From A Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878 By
P W Joyce
Francois
Thurot.
(21st
June 1727 - 26th of February 1760)
Thurot, Francois, a French privateer captain, who made a descent
upon Carrickfergus
in 1760, was born in France, 21st June 1727. His maternal grandfather,
Captain O'Farrell, an Irishman, served in the Irish Brigade. Thurot
was singularly successful in his operations against British commerce,
in one year capturing no fewer than sixty vessels.
In 1759 it was decided by the French government, taking advantage
of the known charm of his name in Ireland, to make a diversion against
England by sending an expedition thither under his command. He accordingly
left Dunkirk in October, with a squadron of six vessels, and 2,000
troops under Brigadier de Flobert. Steering north, to elude the
British fleet, he put in at Gottenberg and Bergen. Scarcity of provisions
compelled him to cruise among the Hebrides for some weeks. On the
24th January 1760, he sighted Tory Island, but a violent storm prevented
his effecting a landing on the coast of Donegal. His fleet was then
reduced to three shattered vessels, and Flobert unsuccessfully urged
him to abandon the expedition.
At Islay a number of soldiers were landed to procure provisions,
and so great was their hunger that they were glad to dig up potatoes
with their bayonets and eat them raw. There Thurot received the
discouraging news of the defeat by Hawke of the larger French expedition
under Conflans.
He however entered Belfast Lough, anchored off Carrickfergus on
21st February, and landed a body of 1,000 soldiers and sailors.
The small garrison was soon overpowered, and the castle taken, the
victors agreeing not to injure the town if furnished with provisions.
These not being supplied, the French troops commenced pillaging,
which Thurot and his officers unsuccessfully endeavoured to restrain.
Lord Charlemont hurried down to the north, where his estates lay,
and enrolled his tenantry in a yeomanry corps; and the principal
Catholics of Ireland were induced to come forward with an address
of loyalty and adhesion to the Government. The reception of this
address by the Lord-Lieutenant may be said to have been the first
public recognition since the Treaty of Limerick of the Catholics
of Ireland as a body.
The country people did not flock to Thurot's standard, as he had expected.
Without their assistance he could effect nothing; and accordingly, having
victualled his vessels, he re-embarked his troops, and sailed early on
the 26th of February. Thurot's three vessels (the Belleisle, 44 guns;
Blonde, 32; and Terpsicore, 26) were, however, intercepted in the Irish
channel by a British fleet, consisting of the Æolus, 32; Pallas,
36; and Brilliant, 36, under Captain John Elliott, which had been driven
into Kinsale by stress of weather, and there received news of Thurot's
expedition. The vessels came to an action off the coast of the Isle of
Man on the 28th. For an hour and a half Thurot, in the Belleisle, defended
himself against Elliott's whole fleet; but his consorts held aloof, his
dispirited and worn-out crew fought badly, and he was himself killed in
the last broadside, and his body committed to the deep before his vessel
struck.
We are told that many even in England lamented the death of Thurot, who,
even when he commanded a privateer, fought less for plunder than for honour.
His successful and almost unopposed landing was remembered with great
satisfaction by the oppressed Irish Catholics, and commemorated in lines
commencing: "Blest be the day that O'Farrell came here." His
body was washed ashore in Luce Bay, on the coast of Wigtonshire, and being
recognized by some personal tokens, was respectfully buried in the churchyard
of the ruined chapel of Kirkmaiden. [In June 1864, an ivory-handled poniard,
found in Thurot's belt, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in
Edinburgh.]
Sources
34. Biographie Générale. 46 vols. Paris, 1855-'66. An interleaved
copy, copiously noted by the late Dr. Thomas Fisher, Assistant Librarian
of Trinity College, Dublin.
186. Irish Brigades in the Service of France: John C. O'Callaghan. Glasgow,
1870.
233. Manuscript and Special Information, and Current Periodicals.
