Departures of note

Alexander John Montgomery, known as “Black Montgomery” for ordering the massacre of prisoners during the Seven Years’ War, later became a fiercely independent Irish MP who once freed Republican prisoners to secure his own re-election. In 1759, while serving as a captain in the 43rd Regiment of Foot at the siege of Quebec, he commanded a detachment that attacked a village near Saint-Joachim. According to Lieutenant Malcolm Fraser, Montgomery ordered the killing and scalping of captured enemy soldiers, an act Fraser described as “barbarous” and “inhuman.” Montgomery resigned from the army in 1763 after a junior officer was promoted over him.

Born in 1720, the eldest son of Thomas Montgomery, MP for Lifford, and Mary Franklin, he was the older brother of Major-General Richard Montgomery, who died fighting for American independence at Quebec in 1775. Alexander entered the Irish Parliament in 1768 as an Independent for County Donegal, a seat he held for 32 years. He also served as High Sheriff of Donegal in 1773 and joined the Royal Dublin Society that same year. Known for his dueling, he once fought in the bishop’s garden in Derry, where a shot tore off the tails of his coat; he finished the duel sitting in a chair to hide his exposed backside. In 1797, after winning a duel against a loyalist, he was carried home in triumph by United Irishmen.

Montgomery’s politics made him suspect in government circles. In 1773 he was described as “extremely popular and very flighty,” and later sketches called him “an impracticable and dangerous man.” He supported Flood’s doctrine of renunciation and opposed the Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain, voting against it in 1800. In his final election in 1797, he released Republican freeholders from Lifford Gaol so they could vote for him. He died unmarried on 29 September 1800, before the Union took effect, and was buried at Raphoe Cathedral with an epitaph honoring his 32 years representing “this once Independent county.”