ARCHDALL, Mervyn Edward (1812-1895), of Castle Archdall, Lisnarick, co. Fermanagh of Trillick Castle, co. Tyrone

The Archdall family had represented one of Fermanagh’s parliamentary seats since the Union, and Archdall was himself returned at nine uncontested elections, spending forty years in Parliament. He was a ‘Conservative of the old school’ and a champion of the ‘Protestant ascendancy in Ireland’, which he regarded ‘as the only real safeguard of civil and religious liberty’. At the same time, he claimed to favour ‘safe and progressive’ reforms and ‘sound economy but not unwise retrenchment’.1Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons, and the Judicial Bench (1867), 6; Dod’s parliamentary companion (1835), 82; Dod’s parliamentary companion (1869), 146. However, late in his career he became disillusioned with Parliament’s treatment of the Irish Church and observed that ‘Ireland could expect but little consideration when it suited professional statesmen’ to ‘make her interests their bone of contention’.2Hansard, 5 June 1868, vol. 192, cc. 1207-8.

Archdall was the eldest of nine sons of Edward Archdall (1775-1864), the third son of Colonel Mervyn Archdall (1725-1813), of Castle Archdall, county Fermanagh, who had been MP for Fermanagh in the Irish parliament, 1761-1800, and at Westminster, 1801-2. His uncle, General Mervyn Archdall (1763-1839), subsequently sat for the county from 1802-34.3Burke’s Landed Gentry (1871), i. 21; E. Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (2002), iii. 103-5. A magistrate and deputy lieutenant of Fermanagh, Edward Archdall had raised the Lurg and Magheraboy True Blue Infantry in 1798, and was the first member of the family to become an Orangeman. He later helped to re-organise the society in the county and served as its deputy grand master in the 1830s.4Burke’s Irish Family Records (1976), 32; The Times, 8 Oct. 1828; P. Livingstone, The Fermanagh Story. A Documented History of County Fermanagh from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1969), 448; PP 1835 (377) xv. 458. He was involved in the parliamentary politics of Fermanagh from the mid-1820s, and in January 1832 publicly charged Edward Stanley with seeking the destruction of ‘the Protestant influence’ in Ireland.5Belfast News-letter, 31 Jan. 1832. The Archdalls were also connected through marriage to the influential Brooke and Stewart families, whose members represented counties Fermanagh and Tyrone from the 1830s to the 1850s.6Burke’s Landed Gentry (1871), i. 21.

In March 1832 Archdall joined the army and as a 22 year-old cornet was returned unopposed for County Fermanagh upon the retirement of his uncle in June 1834.7Dod’s parliamentary companion (1835), 82. Of Conservative principles, he voted against Lord Chandos’s motion on agricultural distress, 7 July, and the third reading of the bill to admit Dissenters to universities, 28 July. At the 1835 general election he promised to preserve the constitution and empire ‘from ruin’, and was re-elected without opposition.8The Parliamentary Test Book for 1835 (1835), 8. He backed Sir Robert Peel on the address and the speakership, 19, 26 Feb. 1835, and, of course, on the Irish Church revenues issue which brought the ministry down, 2 Apr. 1835. That May he presented a petition from Magheracross, county Fermanagh, expressing regret at the fall of Peel’s ministry.9Morning Post, 28 May 1835.

Staunchly opposed to the Whig ministry’s proposals to reform the Irish Church and municipalities, Archdall nevertheless accepted the recommendations of the select committee on Orangeism, and in March 1836 signed an address which strongly recommended the dissolution of the society in Ireland.10Dod’s parliamentary companion (1836), 76; Spectator, 5 Mar. 1836. That August he made his maiden speech on the national education system, arguing that ‘the experiment had proved a complete failure’, and protesting against the expenditure of public money to gratify Roman Catholic priests and assist ‘the propagation of Popery in Ireland’. Accordingly, he voted against the funding of Maynooth College, 8 Aug. 1836.11Hansard, 8 Aug. 1836, vol. 35, cc. 1020-1. In April 1837 he was requested by his constituents to seek amendments to the Irish poor law bill, and voted in the minority for Lucas’s motion on the settlement clause, 12 May, but against Daniel O’Connell’s amendments, 5 June 1837.12The Times, 3 Apr. 1837; P. Gray, The Making of the Irish Poor Law, 1815-43 (2009), 189-91. He was absent from the divisions on the revived bill in 1838, but the issue continued to occupy him for years to come, and in 1843 he took part in the parliamentary campaign to reform the Irish poor law.13Belfast News-letter, 31 Jan. 1843; The Times, 31 Jan. 1843, 7 Mar. 1848; Morning Post, 18 June 1845.

Archdall was untroubled at the 1837 general election and that October told the county’s Conservatives that ‘the temporary predominance’ of the Whigs had been a warning ‘against the mischiefs of an intemperate desire [for] innovation’, and urged them to place their faith in the House of Lords as a bulwark against ‘the ruinous designs of the ministerial party’.14The Times, 30 Oct. 1837; Standard, 30 Oct. 1837. He voted against an inquiry into the corn laws, 18 Mar. 1839, and later that session divided against the ministry on Jamaica, the speakership and national education. He was presented to the queen, 24 Apr. 1839, but in October 1840 inspired a brief controversy when he was accused of ‘impropriety and indecency’ for making a politically partisan speech whilst ‘in the Queen’s livery [army uniform]’ at the lord mayor’s dinner in Dublin.15Morning Post, 25 Apr. 1839; Freeman’s Journal, 2 Oct. 1840. Having backed the protectionists over sugar duties in May 1841, he voted to turn the Whigs out of office, 4 June, 27 Aug. 1841.

Re-elected unopposed at the ensuing general election, he gave general support to Peel’s new ministry, including his reintroduction of income tax in April 1842. The following month he sat on the select committee on the Irish drainage bill, and in April 1843 served on the inquiry into Irish medical charities.16PP 1842 (246) xiv. 387; PP 1843 (412) x. 1; Freeman’s Journal, 29 Apr. 1843. Having twice voted in support of the ten hours bill in March 1844, he was absent from the critical division on 13 May.17Standard, 23 Mar. 1844; Spectator, 18 May 1844. He paired against the second reading of the Dissenters’ chapels bill, 6 June 1844, but divided on only 24 other occasions in that session.18Freeman’s Journal, 3 Sept. 1844.

Archdall was strongly opposed to the Maynooth grant and voted against the first reading of Peel’s bill to make its funding permanent, 3 Apr. 1845. He was among 64 Conservatives who failed to divide on the second reading, 18 Apr., but backed Ward’s proposal that the grant be drawn from the consolidated fund, 24 Apr. He presented numerous petitions against the bill from parishes within his constituency in early May, and voted against the third reading and for the sunset clause, 21 May.19Spectator, 26 Apr., 24 May 1845; Belfast News-letter, 9 May 1845. Although he did not join the secession of the Protestant faction from Peel’s party, he became further estranged from the government when his father was deprived of the commission of the peace for attending a meeting of Orangemen at Enniskillen in August 1845,20Freeman’s Journal, 14 Aug., 30 Oct. 1845; The Times, 1 Sept. 1845; Standard, 5 Sept. 1845. a decision which he condemned as ‘cowardly, tyrannical, unjustifiable, and unconstitutional’.21The Times, 1 Nov. 1845.

Although he was prevented from attending the opening of Parliament in 1846 due to ‘severe indisposition’, Archdall opposed the repeal of the corn laws, pairing against the first and second readings of the bill, and voting against the third.22The Times, 26 Jan. 1846. He was one of 57 Conservatives absent from the division on the Irish coercion bill, 25 June 1846, which ended Peel’s ministry, and subsequently became closely identified with the ‘Country Party’.23Morning Chronicle, 27 June 1846; Daily News, 11 July 1846. Early in 1847 he was among 43 Irish Members who briefly formed an ‘Irish party’ of MPs and peers to ‘protect and watch over Irish interests in the Imperial Legislature’, which sent a deputation to Lord John Russell to condemn the proposed extension of outdoor relief and further empowerment of relieving officers.24The Times, 15 Jan. 1847; Morning Post, 8 Mar. 1847. He was, however, absent from the important division on Lord George Bentinck’s Irish railways bill, 16 Feb. 1847. He was returned unopposed at the 1847 general election, when he concentrated largely on ‘protestant concerns’, and does not appear to have taken part in the Irish National Council, formed in November 1847 to find practical responses to the famine.25B. Walker, ‘Politicians, Elections and Catastrophe: The General Election of 1847’, Irish Political Studies, 22:1 (2007), 1-34, at 10. He did, however, support the Irish coercion bill that December, when he also helped to promote Irish emigration to Australia.26Standard, 20 Dec. 1847.

Long silent in the House, Archdall became galvanised by the Young Ireland rising of 1848 and thereafter was frequently on his feet voicing the concerns of the Orange Order, a body which he had helped to revive in 1845.27He was its treasurer, and later served as a member of the Grand Lodge of Ireland: Livingstone, Fermanagh Story, 176; Standard, 5 Nov. 1857. In April 1848 he informed the House that there were 100,000 Orangemen in the north of Ireland ready to suppress the ‘poisonous’ agitation for repeal.28Hansard, 5 Apr. 1848, vol. 97, cc. 1329-30. Speaking in support of the Irish crime and outrage bill, 10 Apr. 1848, he argued that if the government was prepared to ‘take firm hold of the leaders and instigators of rebellion in that country, and put on the thumb-screw with sufficient energy’, it would have far greater effect in producing peace ‘than if they hanged up ten thousand of their poor deluded followers’. He was also outspoken in his criticism of Peel’s attitude to Ireland’s loyalists, claiming that Orangemen would not forget ‘that they were one day lauded, and the next day persecuted’ by the former premier. That July he joined a deputation to the home secretary, Sir George Grey, regarding the suppression of clubs of a ‘treasonable character’ in Ireland.29Spectator, 8 July 1848.

On 20 February 1849 Archdall was added to the select committee on the Irish fisheries and, having already made an ‘assault on the conduct’ of the Irish poor law commissioners in June 1848, joined the revolt of Ulster MPs against Lord John Russell’s Irish rate-in-aid bill, voting in the small minority against the government’s motion on its principle, 6 Mar. 1849.30PP 1849 (536) xiii. 1; Freeman’s Journal, 15, 26 June 1848, 2 Mar. 1849; J. Grant, ‘The Great Famine and the poor law in Ulster: the rate-in-aid issue of 1849’, Irish Historical Studies, xxvii: 105 (1990), 30-47, at 39. He continued to criticise the scheme, advising Members that in order to maintain the Union they ‘must rely upon the province of Ulster’, and warning the Whig ministry against abusing the loyalty of its Protestant population.31Hansard, 3 Apr. 1849, vol. 104, cc. 278-9. He joined a deputation of 54 MPs to the prime minister on the issue in April, and participated in 71 of the 219 divisions that session.32Morning Post, 19 Apr. 1849; Hampshire Telegraph, 20 Oct. 1849.

Archdall was active at Westminster throughout the 1850s, especially on Irish matters. In February 1850 he joined a deputation which called upon the government to fund the Irish railways, and backed Disraeli’s motion on agricultural distress.33Daily News, 25 Feb. 1850. He subsequently voted against the third reading of the Irish franchise bill, 10 May 1850, and in the following year was one of 32 Irish MPs to vote for the second reading of the ecclesiastical titles bill, 25 Mar. 1851. However, he joined the body of Irish Conservatives and Liberals in backing Urquhart’s motion criticising the government’s handling of the issue, 9 May 1851.34A. Shields, The Irish Conservative Party, 1852-68. Land, Politics and Religion (2007), 88. That April he had attended a dinner given to Lord Stanley in London, and in that year also joined the National Club.35The Times, 3 Apr. 1851. Having helped to vote the Whigs out of office over the militia bill, 20 Feb. 1852, he backed the Irish coercion bill that June, and was again returned unopposed at the 1852 general election, when he expressed hopes that Lord Derby’s ministry would repeal the grant to Maynooth College, which he regarded as a ‘pernicious nest of idolatry and sedition’, and approve the modification of the national education system.36Shields, Irish Conservative Party, 123. He came close to fighting a duel after he allegedly impugned the behaviour of a fellow landowner during the canvass.37Freeman’s Journal, 23 Sept. 1852.

Determined to restore agricultural protection, Archdall voted against Hume’s motion for a call of the House on the question, 19 Nov. 1852, and was one of a minority of 53 die-hard protectionists, (of whom only four sat for Irish seats), who voted against Palmerston’s amendment to the free trade motion, 26 Nov. 1852.38Freeman’s Journal, 29 Nov., 1 Dec. 1852; Standard, 27 Dec. 1895. He divided in favour of the anti-Maynooth motion in February 1853, and against the third reading of the Jewish disabilities bill, 15 Apr. 1853. That July he marked himself out as ‘an extreme champion of landlords’ rights’ by criticising the Irish tenants’ compensation bill put forward by the Irish Conservative leader, Sir Joseph Napier.39The Times, 31 May 1870. He voted for several restrictive amendments to the bill, and in the following years opposed all attempts to pass similar legislation: Freeman’s Journal, 25 July, 4 Aug. 1853, 22 June, 10 July 1855. The same month, however, he was credited with persuading the government to provide funds to improve the navigation of Lough Erne in county Fermanagh.40Hansard, 22 July 1853, vol. 129, c. 639; Morning Post, 20 Dec. 1853, quoting Fermanagh Reporter. That year he attended 102 of the 257 Commons divisions, but participated in only 53 of the 240 taken in 1854.41Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; Belfast News-letter, 18 Sept. 1854. Sensitive to any perceived threat to the position of the established church, he voted in the majority which defeated the second reading of the government’s oaths bill, 25 May 1854, yet that month also joined a deputation from the general assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church for an interview with Lord Palmerston.42Shields, Irish Conservative Party, 166; Freeman’s Journal, 20 May 1854. That year he reportedly evicted a number of his Catholic tenants, whom he believed to be sympathetic to a planned attack on the earl of Enniskillen’s railway train while en route to an Orange demonstration.43The Times, 2 Oct. 1854, quoting Derry Sentinel. He had little confidence in the Aberdeen’s ministry’s conduct of the military campaign against Russia and voted against the second reading of the enlistment of foreigners bill, 19 Dec. 1854. He spoke several times on military affairs in 1855, and between January and July divided in favour of four critical motions on the conduct of the campaign in the Crimea.44Hansard, 26 Feb. 1855, vol. 136, cc. 1925-6; 2 Mar. 1855, vol. 137, c. 72.

Archdall was one of only 12 Irish MPs to vote for Spooner’s anti-Maynooth motion in 1856, and remained a relatively good attender.45He took part in 65 of that session’s 198 divisions: J.P. Gassiot, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions in the House of Commons during the last session of parliament (1857), 28. After backing Disraeli’s amendment to the budget, 23 Feb. 1857, he voted for Cobden’s censure motion on the Canton question, 3 Mar. 1857, and was unopposed at the ensuing general election. He was one of only 20 Conservatives to vote against the first reading of Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, 9 Feb. 1858, and divided with the majority against its second reading, 19 Feb.46Morning Post, 5 Mar. 1857; Daily News, 11 Feb. 1858. He joined a deputation which waited upon Lord Derby to discuss the Maynooth question, 27 Apr. 1858, and voted against the abolition of the property qualification for MPs, 13 May 1858.47Belfast News-letter, 28 Apr. 1858. He continued to support the exclusion of Jews from Parliament, and that July paired against the second reading of the disabilities bill.48Morning Chronicle, 17 July 1858.

Fresh from voting for Derby’s reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859, Archdall was returned without opposition at the general election and backed Derby’s ministry on the address, 10 June 1859. In February 1860 he sat on the select committee on the purification of the Serpentine, and that August voted against the second reading of the Irish party emblems bill.49PP 1860 (192) xx. 1; Morning Chronicle, 6, 27 Mar. 1860; The Times, 8, 12, 17, 20 Mar. 1860. He denounced the measure as ‘at once tyrannical and unconstitutional’, and defended the display of Orange flags from churches by arguing that no insult had been ‘considered by the Roman Catholics to have been intended’.50Hansard, 9 Aug. 1860, vol. 160, cc. 954-5; 10 Aug. 1860, vol. 160, c. 1158; Freeman’s Journal, 13 Aug. 1860. Although he delivered his speech in ‘a subdued tone’, which, commented the Freeman’s Journal, must have cost him ‘a severe struggle’, he argued that far from protecting life and property, the bill was an attempt to shield Catholics ‘from that which some of them might be disposed to look upon as an insult’, asking where ‘the line was to be drawn’ in such legislation, and who could ‘say what might not be considered an insult?’ Lord Palmerston, however, appeared to win the argument by pointing to Archdall’s ‘panting form and angry features’ as the most convincing argument in favour of the bill. 51Hansard, 20 Aug. 1860, vol. 160, cc. 1620-1; Freeman’s Journal, 23 Aug. 1860. Thereafter, Archdall became a close observer of religious processions, and frequently took the Irish chief secretary to task over alleged displays of Catholic party emblems.52Such as during the laying of the foundation stone of the Catholic University in Dublin in July 1862: Hansard, 15 July 1862, vol. 168, c. 351; 24 July 1862, vol. 168, c. 729; Freeman’s Journal, 16 July 1862. In May 1862 he sat on the select committee on the Irish drainage bill, and for once supported Palmerston against Stansfield’s radical resolution on the reduction of national expenditure, 3 June.53PP 1862 (297) xvi. 593; Freeman’s Journal, 21, 31 May, 4 June 1862. Throughout this period he often spoke on military affairs, paying special attention to the condition and safety of troop transportation ships, the promotions and pensions of army officers, and other administrative matters, such as the state of discipline within his own regiment during its service in India in 1863-4.54Hansard, 23 Mar. 1860, vol. 157, cc.1153-4; 23 July 1861, vol. 164, c. 1378; 23 Mar. 1863, vol. 169, c. 1743; 5 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 449-50; 15 Mar. 1864, vol. 174, cc. 90-2, 99.

In May 1864 Archdall inherited a family property that included Castle Archdall, picturesquely located on the shores of Lough Erne, and more than 29,000 acres of land in county Fermanagh. Already the fifth largest proprietor in the county, he also owned 5,600 acres in county Tyrone, which brought in a total annual rental of more than £17,000.55Examiner, 21 May 1864; Burke’s Irish Family Records (1976), 34; J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain (4th edn., 1883), 13; Freeman’s Journal, 6 Oct. 1876. His father had inherited the estates from his elder brother, Colonel William Archdall, in January 1857: Standard, 6 Jan. 1857. That year he introduced an Irish bill to amend the law relating to trespass in pursuit of game, which he argued, had been brought forward to benefit tenants by transferring responsibility for prosecuting trespassers to their landlords and would ‘not introduce any increased stringency into the Game Laws.’ However, in pointing to the differences between poaching in England and in Ireland, he imprudently remarked that in the latter country very often ‘the sub-Inspector of police was a poacher’. This prompted one Dublin newspaper to publish ‘a violent and abusive article’ against him, which he considered to be a breach of parliamentary privilege.56PP 1864 (13) iv. 551; Belfast News-letter, 19 Feb. 1864; Hansard, 13 Apr. 1864, vol. 174, cc. 955-7; Freeman’s Journal, 16 Apr. 1864. Never shy of controversy, he subsequently claimed that in ‘light literature, the dead languages, and metaphysics’ the constabulary’s officers ‘were not inferior’ to any Member of the House, but insisted that ‘he did not approve the manner in which they were organized’: Hansard, 27 Apr. 1864, vol. 174, cc. 1752-3. He thereafter raised a number of questions in the House about the conduct of the Irish police, particularly in instances where he believed that they had failed to enforce the game laws, or had sought to usurp the authority of county magistrates.57Daily News, 10 Mar. 1864; Hansard, 11 July 1864, vol. 176, c. 1340; 13 Feb. 1865, vol. 177, c. 224.

Untroubled at the 1865 general election, Archdall took the opportunity to express his ‘decided disapproval’ of the policies of William Gladstone.58Belfast News-letter, 19 July 1865. He backed Newdegate’s motion to postpone the Catholic oath bill, 30 May 1865, and voted consistently against the Liberal reform bill in 1866.59Morning Post, 31 May 1865. He attended a meeting of Derby’s supporters to consider parliamentary reform, 15 Mar. 1867, and generally backed the government’s bill, although he voted for Laing’s amendment to reduce the representation of small boroughs, 31 May 1867. It was reported that his subsequent proposal (not traced) ‘to free by legislation all householders rated under £4 each from direct rating by throwing the burden on the owners’ would have excluded ‘half the new voters in boroughs’ whom the bill was intended to enfranchise.60Daily News, 16 Mar. 1867; Pall Mall Gazette, 1 June, 24 July 1867.

Determined to fulfil his pledge to uphold the principles of ‘Church and State’, Archdall was one of 40 Irish MPs who divided against Sir John Gray’s motion for a reconsideration of the status of the Irish Church, 7 May 1867.61Belfast News-letter, 19 July 1865. That October he helped to convene a Protestant demonstration at Hillsborough, county Down, in defence of the Irish Church, and in February 1868 he joined the Protestant Defence Association, later becoming a member of its council.62Freeman’s Journal, 10 May 1867; Daily News, 16 Oct. 1867; The Times, 1 Nov. 1867; Belfast News-letter, 6 Feb. 1868, 5 Feb. 1869. That June he spoke against Gladstone’s motions on the Church establishment, and was one of those who ‘fired off a series of burning protests’ against his subsequent bill.63Pall Mall Gazette, 6 June 1868. He told the House that as the Member for a constituency in which ‘the great majority’ were ‘Church-going Protestants’, and as the official representative of ‘150,000 Orangemen’, he would resist any attempt to apply the resources of Irish Church ‘to the purposes of Roman Catholicism’. As they did not pay for its support, he reasoned, not ‘one Roman Catholic in a thousand looked upon the Established Church as a grievance’, and concluded the measure would ‘lead to the separation of the State from all religion’. He also warned that Gladstone’s plans pandered to ‘the bloodthirsty and indiscriminate spirit’ of Fenianism, and would be regarded as ‘the reward of murder, assassination, and crime’.64Hansard, 5 June 1868, vol. 192, cc. 1205-7. Three days later he joined a deputation to the prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli on the subject.65The Times, 9 June 1868.

Concern about the regulation of parliamentary elections caused Archdall to question whether the means of trying election petitions was satisfactory. In April 1867 he asked whether it was advisable to ‘define the limits’ of ‘clerical interference’ in elections, and to state ‘the precise amount of violence’ required to constitute a ‘general riot’.66Hansard, 9 Apr. 1867, vol. 186, c. 1336. After his comments were summarily dismissed by the government spokesman, one correspondent noted that ‘the House cheered and laughed convulsively, as it always does whenever anybody is so absurd as to suggest that elections might be conducted without bribery, corruption, and undue influence’: Pall Mall Gazette, 10 Apr. 1867. A year later he called for the corrupt practices at elections bill to make it compulsory for committees to unseat any Member at whose election ‘there had been violence, intimidation, or clerical interference’, and argued that the decisions of recent election committees had ‘created an impression in Ireland that those practices were not only sanctioned but approved by the House of Commons’.67Pall Mall Gazette, 24 Apr. 1868; Hansard, 23 July 1868, vol. 193, cc. 1676-7. In March 1868 there was an unsuccessful attempt to have Archdall added to the select committee on grand jury presentments, and in June he divided in favour of maintaining the voting rights of freemen and to uphold the representation of Dublin University and Portarlington under the Irish reform bill, and backed the retention of the £12 county franchise.68Freeman’s Journal, 23 Mar. 1868; Hansard, 25 Mar. 1868, vol. 191, c. 238; Belfast News-letter, 30 Mar. 1868.

Reputedly popular as a landlord, Archdall actively promoted schemes for agricultural improvements and took a special interest in cattle shows and ploughing matches.69Belfast News-letter, 26 Dec. 1895. The lord of the manors of Omagh and Ballinahalty, he assumed the mantle of ‘a fine old Irish gentleman’ and was a keen sportsman, being recognised as one of the country’s greatest authorities ‘on matters pertaining to the greyhound’. He was also a breeder of racehorses and kept ‘a good stable of hunters’ at Oxford. He regularly hosted large shooting parties at his demesne and was a prominent yachtsman.70Ibid.; Standard, 27 Dec. 1895; C.J. Woods, ‘Archdale, Mervyn Edward’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, i. 140.

At the 1868 general election Archdall was again returned unopposed, and during 1869-70 supported William Johnston’s parliamentary campaign to repeal the Party Processions Act.71S. Farrell, Rituals and Riots. Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784-1886 (2000), 170. He retired owing to failing health at the dissolution in 1874 and his brother, William Humphrys Mervyn Archdale (1813-99), was elected in his stead. He sat until 1885 so that over four generations, only five members of the family had provided representatives for County Fermanagh ‘in an unbroken run of 154 years’, which was thought to be a ‘unique record’ for an Irish seat.72Earl of Belmore, Parliamentary Memoirs of Fermanagh and Tyrone from 1613 to 1885 (1887), 1.

Archdall’s wife died in August 1874, and around 1882 he resumed the former spelling of the family name as Archdale. He spent his later years in ‘frail health’, regularly wintering abroad, and in December 1895 died at Cannes, where he was buried.73Burke’s Irish Family Records, 34; Belfast News-letter, 26 Dec. 1895; Morning Post, 27 Dec. 1895. He was succeeded in the family property, the indebtedness of which had been relieved by a large assurance on his life, by his brother, William. His two sons, Mervyn Henry Archdale (1852-1925), and Hugh James Archdale (1854-1921), were career army officers and did not enter politics.74Burke’s Irish Family Records, 34. Members of the Archdale family did, however, continue to represent Fermanagh and its successor constituencies until 1938.75Ibid.; ‘Archdale, Mervyn Edward’, 140. Archdall’s nephew, Sir Edward Mervyn Archdale (1853-1943), was a Unionist MP for Fermanagh North, 1898-1903, 1916-22, and served as minister of agriculture in the government of Northern Ireland, 1921-33: G. McElroy, ‘Archdale, Sir Edward Mervyn’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, i. 138-9.