Manly magistrates and citizenship in an Irish town: Carlow, 1820-1840

On the 27 September 1832, Mr Hamilton addressed the Carlow Petty Session Bench with a long speech about his ‘chartered rights’ to demand customs at the Carlow Fair. His appearance before the court and the exchange with the magistrates was reported a few days later in the local newspaper, the Carlow Morning Post. 1 During his speech, he noted that his lease was ‘made out consistent with the law of the British constitution’ and that ‘If chartered rights were to be questioned in that manner, nothing was safe—no man in the country was secure in the title deeds of his estate. As to his right it was founded on no less than the authority of royalty itself (a laugh [in the court]).’ He went on to criticize the recent decision of the bench that had went against him, challenging the right of the court to try the case, before muttering that it ‘was not a court of justice.’Katie Barcla