Times Past: Partying like it’s 1809 at Bellamont

This column by historian Jonathan Smyth looks at Coote's party in Cootehill in 1809 for King George III who two years later went insane...

Everyone enjoys a community gathering and in October 1809 the local top dog about Cootehill, Mr Coote, landlord and owner of the Bellamont Forest estate went all out when he organised a celebration for King George III’s Jubilee, marking his 50th year on the throne. Two years later, doctors declared the King to be mad.

Some 205 years later, this former English King spoken of with interest among historians, firstly, as one of the Georgian kings of Great Britain; he was the third of the Hanoverian monarchs and the first of them to have been born in England and was able to speak English as his first language. History was cruel towards him.

Secondly, he lost Britain her American colonies and thirdly, as mentioned he went insane. They say, he showed signs of mental illness in early life, which subsided. However, his derangement became more pronounced from 1811 onwards and readers may remember a film about ‘The Madness of King George’, starring Nigel Hawthorne which dramatises the story.

During his long reign, which began in 1760, George III had lived through major events like the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the various French Revolutionary wars. When he became too ill, his son became Regent and ruled in his place.

Party time

The big bash to mark the 50th year of King George III ‘s reign began on the morning of October 25, 1809. Celebrations began early in Cootehill that morning and an account of the day’s revelry appears in the book ‘All Saints’ Cootehill, 1819-2019: A history of the church, the parish, and its people’.

The Freeman’s Journal had their journalist on hand to cover the story, allowing us to paint a better picture of how the day unfolded. It all appeared every bit as stylish as anything you may have watched on the Netflix show ‘Bridgerton’, which is set in the same Georgian era, although Bridgerton embraces greater artistic licence. The Freeman’s Journal announced: ‘Amongst the various festivities which celebrated the Jubilee, we have not heard of one more splendid, or more numerously attended, than Mr Coote’s fete at Bellamont Forest.’

Indeed, old Coote had pushed the boat out on this one, having anchored a series of sailing vessels on his lakes, which connected with the neighbouring estate at Dawsongrove, and it was said that ‘the welcome morning was ushered in with the discharge of fifty rounds from the Prince of Wales barge, the Trafalgar, Bellamont, and Emerald cutters, which were anchored on the magnificent lakes uniting the demesnes of Bellamont Forest and Dawson Grove.’

The sound and spectacle of such artillery being fired must have created a lot of conversation locally and it was an out of the ordinary experience for most people at that time.

At 11 o’clock that morning, several army corps from the neighbouring districts arrived in Cootehill. The soldiers were invited to march with ‘a large detachment of the 92nd regiment’, and so the fancily dressed soldiers paraded through the town before stopping off at old St James Church, on Church Street where they partook in ‘Divine Service’. St James’s was a former Church of Ireland’s place of worship in the parish prior to the opening of a new church at the end of Market Street in 1819. When the service ended, everyone filed out from the building and the soldiers reorganised themselves before they presumably marched back along Market Street, making their way round to Bellamont and up the path to Coote’s residence.

Afterwards, the journalist wrote, that the troops ‘were drawn up on the lawn fronting the lakes, and in full view of the barge and cutters, which were moored opposite the great vista; the smaller flotilla in their front, in form of a crescent, all elegantly ornamented, with new flags, ensigns and streamers, with their full complement of artillery mounted, and immediately saluted the troops with a grand discharge.’

It was said that ‘the feu de joie from the lawn was answered by fifty rounds from the lakes, the yards of the barges and cutters being all manned, and the sailors in new dresses, cheered three times, which was as often repeated by the troops, in which many thousand spectators heartily joined.’

Farm animals and wildlife were likely scared and startled by the hyper strange booms. The account spoke of ‘the re-echo of the cannon from the distant hills and magnificent woods which encircle the lakes’ which it considered ‘had an uncommonly fine effect, majestically awful and sublime.’ No doubt, the celebrations gave the farmers and townspeople much to discuss over the winter months.

By afternoon, everyone was relaxing on the lawn in front of Coote’s mansion as two ‘large oxen’ were taken and roasted whole before them. Nobody was certainly going to go hungry that day, for apart from the oxen, they had six sheep, many pies, and plenty of poultry to devour and an added variety of ‘hogsheads of porter’ to drink. Three times three they swallowed the King’s health, and wished him a lengthy reign, and with the cheering that came, a reply by the cannon ‘rang out from the flotilla’, as ‘several bands’ played the tune ‘God Save the King’.

Grand illuminations!

The day was not completely over just yet. Coote had arranged ‘a grand illumination and display of fireworks’ to fire up the evening sky above Cootehill and that the Mansion-house of Bellamont Forest was ‘splendidly lighted up’, to create ‘a fine effect from the town’. The crowd attending the celebrations was ‘very numerous’, and they did not go their own way until ‘a late hour’.

And even though the soldiers had eaten and drank their fill, it was reported that they ‘departed in excellent order’, if not in ‘high spirits’. As noted in the book on All Saints’ Church, everyone was thankful that the ‘slightest accident did not occur, although the country never witnessed so immense a concourse of people, amongst whom the greatest harmony and pleasure prevailed; and we are happy to find, that a very handsome subscription for the poor of the vicinity gladdened every heart and every eye within the thundering peals of loyalty and joy.’

Coote, it seems, knew how to party in 1809.