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WEX
WEXFORD, a sea-port,
borough, market, post,, and
assize town, in the barony
of FORTH, county of WEX-
FORD, and province of
LEINSTER, 74 miles (S.)
from Dublin and 30¼
(E. N. E.) from. Waterford;
containing 10,673 inha
bitants. This town, which,
as far as can be inferred
from the earliest historical
notices respecting it, was a
maritnne settlement of the Danes, is thought to have
derived its name, which was anciently written Weisford,
from the term Waesfiord (Washford), which implies a
bay overflowed by the tide, but left nearly dry at low
water, like the washes of Lincolnshire and Cambridge-
shire. Nothing further is known respecting it till the
time of the English invasion, when it was besieged by
Fitz-Stephen and Harvey de Montemarisco, immediately
after their landing at Bannow, aided by the Irish army of
Dermod Mac Murrough. The townsmen at first marched
out to give the invaders battle, but awed by their num-
bers and discipline they retired within their walls, after
having set fire to the suburbs to check the enemy’s pur-
suit: an assault of the besiegers was gallantly repulsed,
but at the end of three days they surrendered on con-
dition of recognising the sovereignty of Dermod. The
town, with two adjoining cantreds, was then assigned to
the two Euglish leaders, conformably with a previous
agreement; and Fitz-Stephen, to secure himself in his
new possession, immediately commenced the erection of
a castle in a position commanding the pass of the
Slaney at, Carrigg. After the main body of the English
had proceeded to Dublin, the Wexford men invested the
castle, and having in vain endeavoured to force an
entrance, prevailed upon Fitz-Stephen and his garrison
to surrender, by means of a fabricated account of the
destruction of Strongbow and all his companions in
arms. On the arrival of Strongbow, who, after the
dispersion of the Irish army before Dublin, had hastened
to the relief of Fitz-Stephen, the townsmen quitted Wex-
ford and took refuge in Beg Erin, an island in the har-
bour, carrying their prisoners with them as hostages
for their own good treatment. The plan succeeded: on the
arrival of King Henry, they gave up their prisoners and
were allowed to return peaceably to Wexford, which
they now promised to hold under his authority. Henry,
on his hurried departure from Ireland to suppress an
insurrection in Normandy, gave the town in charge to
William Fitz-Aldelm, Philip de Braosa, and Philip of
Hastings, with a body of 50 knights. In 1174 he
granted the town to Strongbow, who, during his re-
sidence in it, celebrated the marriage of his sister
Basilea with Raymond le Gros and appointed him
governor. In 1177, Raymond received Fitz-Aldelm
here on his arrival as Custos or Governor of Ireland,
who placed his kinsman, Walter Almain, in command
of the place; but Raymond having been restored, soon
after proceeded by sea with part of the garrison to the
relief of the city of Cork, which was besieged by an
Irish army. After the death of Strongbow, and of all
the male issue of his only daughter, who had married
William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and the subsequent
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WEX
partition of his immense property among his five grand-
daughters, Wexford was assigned to Joan, the second
sister, who had married Warren de Mountchensey. In
1318 the town received its earliest charter extant from
Adomar de Valence, into whose possession it and the
lordship came by marriage with Warren’s only daughter.
In 1327, an Irish army under O’Brien was repulsed
from the town with great slaughter. During the
struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York it
was seized in 1462, by Sir John Butler, whose brother,
the Earl of Ormonde, had been just before beheaded by
the Yorkists; but having rashly accepted a challenge
from the Earl of Desmond, who had advanced to
dispossess him, to decide the contest in the open field,
he suffered a total defeat: the victorious earl held
a parliament in the town in the next year. The lord-
ship, which had been conveyed, through the female line,
to Richard Talbot, who married the only daughter of
Adomar de Valence, continued in the possession of his
descendants, until forfeited in the 28th of Hen. VIII.,
under the act against absentees. By the charter of
Jas. I., in 1608, the castle and borough were granted to
the corporation at an annual rent. On the breaking
out of the war of 1641, Wexford was one of the first
places that fell into the hands of the insurgents, and
was their chief port for receiving military supplies from
other countries. On the approach of Cromwell, in
1649, the inhabitants at first refused to admit any
troops on the part of the king, but afterwards con-
sented to receive 2000 Catholics sent by the Marquess
of Ormonde: but the aid was useless, for Cromwell’s
troops gained admission either by force or through the
treachery of Stafford, the governor, and the town was
given up to military execution, as had been the case
with Drogheda. The castle and much of the corpora-
tion property was confiscated at this period. After the
battle of the Boyne, the town declared for Wm. III.,
and was garrisoned by his troops. In 1793, a large
body of the peasantry proceeded thither to rescue some
Whiteboy prisoners: on their approach a detachment
of the garrison was sent out to disperse them, the
commander of which, Capt. Valloton, having ridden in
advance of his men, for the humane purpose of expos-
tulating with the insurgents on their conduct, was cut
down by a scythe: a monumental obelisk erected on
the Windmill hill commemorates this deplorable event.
During the disturbances of 1798, Wexford was the
chief position of the insurgents in the south of Ireland.
After the defeat of a detachment of the King’s troops,
at the Three Rocks, on the 30th of May, on their march
to the town, it was evacuated in a panic by the garri-
son, and immediately taken possession of by the
insurgents, who made it their principal station, and
kept it till the 21st of the following month, during
which time they put to death 91 of their prisoners on
the bridge. On the advance of the royal army, after
the total defeat of the main body of the insurgents at
Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, it was evacuated with,
such precipitation that a troop of yeoman-cavalry,
which had galloped in advance of the main body, in
the hope of preventing the apprehended ill-treatment
of their wives and families from the paroxysms of
despair of their opponents, entered without the smallest
check or opposition. Medals of gold and silver were
struck by order of the corporation, to commemorate
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