Richard Bettesworth (1689-1741) was an Irish politician, Law Officer and

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

of the early eighteenth century. He was a quarrelsome individual, and his list of enemies included

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

, the

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

George Faulkner and

Josiah Hort Josiah Hort (c. 1674 – 14 December 1751), was an English clergyman of the Church of Ireland who ended his career as archbishop of Tuam. Born in Marshfield, Gloucestershire, son of John Hort, and brought up as a Nonconformist, Hort went to sc ...

, Bishop of Kilmore and future

Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ) is an Episcopal polity, archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Cathol ...

. He was born in

Midleton Midleton (; , meaning "monastery at the weir") is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies approximately 16 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare. A satelli ...

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

in 1689 and educated at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

. He may have been a son or grandson of Thomas Bettesworth, who was appointed one of the original burgesses of the town of Midleton in 1672, shortly after it received its

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

from

King Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...

. Richard entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1710, was called to the

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland () is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Bar of Ireland, commonly c ...

in 1716, and

took silk A King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarch is a woman, the title is Qu ...

in 1728. He entered the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

, sitting for Thomastown 1721-7 and for

from 1727 to his death. He was appointed second Serjeant-at-law at the Irish Bar in 1732.

Quarrel with Jonathan Swift

Bettesworth was the subject of numerous jeering satires by his enemies. Foremost among these was Jonathan Swift. From the early 1730s Bettesworth, who was a Nonconformist in religion, was strongly associated with the

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, ...

party in the Irish House of Commons, who supported moves which were likely to weaken the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

, and in particular, pressed for the reduction of agricultural

tithes A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques or via onli ...

. Swift, as a result, attacked Bettesworth in a vicious anonymous satire "The Booby Bettesworth". Swift attacked Bettesworth's apparent ignorance of the law, stating that he was one "who knows in law nor text, nor margent (margin)". Swift also commented on his inability to make any money from his legal practice, and ridiculed Bettesworth's way of pronouncing his name "Bett-es-worth", and his habit of referring to all his acquaintances as "brother", a common practice among Nonconformists at the time. He was particularly scathing about any comparison between Bettesworth and his "brother" (i.e. fellow Serjeant-at-law) Henry Singleton, whom Swift greatly admired. Bettesworth, infuriated, is said to have spent £1200 on trying to discover the author. He called on Swift at his home, demanded he admit his authorship, and according to Swift threatened him with "revenge". Swift said that Bettesworth, who had himself some claim to be a poet, threatened simply to use his pen, but some of Swift's friends claimed that Bettesworth threatened to stab him, or, according to

Laetitia Pilkington Laetitia Pilkington (born Laetitia van Lewen; ''c.'' 1709 – 29 July 1750) was an Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant ...

, to cut his ears off, and his friends pledged to defend him against attack. Swift, undeterred, published a further satire on Bettesworth: "The Yahoo's Overthrow". His antipathy to Bettesworth and another old enemy, Richard Tighe, MP for

Newtownards Newtownards (; ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtow ...

and member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

("that puppy pair of Dicks" as Swift called them), did not lessen with the years.Scott 1829 Vol.2 p.281

Quarrel with Bishop Hort

Josiah Hort,

Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh The Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh was the Ordinary of the Church of Ireland diocese of Kilmore and Ardagh in the Province of Armagh. The Diocese of Kilmore composed most of County Cavan and parts of counties Leitrim, Fermanagh, Meath and Slig ...

, a former enemy of Swift but now on friendly terms with him, also wrote a satire on Bettesworth, "A new proposal for the better regulation and improvement of quadrille". He proposed that all disputes about the popular card game

quadrille The quadrille is a dance that was fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies. The quadrille consists of a chain of four to six ''Contra dance, contredanses''. Latterly the quadrille was frequently danced to a medley of ope ...

be referred to Betteswworth for arbitration, but, since Bettesworth's judgment was not much regarded, Hort humorously suggested that there be a right of appeal to the "Upright Man", a wooden figure which hung in Essex Street in Dublin city centre, which, Hort remarked, could proudly boast that it had never given a corrupt judgment. It was printed by Swift's publisher

George Faulkner George Faulkner (c. 1703 – 30 August 1775) was one of the most important Irish publishers and booksellers. He forged a publishing relationship with Jonathan Swift and parlayed that fame into an extensive trade. He was also deeply involved wit ...

. Faulkner was committed to prison for

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

on an MP, but released after two days.

Death

In 1741 Bettesworth was sitting as an extra judge of

assize The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

(a task regularly performed by the Irish serjeants-at-law at the time) on the

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

Circuit, when he caught the infectious

fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

which was particularly rampant in that

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

year, and died of it.

References

Notes

Sources

*Fabricant, Carole, and Mahoney, Robert ''Swift's Irish Writings- Selected Prose and Poetry'' Palgrave MacMillan 2010 * *Elias, A. C. ed. ''Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington'' UGA Press 199 * * *Scott, Walter ''Life of Jonathan Swift'' Wells and Lilly, Boston 1829 Volume 2 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bettesworth, Richard Irish King's Counsel Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) Members of the Middle Temple People from Midleton Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kilkenny constituencies Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Cork constituencies Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 1689 births 1741 deaths 18th-century Irish lawyers Politicians from County Cork