We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2015
So wrote William Hamilton Drummond in 1811 in reference to an extraordinary grass known by the old Irish name of fiorin (fiorthann), whose properties had been discovered by a fellow cleric, William Richardson (1740–1820). Richardson claimed fiorin could produce abundant winter hay and help reclaim bogland. Though Donaldson’s Agricultural biography of 1854 dismissed Richardson’s work as ephemeral and careless, in 1806 the leading British scientist Humphry Davy visited Richardson and was impressed enough to recommend him to the Board of Agriculture and include fiorin in his famous lecture series translated into every major European language.
1 Drummond, William Hamilton, The Giant’s Causeway (Belfast, 1811), p. 30Google Scholar.
2 An Anglicised form of fiorthann, meaning wheat grass.
3 Donaldson, J., Agricultural biography (London, 1854), pp 107–8Google Scholar; The collected works of Sir Humphry Davy, ed. J. Davy (7 vols, London, 1839), i, 99, 105; viii, 79–80, 135–6.
4 Richardson, W., The origins of the Irish yeomanry (Dublin, 1801)Google Scholar; see also Dictionary of national biography (63 vols, London, 1885–1900), xlviii, 253; Oxford dictionary of national biography (60 vols, Oxford, 2004), xlvi, 863–4.
5 Jackson, Patrick N. Wyse, ‘Fluctuations in fortune: three hundred years of Irish geology’ in Foster, J. W. (ed.), Nature in Ireland: a scientifc and cultural history (Dublin, 1997), pp 93–4Google Scholar; idem, ‘Tumultuous times: geology in Ireland and the debate on the nature of basalt and other rocks of north-east Ireland between 1740 and 1816’ in idem (ed.), Science and engineering in Ireland in 1798: a time of revolution (Dublin, 2000), pp 35-50.
6 Armstrong, P., The English parson-naturalist: a companionship between religion and science (Leominster, 2000)Google Scholar; Lethbridge, J. P., ‘Religion and science in the eighteenth century’ in The Historian, 77 (2003), pp 22–8;Google ScholarWithers, Charles W. J., ‘Improvement and enlighten ment: agriculture and natural history in the work of the Rev. Walker, Dr. John (1731–1803)’ in Jones, P. (ed.), Philosophy and science in the Scottish Enlightenment (Edinburgh, 1988), pp 102-16.Google Scholar
7 Dubordieu, J., Statistical Survey of the County of Antrim (2 vols, Dublin, 1812), ii, 101.Google Scholar
8 Fleming, W.E.C., Armagh clergy, 1800–2000 (Dundalk, 2000), pp 298–9Google Scholar; I am grateful to Jennifer Cunningham of Coleraine Historical Society for information on the Richardson family.
9 Jackson, , ‘Tumultuous times’, pp 38–9.Google Scholar
10 Oxford dictionary of national biography, xlvii, 863–4; Ricky, W., The extraordinary conduct of the Rev. Richardson, Dr., rector of the parish of Clonfeacle in the diocese of Armagh towards curate of said parish (Dublin, 1807), pp 21–4Google Scholar.
11 Papers relating to the state of the Established Church of Ireland, p. 12, H.C., 1820 (93), ix; Extracts of the vestry book of Clonfeacle, pp 85–146 (P.R.O.N.I., MIC 583 reel 4); Leslie, B., Armagh clergy and parishes (Dundalk, 1911), p. 377Google Scholar.
12 Hilton, Boyd, The age of atonement: the infuence of evangelicalism on social and economic thought, 1785–1865 (1st ed., Oxford, 1988), pp x, 22–Google Scholar4; idem, A mad, bad and dangerous people, England, 1783–1846 (Oxford, 2006), p. 340; Holmes, A., ‘Presbyterians and science in the North of Ireland before 1874’ in British Journal for the History of Science (hereafter B.J.H.S.), 41, 4 (Dec. 2008), pp 545–6.Google Scholar
13 Armstrong, English parson-naturalist, pp x, 2–3, 100–11, 143; Barnard, T., ‘Improving clergymen, 1660–1760’ in Ford, A., McGuire, J. and Milne, K. (eds), As by law established: the Church of Ireland since the reformation (Dublin, 1995), pp 136-6Google Scholar, 142, 150–1; Sneddon, A., ‘Bishop Francis Hutchinson (1660–1739): a case study of eighteenth-century improvement’ in I.H.S., xxxv, 139 (May 2007), pp 289–310;Google ScholarMagennis, E., ‘A land of milk and honey: the Physico-Historical Society, improvement and the surveys of mid-eighteenth- century Ireland’ in R.I.A. Proc., 102C, no. 6 (2002), p. 202.Google Scholar
14 Jackson, , ‘Tumultuous times’, pp 40–1;Google ScholarYoung, Davis A., Mind over magma: the story of igneous petrology (Princeton, 2003), pp 35–6Google Scholar.
15 Richardson, W., ‘Basaltic surface in the counties of Derry & Antrim’, p. 3;Google Scholar idem, Enquiry into the consistency of Dr Hutton’s theory of the earth (Dublin, 1803), pp 1-3, 10–11, 28, 37, 48.
16 Armstrong, , English parson-naturalist, pp x, 2–3, 100–11, 143.Google Scholar
17 Shapin, S., ‘The Pottery Philosophical Society, 1819–1835: an examination of the cultural uses of provincial science’ in Social Studies, 2 (1972), p. 311;Google ScholarThackray, A., ‘Natural knowledge in cultural context: the Manchester model’ in A.H.R., 79, 3, pp 678–9;Google ScholarInkster, I., ‘The development of a scientifc community in Sheffeld, 1790–1850: a network of people and interests’ in Hunter Arch. Soc. Trans. (1973), x, pp 99–131;Google ScholarBayles, R., ‘Understanding local science: the Belfast Natural History Society in the mid-nineteenth century’ in Altis, D. and Mollan, C. (eds), Science and Irish culture, vol. 1 (Dublin, 2004), pp 144–6Google Scholar, 149; Northern Star, 19–23 Oct. 1793; Killen, J., A history of the Linenhall Library, 1788–1988 (Belfast, 1990), pp 7–8Google Scholar.
18 Miller, D. P., ‘The usefulness of natural philosophy: the Royal Society and the culture of practical utility in the later eighteenth century’ in B.J.H.S., 32 (1999), p. 192.Google Scholar
19 Naylor, S., ‘Introduction: historical geographies of science – places, contexts and cartogra phies’ in B.J.H.S., 38 (2005), pp 6–8;Google ScholarInkster, I., ‘Introduction: aspects of the history of science and science culture in Britain, 1780–1850 and beyond’ in idem and Morell, J. (eds), Metropolis and province: science in British culture, 1780–1850 (London, 1983), pp 13, 33–4.Google Scholar
20 Thackray, , ‘Natural knowledge in cultural context: the Manchester model’, pp 678–9;Google ScholarInkster, , ‘Scientifc community in Sheffeld’, pp 99–131;Google ScholarNeve, M., ‘Science in a commercial city: Bristol, 1820–60’ in Inkster, & Morell, (eds), Metropolis & province, p. 180.Google Scholar
21 Rusnock, A., ‘Correspondence networks and the Royal Society’ in B.J.H.S., 32 (1999), pp 155–6, 168;Google ScholarSecord, A., ‘Corresponding interests: artisans and gentlemen in nineteenth-century natural history’ in ibid., 27 (1994), pp 369, 383–4;Google ScholarShapin, S., ‘Edinburgh and the diffusion of science in the 1830s’ in Inkster, & Morell, (eds), Metropolis & province, pp 149, 169.Google Scholar
22 Inkster, , ‘Scientifc community in Sheffeld’, p. 105; Holmes, ‘Presbyterians & science’, p. 545.Google Scholar
23 Albertini, S.J.M.M., ‘Placing nature: natural history collections and their owners in nineteenth-century provincial England’ in B.J.H.S., 35 (2002), pp 291–311.Google Scholar
24 Dubordieu, Statistical Survey, i, 476; Richardson, W., Memoir on fiorin grass in the transactions of the Belfast Literary Society (Belfast, 1808), p. 11Google Scholar; idem, Memoir on the cul tivation of fiorin grass … addressed to the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society (Bath, 1812), p. 29.
25 Richardson, , Memoir on fiorin grass, pp 8–12;Google Scholar idem, ‘Epitome of the habits, properties and uses of fiorin grass, 26 January 1809’ (Linenhall Library Belfast (hereafter L.H.L.), Joy MSS, vol. 9); idem, An essay on the improvement of the great fow bogs of Ireland (Dublin, 1807); idem, Plan for reclaiming the Bog of Allen … addressed to the Rt. Hon. Earl of Rosse (Dublin, 1809).
26 Works of Sir Humphry Davy, ed. Davy, i, 99, 105; viii, 79–80, 135–6.
27 Richardson, , Memoir on fiorin grass, p. 5.Google Scholar
28 Richardson, W., Essay on the improvement of the great fow bogs (frontispiece); idem, Memoir on useful grasses (Dublin, 1809)Google Scholar; The utility of fiorin grass: a prize essay addressed to the farming society of Ireland (London, 1811); Memoir on fiorin grass; Plan for reclaim ing the Bog of Allen; Memoir to the Bath Agricultural Society; Essay on fiorin grass … to the practical farmer in all parts of England (London, 1810), vi; Belfast News-Letter, 18 June 1811; Gentleman’s Magazine, lxxxi (1811), pp 33–5, 524–6; Oxford dictionary of national biography, xlvi, 863–4.
29 Richardson, W., Observations on the … Poor Laws in England … together with a discussion of Mr Malthus’s observations upon Ireland (London, 1811), pp 5–7Google Scholar, 19.
30 Gentleman’s Magazine, lxxxi (1811), pp 33–5, 524–6; Richardson, W., The correspond ence between the Reverend Doctor Richardson and Mr Thomas Tanner on fiorin grass first published in the Agricultural Magazine (London, 1812).Google Scholar
31 Richardson, , Essay on the improvement of the great fow bogs, pp 1–4.Google Scholar
32 Richardson, W., Letter to the Rt. Hon. Isaac Corry (Belfast, 1809)Google Scholar; idem, Plan for re-claiming the Bog of Allen (Dublin, 1809) p. 2, original emphasis.
33 Richardson to Abercorn, 8, 18 May, 4, 10, 16 July, 18 Oct. 1808 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, D623/A/165/29, 33, 34, 36, 38, 44); Burgoyne to Abercorn, 14, 18, 28 June, 3 July 1808 (ibid., D623/A/123, 39, 40, 43, 141).
34 Aberdeen to Abercorn, 16 Nov. 1808 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, T3432/2/2/11).
35 Richardson to Downshire, 22 Feb., 5 Mar. 1810 (P.R.O.N.I. Downshire papers, D671/ C/335/1A; D671/C/335/2).
36 Author’s note: Banks grew fiorin and collaborated with the Duke of Bedford in experiments at Woburn: Works of Sir Humphry Davy, ed. Davy, vii, 79–80; Richardson to Downshire, 22 Feb. 1810 (P.R.O.N.I., Downshire papers, D671/C/335/1A).
37 Richardson, , Memoir … to the Belfast Literary Society, pp 2–23;Google Scholar idem, Plan for reclaim ing the Bog of Allen, p. 31; idem, Letter … to Isaac Corry (Belfast, 1809), p. 21.
38 Shapin, S. and Schaffer, S, Leviathan and the air pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the experi mental life (Princeton, 1985), pp 55–60Google Scholar, 63–4, 336.
39 Belfast News-Letter, 23 June 1820.
40 Richardson, , Letter to … Isaac Corry, pp 6, 8–10,Google Scholar original emphasis; idem, Memoir … to the Belfast Literary Society, p. 10; idem, Plan for reclaiming the Bog of Allen, p. 28; idem, Memoir to the Bath Agricultural Society, p. 18; idem, Essay to the practical farmer, vi.
41 Richardson, , Essay on the improvement of the great fow bogs, pp 4–5;Google ScholarRichardson, to Henry Joy, 23 Aug. 1808 (L.H.L., Joy MSS, vol. 9); Dubordieu, Statistical Survey, ii, 101.Google Scholar
42 Richardson, to Graeme, Thomas, 4 Feb. 1812, printed in Richardson, Memoir to the Bath Agricultural Society, p. 44.Google Scholar
43 Richardson, , Correspondence between the Rev. Richardson, Dr. & Tanner, Mr., pp 23–4;Google Scholar idem, Essay on the insuffciency of the Linnaean school (Newry, 1815), p. 6.
44 Richardson, , Essay on the improvement of the great fow bogs, p. 6.Google Scholar
45 Idem, Essay on the insuffciency of the Linnaean school, pp 1–8, original emphasis.
46 Golinski, J., Science as public culture (Cambridge, 1992), pp 32-5Google Scholar.
47 Richardson, to Abercorn, 2, 16, July 1808 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, D623/ A/165/34, 38); Richardson to Downshire, 22 Feb. 1810 (P.R.O.N.I., Downshire papers, D671/C/335/1A); Caledonian Mercury, 6 Jan. 1812.Google Scholar
48 Ibid.; Bayly, C., Imperial meridian: the British Empire and the world, 1780–1830 (London, 1989), pp 80-1Google Scholar, 121–6.
49 Hilton, Boyd, Mad, bad & dangerous people, p. 211; Bayly, Imperial meridian, pp 121–6.Google Scholar
50 Richardson to Abercorn, 16 July 1808 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, D623/A/165/38).
51 Richardson to Downshire, 22 Feb. 1810 (P.R.O.N.I., Downshire papers, D671/C/335/1A).
52 Author’s note: Richardson had fiorin adopted by itinerant lecturers in Scotland: W. Richardson, , The utility of fiorin grass: a prize essay addressed to the Farming Society of Ireland (London, 1811), p. 17Google Scholar; idem, Letter to Isaac Corry, p. 40.
53 Magennis, E., ‘Clubs and societies in eighteenth-century Belfast’ in Kelly, J. and Powell, M. (eds), Clubs and societies in eighteenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2010), p. 466Google Scholar; Bew, J., The glory of being Britons: civic unionism and nineteenth-century Belfast (Dublin, 2009), p. 9Google Scholar.
54 Bew, J. (ed.), Belfast politics: thoughts on the British constitution by William Bruce and Henry Joy (re-print Dublin, 2005), pp 1–4Google Scholar.
55 Minute book of the Belfast Literary Society, 19 Apr. 1802, 22 Dec. 1805 (L.H.L., ff. 12, 34); The Belfast Literary Society, 1801–1901 (Belfast, 1902), pp 32, 157, 182.
56 McBride, I., Scripture politics: Ulster Presbyterians and Irish radicalism in the late eighteenth century (Oxford, 1998), p. 210Google Scholar; Killen, , Linenhall Library, pp 46–7.Google Scholar
57 Eastwood, D., Government and community in the English provinces, 1700–1870 (Basingstoke, 1997), pp 58, 67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
58 Bew, , Glory of being Britons, pp 32–3;Google ScholarBlackstock, A., Double traitors: the Belfast volunteers and yeomen, 1778–1828 (Belfast, 2000), pp 24–30.Google Scholar
59 Blackstock, A., ‘Loyalist associational culture and civic identity in Belfast, 1793–1835’ in Comerford, R. V. and Kelly, J. (eds), Associational culture in Ireland and the wider world (Dublin, 2010), pp 55–6Google Scholar; Bew, , Glory of being Britons, pp 63–4.Google Scholar
60 Drennan to Martha McTier, 17 Apr. 1807 in The Drennan–McTier Letters, ed. J. Agnew (3 vols, Dublin, 1999), iii, 594–5.
61 Jamison, J., The history of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, 1810–1960 (Belfast, 1959), pp 6–7Google Scholar; Bew, , Glory of being Britons, pp 11–12.Google Scholar
62 Drennan to Martha McTier, n.d. [Sept. 1807] in Drennan-McTier Letters, ed. Agnew, iii, 627–9; Drennan to Joy, n.d. [Sept. 1807] (L.H.L., Joy MSS, vol. 9), original emphasis.
63 Belfast Monthly Magazine, no. 1 (Sept. 1808).
64 Belfast Literary Society Minute Book, 4 Aug. 1806, 1 Feb. 1808 (L.H.L., ff. 42, 52).
65 Richardson, , Memoir to the Belfast Literary Society, preface, pp 20, 28, 30.Google ScholarPubMed
66 Belfast Monthly Magazine, no. 2 (Oct. 1808), pp 130–1; Killen, , Linenhall Library, pp 28, 51.Google Scholar
67 Joy, to Richardson, , 5 Oct. 1808 (L.H.L., Joy MSS, vol. 9); Anon., The reviewer reviewed, or observations on a review of Dr. Richardson’s memoir on fiorin grass (Belfast, 1808).Google Scholar
68 Belfast Monthly Magazine, no. 2 (Oct. 1808), pp 130–33.
69 Quarterly Review, ii (May 1809), pp 348–55.
70 Bruce, W., The Christian soldier (Belfast, 1803), pp 6–12.Google Scholar
71 Hilton, Boyd, A mad, bad & dangerous people, p. 170;Google ScholarMalcomson, A.P.W., ‘A lost natural leader: John James Hamilton, first marquess of Abercorn (1756–1818)’ in R.I.A. Proc., 88, C, no. 4 (1988), pp 81–2;Google ScholarBew, , Glory of being Britons, p. 32.Google Scholar
72 Richardson, to Joy, , 17 Oct. 1808 (L.H.L., Joy MSS, vol. 9), original emphasis.Google Scholar
73 George, M. D., Catalogue of political and personal satires (London, 1952), p. 884.Google Scholar
74 Richardson, , Letter to Isaac Corry (frontispiece); Richardson to Joy, n.d. [1809] (L.H.L., Joy MSS, vol. 9), original emphasis.Google Scholar
75 Lockhart, J. G., The memoirs of Sir Walter Scott (4 vols, Paris, 1838), iii, 141.Google Scholar
76 Belfast Monthly Magazine, no. 2 (Oct. 1808), p. 133.
77 Richardson to Young, 14 Mar. 1809 (B.L. Add MSS 35130, f. 184); see also Richardson, W., Memoir on useful grasses (n.d. [c.1809], Armagh Public Library), p. 9;Google Scholar Burgoyne to Abercorn, 3 July 1810 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, D623/A/124/23); Burgoyne to Abercorn, 14 Mar. 1814 (ibid., D623/A/127/2).
78 Davy, H. to Macarthy, B. H., 1 Feb. 1811, cited in The fourth report of the commission ers appointed to enquire into the nature and extent of bogs in Ireland, pp 173–4 [131], H.C. 1813–14, vi (part 1), 378;Google ScholarThe second report of the commissioners appointed to enquire into the nature and extent of bogs in Ireland, pp 205–6 [96], H.C. 1810–11, vi, 817.
79 Quayle, T., General view of the agriculture of the Isle of Man with observations on the means for its improvement drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement (London, 1812)Google Scholar; Caledonian Mercury, 7 Feb. 1811, 29 Jan. 1825; Belfast News-Letter, 15 Feb. 1848.
80 Donaldson, , Agricultural Biography, pp 107–8;Google ScholarBelfast News-Letter, 2 Mar. 1853.
81 I would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for permission to draw on archive material in their keeping: the deputy keeper of the records P.R.O.N.I.; the Linenhall Library; the Robinson Library, Armagh.
