While the principal landowner in the Tandragee area in the 1800s was the Duke of Manchester, another notable landlord was the Rt. Hon. Peter John Fane, 5th Count de Salis Soglio (1799-1870). He was from a continental family, originally Swiss, and was a hereditary Count of The Holy Roman Empire. When in Ireland (he was often absent) he lived at Brackagh House, Tandragee.
He spent his early adult years as a mercenary soldier for many different armies across Europe.
He married Henrietta Charlotte de Sennarclens de St Denys in 1821, but she died less than two years later. In 1824 he married Cecile Henrietta Marguerite Bourgeoise, and they had five children.
Like many of his rich contemporaries, he was from time to time a member of the Co Armagh Grand Jury during the early 1850s.
He was a progressive landlord; in a letter published in the Newry Examiner on 17th April 1840, he set out a number of – for the time – quite radical principles:
- Support for his tenants registering to vote.
- Support for them having opinions and politics opposed to his own.
- Opposition to any landlord instructing his tenants how to vote.
- Support for even wider enfranchisement, including Catholic emancipation. He was Protestant.
- Opposition to his tenants (or anyone!) having to pay tithes – which he describes as a “seven-headed monster” and “evil” – to the established Church and describes the established clergy as “gorgous” i.e. gorging on the labours of the poor.
The following day, the Dublin Evening Post published another letter from de Salis, addressed to the National Association[1]:
“I think it is of the utmost importance, particularly for this part of Ireland, that the journals devoted to the Association should continue a combined and systematic attack upon the Church of England established in Ireland, so as to undeceive and open the eyes of the bigoted Protestants of the north, some of whom, if they understood the real circumstances of the case, would join our party. I would humbly suggest that the Liberal papers should insert the church revenues, the number of clergymen resident and non-resident, the revenues of each parish, and the different sects therein residing, which would have the effect of making several persons reflect on the necessity of a change in the disposition of the church revenues… all these details would have a great effect in changing the present fanatic and bigoted spirit which pervades this part of the country, and would counteract the great efforts now making by the Orange party, by the gratuitous distribution of Fox’s Book of Martyrs, and several other works calculated to inflame the passions and produce religious fanaticism in the minds of the young, and excite the masses against the Catholics.”
A few weeks later, an editorial in The Catholic Telegraph lauded him:
“… a gentleman, whose ancient and honourable name, combined with his station in the country, and his personal worth, give great weight to his opinions. It is delightful to see such a man coming forward and identifying himself boldly with the cause of the people. The Count de Salis does not shrink from speaking out; there is no attempt to mystify or delude, in his statements…. he then goes on to demonstrate that he has thought with the head, and felt with the heart, of a wise and generous Irishman.”
He also owned an estate in Co Limerick. Later in 1840, the Limerick Chronicle branded him “a fanatic in religion and a madman in politics”. The Count wrote to the paper, saying:
“I hope I shall see the day when Dublin, like London, will be a great commercial city, and worthy the capital of a great nation; that railways will be constructed from that city to all the great towns of the country, and the trade with the four quarters of the globe, and agriculture and commercial prosperity, will be revived and reign throughout the nation; that an odious, useless church will be reformed, and the tithes and property of the poor would be appropriated to the use of the poor, for whom they were originally intended, and the poverty and misery caused by that insatiable corporation will be entirely removed; …”
“I do not wish, Sir, as the Limerick Chronicle insinuates, to command my tenants to register their vote. It is an axiom with me that a landlord has no right to interfere with his tenants’ political creed but to leave them to their free will – a request and a command are quite different things
“I will not say much about the title of ‘Continental Count’ which the worthy Chronicle gives me, further than this – that my family have been, from father to son, in possession of our estates in England and Ireland for near one hundred years, and my family has been settled in England since 1736. I’m not ashamed to say that I have been a great deal abroad myself – in France, Austria, Belgium, and Prussia, and have observed these states daily advancing in commercial and agricultural prosperity; no poor laws, no tithes, cheap religion, cheap food, and cheap law. Of course, I made comparisons between these States and my country. I have inquired why my own country is behind them in prosperity? The question is easily answered:
“Comparative expense of Church of Englandism and of Christianity in all other countries of the world.
- The clergy of 203,723,000 hearers abroad received per annum £9,999,000.
- The clergy of England and Wales (Ireland accepted) 6,500,000 hearers, receive upwards of £9,459,565[2].
“In these countries the clergy are under and paid by the state, according to the value of the services they perform. Certainly, Sir, the person who advocates such a political monstrosity as our church establishment, may with justice be styled a ‘madman in politics.’”
[1] The Loyal National Repeal Association, established in 1840 by Daniel O’Connell.
[2] Although his precise numbers may be dubious, De Salis is pointing out that the average Irish citizen pays about thirty times as much for the privilege of having a religious representative!