The Irish Brigades in France (1690-1791)

“The Irish Brigade (Irish: Briogáid Éireannach, French: Brigade irlandaise) was a brigade in the French Royal Army composed of Irish exiles, led by Lord Mountcashel. It was formed in May 1690 when five Jacobite regiments were sent from Ireland to France in exchange for a larger force of French infantry who were sent to fight in the Williamite War in Ireland. The regiments comprising the Irish Brigade retained their special status as foreign units in the French Army until nationalised in 1791.”
(see Wikipedia Reference).

The years leading up to the 1798 Rebellion

After the dissolution of the Irish Brigades in 1791, Lord Edward FitzGerald, son of James Fitzgerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, a well-respected soldier having fought on the British side during the American Revolutionary War, made arrangements with the British monarchy to transfer to the British Army the remnants of Irish Brigade units in France wishing to remain in military service. Despite having successfully arranged for the transfer of Irish Brigade units to the British Army, by 1792, having lived for a time in Paris and showing overt support for the French Revolution, he was dismissed from military service. Four years later he joined the Society of United Irishmen and, by 1798, had been appointed head of a military committee to plan a general uprising. The date was set at May23 but the committee’s plans became known to the British military who arrested him in Dublin on May 19. After after a fierce struggle he was shot in the arm and died of his wound in prison several weeks later. The rebellion set for May 23 went ahead as planned but suppressed after much bloodshed.

The Fate of the Irish Brigade Soldiers after 1792

Two persons who I suspect may have been Irish Brigade soldiers returned to Ireland after 1792 would be a Cornelius Nowland who lived in the area of Cork (Co. Cork, IE) in the 1790s (father of a John Nowland born in late 1790s who settled in the area of Sarsfield, Ontario, around 1850) and my ancestor James Nowland who married in the Ballon church (Co. Carlow, IE) in 1793 (father of the brothers Peter and Edward Nowlan who settled in the area of Bouctouche, New Brunswick, around 1818).

Circumstancial evidence pointing to Cornelius Nowland being an Irish Brigade soldier is the fact that:

• Cornelius is a an unusual first name for Ireland and there is evidence of a “Cornil Nolan” (sic Cornelius Nolan) marrying a “Marie Macarti” (Mary Macarthy) in the area of Valenciennes in north-eastern France, near the Belgian border, in 1714.
• John Nowland, his son, being born in the late 1790s in Cork/Cobh, where there were likely housed many of the Irish Brigade soldiers re-assigned to British units after 1792.
• John Nowland settling in the French area of Sarsfield, Ontario, near Ottawa.

Circumstancial evidence to my ancestor James Nowland being a returning Irish Brigade soldier is the fact that:

• James Nowlan(d) of Killane, my ancestor, was part of the Carlow yoemen cavalry in the late 1790s.
• His son Peter Nowlan settled in a French-speaking area of New Brunswick.
• Family lore indicates that when his son, Peter, arrived in New Brunswick, he was called “Pierre”.
• Family lore further indicates that, like the John Nowland, mentioned earlier, Peter and his brother Edward also left Ireland from Cobh/Cork, a British Army stronghold.
• William Nowlan, son of Peter, the first arrived, continued the tradition of maintaining law and order, being sheriff for Kent county, New Brunswick, in the late 1800s.

Up to now we have peered into/guessed at the lives of two individuals who we believe were Irish Brigade soldiers who returned to Ireland after the French Revolution but what about those Nolan soldiers who prefered to stay in France.

On that front I am happy to report that I have found information about a Nolan Irish Brigade soldier who saw military service in both America and Europe before dying in north-eastern France shortly before the start of the French Revolution in January 1789.

Based upon the result of a few Internet searches we know that a Captain Christopher Nowlan was part of a combined American and allied country force which countered a British attempt to retake Savannah, Georgia, in 1779.  At the time he was one of several 2nd in command captains serving under Colonel Arthur Dillon of the Dillon regiment .

Up until now that was about all we knew about this Captain Nowlan.  Luckily, in one of my recent searches in the French “Filae.com” genealogical database I discovered a church record entry for the death of this Nolan/Nowlan soldier in northern France, in the area of Valenciennes, near the Belgian border, in 1789.

From the 1789 church record we learn that he was a former captain in the “Régiment de Dillon” who had been honoured by the king of France with the title of “Chevalier de St. Louis”. We also learn that he was born in Ireland around 1733 at a place called “Tullimore”, (likelyTullamore, Co. Offaly) and that died on January 25, 1789 at the age of 56 in the parish of Valenciennes – Saint Nicolas ( see 1789 entry for “Christophe Noulan”  at Filae.com genealogy website ). Witnesses for his death record were Father Daniel O’Sullivan and Daniel O’Carroll also a former captain of the Dillon regiment honoured with the title of Chevalier de St. Louis. This was just a few just a few months before the start of the French Revolution and it is possible that he died as a result of pre-revolutionary troubles.

Here it is interesting to note that the area where Captain “Christophe Noulan” lived is the same area as where we saw earlier that a “Cornil Nolan” had married a “Marie Macarti” in 1714 leading us to believe that the “Noulan” family may have been well established in the area and that there may still be modern-day descendants in the area or, another possibility, they may have left the area as a result of the French Revolution and possibly returned to Ireland. Wec also note that the “Noulan” spelling for his name is also found in Co. Carlow (Tinryland in particular) and Dublin church records in the early 1800s. These “Noulan” families may possibly have been part of “Christophe Noulan”s extended family in north-eastern France displaced by the French revolution.

Possible Descendants in Newfoundland in the 1790s

We know that in the late 1700s Nowlans were fishing in the Placentia Bay area of Newfoundland and sometime later a Patrick Nowland resetlled to the nearby French island of St. Pierre. He may have been a son/grandson of the Morlough Nowlan who, in 1785, was living in the Bay Bulls area along Newfoundland’s south shore.

Another descendant of this Morlough Nowlan may have been the Nowlan fisherman whose house was spared from burning by the men of French Admiral Richerie when they raided the Bay Bulls area in 1796. This is the same area as where the aforementioned Morlough Nowlan lived in 1785. As regards the 1796 incident, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith had reported at the time that the French soldiers took pity on the father seeing him with infant twins, one on each knee when they entered his house. In my opinion, a more likely story is that he was a French sympathizer and likely spoke French to the soldiers. From another source, I also know that the Nowlan fisherman in Bay Bulls in 1796 was called Simon.

Roger Nowlan (Contact Me)

NolanFamilies.org webmaster
and facilitator for the NolanFamilies Research Group