Solomon Richards was a professional soldier who fought in Ireland first for

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially a ...

and then for William of Orange. He is best known for his part in a failed attempt to relieve the

Siege of Derry The siege of Derry in 1689 was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland. The siege was preceded by an attempt against the town by Jacobite forces on 7 December 1688 that was foiled when 13 apprentices shut the gates. Thi ...

in 1689. In

Irish history The first evidence of human presence in Ireland dates to around 34,000 years ago, with further findings dating the presence of ''Homo sapiens'' to around 10,500 to 7,000 BC. The receding of the ice after the Younger Dryas cold phase of the Qua ...

, Colonel Richards is best known for his role as a

priest hunter A priest hunter was a person who, acting on behalf of the English and later British government, spied on or captured Catholic priests during Penal Times. Priest hunters were effectively bounty hunters. Some were volunteers, experienced soldiers ...

and as one of the judges in 1654 who condemned underground

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

William Tirry William Tirry () OSA (1609 – 12 May 1654) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest of the Order of Saint Augustine following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He was captured by the priest hunters at Fethard, County Tipperary while continuing ...

, who was Beatified in 1992 as one of the

Irish Catholic Martyrs Irish Catholic Martyrs () were 24 Irish men and women who have been beatified or canonized for both a life of heroic virtue and for dying for their Catholic faith between the reign of King Henry VIII and Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The more ...

Family

He was born in 1619 and his baptism on 14 November 1619 is recorded in the parish registers of St Andrew, Holborn. The register states that he was the son of Salloman Richards and his wife Ann, a cutler living near the Cross Keyes. He married first Rhoda daughter of Samuel Wilson and Anne Miller. She was buried on 7 Nov 1645 at St Olave, Old Jewery having died in childbirth. They had a daughter Rhoda. He married secondly Abigail Goddard daughter of Henry Goddard, shipbuilder. The marriage took place before Henry made his will on 30 Aug 1647. Her brother Jonathon Goddard was Cromwell's personal physician.

With Cromwell

Solomon Richards served as lieutenant-colonel of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

's own regiment in the

New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...

. He took part in the

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, initially led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three ...

and was granted an estate of 3,000

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

at Solsborough in

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

, probably under the terms of the Act for the Settlement of Ireland of 1652. After Augustinian

Friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

was arrested at Fethard while vested for

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

Holy Saturday Holy Saturday (), also known as Great and Holy Saturday, Low Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday, Saturday of the Glory, Easter Eve, Joyous Saturday, the Saturday of Light, Good Saturday, or Black Saturday, among other names, is t ...

25 March Until 1752 it was the official date of the beginning of the year in England and its dominions (in the Julian calendar). Events Pre-1600 * 410 – The Southern Yan capital of Guanggu falls to the Jin dynasty general Liu Yu, ending the ...

, 1654, he was tried at

Clonmel Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Dro ...

on 26 April, by a jury and a panel of Commonwealth judges, including Colonel Richards, for violating the Proclamation of 6 January 1653, which defined it as

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

for

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

s to remain in Ireland. In his own defense, Fr. Tirry replied that while he viewed the Commonwealth as the lawful government, he had no choice but to disobey its laws, as the Pope had ordered him to remain in Ireland. Fr. Tirry was according found guilty and sentenced to

death by hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. ...

, which was carried out in Clonmel on 2 May 1654. In 1659 Col. Richards was appointed Governor of

Wexford Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

town. That was after Cromwell's death and perhaps even after the end of the protectorate in May 1659.

Restoration

At the Restoration in 1660, he was deposed as governor of Wexford and was briefly imprisoned. He was released and was confirmed in the possession of his newly acquired lands by the

Act of Settlement The Act of Settlement ( 12 & 13 Will. 3. c. 2) is an act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Cathol ...

of 1662. For the following twenty-seven years he lived quietly on his Irish estate at Solsborough.

Glorious Revolution

In September 1688 he was commissioned by King James II to raise a new

regiment of foot This is a list of numbered regiments of foot of the British Army from the mid-18th century until 1881, when numbering was abandoned. ''Foot'' was the contemporary term for ''infantry''. Introduction Rank and numbering Establishment of precede ...

to provide him with reliable troops to counter the menace of

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

's invasion. As a Protestant Richards seems an unusual choice but he was a nonconformist and James tried to create an alliance of Catholics and non-

Anglican 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 ...

Protestants, both of whom had suffered from the

Penal Laws Penal law refers to criminal law. It may also refer to: * Penal law (British), laws to uphold the establishment of the Church of England against Catholicism * Penal laws (Ireland) In Ireland, the penal laws () were a series of Disabilities (C ...

. Rather than raising his regiment in Ireland as might be expected, he recruited his men from London and the Home Counties. Following James's flight to France, he sided with William and his regiment became part of William's reformed Army.

Cunningham's Expedition to Derry

In the early phase of the ensuing

Williamite war in Ireland The Williamite War in Ireland took place from March 1689 to October 1691. Fought between Jacobitism, Jacobite supporters of James II of England, James II and those of his successor, William III of England, William III, it resulted in a Williamit ...

, the city of Derry 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 ...

, which was held for William by Lieutenant-Colonel

Robert Lundy Robert Lundy (died 1717) was a Scottish army officer best known for serving as Governor of Londonderry during the early stages of the Siege of Derry. Lundy is reviled in Ulster loyalism as a traitor to this day, and his name has become a byword ...

, was menaced by the

Irish army The Irish Army () is the land component of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. ...

Tyrconnell Tyrconnell (), also spelled Tirconnell and Tirconaill, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland. It is associated geographically with present-day County Donegal, which was officially named ''County Tirconaill'' between 1922 and 1927. At times it also i ...

and James II. William sent Colonel Cunningham with an expeditionary force to Derry to defend the city. This force consisted of two regiments of foot, Cunningham's own and Richards's, together about 1600 men. They sailed from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1689 on nine transport ships escorted by the fourth-rate frigate and reached

Lough Foyle Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle ( or "loch of the lip"), is the estuary of the River Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland. It lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Sovereignty over t ...

downstream of the city on 15 April 1689. That very day Lundy suffered the defeat of the Battle of the Fords, where he led his Irish Protestant force in an attempt to prevent the Irish under Richard Hamilton and de Rosen from crossing the River Finn and approaching Derry. As Lundy's poorly organised troops streamed back towards the city walls, he issued several contradictory orders to Cunningham and Richards. They were summoned to a

council of war A council of warGeorge St George, another Irishman. As Derry was able to hold out until a second relief force under General

Percy Kirke Lieutenant-General Percy Kirke ( – 31 October 1691) was an English Army officer who was the son of George Kirke, a court official to Charles I and Charles II. Career In 1666 Kirke obtained his first Army commission in Lord Admiral's reg ...

arrived, questions were raised in the

English Parliament The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised th ...

about Cunningham's and Richards' conduct. He died in 1691 and was buried in the North Cloister of Westminster Abbey on 6 October 1691.

Legacy

Richards had many children. It is sometimes wrongly stated that he was the father of

Jacob Richards Jacob Richards (1773 – July 20, 1816) was an American politician and lawyer who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1803 to 1809, representing the 1st congressional district of Pennsylvania as a member of the Democratic-R ...

an engineer officer, who also served William in Ireland (1689–91) where he was wounded during the

Siege of Carrickfergus The siege of Carrickfergus took place in August 1689 when a force of Williamite troops under Marshal Schomberg landed and laid siege to the Jacobite garrison of Carrickfergus in Ireland. After a week the Jacobites surrendered, and were allo ...

. Jacob and his brothers Michael and John were the sons of a certain Jacob Richards and his wife Ann. This mistake seems to have originated in one Betham's sketch pedigrees Four hundred years after Col. Richards condemned him to death, Fr.

was

beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

along with 16 other

on 27 September 1993. The

Augustinian Order Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th ...

annually celebrates his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

on 12 May."Blessed William Tirry", Augustinian Friends
/ref>

Notes and references

* * * * * Christopher Richards Richards of Solsborough, Co Wexford The Irish Genealogist 2003 Vol 11 no 2 pages 106-117 * Sir William Betham, sketch pedigrees Vol VIII. 53 ms 268 in the National Library of Ireland {{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Solomon 1691 deaths 1619 births 17th-century Irish military personnel Anti-Catholicism in Ireland Burials at Westminster Abbey Irish soldiers New Model Army personnel People from County Wexford Priest hunters Williamite military personnel of the Williamite War in Ireland Year of birth unknown