Samuel MacCurdy Greer (1810–1880), was an Irish politician who, in

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

championed Presbyterian representation and tenant rights. He was a founder member of the Ulster Tenant Right Association and of the all-Ireland

Tenant Right League The Tenant Right League was a federation of local societies formed in Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine to check the power of landlords and advance the rights of tenant farmers. An initiative of northern unionists and southern nationali ...

. In the general election of 1857 he was returned to

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

on a tenant-right platform for

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

Background

Samuel MacCurdy Greer was the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Greer,

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

minister of Dunboe, and Elizabeth Caldwell, daughter of Captain Adam Caldwell, R.N. He was born at Springvale near

Castlerock Castlerock is a seaside village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is five miles west of Coleraine, and part of Causeway Coast and Glens district. It is very popular with summer tourists, with numerous apartment blocks and two caravan ...

, in 1810, educated at the

Belfast Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (also known as ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern Ireland w ...

and

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

, and 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 1833.

Tenant righter

Greer entered public life in the wake of the

Great Irish Famine The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger ( ), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact o ...

which, together with a drop in agricultural prices, compounded the poverty and insecurity of tenant farmers. With

James MacKnight James MacKnight (1721-1800) was a Scottish minister and theological author, serving at the Old Kirk of Edinburgh (St Giles Cathedral). He is remembered for his book Harmony of the Gospels and as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of ...

, editor of the ''Londonderry Standard,''

William Sharman Crawford William Sharman Crawford (1780–1861) was an Irish landowner who, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, championed a democratic franchise, a devolved legislature for Ireland, and the interests of the Irish tenant farmer. As a Radical repres ...

MP, a progressive

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

landlord, and group of radical Presbyterian ministers, in 1847 Greer formed the Ulster Tenant Right Association. The association called for rent reductions, and for the codification of the Ulster tenant right, the customary understanding that gave tenants a saleable interest in the land they had worked. When Downhill Castle, owned by the Tory landlord Sir Harvey Bruce, was burned down in a malicious fire, Greer made a name for himself by waging a successful legal campaign against the attempt of the landlord-controlled county Grand Jury to place the cost of its rebuilding on the local taxpayer. He was invited to share platforms with MacKnight and to join in a delegation to London to press the case for rent controls. In 1850, Greer accepted Charles Gavan Duffy's invitation to form an all-Ireland

. This was to bring Ulster tenant righters into what proved an uneasy alliance with southern tenant protection societies and with prominent supporters, like Duffy, of a restored and reformed (and perforce Catholic-majority) Irish Parliament.

Radical and Liberal Party politician

In the 1852 Westminster election Greer stood on the tenant right platform. But in the face of organised, sometimes violent

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

opposition, Duffy's promised "League of North and South" failed to deliver. Of the 48 League-supported MPs returned to Westminster as the

Independent Irish Party The Independent Irish Party (IIP) was the designation chosen by the 48 Members of the United Kingdom Parliament returned from Ireland with the endorsement of the Tenant Right League in the 1852 general election. The League had secured their ...

(many of them sitting Repeal MPs), only one represented an Ulster constituency, William Kirk for Newry. In the south, the clericalist Catholic Defence Association further split the movement. Politically isolated, in 1856 Duffy took his commitment to land reform to Australia. While supportive of the legislative union with Great Britain, Greer was not prepared to enter into the pan-Protestant unionist alliance urged by the sometime Presbyterian Moderator, Henry Cooke. Too many

Anglicans Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

insisted on the prerogatives not only of landlords, but also of their Established Church the costs of which, borne by landowners, were passed to the tenant in higher rents. When in a by-election for

in 1857, Greer next stood on a tenant-right platform it was with the endorsement of the Presbyterian Representation Society. This has been formed, over the objections of Cooke, to "secure Parliamentary representation, and a recognition of their claims to public offices and appointments, for the Presbyterians of Ireland." Supported by MacKnight, Greer was successful in taking one of the county's two seats in the general election later the same year as a

Radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

. In Britain, the Radical leader

John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...

had, at the outset, endorsed the League's tenant right programme. With even Orangemen supporting the tenant right (forty were expelled from the Order for declaring for Greer in then still open balloting) he edged out the

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

Sir Harvey Bruce, 2,339 votes to 1,676. Two years later, standing for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

(a United Kingdom union of the Radicals, Whigs and the anti-protectionist

Peelite The Peelites were a breakaway political faction of the British Conservative Party from 1846 to 1859. Initially led by Robert Peel, the former Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846, the Peelites supported free trade whilst the bulk ...

s)G. M. Trevelyan, ''British History in the Nineteenth Century'' (London 1922) p. 383. his vote dropped from a third to a quarter of the ballot, and the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

regained both seats. His loss to the Tory landlord-nominee

James Johnston Clark James Johnston Clark (1809 – June 1891) was a Unionist politician in Ireland. Clark was born the son of Alexander and Margaret (née Johnston) Clark of Maghera. He inherited Largantogher House, Maghera, County Londonderry on the death of his fa ...

led to the withdrawal of many Presbyterians from politics. In 1860 in by-election for the Derry City seat, Greer tried to succeed the Whig MP Sir Robert Ferguson, but the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

candidate William McCormick, who employed a significant number of Catholic workers, managed to split the Catholic vote and defeated Greer with a majority of 19. Although failing to win office as a Liberal, Greer promoted the party in Ulster. It was the vehicle through the first of the

Irish Land Acts The Land Acts (officially Land Law (Ireland) Acts) were a series of measures to deal with the question of tenancy contracts and peasant proprietorship of land in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Five such acts were introduced by ...

was secured in 1870. This met one of the central demands of the Ulster Tenant Right Association. It gave the Custom of Ulster, which restricted the opportunity to

rack-rent Rack-rent denotes two different concepts: # an excessive rent. # the full rent of a property, including both land and improvements as if it were subject to an immediate open-market rental review. The second definition is equivalent to the econom ...

tenant improvements, the force of law. In 1872, the Gladstone administration also introduced the secret ballot, which reduced the intimidatory power of landlords and employers. In 1870 Greer accepted the recordership of Londonderry, an office until 1878, when he was appointed county court judge of

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

and Leitrim. He died in 1880.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greer, Samuel Maccurdy 19th-century Irish politicians 1810 births 1880 deaths Irish Presbyterians Politicians from County Londonderry Alumni of the University of Glasgow Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Londonderry constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1857–1859 People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy Irish County Court judges Lawyers from County Londonderry