BAGWELL, John (1811-1883), of Marlfield and Oaklands House, Clonmel, co. Tipperary and Eastgrove, Queenstown, co. Cork

Bagwell was born at Clogher, county Tyrone, where his father was dean. His family were well-established landowners in county Tipperary, Bagwell’s grandfather and namesake being the descendant of a captain in Cromwell’s army, who had purchased Marlfield and the patronage of Clonmel in the 1770s, and represented County Tipperary in the Irish parliament, 1792-1800, and at Westminster, 1801-2. Bagwell’s father represented Cashel in the Irish parliament, 1799-1800 and at Westminster, 1801, and was collector of Clonmel from 1823, and three times mayor of the town. His uncle, Colonel William Bagwell, from whom Bagwell inherited his estates in 1826, was MP for Clonmel, 1801-19, and County Tipperary, 1819-26, and muster master-general for Ireland.1J. Burke, Genealogical and Historical History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (1838), iii. 141-2; Gent. Mag. (1826) ii. 640-1; Limerick Chronicle, 8, 15 Nov. 1826; E. Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (2002), iii. 126-9; HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 105-7; HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 128-9; J. Quinn, ‘Bagwell, John’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, i. 221-2.

Bagwell’s extensive estates lay mainly in county Tipperary, but he also held land in counties Cork and Waterford.2His Georgian mansion in the Grecian style lay on the River Suir, and came to house one of the finest private libraries in Ireland. It was destroyed by anti-Treaty forces in 1923: B. Burke, A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland (1855), ii. 115. As the ‘owner’ of Clonmel, he first stood for the borough at the 1832 general election as a Conservative. Though his return was considered ‘to be quite certain’ he was defeated by Dominick Ronayne, a repealer.3Morning Post, 28 Sept. 1832. He lost again in 1835, this time only narrowly, and the following autumn it was rumoured that Daniel O’Connell would assist him to succeed Ronayne, should he ‘bow down his neck to the brazen image’. Yet, despite having ‘many and mighty claims’ on the borough, the seat became the preserve of Liberal law officers for the next ten years.4Morning Post, 12 Oct. 1835; Standard, 9 Feb. 1836.

In 1838 Bagwell married a daughter of the Hon. Francis Aldborugh Prittie, a former Reform MP for County Tipperary.5Freeman’s Journal, 29 June 1838; Belfast News-letter, 29 June 1838; HP Commons, 1790-1820, iv. 893-4; HP Commons, 1820-32, vi. 897-9. She was the niece of Henry Sadleir Prittie, 2nd baron Dunalley, her brother Henry, succeeding as 3rd baron in 1854: Ibid., vi. 899-90. A protectionist, (in March 1840 he attended a meeting to petition the queen against a revision of the corn laws), Bagwell would later claim that Ireland’s once ‘flourishing corn trade’ had been ‘destroyed by the free trade policy’.6Freeman’s Journal, 13 Mar. 1840; Hansard, 24 Feb. 1865, vol. 177, c. 685. He was spoken of as a candidate for Clonmel, before coming forward for County Tipperary at the 1847 general election as ‘a warm supporter’ of the ministry of Lord John Russell.7The Times, 7, 14, 18 June 1847; Aberdeen Journal, 23 June 1847. Although he did decline the poll, he enhanced his local popularity by attending a tenant right meeting at Thurles that July, and in 1851 joined the protest against the ecclesiastical titles bill.8Freeman’s Journal, 29 July 1847; Northern Star, 31 May 1851. As a result of the famine, a considerable portion of his land in county Tipperary was sold in the Incumbered Estates Court between 1851 and 1854.9The Times, 17 Feb. 1851. Only 3,519 acres remained at his death in 1883: J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain (4th edn., 1883), 20. Nevertheless, he issued an address as a candidate for Clonmel in August 1856, after the sitting MP, John O’Connell accepted office. Although he had previously had the reputation of being ‘a Tory of the first water’, he was now considered to be amongst the ‘more advanced Whigs’.10Belfast News-letter, 19 Aug. 1856; Northern Star, 31 May 1851; The Times, 16 Feb. 1857. Returned as an ‘independent oppositionist’ at the by-election in February 1857, Bagwell disappointed his clerical backers with his consistent support for the Liberal ministry, yet continued to hold the seat until 1874.11J. O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society in Post-famine Ireland. A study of County Tipperary 1850-1891 (1983), 190; Freeman’s Journal, 26 Feb 1857.

A regular speaker and active committee member, Bagwell was a supporter of Irish national education and of endowed schools, and strongly backed the agricultural training provided by the country’s ‘model’ schools.12Hansard, 29 June 1857, vol. 146, c. 593; 11 May 1858, vol. 150, c. 428; 5 June 1863, vol. 171, c. 471; 18 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 1099-1100. In 1858 he helped to prepare a bill to regulate Irish reformatory schools, and later became a critic of industrial schools.13Hansard, 14 July 1858, vol. 151, cc. 1431-6; PP 1857-58 (50) iv. 237; PP 1857-58 (140) iv. 245. He also concerned himself with the treatment of lunatics, introducing a bill on the issue in March 1859, and later advocating medical training for those who treated them.14Hansard, 7 Feb. 1859, vol. 152, c. 167; 21 Feb. 1859, vol. 152, cc. 666-7; 1 July 1864, vol. 176, cc. 635-6; PP 1859 Session 1 (207) iii. 67; Hansard, 9 July 1867, vol. 188, c. 1316. However, while Bagwell was concerned by the extent of Irish emigration, chairing a select committee on destitution in north-west Donegal in 1858, he opposed any amendment to the Irish poor law, which he believed ‘if properly administered, was humane and just’.15Hansard, 15 May 1857, vol. 145, c. 311; 22 Apr. 1858, vol. 149, cc. 1525-7; Freeman’s Journal, 11 Aug. 1858; Belfast News-letter, 18 Aug. 1858; PP 1857-58 (412) xiii. 89; T.A. Jenkins (ed.), The Parliamentary Diaries of Sir John Trelawney 1858-1865 (1990), 36; Hansard, 29 June 1864, vol. 176, cc. 457-9.

In 1860 Bagwell assisted with a bill to extend the time for the repayment of the Dominica Hurricane Loan, and became involved in Irish banking, assisting with a bill to provide for unclaimed stock and dividends.16PP 1860 (219) iii. 37; Hansard, 9 Dec. 1857, vol. 148, cc. 442-3; PP 1860 (270) i. 271. The following year he was involved in a number of administrative reforms, helping Edward Cardwell to prepare bills for the better regulation of Irish markets and fairs, for the registration of births, deaths and marriages (sitting on the relevant select committees), and for the improvement of pay for county surveyors.17PP 1861 (7) iii. 309; PP 1861 (8) i. 347; PP 1861 (424) xiv. 325; PP 1861 (425) xiv. 13; PP 1861 (213) i. 681. He also concerned himself with Irish policing, opposing the absorption of the revenue police by the constabulary in 1857, and arguing in 1862 that the latter ‘had been made so military in its character that it was of no use as a civil force’.18Hansard, 24 July 1857, vol. 147, c. 415; 15 May 1862, vol. 166, cc. 1781-2; 22 Mar. 1867, vol. 186, c. 419. As an alternative, he unsuccessfully urged the government to extend the volunteer system to Ireland, and, concerned by the number of police stationed in his own county in 1864-5, urged that the constabulary be subjected to a greater degree of local control.19Hansard, 4 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 333-4; Glasgow Herald, 7 Dec. 1866; Hansard, 4 May 1865, vol. 178, cc. 1512-3; 29 May 1865, vol. 179, cc. 978-96; 15 Apr. 1864, vol. 174, c. 1139. He was particularly concerned with police efforts to suppress illegal distillation: Hansard, 24 Feb. 1864, vol. 173, cc. 1032-3.

Regarding land reform, Bagwell wanted to provide more security for solvent tenants. He therefore supported the Irish tenant right bill in 1857, joining other Irish Liberal MPs to call for the reform of landlord-tenant relations in 1859, and seconding James Francis Maguire’s unsuccessful motion for a royal commission on the issue in 1863. He also sat on the select committee on the Tenure and Improvement of Land (Ireland) Act in May 1865.20Hansard, 22 July 1857, vol. 147, c. 222; The Times, 27 Jan. 1859; Hansard, 23 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 1338-40, 29 Apr. 1867, vol. 186, cc. 1736-7; PP 1865 (402) xi. 341. On Irish governance, he insisted that the laws of Ireland and England should be equal, but viewed the system of government in the two countries as necessarily distinct, and opposed proposals to abolish the Irish viceroyalty in 1857. He was, nevertheless, critical of what he regarded as the refusal of successive administrations ‘to give to the people of Ireland the privileges they were entitled to’.21Hansard, 14 June 1858, vol. 150, cc. 2086-7, 25 Mar. 1858, vol. 149, cc. 765-6, 7 July 1857, vol. 146, cc. 1078-9; 20 June 1865, vol. 180, cc. 547-9. He declined to give the Conservatives general support in 1858-9, and voted against Lord Derby’s reform bill that March.22Leeds Mercury, 2 Apr. 1859; J.H. Whyte, The Independent Irish Party, 1850-9 (1958), 182. He was appointed a lord of the treasury by the incoming Liberal ministry in June 1859, offering to resign on 28 May 1861, after the government withdrew the Galway mail contract.23The Times, 25 June 1859; Morning Post, 5 June 1861; Punch, 15 June 1861. He subsequently lobbied for a restoration of the contract; Standard, 22 Jan. 1863; Daily News, 14 June 1864. He was also involved in organising relief for Lancashire cotton workers (many of whom were Irish) in 1862, and the following year served on the inquiry into the inland revenue and customs establishments.24Morning Post, 23 Oct. 1862; PP 1863 (424) vi. 303.

By 1865 Bagwell was a consistent supporter of Palmerston’s ministry, but also claimed allegiance to the policies of the National Association regarding education, religious issues, and land reform, sitting on the select committee on the Irish Tenure and Improvement of Land Act that May.25O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society, 197; PP 1865 (402) xi. 341. Although he is recorded as having attended a meeting of Conservative MPs at the marquis of Salisbury’s residence in March 1866, he remained on the ‘Liberal side of politics’, criticising the Conservative government’s failure to legislate on these issues.26The Times, 19 Mar. 1866; PP 1867 (211) (211-I) viii. 147, 261 [84-6]. He supported the Liberal reform bill that May, and was involved in organising a banquet given to John Bright on his visit to Dublin in October 1866.27Freeman’s Journal, 31 May 1866; Birmingham Daily Post, 7 Sept. 1866; Belfast News-letter, 31 Oct. 1866.

In 1867 he was nicknamed ‘Umbrella Bagwell’ for his response to a leader in The Times, which he felt had exaggerated the threat posed by the Fenian conspiracy, and his statement that men of property might safely ‘sally forth by day or night protected by our umbrellas’.28M. O’Dwyer, A Biographical Dictionary of Tipperary (1999), 3; Glasgow Herald, 7 Dec. 1866; Morning Post, 7 Dec. 1866. Nevertheless, Bagwell had astutely argued in February 1865 that the Fenian movement gathered much of its force from Ireland’s economic distress, and decried the displacement of small holders by large pasture farms, a process, he argued, that ‘had driven every spark of loyalty out of their breasts, had made them look upon the English as their oppressors, and towards America as the land of freedom, plenty, and happiness’.29Hansard, 24 Feb. 1865, vol. 177, cc. 684-7. Over the next three years, he spoke out on behalf of prisoners arrested under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act and called for the capital sentences passed on the Fenian leaders to be commuted.30Hansard, 16 Mar. 1866, vol. 182, cc. 443; 4 May 1866, vol. 183, cc. 456-7; 20 Feb. 1866, vol. 181, c. 816; 21 Feb. 1867, vol. 185, c. 740; 22 Feb. 1867, vol. 185, c. 898; 21 Nov. 1867, vol. 190, cc. 121-2; 18 Feb. 1868, vol. 190, cc. 937-8; 5 May 1868, vol. 191, c. 1784.

Early in 1867 he attended two meetings of Liberal MPs called by Gladstone to consider parliamentary reform,31Daily News, 27 Feb. 1867; The Times, 22 Mar. 1867. That May he also sat on the select committee on the metropolitan subways bill: PP 1867 (495) (495-I) xi. 203, 579. and subsequently expressed disappointment at the failure of the Irish reform bill to extend the county franchise.32Daily News, 20 Mar. 1868; Hansard, 22 June 1868, vol. 192, c. 1895. By 1868 he was known to be a firm supporter of Gladstone, and during the general election became ‘a sort of roving proposer’ of Gladstonian candidates.33O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society, 197; Freeman’s Journal, 16 Oct. 1868; Standard, 28 Nov. 1868. He had long been an advocate of church reform and ‘perfect equality in religious matters’, arguing in 1867 that ‘every restriction upon the Catholic was a source of weakness’ to the Protestant minority. He supported the disestablishment of the Irish Church, arguing in April 1868 that if Irish Protestants ‘wished to preserve their form of religion, they must do by themselves what the State had hitherto done for them to their detriment’.34Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1871; Hansard, 27 Feb. 1867, vol. 185, cc. 1099-1100; 28 Apr. 1868, vol. 191, cc. 1492-4.

Bagwell was regarded as ‘little given to extravagance’ and ‘thoroughly respected on both sides of the House’, one constituent recalling him as a ‘tried and trusted representative, who had the interests of the people greatly at heart, and whose entire Parliamentary career was without blot or stain or reproach of any kind’. However, he refused to take the pledge on home rule, and being opposed to the Catholic clergy on the question of education, he was defeated at the 1874 general election.35Daily News, 20 Mar. 1868; Freeman’s Journal, 24 Apr. 1880; D. Thornley, Isaac Butt and Home Rule (1964), 179; O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society, 210. He died at his residence in county Tipperary in March 1883 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard (1840-1918), a barrister, historian, and Unionist polemicist, who stood unsuccessfully for county Tipperary in 1883, and served as special local government commissioner (1898-1903) and as a commissioner of national education (1905-18).36The Times, 12 Mar. 1883; Burke’s Irish Family Records (1976), 51; P.J. Dempsey & L.W. White, ‘Bagwell, Richard’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, i. 223-4. John Bagwell’s grandson, John Philip (1874-1946), served in the Irish senate from 1922 to 1936: P.J. Dempsey, ‘Bagwell, John Philip (‘Jack’)’, ibid., i. 222-3.