this it is necessary either to

prove an actual grant from the crown of that date to the claimant's

predecessor in title, or a later grant or immemorial custom or

prescription to that effect, from which such an original grant may be

presumed. This exclusive right of fishing may be either a franchise

derived from the crown, or may arise by virtue of ownership of the soil

covered by the waters.

In Lord Hale's words: "Fishing may be of two kinds ordinarily, viz.

fishing with a net, which may be either as a liberty without the soil,

or as a liberty arising by reason of and in concomitance with the soil

or an interest or propriety of it; or otherwise it is a local fishing

that ariseth by or from the propriety of the soil,--such are

_gurgites_, wears, fishing-places, _borachiae_, _stachiae_, which are

the very soil itself, and so frequently agreed by our books. And such

as these a subject may have by usage; either in gross, as many

religious houses had, or as parcel of or appurtenant to their manors,

as both corporations and others have had; and this not only in

navigable rivers and arms of the sea but in creeks and ports and

havens, yea, and in certain known limits in the open sea contiguous to

the shore. And these kinds of fishings are not only for small

sea-fish, such as herrings, &c., but for great fish, as salmons, and

not only for them but for royal fish.... Most of the precedents

touching such rights of fishing in the sea, and the arms and creeks

thereof belonging by usage to subjects, appear to be by reason of the

propriety of the very water and soil wherein the fishing is, and some

of them even within parts of the seas" (_De Jure Maris_, ch. v.)

An instance of the former kind of fishery is to be found in the old case

of _Royal Fishery of the River Bann_ (temp. James I., Davis 655), and

the modern one of _Wilson_ v. _Crossfield_, 1885, 1 T.L.R. 601, where a

right of fishery in gross was established; but the latter kind, as Hale

says, is much more common, and the presumption is always in its favour;

_a fortiori_ where the fishing is proved to have been carried on by

means of engines or structures fixed in the soil. In England the public

have not at common law, as incidental to their right of fishing in tidal

waters, the right to make use of the banks or shores for purposes

incidental to the fishery, such as beaching their boats upon them,

landing there, or drying their nets there (though they can do so by

proving a custom from which such a grant may be presumed); but statutes

relating to particular parts of the realm, such as Cornwall for the

pilchard fishery, give them such rights. In Scotland a right of salmon

fishing separate from land implies the right of access to and use of the

banks, foreshores or beach for the purposes of the fishing; and so does

white fishing by statute. But otherwise there is no right to do so, e.g.

in a public river for trout fishing. A similar privilege is given to

Irish fishermen for the purpose of sea fishery by special statute. There

is no property in fish in the sea, and they belong to the first taker;

and the custom of the trade decides when a fish is taken or not, e.g. in

the whale fishery the question whether a fish is "loose" or not has come

before English courts.

(b) _Fresh Waters._---In non-tidal waters in England and Ireland, for

the reason given above, the presumption is in favour of the fishery in

such waters belonging to the owners of the adjacent lands; "fresh waters

of what kind soever do of common right belong to the owners of the soil

adjacent, so that the owners of the one side have of common right the

property of the soil, and consequently the right of fishing _usque ad

filum aquae_, and the owners of the other side the right of soil or

ownership and fishing unto the _filum aquae_ on their side; and if a man

be owner of the land on both sides, in common presumption he is owner of

the whole river, and hath the right of fishing according to the extent

of his land in length" (Hale, ch. i.). There is a similar presumption

that the owner of the bed of a river has the exclusive right of fishery

there, and this is so even though he does not own the banks; but these

presumptions may be displaced by proof of a different state of things,

e.g. where the banks of a stream are separately owned the owner of one

bank may show by acts of ownership exercised over the whole stream that

he has the fishery over it all. The crown prerogative of fishery, never

it seems, extended to non-tidal waters flowing over the land of a

subject, and it could not therefore grant such a franchise to a subject,

nor has it any right _de jure_ to the soil or fisheries of an inland

lake such as Lough Neagh (_Bristow_ v. _Cormican_, 1878, 3 App. Cas.

641). The public cannot acquire the right to fish in fresh waters by

prescription or otherwise although they are navigable; such a right is

unknown to law, because a profit _a prendre in alieno solo_ is neither

to be acquired by custom nor by prescription under the Prescription Act.

It has been decided that the "dwellers" in a parish cannot acquire such

a right, being of too vague a class; but the commoners in a manor may

have it by custom; and the "free inhabitants of ancient tenements" in a

borough have been held capable of acquiring a right to dredge for

oysters in a fishery belonging to the corporation of the borough on

certain days in each year by giving proof of uninterrupted enjoyment of

it from time immemorial, on the presumption that this was a condition to

which the grant made to the corporation was subject.

In Scotland the law is similar. The right to fish for trout in private

streams is a pertinent of the land adjacent, and owners of opposite

banks may fish _usque ad medium filum aquae_; and where two owners own

land round a private loch, both have a common of fishing over it. The

public cannot prescribe for it, for a written title either to adjacent

lands or to the fishery is necessary. A right of way along the bank of a

river or loch does not give it, nor does the right of the public to be

on or at a navigable but non-tidal river. The right of salmon fishing

carries with it the right of trout fishing: and eel fishing passes in

the same way.

In England and Ireland private fisheries have been divided into (a)

several (_separalis_), (b) free (_libera_), (c) common of piscary

(_communis_), whether in tidal or non-tidal waters. The distinction

between several and free fisheries has always been uncertain.

Blackstone's opinion was that several fishery implied a fishery in right

of the soil under the water, while free fishery was confined to a public

river and did not necessarily comprehend the soil. He is supported by

later writers, such as Woolrych and Paterson. On the other hand, the

opinions of Coke and Hale are opposed to this view. "A man may prescribe

to have a several fishery in such a water, and the owner shall not fish

there; but if he claim to have common of fishery or free fishery the

owner of the soil shall fish there" (Co Littl. 122 A); "one man may have

the river and others the soil adjacent: or one man may have the river

and soil thereof, and another the free or several fishing in that river"

(_De Jure Maris_, ch. i.). Lord Holt, though in one instance he

distinguished them, in a later case thought that they were "all one."

Later decisions have established the latter view, and it is now settled

that although the owner of the several fishery is prima facie owner of

the soil of the waters, this presumption may be displaced by showing

that the terms of the grant only convey an incorporeal hereditament, and

that the words "sole and exclusive fishery" give a several fishery _in

alieno solo_. In the words of Mr Justice Willes, "the only substantial

distinction is between an exclusive right of fishery, usually called

'several,' and sometimes 'free,' as in 'free warren,' and a right in

common with others, usually called 'common of fishery,' and sometimes

'free,' as in 'free port.' A several fishery means an exclusive right to

fish in a given place, either with or without the property in the soil"

(_Malcolmson_ v. _O'Dea_, 1863, 10 H.L.). A common of piscary, or "a

right to fish in common with certain other persons in a particular

stream," is usually found in manors, the commoners of which may have the

right to enjoy it to an extent sufficient for the sustenance of their

tenements; but they cannot, except by immemorial special prescription,

exclude the lord of the manor therefrom, and have no rights over the

soil itself. Decisions also establish that a grant of "fishery" will

prima facie pass an exclusive fishery; a grant of soil covered by water

or a lease of lands including water will pass the fishery therein; a

several fishery will not merge on being resumed by the crown; and a

fishery situate within a manor is presumed to belong to the owners of

adjacent land, and not to the lord. A several fishery, as already seen,

being an incorporeal hereditament, can only be transferred by deed, and

therefore cannot be abandoned, and so acquired by the public, even on

proof that the public have, as far back as living memory, exercised the

right of fishing in the _locus in quo_ to the knowledge of and without

interruption from the claimant of the fishery. But to establish a title

to a several fishery, a "paper title," i.e. one founded on documentary

evidence only, is not sufficient; it must be supported by evidence of

acts of ownership in recent times, for otherwise it will be presumed

that a person other than the alleged owner is the real owner. If the

waters of a tidal river leave their old channel and flow into another,

the owner of a several fishery in the old channel cannot claim to have

it in the new one; but, on the other hand, the owner of a several

fishery can take advantage of a gradual encroachment by the river upon

and into the land of a riparian owner, the limits of whose land are

ascertained. The owner of an exclusive fishery, whether in tidal or

fresh waters, has the right to take as many fish as he can, and may do

so by means of fixed engines or dredging, provided that in navigable

waters he does not interfere with the right of navigation, and that in

navigable and other waters he does not interfere with the fishing rights

of his neighbours or infringe the provisions made by old or modern

statutes as to the methods of taking the fish, e.g. by weirs. These were

forbidden in rivers by Magna Carta and later statutes, and on the

seashore by a statute of James I.; but all weirs in navigable fresh

waters traceable to a date not later than 25 Edward III. are lawful, for

the statutes forbidding weirs do not apply to navigable waters. It

seems, however, that at common law any fixed structures put up by the

owner of a fishery in his part of a river, which at all prevent the free

passage of fish to the waters above or below, give the owners of

fisheries therein a right of action against him. So the grantee of an

exclusive fishery with rod and line in an unnavigable river can prevent

any person from polluting the river higher up and so damaging the

fishery. At common law there is no property in fish when enjoying their

natural liberty; the taker is entitled to keep them unless they are

caught from a tank or small pond; or except in the case of salmon by

statute.

Modern statutes now regulate all fisheries, sea or fresh, in territorial

or inland waters. As regards sea fishery in England, the Board of

Agriculture and Fisheries has (since 1903, when it took it over from the

Board of Trade) power by order to create sea fisheries districts,

comprising any part of the sea within which British subjects have, by

international law, the exclusive right of fishing, and to provide for

the constitution of a local fisheries committee to regulate the sea

fisheries in such district, which can make by-laws for that purpose. It

appoints fishery officers to enforce them, prescribes a close time for

sea fish (which does not include salmon as defined in the Salmon Act),

has summary jurisdiction over offences committed on the sea coast or at

sea beyond the ordinary jurisdiction of a court of summary jurisdiction,

can enforce the Sea Fisheries Acts, or regulate, protect and develop

fisheries for all or any kind of shell fish. Special provision is also

made by statute for the oyster fishery and herring fishery (applicable

also to Scotland), and that of mussels, cockles, lobsters and crabs

(applicable to all the United Kingdom). In Scotland the Fishery Board

can constitute sea fishery districts, and boards with like powers to

those in England, and has general control over the coast and deep-sea

fisheries of Scotland; and there are acts relative to herring, mussel

and oyster fisheries, and allowing the appropriation of money intended

to relieve local distress and taxation towards the encouragement of sea

fisheries, and marine superintendence and enforcement of Scottish sea

fisheries laws. In Ireland the sea fisheries are under the direction of

the inspectors of Irish fisheries, who have replaced the former fishery

commissioners and special commissioners for Irish fisheries; special

statutes, besides the general ones applying to all the United Kingdom,

deal with oyster fisheries and mussel fisheries; and money is also

appropriated for sea fisheries under the head of technical instruction.

In all three component parts of the United Kingdom there are also

special statutes relative to salmon and freshwater fish: for England,

the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1861-1907, and the Freshwater

Fisheries Acts 1878-1886; for Scotland the chief Salmon Acts are those

of 1862-1868, and for trout and freshwater fish those of 1845-1902; for

Ireland, the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts 1842-1901. A similar scheme is

adopted in each case, namely, fishery districts and district boards are

set up which regulate the fishing by by-laws and protect the fish by

fixing a close time, and prescribing passes, licences, inspection and

the like, breaches of which are punishable by courts of summary

jurisdiction. The supreme authorities in each case are--for England the

Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, for Scotland the Fishery Board, and

for Ireland the inspectors of fisheries, and in England a certain

official number of conservators on such boards are appointed by the

county councils. The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1907 gives the

Board of Agriculture and Fisheries power to make provisional orders for

the regulation of salmon fisheries or freshwater fisheries within any

area on the application of any board of conservators, or of a county

council, or of the owners of one-fourth in value of private fisheries.

There are also special acts dealing with the fishing in certain rivers,

such as the Thames, Medway, Severn, Tweed and Esk. (The act of 1907

applies, however, to the Esk, but not otherwise to Scotland nor to

Ireland.) Throughout the United Kingdom the use of dynamite or other

explosive substance to catch or destroy fish in any public fishery is

prohibited, as it is also in England in any private waters subject to

the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1878, in which it is also

forbidden to use poison or other noxious substance for destroying fish.

Officers in the army or marines are forbidden (under penalty) to kill

fish without written leave from the person entitled to grant it. There

are also provisions of the criminal law dealing with the protection of

fisheries generally, as well as the provisions of the acts already

mentioned dealing with special kinds of fish.

Special provision is made by the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894-1906 for

sea-fishing boats (except in Scotland and the colonies), relating to

their registration, carrying official papers, carrying boats in

proportion to their tonnage, the punishment of offences on board, the

wages of their crews, and keeping record of all casualties, punishments

and the like on board. As regards trawlers, especially in the case of

those of 25 tons and upwards, a statutory form of agreement with the

crew is prescribed, as well as accounts of wages and discharges; and

skippers and second hands must have certificates of competency, which

are granted under similar conditions to those required in the case of

sea-going ships and are registered with the Board of Trade. Scottish

fishing boats are regulated by a special statute of 1886 (except as

regards agreements to pay crew by share of profits, dealt with by the

above act) and by the Sea Fisheries Act of 1868, which applies to all

British fishing boats. Particular lights must be carried by fishing

boats in navigation. An act of 1908 (The Cran Measures Act) legalized

the use of cran measures in connexion with trading in fresh herrings in

England and Wales, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries being

empowered to make regulations under the act.

AUTHORITIES.--Green, _Encyclopaedia of Scots Law_ (Edinburgh, 1896);

Stewart, _Law of Fishing in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1869); Woolrych,

_Waters_ (London, 1851); Paterson, _Fishery Laws of the United

Kingdom_ (London and Cambridge, 1863); Stuart Moore, _Foreshore_

(London, 1888); Phillimore, _International Law_ (3rd ed., London,

1879); Martens, _Causes celebres du droit des gens_ (Leipzig, 1827);

Selwyn, _Nisi Prius_, _Fishery_ (London, 1869). (G. G. P.*)

FISHGUARD (_Abergwaun_), a market town, urban district, contributory

parliamentary borough and seaport of Pembrokeshire, Wales, near the

mouth of the river Gwaun, which here flows into Fishguard Bay of St

George's Channel. Pop. (1901) 2002. Its railway station, which is the

chief terminus of the South Wales system of the Great Western railway,

is at the hamlet of Goodwick across the bay, a mile distant to the

south-west. Fishguard Bay is deep and well sheltered from all winds save

those of the N. and N.E., and its immense commercial value has long been

recognized. After many years of labour and at a great expenditure of

money the Great Western railway has constructed a fine breakwater and

railway pier at Goodwick across the lower end of the bay, and an

important passenger and goods traffic with Rosslare on the opposite

Irish coast was inaugurated in 1906.

The importance of Fishguard is due to the local fisheries and the

excellence of its harbour, and its early history is obscure. The chief

historical interest of the town centres round the so-called "Fishguard

Invasion" of 1797, in which year on the 22nd of February three French

men-of-war with troops on board, under the command of General Tate, an

Irish-American adventurer, appeared off Carreg Gwastad Point in the

adjoining parish of Llanwnda. To the great alarm of the inhabitants a

body of about 1400 men disembarked, but it quickly capitulated,

practically without striking a blow, to a combined force of the local

militias under Sir Richard Philipps, Lord Milford and John Campbell,

Lord Cawdor; the French frigates meanwhile sailing away towards Ireland.

For many years the castles and prisons of Haverfordwest and Pembroke

were filled to overflowing with French prisoners of war. Close to the

banks of the Gwaun is the pretty estate of Glyn-y-mel, for many years

the residence of Richard Fenton (1746-1821), the celebrated antiquary

and historian of Pembrokeshire.

FISHKILL LANDING, or FISHKILL-ON-THE-HUDSON, a village of Fishkill

township, Dutchess county, New York, U.S.A., about 58 m. N. of New York

City, on the E. bank of the Hudson river, opposite Newburgh. Pop. (1890)

3617; (1900) 3673, of whom 540 were foreign-born; (1905) 3939; (1910)

3902, of Fishkill township (1890) 11,840; (1900) 13,016; (1905) 13,183;

(1910) 13,858. In the township are also the villages of Matteawan

(q.v.), Fishkill and Glenham. Fishkill Landing is served by the New York

Central & Hudson River and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways;

by railway ferry and passenger ferries to Newburgh, connecting with the

West Shore railway; by river steamboats and by electric railway to

Matteawan. Four miles farther N. on Fishkill Creek is the village of

Fishkill (incorporated in 1899), pop. (1905) 579. In this village are

two notable old churches, Trinity (1769), and the First Dutch Reformed

(1731), in which the New York Provincial Congress met in August and

September 1776. At the old Verplanck mansion in Fishkill Landing the

Society of the Cincinnati was organized in 1783. Among the manufactures

of Fishkill Landing are rubber-goods, engines (Corliss) and other

machinery, hats, silks, woollens, and brick and tile. The village of

Fishkill Landing was incorporated in 1864. The first settlement in the

township was made about 1690. The township of Fishkill was, like

Newburgh, an important military post during the War of Independence, and

was a supply depot for the northern Continental Army.

FISK, JAMES (1834-1872), American financier, was born at Bennington,

Vermont, on the 1st of April 1834. After a brief period in school he ran

away and joined a circus. Later he became a hotel waiter, and finally

adopted the business of his father, a pedlar. He then became a salesman

for a Boston dry goods firm, his aptitude and energy eventually winning

for him a share in the business. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts

during the Civil War, and it is said by engaging in cotton smuggling,

he accumulated a considerable capital which he soon lost in

speculation. In 1864 he became a stockbroker in New York and was

employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in his war against

Vanderbilt for the control of the Erie railway, and as a result of the

compromise that was reached he and Jay Gould became members of the Erie

directorate. The association with Gould thus began continued until his

death. Subsequently by a well-planned "raid," Fisk and Gould obtained

control of the road. They carried financial "buccaneering" to extremes,

their programme including open alliance with the Tweed "ring," the

wholesale bribery of legislatures and the buying of judges. Their

attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday

of the 24th of September 1869. Fisk was shot and killed in New York City

by E.S. Stokes, a former business associate, on the 6th of January 1872.

FISK, WILBUR (1792-1839), American educationist, was born in

Brattleboro, Vermont, on the 31st of August 1792. He studied at the

university of Vermont in 1812-1814, and then entered Brown University,

where he graduated in 1815. He studied law, and in 1817 came under the

influence of a religious revival in Vermont, where at Lyndon in the

following year he was licensed as a local preacher and was admitted to

the New England conference. His influence with the conference turned

that body from its opposition to higher education as immoral in tendency

to the establishment of secondary schools and colleges. Upon the removal

in 1824 of the conference's academy at New Market, New Hampshire, to

Wilbraham, Massachusetts, Fisk became one of its agents and trustees,

and in 1826 its principal. He drafted the report of the committee on

education to the general conference in 1828, at which time he declined

the bishopric of the Canada conference. He was first president of

Wesleyan University from the opening of the university in 1831 until his

death on the 22nd of February 1839 in Middletown, Connecticut. His

successful administration of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham and of

Wesleyan University were remarkable. He was an able controversialist,

and in the interests of Arminianism attacked both New England Calvinism

and Unitarianism; he published in 1837 _The Calvinistic Controversy_. He

also wrote _Travels on the Continent of Europe_ (1838).

See _Life and Writings of Wilbur Fisk_ (New York, 1842), edited by

Joseph Holdich, and the biography by George Prentice (Boston, 1890),

in the _American Religious Leaders Series_; also a sketch in _Memoirs

of Teachers and Educators_ (New, York, 1861), edited by Henry Barnard.

FISKE, JOHN (1842-1901), American historical, philosophical and

scientific writer, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 30th of

March 1842, and died at Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July

1901. His name was originally Edmund Fiske Green, but in 1855 he took the

name of a great-grandfather, John Fiske. His boyhood was spent with a

grandmother in Middletown, Connecticut; and prior to his entering college

he had read widely in English literature and history, had surpassed most

boys in the extent of his Greek and Latin work, and had studied several

modern languages. He graduated at Harvard in 1863, continuing to study

languages and philosophy with zeal; spent two years in the Harvard law

school, and opened an office in Boston; but soon devoted the greater

portion of his time to writing for periodicals. With the exception of one

year, he resided at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from the time of his

graduation until his death. In 1869 he gave a course of lectures at

Harvard on the Positive Philosophy; next year he was history tutor; in

1871 he delivered thirty-five lectures on the Doctrine of Evolution,

afterwards revised and expanded as _Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy_

(1874); and between 1872 and 1879 he was assistant-librarian. After that

time he devoted himself to literary work and lecturing on history. Nearly

all of his books were first given to the public in the form of lectures

or magazine articles, revised and collected under a general title, such

as _Myths and Myth-Makers_ (1872), _Darwinism and Other Essays_ (1879),

_Excursions of an Evolutionist_ (1883), and _A Century of Science_

(1899). He did much, by the thoroughness of his learning and the lucidity

of his style, to spread a knowledge of Darwin and Spencer in America. His

_Outlines of Cosmic_ _Philosophy_, while Setting forth the Spencerian

system, made psychological and sociological additions of original matter,

in some respects anticipating Spencer's later conclusions. Of one part of

the argument of this work Fiske wrote in the preface of one of his later

books (_Through Nature to God_, 1899): "The detection of the part played

by the lengthening of infancy in the genesis of the human race is my own

especial contribution to the Doctrine of Evolution." In _The Idea of God

as affected by Modern Knowledge_ (1885) Fiske discusses the theistic

problem, and declares that the mind of man, as developed, becomes an

illuminating indication of the mind of God, which as a great immanent

cause includes and controls both physical and moral forces. More

original, perhaps, is the argument in the immediately preceding work,

_The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light of his Origin_ (1884), which is,

in substance, that physical evolution is a demonstrated fact; that

intellectual force is a later, higher and more potent thing than bodily

strength; and that, finally, in most men and some "lower animals" there

is developed a new idea of the advantageous, a moral and non-selfish line

of thought and procedure, which in itself so transcends the physical that

it cannot be identified with it or be measured by its standards, and may

or must be enduring, or at its best immortal.

It is principally, however, through his work as a historian that Fiske's

reputation will live. His historical writings, with the exception of a

small volume on _American Political Ideas_ (1885), an account of the

system of _Civil Government in the United States_ (1890), _The

Mississippi Valley in the Civil War_ (1900), a school history of the

United States, and an elementary story of the American Revolution, are

devoted to studies, in a unified general manner, of separate yet related

episodes in American history. The volumes have not appeared in

chronological order of subject, but form a nearly complete colonial

history, as follows: _The Discovery of America, with some Account of

Ancient America, and the Spanish Conquest_ (1892, 2 vols.); _Old

Virginia and her Neighbours_ (1897, 2 vols.); _The Beginnings of New

England_; or, _The Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and

Religious Liberty_ (1889); _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_

(1899); _The American Revolution_ (1891, 2 vols.); and _The Critical

Period of American History_, 1783-1789 (1888). Of these the most

original and valuable is the _Critical Period_ volume, a history of the

consolidation of the states into a government, and of the formation of

the constitution. (C. F. R.)

FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (1865- ), American actress, was born in New

Orleans, the daughter of Thomas Davey. As a child she played, under her

mother's name of Maddern, with several well-known actors. In 1882 she

first appeared as a "star," but in 1890 she married Harrison Grey Fiske

and was absent from the stage for several years. In 1893 she reappeared

in _Hester Crewe_, a play written by her husband, and afterwards acted a

number of Ibsen's heroines, and in _Becky Sharp_, a dramatization of

Thackeray's _Vanity Fair_. In 1901 she opened, in opposition to the

American theatrical "trust," an independent theatre in New York, the

Manhattan. She won a considerable reputation in the United States as an

emotional actress.

FISTULA (Lat. for a pipe or tube), a term in surgery used to designate

an abnormal communication leading either from the surface of the body to

a normal cavity or canal, or from one normal cavity or canal to another.

These communications are the result of disease or injury. They receive

different names according to their situation: _lachrymal fistula_ is the

small opening left after the bursting of an abscess in the upper part of

the tear-duct, near the root of the nose; _salivary fistula_ is an

opening into the salivary duct on the cheek; _anal fistula_, or _fistula

in ano_, is a suppurating track near the outlet of the bowel; _urethral

fistula_ is the result of a giving way of the tissues behind a

stricture. These are examples of the variety of the first kind of

fistula; while _recto-vesical fistula_, a communication between the

rectum and bladder, and _vesico-vaginal fistula_, a communication

between the bladder and vagina, are examples of the second. The abnormal

passage may be straight or tortuous, of considerable diameter or of

narrow calibre. Fistulae may be caused by an obstruction of the normal

channel, the result of disease or injury, which prevents, for example,

the tears, saliva or urine, as the case may be, from escaping; their

retention gives rise to inflammation and ulceration in order that an

exit may be obtained by the formation of an abscess, which bursts, for

example, into the gut or through the skin; the cavity does not close,

and a fistula is the result. The fistulous channel remains open as long

as the contents of the cavity or canal with which it is connected can

pass through it. To obliterate the fistula one must remove the

obstruction and encourage the flow along the natural channel; for

example, one must open up the nasal duct so as to allow the tears to

reach the nasal cavity, and the _lachrymal fistula_ will close; and so

also in the _salivary_ and _urethral_ fistulae. Sometimes it may be

necessary to lay the channel freely open, to scrape out the unhealthy

material which lines the track, and to encourage it to fill up from its

deepest part, as in _anal fistula_; in other cases it may be necessary

to pare the edges of the abnormal opening and stitch them together.

(E. O.*)

FIT, a word with several meanings. (1) A portion or division of a poem,

a canto, in this sense often spelled "fytte." (2) A sudden but temporary

seizure or attack of illness, particularly one with convulsive paroxysms

accompanied by unconsciousness, especially an attack of apoplexy or

epilepsy, but also applied to a transitory attack of gout, of coughing,

fainting, &c., also of an outburst of tears, of merriment or of temper.

In a transferred sense, the word is also used of any temporary or

irregular periods of action or inaction, and hence in such expressions

as "by fits and starts." (3) As an adjective, meaning suitable, proper,

becoming, often with the idea of having necessary qualifications for a

specific purpose, "a fit and proper person"; and also as prepared for,

or in a good condition for, any enterprise. The verb "to fit" is thus

used intransitively and transitively, to be adapted for, to suit,

particularly to be of the right measurement or shape, of a dress, of

parts of a mechanism, &c., and to make or render a thing in such a

condition. Hence the word is used as a substantive.

The etymology of the word is difficult; the word may be one in origin,

or may be a homonymous term, one in sound and spelling but with

different origin in each different meaning. In Skeat's _Etymological

Dictionary_ (ed. 1898) (1) and (2) are connected and derived from the

root of "foot," which appears in Lat. _pes_, _pedis_. The evolution of

the word is: step, a part of a poem, a struggle, a seizure. (3) A word

of Scandinavian origin, with the idea of "knitted together" (cf. Ice.

_fitja_, to knit together, Goth, _fetjan_, to adorn); the ultimate

origin is a Teutonic root meaning to seize (cf. "fetch"). The _New

English Dictionary_ suggests that this last root may be the origin of

all the words, and that the underlying meaning is junction, meeting; the

early use of "fit" (2) is that of conflict. It is also pointed out that

the meanings of "fit," suitable, proper, have been modified by "feat,"

which comes through Fr. _fait_, from Lat. _factum_, _facere_, to do,

make.

FITCH, JOHN (1743-1798), American pioneer of steam navigation, was born

at Windsor, Connecticut, on the 21st of January 1743. He was the son of

a farmer, and received the usual common school education. At the age of

seventeen he went to sea, but he discontinued his sailor life after a

few voyages and became successively a clockmaker, a brassfounder and a

silversmith. During the War of Independence he was a sutler to the

American troops, and amassed in that way a considerable sum of money,

with which he bought land in Virginia. He was appointed deputy-surveyor

for Kentucky in 1780, and when returning to Philadelphia in the

following year he was captured by the Indians, but shortly afterwards

regained his liberty. About this time he began an exploration of the

north-western regions, with the view of preparing a map of the district;

and while sailing on the great western rivers, the idea occurred to him

that they might be navigated by steam. He endeavoured by the sale of his

map to find money for the carrying out of his projects, but was

unsuccessful. He next applied for assistance to the legislatures of

different states, but though each reported in favourable terms of his

invention, none of them would agree to grant him any pecuniary

assistance. He was successful, however, in 1786, in forming a company

for the prosecution of his enterprise, and shortly afterwards a

steam-packet of his invention was launched on the Delaware. His claim to

be the inventor of steam-navigation was disputed by James Rumsey of

Virginia, but Fitch obtained exclusive rights in steam-navigation in New

Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, while a similar privilege was granted

to Rumsey in Virginia, Maryland and New York. A steam-boat built by

Fitch conveyed passengers for hire on the Delaware in the summer of

1790, but the undertaking was a losing one, and led to the dissolution

of the company. In 1793 he endeavoured to introduce his invention into

France, but met with no success. On his return to America he found his

property overrun by squatters, and reaping from his invention nothing

but disappointment and poverty, he committed suicide at Bardstown,

Kentucky, on the 2nd of July 1798.

He left behind him a record of his adventures and misfortunes,

"inscribed to his children and future posterity"; and from this a

biography was compiled by Thompson Westcott (Philadelphia, 1857.)

FITCH, SIR JOSHUA GIRLING (1824-1903), English educationist, second son

of Thomas Fitch, of a Colchester family, was born in Southwark, London,

in 1824. His parents were poor but intellectually inclined, and at an

early age Fitch started work as an assistant master in the British and

Foreign School Society's elementary school in the Borough Road, founded

by Thomas Lancaster. But he continued to educate himself by assiduous

reading and attending classes at University College; he was made

headmaster of another school at Kingsland; and in 1850 he took his B.A.

degree at London University, proceeding MA. two years later. In 1852 he

was appointed by the British and Foreign School Society to a tutorship

at their Training College in the Borough Road, soon becoming

vice-principal and in 1856 principal. He had previously done some

occasional teaching there, and he was thoroughly imbued with the

Lancasterian system. In 1863 he was appointed a government inspector of

schools for the York district, from which, after intervals in which he

was detached for work as an assistant commissioner (1865-1867) on the

Schools Inquiry Commission, as special commissioner (1869), and as an

assistant commissioner under the Endowed Schools Act (1870-1877), he was

transferred in 1877 to East Lambeth. In 1883 he was made a chief

inspector, to superintend the eastern counties, and in 1885 chief

inspector of training colleges, a post he held till he retired in 1894.

In the course of an extraordinarily active career, he acquired a unique

acquaintance with all branches of education, and became a recognized

authority on the subject, his official reports, lectures and books

having a great influence on the development of education in England. He

was a strong advocate and supporter of the movement for the higher

education of women, and he was constantly looked to for counsel and

direction on every sort of educational subject; his wide knowledge, safe

judgment and amiable character made his co-operation of exceptional

value, and after he retired from official life his services were in

active request in inquiries and on boards and committees. In 1896 he was

knighted; and besides receiving such academic distinctions as the LL.D.

degree from St Andrews University, he was made a chevalier of the French

Legion of Honour in 1889. He was a constant contributor to the leading

reviews; he published an important series of _Lectures on Teaching_

(1881), _Educational Aims and Methods, Notes on American Schools and

Colleges_ (1887), and an authoritative criticism of _Thomas and Matthew

Arnold, and their Influence on English Education_ (see also the article

on ARNOLD, MATTHEW) in 1901; and he wrote the article on EDUCATION in

the supplementary volumes (10th edition) of this encyclopaedia (1902).

He died on the 14th of July 1903 in London. A civil list pension was

given to his widow, whom, as Miss Emma Wilks, he had married in 1856.

See also _Sir Joshua Fitch_, by the Rev. A.L. Lilley (1906),

FITCH, RALPH (fl. 1583-1606), London merchant, one of the earliest

English travellers and traders in Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf and

Indian Ocean, India proper and Indo-China. In January 1583 he embarked

in the "Tiger" for Tripoli and Aleppo in Syria (see Shakespeare,

_Macbeth_, Act I. sc. 3), together with J. Newberie, J. Eldred and two

other merchants or employees of the Levant Company. From Aleppo he

reached the Euphrates, descended the river from Bir to Fallujah, crossed

southern Mesopotamia to Bagdad, and dropped down the Tigris to Basra

(May to July 1583). Here Eldred stayed behind to trade, while Fitch and

the rest sailed down the Persian Gulf to Ormuz, where they were arrested

as spies (at Venetian instigation, as they believed) and sent prisoners

to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa (September to October). Through the

sureties procured by two Jesuits (one being Thomas Stevens, formerly of

New College, Oxford, the first Englishman known to have reached India by

the Cape route in 1579) Fitch and his friends regained their liberty,

and escaping from Goa (April 1584) travelled through the heart of India

to the court of the Great Mogul Akbar, then probably at Agra. In

September 1585 Newberie left on his return journey overland via Lahore

(he disappeared, being presumably murdered, in the Punjab), while Fitch

descended the Jumna and the Ganges, visiting Benares, Patna, Kuch Behar,

Hugli, Chittagong, &c. (1585-1586), and pushed on by sea to Pegu and

Burma. Here he visited the Rangoon region, ascended the Irawadi some

distance, acquired a remarkable acquaintance with inland Pegu, and even

penetrated to the Siamese Shan states (1586-1587). Early in 1588 he

visited Malacca; in the autumn of this year he began his homeward

travels, first to Bengal; then round the Indian coast, touching at

Cochin and Goa, to Ormuz; next up the Persian Gulf to Basra and up the

Tigris to Mosul (Nineveh); finally via Urfa, Bir on the Euphrates,

Aleppo and Tripoli, to the Mediterranean. He reappeared in London on the

29th of April 1591. His experience was greatly valued by the founders of

the East India Company, who specially consulted him on Indian affairs

(e.g. 2nd of October 1600; 29th of January 1601; 31st of December 1606).

See Hakluyt, _Principal Navigations_ (1599), vol. ii. part i. pp.

245-271, esp. 250-268; Linschoten, _Voyages_ (_Itineraris_), part i.

ch. xcii. (vol. ii. pp. 158-169, &c., Hakluyt Soc. edition); Stevens

and Birdwood, _Court Records of the East India Company 1599-1603_

(1886), esp. pp. 26, 123; _State Papers, East Indies_, &c.,

_1513-1616_ (1862), No. 36; Pinkerton, _Voyages and Travels_

(1808-1814), ix. 406-425.

FITCHBURG, a city and one of the county-seats of Worcester county,

Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated, at an altitude varying from about 433

ft. to about 550 ft., about 23 m. N. of Worcester and about 45 m. W.N.W.

of Boston. Pop. (1880) 12,429; (1890) 22,037; (1900) 31,531, of whom

10,917 were foreign-born, including 4063 French Canadians, 836 English

Canadians, 2306 Irish and 963 Finns; (1910 census) 37,826. Fitchburg is

traversed by the N. branch of the Nashua river, and is served by the

Boston & Maine, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways, and by

three interurban electric lines. The city area (27.7 sq.m.) is well

watered, and is very uneven, with hill spurs running in all directions,

affording picturesque scenery. The court house and the post office (in a

park presented by the citizens) are the principal public buildings.

Fitchburg is the seat of a state normal school (1895), with model and

training schools; has a free public library (1859; in the Wallace

library and art building), the Burbank hospital, the Fitchburg home for

old ladies, and an extensive system of parks, in one of which is a fine

fountain, designed by Herbert Adams. Fitchburg has large mercantile and

financial interests, but manufacturing is the principal industry. The

principal manufactures are paper and wood pulp, cotton and woollen

goods, yarn and silk, machinery, saws, horn goods, and bicycles and

firearms (the Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works being located here). In

1905 the city's total factory product was valued at $15,390,507, of

which $3,019,118 was the value of the paper and wood pulp product,

$2,910,572 was the value of the cotton goods, and $1,202,421 was the

value of the foundry and machine shop products. The municipality owns

and operates its (gravity) water works system. Fitchburg was included in

Lunenburg until 1764, when it was incorporated as a township and was

named in honour of John Fitch, a citizen who did much to secure

incorporation; it was chartered as a city in 1872.

See W.A. Emerson, _Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present_

(Fitchburg, 1887).

FITTIG, RUDOLF (1835- ), German chemist, was born at Hamburg on the

6th of December 1835. He studied chemistry at Gottingen, graduating as

Ph.D. with a dissertation on acetone in 1858. He subsequently held

several appointments at Gottingen, being privat docent (1860), and

extraordinary professor (1870). In 1870 he obtained the chair at

Tubingen, and in 1876 that at Strassburg, where the laboratories were

erected from his designs. Fittig's researches are entirely in organic

chemistry, and cover an exceptionally wide field. The aldehydes and

ketones provided material for his earlier work. He observed that

aldehydes and ketones may suffer reduction in neutral, alkaline, and

sometimes acid solution to secondary and tertiary glycols, substances

which he named pinacones; and also that certain pinacones when distilled

with dilute sulphuric acid gave compounds, which he named pinacolines.

The unsaturated acids, also received much attention, and he discovered

the internal anhydrides of oxyacids, termed lactones. In 1863 he

introduced the reaction known by his name. In 1855 Adolph Wurtz had

shown that when sodium acted upon alkyl iodides, the alkyl residues

combined to form more complex hydrocarbons; Fittig developed this method

by showing that a mixture of an aromatic and alkyl haloid, under similar

treatment, yielded homologues of benzene. His investigations on Perkin's

reaction led him to an explanation of its mechanism which appeared to be

more in accordance with the facts. The question, however, is one of much

difficulty, and the exact course of the reaction appears to await

solution. These researches incidentally solved the constitution of

coumarin, the odoriferous principle of woodruff. Fittig and Erdmann's

observation that phenyl isocrotonic acid readily yielded

[alpha]-naphthol by loss of water was of much importance, since it

afforded valuable evidence as to the constitution of naphthalene. They

also investigated certain hydrocarbons occurring in the high boiling

point fraction of the coal tar distillate and solved the constitution of

phenanthrene. We also owe much of our knowledge of the alkaloid piperine

to Fittig, who in collaboration with Ira Remsen established its

constitution in 1871. Fittig has published two widely used text-books;

he edited several editions of Wohler's _Grundriss der organischen

Chemie_ (11th ed., 1887) and wrote an _Unorganische Chemie_ (1st ed.,

1872; 3rd, 1882). His researches have been recognized by many scientific

societies and institutions, the Royal Society awarding him the Davy

medal in 1906.

FITTON, MARY (c. 1578-1647), identified by some writers with the "dark

lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets, was the daughter of Sir Edward Fitton of

Gawsworth, Cheshire, and was baptized on the 24th of June 1578. Her

elder sister, Anne, married John Newdigate in 1587, in her fourteenth

year. About 1595 Mary Fitton became maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth.

Her father recommended her to the care of Sir William Knollys,

comptroller of the queen's household, who promised to defend the

"innocent lamb" from the "wolfish cruelty and fox-like subtlety of the

tame beasts of this place." Sir William was fifty and already married,

but he soon became suitor to Mary Fitton, in hope of the speedy death of

the actual Lady Knollys, and appears to have received considerable

encouragement. There is no hint in her authenticated biography that she

was acquainted with Shakespeare. William Kemp, who was a clown in

Shakespeare's company, dedicated his _Nine Daies Wonder_ to Mistress

Anne (perhaps an error for Mary) Fitton, "Maid of Honour to Elizabeth";

and there is a sonnet addressed to her in an anonymous volume, _A

Woman's Woorth defended against all the Men in the World_ (1599). In

1600 Mary Fitton led a dance in court festivities at which William

Herbert, later earl of Pembroke, is known to have been present; and

shortly afterwards she became his mistress. In February 1601 Pembroke

was sent to the Fleet in connexion with this affair, but Mary Fitton,

whose child died soon after its birth, appears to have simply been

dismissed from court. Mary Fitton seems to have gone to her sister,

Lady Newdigate, at Arbury. A second scandal has been fixed on Mary

Fitton by George Ormerod, author of _History of Cheshire_, in a MS.

quoted by Mr. T. Tyler (_Academy_, 27th Sept. 1884). Ormerod asserted,

on the strength of the MSS. of Sir Peter Leycester, that she had two

illegitimate daughters by Sir Richard Leveson, the friend and

correspondent of her sister Anne. He also gives the name of her first

husband as Captain Logher, and her second as Captain Polwhele, by whom

she had a son and daughter. Polwhele died in 1609 or 1610, about three

years after his marriage. But Ormerod was mistaken in the order of Mary

Fitton's husbands, for her second husband, Logher, died in 1636. Her own

will, which was proved in 1647, gives her name as "Mary Lougher." In

Gawsworth church there is a painted monument of the Fittons, in which

Anne and Mary are represented kneeling behind their mother. It is stated

that from what remains of the colouring Mary was a dark woman, which is

of course essential to her identification with the lady of the sonnets,

but in the portraits at Arbury described by Lady Newdigate-Newdegate in

her _Gossip from a Muniment Room_ (1897) she has brown hair and grey

eyes.

The identity of the Arbury portrait with Mary Fitton was challenged by

Mr Tyler and by Dr Furnivall. For an answer to their remarks see an

appendix by C.G.O. Bridgeman in the 2nd edition of Lady

Newdigate-Newdegate's book.

The suggestion that Mary Fitton should be regarded as the false

mistress of Shakespeare's sonnets rests on a very thin chain of

reasoning, and by no means follows on the acceptance of the theory

that William Herbert was the addressee of the sonnets, though it of

course fails with the rejection of that supposition. Mr William Archer

(_Fortnightly Review_, December 1897) found some support for Mary

Fitton's identification with the "dark lady" in the fact that Sir

William Knollys was also her suitor, thus numbering three "Wills"

among her admirers. This supplies a definite interpretation, whether

right or wrong, to the initial lines of Sonnet 135:--

"Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'

And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in overplus."

Arguments in favour of her adoption into the Shakespeare circle will

be found in Mr Thomas Tyler's _Shakespeare's Sonnets_ (1890, pp.

73-92), and in the same writer's _Herbert-Fitton Theory of

Shakespeare's Sonnets_ (1898).

FITTON, WILLIAM HENRY (1780-1861), British geologist was born in Dublin

in January 1780. Educated at Trinity College, in that city, he gained

the senior scholarship in 1798, and graduated in the following year. At

this time he began to take interest in geology and to form a collection

of fossils. Having adopted the medical profession he proceeded in 1808

to Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, and

thenceforth his interest in natural history and especially in geology

steadily increased. He removed to London in 1809, where he further

studied medicine and chemistry. In 1811 he brought before the Geological

Society of London a description of the geological structure of the

vicinity of Dublin, with an account of some rare minerals found in

Ireland. He took a medical practice at Northampton in 1812, and for some

years the duties of his profession engrossed his time. He was admitted

M.D. at Cambridge in 1816. In 1820, having married a lady of means, he

settled in London, and devoted himself to the science of geology with

such assiduity and thoroughness that he soon became a leading authority,

and in the end, as Murchison said, "one of the British worthies who have

raised modern geology to its present advanced position." His

"Observations on some of the Strata between the Chalk and the Oxford

Oolite, in the South-east of England" (_Trans. Geol. Soc._ ser. 2, vol.

iv.) embodied a series of researches extending from 1824 to 1836, and

form the classic memoir familiarly known as Fitton's "Strata below the

Chalk." In this great work he established the true succession and

relations of the Upper and Lower Greensand, and of the Wealden and

Purbeck formations, and elaborated their detailed structure. He had been

elected F.R.S. in 1815, and he was president of the Geological Society

of London 1827-1829. His house then became a meeting place for

scientific workers, and during his presidency he held a conversazione

open on Sunday evenings to all fellows of the Geological Society. From

1817 to 1841 he contributed to the _Edinburgh Review_ many admirable

essays on the progress of geological science; he also wrote "Notes on

the Progress of Geology in England" for the _Philosophical Magazine_

(1832-1833). His only independent publication was _A Geological Sketch

of the Vicinity of Hastings_ (1833). He was awarded the Wollaston medal

by the Geological Society in 1852. He died in London on the 13th of May

1861.

Obituary by R.I. Murchison in _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._, vol. xviii.,

1862, p. xxx.

FITZBALL, EDWARD (1792-1873), English dramatist, whose real patronymic

was Ball, was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, in 1792. His father was a

well-to-do farmer, and Fitzball, after receiving his schooling at

Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Norwich printer in 1809. He produced

some dramatic pieces at the local theatre, and eventually the marked

success of his _Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber_

(1820), together with the friendly acceptance of one of his pieces at

the Surrey theatre by Thomas Dibdin, induced him to settle in London.

During the next twenty-five years he produced a great number of plays,

most of which were highly successful. He had a special talent for

nautical drama. His _Floating Beacon_ (Surrey theatre, 19th of April

1824) ran for 140 nights, and his _Pilot_ (Adelphi, 1825) for 200

nights. His greatest triumph in melodrama was perhaps _Jonathan

Bradford, or the Murder at the Roadside Inn_ (Surrey theatre, 12th of

June 1833). He was at one time stock dramatist and reader of plays at

Covent Garden, and afterwards at Drury Lane. He had a considerable

reputation as a song-writer and as a librettist in opera. The last years

of his life were spent in retirement at Chatham, where he died on the

27th of October 1873.

His autobiography, _Thirty-Five Years of a Dramatic Author's Life_ (2

vol., 1859), is a naive record of his career. Numbers of his plays are

printed in _Cumberland's Minor British Theatre, Dick's Standard Plays_

and _Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays_.

FITZGERALD, the name of an historic Irish house, which descends from

Walter, son of Other, who at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was

castellan of Windsor and a tenant-in-chief in five counties. From his

eldest son William, known as "de Windsor," descended the Windsors of

Stanwell, of whom Andrew Windsor was created Lord Windsor of Stanwell (a

Domesday possession of the house) by Henry VIII., which barony is now

vested in the earl of Plymouth, his descendant in the female line. Of

Walter's younger sons, Robert was given by Henry I. the barony of Little

Easton, Essex; Maurice obtained the stewardship (_dapiferatus_) of the

great Suffolk abbey of Bury St Edmunds; Reinald the stewardship to Henry

I.'s queen, Adeliza; and Gerald (also a _dapifer_) became the ancestor

of the FitzGeralds. As constable and captain of the castle that Arnulf

de Montgomery raised at Pembroke, Gerald strengthened his position in

Wales by marrying Nesta, sister of Griffith, prince of South Wales, who

bore to him famous children, "by whom the southern coast of Wales was

saved for the English and the bulwarks of Ireland stormed." Of these

sons William, the eldest, was succeeded by his son Odo, who was known as

"de Carew," from the fortress of that name at the neck of the Pembroke

peninsula, the eldest son Gerald having been slain by the Welsh. The

descendants of Odo held Carew and the manor of Moulsford, Berks, and

some of them acquired lands in Ireland. But the wild claims of Sir Peter

Carew, under Queen Elizabeth, to vast Irish estates, including half of

"the kingdom of Cork," were based on a fictitious pedigree. Odo de

Carew's brothers, Reimund "Fitz William" (known as "Le Gros") and

Griffin "Fitz William," took an active part in the conquest of Ireland.

Returning to Gerald and Nesta, their son David "Fitz Gerald" became

bishop of St David's (1147-1176), and their daughter Angharat mother of

Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis, q.v.), the well-known historian

and the eulogist of his mother's family. A third son, Maurice, obtained

from his brother the stewardship (_dapiferatus_) of St David's, c. 1174,

and having landed in Ireland in 1169, on the invitation of King Dermod,

founded the fortunes of his house there, receiving lands at Wexford,

where he died and was buried in 1176. His eventual territory, however,

was the great barony of the Naas in Ophaley (now in Kildare), which

Strongbow granted him with Wicklow Castle; but his sons were forced to

give up the latter. His eldest son William succeeded him as baron of the

Naas and steward of St David's, but William's granddaughter carried the

Naas to the Butlers and so to the Loundreses. Gerald, a younger son of

Maurice, who obtained lands in Ophaley, was father of Maurice "Fitz

Gerald," who held the great office of justiciar of Ireland from 1232 to

1245. In 1234 he fought and defeated his overlord, the earl marshal,

Richard, earl of Pembroke, and he also fought for his king against the

Irish, the Welsh, and in Gascony, dying in 1257. He held Maynooth

Castle, the seat of his descendants.

Much confusion follows in the family history, owing to the justiciar

leaving a grandson Maurice (son of his eldest son Gerald) and a younger

son Maurice, of whom the latter was justiciar for a year in 1272, while

the former, as heir male and head of the race, inherited the Ophaley

lands, which he is said to have bequeathed at his death (1287) to John

"Fitz Thomas," whose fighting life was crowned by a grant of the castle

and town of Kildare, and of the earldom of Kildare to him and the heirs

male of his body (May 14th, 1316), Dying shortly after, he was succeeded

by his son Thomas, son-in-law of Richard (de Burgh) the "red earl" of

Ulster, who received the hereditary shrievalty of Kildare in 1317, and

was twice (1320, 1327) justiciar of Ireland for a year. His younger son

Maurice "Fitz Thomas," 4th earl (1331-1390), was frequently appointed

justiciar, and was great-grandfather of Thomas, the 7th earl

(1427-1477), who between 1455 and 1475 was repeatedly in charge of the

government of Ireland as "deputy," and who founded the "brotherhood of

St George" for the defence of the English Pale. He was also made lord

chancellor of Ireland in 1463. His son Gerald, the 8th earl (1477-1513),

called "More" (the Great), was deputy governor of Ireland from 1481 for

most of the rest of his life, though imprisoned in the Tower two years

(1494-1496) on suspicion as a Yorkist. He was mortally wounded while

fighting the Irish as "deputy." Gerald, the 9th earl (1513-1534),

followed in his father's steps as deputy, fighting the Irish, till the

enmity of the earl of Ormonde, the hereditary rival of his house,

brought about his deposition in 1520. In spite of temporary restorations

he finally died a prisoner in the Tower.

In his anger at his rival's successes the 9th earl had been led, it was

suspected, into treason, and while he was a prisoner in England his son

Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, "Silken Thomas," broke out into open revolt

(1534), and declared war on the government; his followers slew the

archbishop of Dublin and laid siege to Dublin Castle. Meanwhile he made

overtures to the native Irish, to the pope and to the emperor; but the

Butlers took up arms against him, an English army laid siege to his

castle of Maynooth, and, though its fall was followed by a long struggle

in the field, the earl, deserted by O'Conor, had eventually to surrender

himself to the king's deputy. He was sent to the Tower, where he was

subsequently joined by his five uncles, arrested as his accomplices.

They were all six executed as traitors in February 1537, and acts of

attainder completed the ruin of the family.

But the earl's half-brother, Gerald (whose sister Elizabeth was the earl

of Surrey's "fair Geraldine"), a mere boy, had been carried off, and,

after many adventures at home and abroad, returned to England after

Henry VIII.'s death, and to propitiate the Irish was restored to his

estates by Edward VI. (1552). Having served Mary in Wyat's rebellion, he

was created by her earl of Kildare and Lord Offaley, on the 13th of May

1554, but the old earldom (though the contrary is alleged) remained

under attainder. Although he conformed to the Protestant religion under

Elizabeth and served against the Munster rebels and their Spanish

allies, he was imprisoned in the Tower on suspicion of treason in 1583.

But the acts attainting his family had been repealed in 1569, and the

old earldom was thus regained. In 1585 he was succeeded by his son Henry

("of the Battleaxes"), who was mortally wounded when fighting the Tyrone

rebels in 1597. On the death of his brother in 1599 the earldom passed

to their cousin Gerald, whose claim to the estates was opposed by

Lettice, Lady Digby, the heir-general. She obtained the ancestral castle

of Geashill with its territory and was recognized in 1620 as Lady

Offaley for life. George, the 16th earl (1620-1660), had his castle of

Maynooth pillaged by the Roman Catholics in 1642, and after its

subsequent occupation by them in 1646 it was finally abandoned by the

family.

The history of the earls after the Restoration was uneventful, save for

the re-acquisition in 1739 of Carton, which thenceforth became the seat

of the family, until James the 20th earl (1722-1773), who obtained a

viscounty of Great Britain in 1747, built Leinster House in Dublin, and

formed a powerful party in the Irish parliament. In 1756 he was made

lord deputy; in 1760 he raised the royal Irish regiment of artillery;

and in 1766 he received the dukedom of Leinster, which remained the only

Irish dukedom till that of Abercorn was created in 1868. His wealth and

connexions secured him a commanding position. Of his younger children

one son was created Lord Lecale; another was the well-known rebel, Lord

Edward Fitzgerald; another was the ancestor of Lord De Ros; and a

daughter was created Baroness Rayleigh. William Robert, the 2nd duke

(1749-1804), was a cordial supporter of the Union, and received nearly

L30,000 for the loss of his borough influence. In 1883 the family was

still holding over 70,000 acres in Co. Kildare; but, after a tenure of

nearly 750 years, arrangements were made to sell them to the tenants

under the recent Land Purchase Acts. In 1893 Maurice Fitzgerald (b.

1887) succeeded his father Gerald, the 5th duke (1851-1893), as 6th duke

of Leinster.

The other great Fitzgerald line was that of the earls of Desmond, who

were undoubtedly of the same stock and claimed descent from Maurice, the

founder of the family in Ireland, through a younger son Thomas. It would

seem that Maurice, grandson of Thomas, was father of Thomas "Fitz

Maurice" _Nappagh_ ("of the ape"), justice of Ireland in 1295, who

obtained a grant of the territory of "Decies and Desmond" in 1292, and

died in 1298. His son Maurice Fitz Thomas or Fitzgerald, inheriting vast

estates in Munster, and strengthening his position by marrying a

daughter of Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster, was created earl of

Desmond (i.e. south Munster) on the 22nd of August 1329, and Kerry was

made a palatine liberty for him. The greatest Irish noble of his day, he

led the Anglo-Irish party against the English representatives of the

king, and was attacked as the king's enemy by the viceroy in 1345. He

surrendered in England to the king and was imprisoned, but eventually

regained favour, and was even made viceroy himself in 1355. He died,

however, the following year. Two of his sons succeeded in turn, Gerald,

the 3rd earl (1359-1398), being appointed justiciar (i.e. viceroy) in

1367, despite his adopting his father's policy which the crown still

wished to thwart. But he was superseded two years later, and defeated

and captured by the native king of Thomond shortly after. Yet his

sympathies were distinctly Irish. The remote position of Desmond in the

south-west of Ireland tended to make the succession irregular on native

lines, and a younger son succeeded as 6th or 7th earl about 1422. His

son Thomas, the next earl (1462-1467), governed Ireland as deputy from

1463 to 1467, and upheld the endangered English rule by stubborn

conflict with the Irish. Yet Tiptoft, who superseded him, procured his

attainder with that of the earl of Kildare, on the charge of alliance

with the Irish, and he was beheaded on the 14th of February 1468, his

followers in Munster avenging his death by invading the Pale. His

younger son Maurice, earl from 1487 to 1520, was one of Perkin Warbeck's

Irish supporters, and besieged Waterford on his behalf. His son James

(1520-1529) was proclaimed a rebel and traitor for conspiring with the

French king and with the emperor. At his death the succession reverted

to his uncle Thomas (1529-1534), then an old man, at whose death there

was a contest between his younger brother Sir John "of Desmond" and his

grandson James, a court page of Henry VIII. Old Sir John secured

possession till his death (1536), when his son James succeeded _de

facto_, and _de jure_ on the rightful earl being murdered by the

usurper's younger brother in 1540. Intermarriage with Irish chieftains

had by this time classed the earls among them, but although this James

looked to their support before 1540, he thenceforth played so prudent a

part that in spite of the efforts of the Butlers, the hereditary foes

of his race, he escaped the fate of the Kildare branch and kept Munster

quiet and in order for the English till his death in 1558. His four

marriages produced a disputed succession and a break-up of the family.

His eldest son Thomas "Roe" (the Red) was disinherited, and failed to

obtain the earldom, which was confirmed by Elizabeth to his half-brother

Gerald "the rebel earl" (1558-1582), but Gerald had other enemies in his

uncle Maurice (the murderer of 1540) and his son especially, the famous

James "Fitz Maurice" Fitz Gerald. Gerald's turbulence and his strife

with the Butlers led to his detention in England (1562-1564) and again

in 1565-1566. In 1567 Sidney imprisoned him in Dublin Castle, whence,

with his brother, Sir John "of Desmond," he was sent to England and the

Tower, and not allowed to return to Ireland till 1573. Meanwhile the

above James, in spite of the protests of Thomas "Roe," had usurped his

position in his absence and induced the natives to choose him as

"captain" or chieftain of Desmond. He formed a strong Irish Catholic

party and broke into revolt in 1569. Suppressed by Sidney, he rebelled

again, till crushed by Perrot in 1573. As Earl Gerald on his return

would not join James in revolt, the latter withdrew to France. But

Gerald himself, after some trimming, rose in rebellion (July 1574),

though he soon submitted to the queen's forces. On the continent James

Fitz Maurice offered the crown of Ireland in succession to France and to

Spain, and finally to the nephew of Pope Gregory XIII. With the papal

nuncio and a few troops he landed at Dingle in Kerry (June 1579) and

called on the earls of Kildare and Desmond to join him, but the latter

assured the English government of his loyalty, and James was killed in a

skirmish. Yet Desmond was viewed with suspicion and finally forced, by

being proclaimed as a traitor (Nov. 1st, 1579), into a miserable

rebellion. His castles were soon captured, and he was hunted as a

fugitive, till surprised and beheaded on the 11th of November 1583,

after long wanderings, his head being fixed on London Bridge. His ruin

is attributable to his restless turbulence and lack of settled policy.

The vast estates of the earls, estimated at 600,000 acres, were

forfeited by act of parliament.

But the influence of his mighty house was still great among the Irish.

The disinherited Thomas "Roe" left a son James "Fitz Thomas," who,

succeeding him in 1595 and finding that the territory of the earls would

never be restored, assumed the earldom and joined O'Neill's rebellion in

1598, at the head of 8000 of his men. Long sheltered from capture by the

fidelity of the peasantry, he was eventually seized (1601) by his

kinsman the White Knight, Edmund Fitz Gibbon, whose sister-in-law he had

married, and sent to the Tower. The "sugan" (sham) earl lingered there

obscurely as "James M'Thomas" till his death. In consequence of his

rebellion and the devotion of the Irish to his race, James, son of

Gerald "the rebel earl," who had remained in the Tower since his

father's death (1583), was restored as earl of Desmond and sent over to

Munster in 1600, but he, known as "the queen's earl," could, as a

Protestant, do nothing, and he died unmarried in 1601. The "sugan"

earl's brother John, who had joined in his rebellion, escaped into

Spain, and left a son Gerald, who appears to have assumed the title and

was known as the Conde de Desmond. He was killed in the service of the

emperor Ferdinand in 1632. The common origin of the earls of Desmond and

of Kildare had never been forgotten, and intermarriage had cemented the

bond. Just before his death the exile wrote as "Desmond _alias_ Gerratt

Fitz Gerald" to his "Most Noble Cosen" the earl of Kildare, that "wee

must not be oblivious of the true amity and love that was inviolably

observed betweene our antenates and elders."

There can be no doubt that the house of Fitzmaurice was also of this

stock, although their actual origin, in the 12th century, is doubtful.

From a very early date they were feudal lords of Kerry, and their

dignity was recognized as a peerage by Henry VII. in 1489. The isolated

position of their territory ("Clanmaurice") threw them even more among

the Irish than the earls of Desmond, and they often adopted the native

form of their name, "MacMorrish." Under Elizabeth the lords of Kerry

narrowly escaped sharing the ruin of the earls. The conduct of Thomas

in the rebellion of James "Fitz Maurice" was suspicious, and his sons

joined in that of the earl of Desmond, while he himself was a rebel in

1582. Patrick, his successor (1590-1600), was captured in rebellion

(1587), and when free, joined the revolt of 1598, as did his son and

heir Thomas, who continued in the field till he obtained pardon and

restoration in 1603, though suspect till his death in 1630. His grandson

withdrew to France with James II., but the next peer became a supporter

of the Whig cause, married the eventual heiress of Sir William Petty,

and was created earl of Kerry in 1723. From him descend the family of

Petty-Fitzmaurice, who obtained the marquessate of Lansdowne (q.v.) in

1818, and still hold among their titles the feudal barony of Kerry

together with vast estates in that county.

From the three sons by a second wife of one of the earls of Desmond's

ancestors, descended the hereditary White Knights, Knights of Glin and

Knights of Kerry, these feudal dignities having, it is said, been

bestowed upon them by their father, as Lord of Decies and Desmond. Glin

Castle, county Limerick, is still the seat of the (Fitzgerald) Knight of

Glin. Valencia Island is now the seat of the Knights of Kerry, who

received a baronetcy in 1880.

AUTHORITIES.--Calendars of Irish documents and state papers and Carew

papers; Gilbert's _Viceroys of Ireland_; Lord Kildare's _Earls of

Kildare_; G.E. C[okayne]'s _Complete Peerage_; Haymond Graves,

_Unpublished Geraldine Documents_; _Annals of the Four Masters_;

Calendar of the duke of Leinster's MSS. in 9th _Report on Historical

MSS._, part ii.; Ware's _Annals_; J.H. Round's "Origin of the

Fitzgeralds" and "Origin of the Carews" in the _Ancestor_; his

"Earldom of Kildare and Barony of Offaley" in _Genealogist_, ix., and

"Barons of the Naas" in _Genealogist_, xv.; and his "Decies and

Desmond" in _Eng. Hist. Rev._ xviii. (J. H. R.)

FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1809-1883), English writer, the poet of Omar

Khayyam, was born as EDWARD PURCELL, at Bredfield House, in Suffolk, on

the 31st of March 1809. His father, John Purcell, who had married a Miss

FitzGerald, assumed in 1818 the name and arms of his wife's family. From

1816 to 1821 the FitzGeralds lived at St Germain and at Paris, but in

the latter year Edward was sent to school at Bury St Edmunds. In 1826 he

proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, some two years later, he

became acquainted with Thackeray and W.H. Thompson. With Tennyson, "a

sort of Hyperion," his intimacy began about 1835. In 1830 he went to

live in Paris, but in 1831 was in a farm-house on the battlefield of

Naseby. He adopted no profession, and lived a perfectly stationary and

rustic life, presently moving into his native county of Suffolk, and

never again leaving it for more than a week or two. Until 1835 the

FitzGeralds lived at Wherstead; from that year until 1853 the poet

resided at Boulge, near Woodbridge; until 1860 at Farlingay Hall; until

1873 in the town of Woodbridge; and then until his death at his own

house hard by, called Little Grange.

During most of this time FitzGerald gave his thoughts almost without

interruption to his flowers, to music and to literature. He allowed

friends like Tennyson and Thackeray, however, to push on far before him,

and long showed no disposition to emulate their activity. In 1851 he

published his first book, _Euphranor_, a Platonic dialogue, born of

memories of the old happy life at Cambridge. In 1852 appeared

_Polonius_, a collection of "saws and modern instances," some of them

his own, the rest borrowed from the less familiar English classics.

FitzGerald began the study of Spanish poetry in 1850, when he was with

Professor E.B. Cowell at Elmsett and that of Persian in Oxford in 1853.

In the latter year he issued _Six Dramas of Calderon_, freely

translated. He now turned to Oriental studies, and in 1856 he

anonymously published a version of the _Salaman and Absal_ of Jami in

Miltonic verse. In March 1857 the name with which he has been so closely

identified first occurs in FitzGerald's correspondence--"Hafiz and _Omar

Khayyam_ ring like true metal." On the 15th of January 1859 a little

anonymous pamphlet was published as _The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam_. In

the world at large, and in the circle of FitzGerald's particular

friends, the poem seems at first to have attracted no attention. The

publisher allowed it to gravitate to the fourpenny or even (as he

afterwards boasted) to the penny box on the bookstalls. But in 1860

Rossetti discovered it, and Swinburne and Lord Houghton quickly

followed. The _Rubaiyat_ became slowly famous, but it was not until 1868

that FitzGerald was encouraged to print a second and greatly revised

edition. Meanwhile he had produced in 1865 a version of the _Agamemnon_,

and two more plays from Calderon. In 1880-1881 he issued privately

translations of the two Oedipus tragedies; his last publication was

_Readings in Crabbe_, 1882. He left in manuscript a version of Attar's

_Mantic-Uttair_ under the title of _The Bird Parliament_.

From 1861 onwards FitzGerald's greatest interest had centred in the sea.

In June 1863 he bought a yacht, "The Scandal," and in 1867 he became

part-owner of a herring-lugger, the "Meum and Tuum." For some years,

till 1871, he spent the months from June to October mainly in "knocking

about somewhere outside of Lowestoft." In this way, and among his books

and flowers, FitzGerald gradually became an old man. On the 14th of June

1883 he passed away painlessly in his sleep. He was "an idle fellow, but

one whose friendships were more like loves." In 1885 a stimulus was

given to the steady advance of his fame by the fact that Tennyson

dedicated his _Tiresias_ to FitzGerald's memory, in some touching

reminiscent verses to "Old Fitz." This was but the signal for that

universal appreciation of Omar Khayyam in his English dress, which has

been one of the curious literary phenomena of recent years. The melody

of FitzGerald's verse is so exquisite, the thoughts he rearranges and

strings together are so profound, and the general atmosphere of poetry

in which he steeps his version is so pure, that no surprise need be

expressed at the universal favour which the poem has met with among

critical readers. But its popularity has gone much deeper than this; it

is now probably better known to the general public than any single poem

of its class published since the year 1860, and its admirers have almost

transcended common sense in the extravagance of their laudation.

FitzGerald married, in middle life, Lucy, the daughter of Bernard

Barton, the Quaker poet. Of FitzGerald as a man practically nothing was

known until, in 1889, Mr W. Aldis Wright, his intimate friend and

literary executor, published his _Letters and Literary Remains_ in three

volumes. This was followed in 1895 by the _Letters to Fanny Kemble_.

These letters constitute a fresh bid for immortality, since they

discovered that FitzGerald was a witty, picturesque and sympathetic

letter-writer. One of the most unobtrusive authors who ever lived,

FitzGerald has, nevertheless, by the force of his extraordinary

individuality, gradually influenced the whole face of English

_belles-lettres_, in particular as it was manifested between 1890 and

1900.

_The Works of Edward FitzGerald_ appeared in 1887. See also a

chronological list of FitzGerald's works (Caxton Club, Chicago, 1899);

notes for a bibliography by Col. W.F. Prideaux, in _Notes and Queries_

(9th series, vol. vi.), published separately in 1901; _Letters and

Literary Remains_ (ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1902-1903); and the _Life of

Edward FitzGerald_, by Thomas Wright (1904), which contains a

bibliography (vol. ii. pp. 241-243) and a list of sources (vol. i. pp.

xvi.-xvii.). The volume on FitzGerald in the "English Men of Letters"

series is by A.C. Benson. The FitzGerald centenary was celebrated in

March 1909. See the _Centenary Celebrations Souvenir_ (Ipswich, 1909)

and _The Times_ for March 25, 1909. (E. G.)

FITZGERALD, LORD EDWARD (1763-1798), Irish conspirator, fifth son of

James, 1st duke of Leinster, by his wife Emilia Mary, daughter of

Charles Lennox, 2nd duke of Richmond, was born at Carton House, near

Dublin, on the 15th of October 1763. In 1773 the duke of Leinster died,

and his widow soon afterwards married William Ogilvie, who superintended

Lord Edward's early education. Joining the army in 1779, Lord Edward

served with credit in America on the staff of Lord Rawdon (afterwards

marquess of Hastings), and at the battle of Eutaw Springs (8th of

September 1781) he was severely wounded, his life being saved by a negro

named Tony, whom Lord Edward retained in his service till the end of his

life. In 1783 Fitzgerald returned to Ireland, where his brother, the

duke of Leinster, had procured his election to the Irish parliament as

member for Athy. In parliament he acted with the small Opposition group

led by Grattan (q.v.), but took no prominent part in debate. After

spending a short time at Woolwich to complete his military education, he

made a tour through Spain in 1787; and then, dejected by unrequited love

for his cousin Georgina Lennox (afterwards Lady Bathurst), he sailed for

New Brunswick to join the 54th regiment with the rank of major. The

love-sick mood and romantic temperament of the young Irishman found

congenial soil in the wild surroundings of unexplored Canadian forests,

and the enthusiasm thus engendered for the "natural" life of savagery

may have been already fortified by study of Rousseau's writings, for

which at a later period Lord Edward expressed his admiration. In

February 1789, guided by compass, he traversed the country, practically

unknown to white men, from Frederickstown to Quebec, falling in with

Indians by the way, with whom he fraternized; and in a subsequent

expedition he was formally adopted at Detroit by the Bear tribe of

Hurons as one of their chiefs, and made his way down the Mississippi to

New Orleans, whence he returned to England.

Finding that his brother had procured his election for the county of

Kildare, and desiring to maintain political independence, Lord Edward

refused the command of an expedition against Cadiz offered him by Pitt,

and devoted himself for the next few years to the pleasures of society

and his parliamentary duties. He was on terms of intimacy with his

relative C.J. Fox, with R.B. Sheridan and other leading Whigs. According

to Thomas Moore, Lord Edward Fitzgerald was the only one of the numerous

suitors of Sheridan's first wife whose attentions were received with

favour; and it is certain that, whatever may have been its limits, a

warm mutual affection subsisted between the two. His Whig connexions

combined with his transatlantic experiences to predispose Lord Edward to

sympathize with the doctrines of the French Revolution, which he

embraced with ardour when he visited Paris in October 1792. He lodged

with Thomas Paine, and listened to the debates in the Convention. At a

convivial gathering on the 18th of November he supported a toast to "the

speedy abolition of all hereditary titles and feudal distinctions," and

gave proof of his zeal by expressly repudiating his own title--a

performance for which he was dismissed from the army. While in Paris

Fitzgerald became enamoured of a young girl whom he chanced to see at

the theatre, and who is said to have had a striking likeness to Mrs

Sheridan. Procuring an introduction he discovered her to be a _protegee_

of Madame de Sillery, comtesse de Genlis. The parentage of the girl,

whose name was Pamela (?1776-1831), is uncertain; but although there is

some evidence to support the story of Madame de Genlis that Pamela was

born in Newfoundland of parents called Seymour or Sims, the common

belief that she was the daughter of Madame de Genlis herself by Philippe

(Egalite), duke of Orleans, was probably well founded. On the 27th of

December 1792 Fitzgerald and Pamela were married at Tournay, one of the

witnesses being Louis Philippe, afterwards king of the French; and in

January 1793 the couple reached Dublin.

Discontent in Ireland was now rapidly becoming dangerous, and was

finding a focus in the Society of the United Irishmen, and in the

Catholic Committee, an organization formed a few years previously,

chiefly under the direction of Lord Kenmare, to watch the interests of

the Catholics. French revolutionary doctrines had become ominously

popular, and no one sympathized with them more warmly than Lord Edward

Fitzgerald, who, fresh from the gallery of the Convention in Paris,

returned to his seat in the Irish parliament and threw himself actively

into the work of opposition. Within a week of his arrival he denounced

in the House of Commons a government proclamation, which Grattan had

approved, in language so violent that he was ordered into custody and

required to apologize at the bar of the House. As early as 1794 the

government had information that placed Lord Edward under suspicion; but

it was not till 1796 that he joined the United Irishmen, whose aim after

the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795 was avowedly the establishment of

an independent Irish republic. In May 1796 Theobald Wolfe Tone was in

Paris endeavouring to obtain French assistance for an insurrection in

Ireland. In the same month Fitzgerald and his friend Arthur O'Connor

proceeded to Hamburg, where they opened negotiations with the Directory

through Reinhard, French minister to the Hanseatic towns. The duke of

York, meeting Pamela at Devonshire House on her way through London with

her husband, had told her that "all was known" about his plans, and

advised her to persuade him not to go abroad. The proceedings of the

conspirators at Hamburg were made known to the government in London by

an informer, Samuel Turner. Pamela was entrusted with all her husband's

secrets and took an active part in furthering his designs; and she

appears to have fully deserved the confidence placed in her, though

there is reason to suppose that at times she counselled prudence. The

result of the Hamburg negotiations was Hoche's abortive expedition to

Bantry Bay in December 1796. In September 1797 the government learnt

from the informer MacNally that Lord Edward was among those directing

the conspiracy of the United Irishmen, which was now quickly maturing.

He was specially concerned with the military organization, in which he

held the post of colonel of the Kildare regiment and head of the

military committee. He had papers showing that 280,000 men were ready to

rise. They possessed some arms, but the supply was insufficient, and the

leaders were hoping for a French invasion to make good the deficiency

and to give support to a popular uprising. But French help proving

dilatory and uncertain, the rebel leaders in Ireland were divided in

opinion as to the expediency of taking the field without waiting for

foreign aid. Lord Edward was among the advocates of the bolder course.

His opinions and his proposals for action were alike violent. He was on

intimate terms with apologists for assassination; there is some evidence

that he favoured a project for the massacre of the Irish peers while in

procession to the House of Lords for the trial of Lord Kingston in May

1798. It was probably abhorrence of such measures that converted Thomas

Reynolds from a conspirator to an informer; at all events, by him and

several others the authorities were kept posted in what was going on,

though lack of evidence producible in court delayed the arrest of the

ringleaders. But on the 12th of March 1798 Reynolds' information led to

the seizure of a number of conspirators at the house of Oliver Bond.

Lord Edward Fitzgerald, warned by Reynolds, was not among them. The

government were anxious to save him from the consequences of his own

folly, and Lord Clare said to a member of his family, "for God's sake

get this young man out of the country; the ports shall be thrown open,

and no hindrance whatever offered." Fitzgerald with chivalrous

recklessness refused to desert others who could not escape, and whom he

had himself led into danger. On the 30th of March a proclamation

establishing martial law and authorizing the military to act without

orders from the civil magistrate, which was acted upon with revolting

cruelty in several parts of the country, precipitated the crisis.

The government had now no choice but to secure if possible the person of

Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose social position more than his abilities

made him the most important factor in the conspiracy. On the 11th of May

a reward of L1000 was offered for his apprehension. The 23rd of May was

the date fixed for the general rising. Since the arrest at Bond's,

Fitzgerald had been in hiding, latterly at the house of one Murphy, a

feather dealer, in Thomas Street, Dublin. He twice visited his wife in

disguise; was himself visited by his stepfather, Ogilvie, and generally

observed less caution than his situation required. The conspiracy was

honeycombed with treachery, and it was long a matter of dispute to whose

information the government were indebted for Fitzgerald's arrest; but it

is no longer open to doubt that the secret of his hiding place was

disclosed by a Catholic barrister named Magan, to whom the stipulated

reward was ultimately paid through Francis Higgins, another informer. On

the 19th of May Major Swan and a Mr. Ryan proceeded to Murphy's house

with Major H.C. Sirr and a few soldiers. Lord Edward was discovered in

bed. A desperate scuffle took place, Ryan being mortally wounded by

Fitzgerald with a dagger, while Lord Edward himself was only secured

after Sirr had disabled him with a pistol bullet in the shoulder. He

was conveyed to Newgate gaol, where by the kindness of Lord Clare he was

visited by two of his relatives, and where he died of his wound on the

4th of June 1798. An Act of Attainder (repealed in 1819) was passed,

confiscating his property; and his wife--against whom the government

probably possessed sufficient evidence to secure a conviction for

treason--was compelled to leave the country before her husband had

actually expired.

Pamela, who was scarcely less celebrated than Lord Edward himself, and

whose remarkable beauty made a lasting impression on Robert Southey,

repaired to Hamburg, where in 1800 she married J. Pitcairn, the American

consul. Since her marriage with Lord Edward she had been greatly beloved

and esteemed by the whole Fitzgerald family; and although after her

second marriage her intimacy with them ceased, there is no sufficient

evidence for the tales that represented her subsequent conduct as open

to grave censure. She remained to the last passionately devoted to the

memory of her first husband; and she died in Paris in November 1831. A

portrait of Pamela is in the Louvre. She had three children by Lord

Edward Fitzgerald: Edward Fox (1794-1863); Pamela, afterwards wife of

General Sir Guy Campbell; and Lucy Louisa, who married Captain Lyon,

R.N.

Lord Edward Fitzgerald was of small stature and handsome features. His

character and career have been made the subject of eulogies much beyond

their merits. He had, indeed, a winning personality, and a warm,

affectionate and generous nature, which made him greatly beloved by his

family and friends; he was humorous, light-hearted, sympathetic,

adventurous. But he was entirely without the weightier qualities

requisite for such a part as he undertook to play in public affairs.

Hotheaded and impulsive, he lacked judgment. He was as conspicuously

deficient in the statesmanship as he was in the oratorical genius of

such men as Flood, Plunket or Grattan. One of his associates in

conspiracy described him as "weak and not fit to command a sergeant's

guard, but very zealous." Reinhard, who considered Arthur O'Connor "a

far abler man," accurately read the character of Lord Edward Fitzgerald

as that of a young man "incapable of falsehood or perfidy, frank,

energetic, and likely to be a useful and devoted instrument; but with no

experience or extraordinary talent, and entirely unfit to be chief of a

great party or leader in a difficult enterprise."

See Thomas Moore, _Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald_ (2 vols.,

London, 1832), also a revised edition entitled _The Memoirs of Lord

Edward Fitzgerald_, edited with supplementary particulars by Martin

MacDermott (London, 1897); R.R. Madden, _The United Irishmen_ (7

vols., Dublin, 1842-1846); C.H. Teeling, _Personal Narrative of the

Irish Rebellion of 1798_ (Belfast, 1832); W.J. Fitzpatrick, _The Sham

Squire, The Rebellion of Ireland and the Informers of 1798_ (Dublin,

1866), and _Secret Service under Pitt_ (London, 1892); J.A. Froude,

_The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_ (3 vols., London,

1872-1874); W.E.H. Lecky, _History of England in the Eighteenth

Century_, vols. vii. and viii. (London, 1896); Thomas Reynolds the

younger, _The Life of Thomas Reynolds_ (London, 1839); _The Life and

Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox_, edited by the countess of Ilchester and

Lord Stavordale (London, 1901); Ida A. Taylor, _The Life of Lord

Edward Fitzgerald_ (London, 1903), which gives a prejudiced and

distorted picture of Pamela. For particulars of Pamela, and especially

as to the question of her parentage, see Gerald Campbell, _Edward and

Pamela Fitzgerald_ (London, 1904); _Memoirs of Madame de Genlis_

(London, 1825); Georgette Ducrest, _Chroniques populaires_ (Paris,

1855); Thomas Moore, _Memoirs of the Life of R.B. Sheridan_ (London,

1825). (R. J. M.)

FITZGERALD, RAYMOND, or REDMOND (d. ca. 1182), surnamed Le Gros, was the

son of William Fitzgerald and brother of Odo de Carew. He was sent by

Strongbow to Ireland in 1170, and landed at Dundunnolf, near Waterford,

where he was besieged in his entrenchments by the combined Irish and

Ostmen, whom he repulsed. He was Strongbow's second in command, and had

the chief share in the capture of Waterford and in the successful

assault on Dublin. He was sent to Aquitaine to hand over Strongbow's

conquests to Henry II., but was back in Dublin in July 1171, when he led

one of the sallies from the town. Strongbow offended him later by

refusing him the marriage of his sister Basilea, widow of Robert de

Quenci, constable of Leinster. Raymond then retired to Wales, and

Hervey de Mountmaurice became constable in his place. At the outbreak of

a general rebellion against the earl in 1174 Raymond returned with his

uncle Meiler Fitz Henry, after receiving a promise of marriage with

Basilea. Reinstated as constable he secured a series of successes, and

with the fall of Limerick in October 1175 order was restored.

Mountmaurice meanwhile obtained Raymond's recall on the ground that his

power threatened the royal authority, but the constable was delayed by a

fresh outbreak at Limerick, the earl's troops refusing to march without

him. On the death of Strongbow he was acting governor until the arrival

of William Fitz Aldhelm, to whom he handed over the royal fortresses. He

was deprived of his estates near Dublin and Wexford, but the Geraldines

secured the recall of Fitz Aldhelm early in 1183, and regained their

power and influence. In 1182 he relieved his uncle Robert Fitzstephen,

who was besieged in Cork. The date of his death, sometimes stated to be

1182, is not known.

FITZGERALD, LORD THOMAS (10th earl of Kildare), (1513-1537), the eldest

son of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th earl of Kildare, was born in London in

1513. He spent much of his youth in England, but in 1534 when his father

was for the third time summoned to England to answer for his

maladministration as lord deputy of Ireland, Thomas, at the council held

at Drogheda, in February was made vice-deputy. In June the Ormond

faction spread a report in Ireland that the earl had been executed in

the Tower, and that his son's life was to be attempted. Inflamed with

rage at this apparent treachery, Thomas rode at the head of his

retainers[1] into Dublin, and before the council for Ireland (the 11th

of June 1534) formally renounced his allegiance to the king and

proclaimed a rebellion. His enemies, including Archbishop John Allen (of

Dublin), who had been set by Henry VIII. to watch Fitzgerald, took

refuge in Dublin Castle. In attempting to escape to England, Allen was

taken by the rebels, and on the 28th of July 1534, was murdered by

Fitzgerald's servants in his presence, but whether actually by his

orders is uncertain. In any case he sent to the pope for absolution, but

was solemnly excommunicated by the Irish Church. Leaving part of his

army (with the consent of the citizens) to besiege Dublin Castle,

Fitzgerald himself went against Piers Butler, earl of Ossory, and

succeeded at first in making a truce with him. But the citizens of

Dublin now rose against him, Ossory invaded Kildare, and the approach of

an English army forced Fitzgerald to raise the siege. Part of the

English army landed on the 17th of October, the rest a week later, but

taking advantage of the inactivity of the new lord deputy, Sir William

Skeffington, Fitzgerald from his stronghold at Maynooth ravaged Kildare

and Meath throughout the winter. He had now succeeded to the earldom of

Kildare, his father having died in the Tower on the 13th of December

1534, but he does not seem to have been known by that title. In March

Skeffington stormed the castle, the stronghold of the Geraldines, which

was defended, and some said betrayed, by Christopher Parese,

Fitzgerald's foster-brother. It fell on the 23rd of March 1535, and most

of the garrison were put to the sword. This proved the final blow to the

rebellion. The news of what is known as the "pardon of Maynooth" reached

Fitzgerald as he was returning from levying fresh troops in Offaley; his

men fell away from him, and he retreated to Thomond, intending to sail

for Spain. Changing his mind he spent the next few months in raids

against the English and their allies, but his party gradually deserting

him, on the 18th of August 1535 he surrendered himself to Lord Leonard

Grey (d. 1541). It seems likely that he made some conditions, but what

they were is very uncertain. He was taken to England and placed in the

Tower. In February 1536 his five uncles were also, some of them with

great injustice, seized and brought to England. The six Geraldines were

hanged at Tyburn on the 3rd of February 1537. Acts of attainder against

them and Gerald the 9th earl were passed by both the Irish and English

parliaments; but the family estates were restored by Edward VI. to

Gerald, 11th earl of Kildare (stepbrother of Thomas), and the attainder

was repealed by Queen Elizabeth. Lord Thomas Fitzgerald married Frances,

youngest daughter of Sir Adrian Fortescue, but had no children.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Richard Stanihurst, _Chronicles of Ireland_ (vol. ii.

of _Holinshed's Chronicles_); Sir James Ware, _Rerum Hibernicarum

annales_ (Dublin, 1664); _The Earls of Kildare_, by C.W. Fitzgerald,

duke of Leinster (3rd ed., 1858); Richard Bagwell, _Ireland under the

Tudors_ (3 vols., 1885, vol. i. passim); _Calendar State Papers, Hen.

VIII., Irish_; G. E. C.'s _Peerage_; John Lodge, _Peerage of Ireland_,

ed. M. Archdall (1789), vol. i.