The Siege of Londonderry
Outside of the Battle of the Boyne the event which arguably
had the greatest influence on the struggle between William
and James for the soul of Ireland was the Siege of Londonderry.
The refusal of the people of Londonderry to refuse admission
to the Jacobite forces was not initially out of enthusiasm
for the cause of William.
The real motive underlying that decision was the instinct
of self-preservation. The citizens believed that a massacre
of the British was imminent with the memory of horrific happenings
of 1641 still vivid.
The fear and alarm was heightened by an anonymous letter
(The Comber Letter) dated December 3, 1688 received by the
Earl of Mount-Alexander warning him of a plan to massacre
the Protestants of the North on December 9.
The defences of Londonderry seemed contemptible. Its position
was far from impregnable, the stock of provisions was small
and the population had swollen to eight times its usual number
by refugees from the surrounding countryside.

Colonel Lundy, now the Governor, had no thought of a successful
defence, for the task seemed impossible. He did not hide his
feelings from the people.
When the news reached William that the city had declared
for him he determined to send it much-needed help. Lt. Col.
John Cunningham and Colonel Solomon Richards were ordered
to proceed to Londonderry with two regiments of soldiers and
reached the Foyle on April 14, where they anchored in the
bay.
Cunningham, Richards, and their officers went ashore and
consulted with Lundy. He dissuaded them from landing with
their soldiers when he told them the position was so impossible
that reinforcements could only make matters worse. He advised
them to go back to England with ships and men, something he
intended to do if he got the chance.
Lundy in his meeting with Cunningham had ensured that only
those officers of the garrison who thought as he did were
present. Others who felt differently were not invited or were
prevented from attending. But one soldier uttered what those
others believed, "To give up Londonderry is to give up
Ireland."
When the rumour spread of what Lundy and Cunningham had agreed
soldiers and citizens expressed their anger, and many army
officers declared that they no longer considered themselves
to be bound to obey the orders of the Governor. After dusk
on April 17, Lundy's friends secretly fled the city one by
one.
Next day at a special council meeting angry citizens abused
Lundy for his treachery in sending the troops away that William
had sent to defend them. While the meeting was in progress
a sentry on the walls cried out that the vanguard of the enemy
was in sight. When Lundy ordered that there was to be no firing
of guns at them, Major Henry Baker and Captain Adam Murray
countermanded it and called the people to arms. They were
supported by the Rev. George Walker, Rector of Donaghmore
in Co. Tyrone, who had taken refuge with his parishioners
in the city.
All the able-bodied answered the call and the guns were manned.
When James' Redshanks, under Alexander MacDonnell, Earl of
Antrim, were only 60 yards from the gates of the city they
were closed by the 13 apprentices. Expecting the quiet surrender
as promised by Lundy after the Cunningham meeting, the Jacobites
were greeted with loud cries of "No Surrender",
and gunfire.

Lundy had hidden in his house and from there made his escape
over the city wall. When he arrived in England he was imprisoned
in the Tower of London and he, Cunningham and Richards, were
summoned to appear before a parliamentary Commission. Richards
was exonerated, and Lundy was ordered to be returned to Londonderry
to stand trial for treason but this never happened. The conduct
of Cunningham and Richards had so incensed William that he
had dismissed them by newsletter on April 30.
Without the Governor's leadership or a proper administrative
body the people were determined to withstand the siege at
whatever cost. Adam Murray could have been Governor but he
refused. At a meeting of 15 of the principal officers, Murray
being present, Major Baker was chosen. When he complained
that the military and administrative duties were too much
for one man he was allowed to name an assistant. He chose
the Rev. George Walker as Joint-Governor.
Eight regiments were constituted and each man was given his
orders. In just 24 hours the defence of Londonderry, with
the personnel and material available, was complete. When all
had left the city who wanted to go, and these included the
old, the very young and the sick, 20,000 remained within the
walls; 7,020 men able to fight and 341 officers.
On April 19, a Jacobite trumpeter came to the southern gate
of the city to ask if Governor Lundy's promise of an easy
surrender would be kept. He had to take back the message that
the city would be defended against attack for the defenders
had only contempt for their former Governor who had made that
treasonable promise.
Next day, Lord Strabane, a high-ranking Jacobite officer,
was sent to offer terms to the city. It was an ultimatum,
too, which would not be carried out if the citizens submitted
to James, "their loyal sovereign". They would be
pardoned and Adam Murray, who received the message, would
be commissioned a colonel in the army and receive a gift of
£1,000.
Murray's reply to the offer was: "The men of Londonderry
have done nothing that requires a pardon, and own no sovereign
but King William and Queen Mary".
When the encounter was reported to James he returned to Dublin,
and left the Siege in the hands of General Maumont with Richard
Hamilton second in command.
The Siege began on April 20 with a battering of the city.
It was soon on fire in several places and many were crushed
as their houses fell on them when the cannons found their
targets. At first the people were shattered by new and horrifying
experiences, but in the way of human kind they quickly adapted
to their difficult and dangerous situation. Their spirit was
so good that on April 21, Murray led an attack on the besiegers.
A bloody battle ensued and Maumont at the head of a cavalry
unit making for the scene was struck on the head by Murray's
musket ball and killed.
Because of the obvious determination of the garrison to hold
the city the besiegers, after suffering many casualties, decided
to starve the city into surrender.
An expedition was sent from Liverpool under the command of
Liet-General Percy Kirke for the relief of Londonderry. Kirke's
troops sailed on May 22, but storms at sea forced a long stop,
till June 13, at the Isle of Man, then the ships sheltered
off Rathlin Island reaching the Foyle on June 14.
In the meantime the Londonderry people were defending themselves
with stubborn courage against a numerically stronger and more
experienced military force.
Distress had become acute. By June 8 horseflesh was about
the only meat to be purchased and it was in very short supply.
Tallow was a substitute food and even that was doled out parsimoniously.
When on June 14 the sails of Kirke's ships could be seen
by the sentinels on the roof of the Cathedral hope returned.
But hope was turned to despair when signals sent between the
city and the ships were misread by both. To break the deadlock
a messanger from the fleet managed to elude the Irish guards
by diving under the boom to tell the garrison that Kirke had
arrived with his troops, arms, ammunition, and provisions
to relieve the city. But the joy of the message was followed
by weeks of misery, for Kirke thought it imprudent to attack
the besiegers, and he stayed inactive, at the entrance of
Lough Foyle, for several weeks.
Famine was rampant in the city and pestilence had followed
in the wake of the horrible hunger. Fifteen officers died
of fever in one day and Governor Baker died days later. He
was succeeded quickly by Colonel John Michelburne.
When Dublin Castle heard of Kirke's appearance at Lough Foyle
it was decided that Richard Hamilton who had succeeded Maumont
was not able enough for the command. Conrad de Rosen, Marshal-General
of all His Majesty's Forces, a title conferred on him by King
James on his leaving Dublin, was appointed to take control
of the Siege at Londonderry. Rosen was regarded as a great
soldier. He had been sent by Louis XIV to command the French
in James' forces in 1689.
He arrived among the besiegers on June 19 quickly to be made
aware that not even a Marshal of France could defeat what
he thoughtlessly described as a mob of country gentlemen,
farmers and shopkeepers protected only by a wall that no engineer
would describe as impregnable.
Rosen soon found how stubborn Protestants could be.
The horrific story of the lengths to which the citizens went
just to stay alive and the physical pain and mental anguish
they endured is an example of what people will suffer for
a cause in which they believe fervently.
Kirke's inactivity angered William and the Duke of Schomberg.
About July 13, Kirke received orders from Schomberg, as Commander-in-Chief
of the English forces in Ireland, to relieve Londonderry at
once.
The
Mountjoy, a merchant ship, whose Master was a Londonderry
man, Micaiah Browning, had a large cargo of provisions. As
his ship had been part of the convoy he had angrily attacked
Kirke and the army for their inactivity. Now he volunteered
to take the Mountjoy through to bring succour to his fellow
citizens. He was joined by Andrew Douglas, from Coleraine,
the Master of the Pheonix, which carried a large cargo of
meal from Scotland. The Dartmouth, a frigate of 36 guns, under
Commander John Leake, later to become a famous admiral, was
ordered to accompany them to provide protection.
On July 28 th ships made their perilous journey up the Foyle.
The Mountjoy was in the lead and when it reached the boom
it went straight for it. The boom, intended to prevent ships
from bringing relief to the city, was sited between Charles
Fort and Grange Fort. The Mountjoy broke the boom on July
28, 1689.
There was no more prospect of starving the defenders into
defeat. The failure of the siege was a disaster for James
as it destroyed his hopes of conquering the North and gave
William a firm base in Ulster.
The relieved city was bombarded for three days but on August
1 smoking ruins marked the camping places of the besiegers.
They had retreated up the left bank of the Foyle towards Strabane.
And the most memorable siege in British history had ended
after days of fear, agony and loss. The garrison had been
reduced from 7,000 to 3,000 men.
Lord Macauley, in his history of England, when writing of
the Siege of Londonderry, said: "A people which takes
no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride
by remote descendents."
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