User:Talskiddy/Sir Caesar Colclough, 2nd Baronet

Sir Caesar Colclough, (1696 – 1766), aka “The Great Caesar”, magistrate, a landlord on friendly terms with his tenants, a champion hurler and wrestler, an intellectual philosopher, an MP, patron of bards, and friend of clerics of all persuasions. He outlived several of his 13 children (one, Agmondisham, was killed in a duel).

Caesar Colclough, brother of Blest Colclough, m Anne, dau of Arden Adderly of Hams House & widow of Samuel Adderly of Blakenhall

1719 Caesar Colclough MP for Taghmon 1723 Caesar Colclough, elected Portreeve (footnote. This was Caesar Colclough of Duffry Hall and Tintern Abbey born 1694 dead in 1766, married Henrietta dau of Agmondisham Vesey of Lucan Co Dublin. Colclough was one of' the Governors of the County and Knight of' the Shire. A letter from him to Lord Chesterfield in Oct 1745 offered his services in view of a most audacious and wicked attempt against the King’s most sacred person and government On the strength of this he was granted a commission as colonel of a Regiment of Dragoons to raised in the county.

1733 Parliamentary Report on a complaint by Caesar Colclough MP of a breach of Parliamentary privilege by the High Sheriff of Catherlogh

The Colcloughs
Lived at Duffry Hall in the foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains, constructed by Patrick Colclough and described as the most magnificent C17th building in County Wexford, of which nothing now remains.

hurling match
Caesar is said to have taken a team of Duffry Hurlers to Greenwich to play a Cornish team before George I of Great Britain (1660–1727). The Wexford team wore the Colclough colours of blue with a yellow sash, and their supporters (including the Queen) urged them on with the cry of “Up The Yellow Bellies!“, the nickname for Wexfordmen ever since.

Legends
Thomas Lacy, "Sights and scenes in our fatherland" (London & Dublin, 1863).

Legends and traditional stories regarding some of the heads of this ancient family have, as it would seem, been current in former years, and have descended to our own times. The tendency of some of these tales goes to prove that, by reason of the large quantity of church property of which they became possessed, they were doomed to experience repeated crosses and misfortunes, involving in one mclaucholy instance loss of life. This lamentable event, according to the legend which has reference to it, was caused by the malign influence of the fairies, or, as they are sometimes designated, the " good people,*' whose enmity was incurred by Sir Caesar Colclough, he having levelled an ancient rath said to have been a place to which they were wont to resort, to hold their revels. He, it appears, was the accepted lover of the beautiful heiress of Redmond, of the Tower of Hook, to whom he was formally engaged; but having occasion to proceed to England on business of importance, he was reluctantly obliged to forego for a time her beloved society, and bade her a tender farewell; while she, on her part, promised to keep a light burning nightly in her lofty chamber to guide him on his return.

The legend states that the cause of his proceeding to England on this occasion was owing to a challenge he had received from the English monarch, King William III, (between 1688 - 1714) with whom he was on terms of what must have been considered a highly-favoured intimacy. While at the court of England some time previously, Sir Caesar boasted much of the exploits of the Wexford hurlers, and the result was, as I have just mentioned, that the king invited him to bring over twenty-one men of his county to play a match with the famous hurlers of Cornwall. To prepare for this challenge, Sir Cajsar held a grand assemblage of the most celebrated hurlers of the district at Tintern Abbey, and selecting the best and most approved players, took them over to the English court. The king and queen, with a large assemblage of the nobility, attended to witness the match; and, out of compliment to the sovereign, the Irish were provided with yellow, or, perhaps, orange sashes, for their waists, from which circumstance, as we are told, the men of Wexford are stilled called " yellow bellies." The Irish, as a matter of course, were victorious, and Sir Caesar, returning in trinmph, steered for the Tower of Hook, the home of his faithful and idolised mistress. But here, alas! according to the legend, the outraged and malignant fairies interposed, who, having with their enchanting music lulled the lady to sleep, and extinguished her constant and carefully-trimmed lamp, her lover was shipwrecked, and his dead body soon after borne to the shore. The disconsolate and almost heart-broken young heiress, devoting herself to a single life, and never ceasing to lament the melancholy fate of her betrothed, in order to save future voyagers and mariners in general, converted her family tower into a lighthouse, which it remains to the present day.