The Ulster Covenant -- A History and Database of Signatories

[Will Scarlet]

The following posts are from the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (http://www.proni.gov.uk/) and are presented here free of charge to those who have expressed interest in them for non-profit research and educational purposes in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.


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The archive of the Ulster Unionist Council, held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), contains just under half a million original signatures and addresses of the men who, on 28 September 1912, signed the Ulster Covenant, and of the women who signed the parallel Declaration. In total, the Covenant was signed by 237,368 men, and the Declaration by 234,046 women.


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Photograph of Carson signing the Covenant.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/48)


Previously the Covenant was difficult and very time-consuming to access and, consequently, it was under-used. PRONI has now improved access by digitising all the signatures, in recognition that the on-line database should make a significant contribution to both genealogical research and cultural tourism.


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Crowd scene outside Belfast City Hall on 'Ulster Day'.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/40)

[Will Scarlet]

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The Ulster Covenant was part of a response by Ulster Unionists to the efforts of successive Westminster governments to settle the running sore of the 'Irish Question' by giving Ireland a limited measure of local autonomy known as 'Home Rule'. The first two Home Rule Bills, in 1886 and 1893, had been rejected by Parliament, following concerted pressure from Unionists in Great Britain and Ireland.


In June 1892 a massive popular demonstration in Belfast, the Ulster Convention, attracted some 20,000 opponents of Home Rule from throughout Ulster, and was chaired by the Duke of Abercorn. In April 1912 Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill, in which the authority of the United Kingdom Government "over all persons, matters and things in Ireland" was clearly acknowledged.


On the eve of the Bill's introduction, 9 April, another mass demonstration was held at Balmoral, Belfast, attended by about 200,000 Unionists, including contingents from the Orange Order and Unionists Clubs which marched from the city centre. The demonstration was addressed by, among others, Sir Edward Carson, leader of the Irish Unionist Party, and was supported by the presence of a large number of English and Scottish Conservative MPs, and by their new leader Andrew Bonar Law, who assured his listeners that they were not alone as their cause was also that of the Empire.



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The Duke of Abercorn.
(PRONI D/1507/A/3/14)


Back at Westminster, Unionists put up fierce opposition to each stage of the Home Rule Bill, and the third reading was not carried until January 1913, after which the Bill received its expected defeat in the House of Lords. The outbreak of World War I then halted further progress.


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Unionist Clubs in Donegall Square North marching to demonstration at Balmoral, 9 April 1912.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/8)
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[Will Scarlet]

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On 23 September 1912 the Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) passed a resolution pledging itself to the Covenant and set out a case for doing so. During its meeting one of the largest Union Flags ever made - measuring 48 by 25 feet - was hung as a backdrop.

A central Ulster Day Committee was appointed to handle preparations for obtaining as many signatures as possible at various centres throughout Ulster. The Committee was headed by Dawson Bates, Secretary of the UUC, Col. TVP McCammon of the Orange Order and Captain Frank Hall representing the Unionist Clubs.


Circulars were distributed to local Ulster Day Committees which arranged for Unionists to have the opportunity to sign the Covenant in their own districts, and to make sure that over 500 halls and other suitable premises were made available.

On Wednesday, 25 September, 700 large cardboard boxes containing copies of the Covenant and the Declaration printed on cardboard in large bold type for display in halls, and forms for signing, were sent out from Belfast's Old Town Hall for distribution in the city and in rural areas. The forms were foolscap-sized sheets, with spaces for ten signatures, made up into blocks of ten sheets per folder, and headed by the text of the Covenant together with the parliamentary division, district and place of signing. Underneath were lines ruled for names and addresses of signatories.


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Preparations for dispatching boxes of Covenant forms.
(PRONI D/3275/2)


Additional information on the folder cover was the agent's name. Also sent were what would become souvenirs for signatories, individual parchment copies of their signatures in old English type and headed with the Red Hand of Ulster.

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[Will Scarlet]

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Souvenir copy of Women’s Declaration.
(PRONI D/1327/3/27)


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[Will Scarlet]

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Carson's souvenir parchment Covenant.
(PRONI D/1496/3)


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[Will Scarlet]

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The signing of the Covenant was conducted in an atmosphere of near religious fervour, appearing to many like a crusade, with comparisons being drawn between the Ulster Covenant and the Old Testament Covenant of the Israelites.

Religious services to invoke divine aid and to encourage signatures were held throughout in Protestant churches with the favoured hymn being 'O God, our help in ages past'. Charles Frederick D'Arcy, later Archbishop of Armagh, stated his Church’s reason for supporting the Covenant: "We hold that no power, not even the British Parliament, has the right to deprive us of our heritage of British citizenship".


Factories and the shipyard in Belfast were idle and silent, allowing their workers the opportunity to attend church and then to congregate at the City Hall. The church services ended about noon. Carson and other Unionist leaders left the Ulster Hall and walked the short distance along Bedford Street to the City Hall, preceded by the Boyne Standard and with a guard of men wearing bowler hats and carrying sticks. A body of 2,500 men drawn from Orange lodges and Unionist Clubs marshalled the crowds outside the City Hall throughout the day.


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Lord Charles Beresford, FE Smith, Craig, Carson and other leaders arriving at Belfast City Hall.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/36)


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Crowd scene outside Belfast City Hall on 'Ulster Day'.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/41)


At the City Hall entrance Carson was welcomed by the Lord Mayor and Corporation, the Poor Law Guardians, the Water Board and the Harbour Commissioners. Inside, a circular table draped with the Union Flag was placed in the entrance hall. On it was set the Covenant together with a silver inkstand and Carson’s silver pen. Carson signed first, followed by Lord Londonderry and by representatives of the Protestant Churches, and then by James Craig.


The Unionist Club marshals admitted the general public in batches of four or five hundred at a time until 11pm. Lines of specially made temporary desks set out along the corridors allowed 540 signatures to be taken at a time. Elsewhere there were similar scenes of people enthusiastic to sign. At the Ulster Hall women signed the Declaration. The Duke of Abercorn, in failing health, signed under an oak tree on his estate at Baronscourt. Lord Templetown signed at Castle Upton on an old drum of the Templepatrick Infantry.



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At Belfast City Hall 2,500 members of Unionist Clubs of Ireland guarded the grounds. They were organised in sections of 500, all under the command of Major (later Colonel) Fred H Crawford, organiser of the 1914 gun-running. The photograph shows a section of these guards, with staves, taking up position. The inscription on the red, white and blue armbands is 'City Hall guard'.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/32)


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Viscount Templetown.
(PRONI D/1507/A/3/14)

Martin Ross (of Somerville & Ross) wrote:

"Four at a time the men stooped and and fixed their signatures and were quickly replaced by the next batch. Down the street in a market house the women were signing, women who had come in flagged motors, and on bicycles and on foot... In the City Hall of Belfast the people were signing at the rate of about a hundred and fifty a minute; here there was no hypnotic force of dense masses, no whirlwind of emotion, only the unadorned and individual action of those who had left their fields and taken their lives and liberties in their hands laying them forth in the open sunshine as the measure of their resolve".



Contrary to popular belief, only one signature is believed to have been in blood, that of Frederick Hugh Crawford, who was to become the Ulster Volunteers’ Director of Ordnance.


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Pen used by Col F.H. Crawford to sign the Covenant.
(Ulster Museum)


In Dublin the Covenant was signed by 2,000 men who could prove that they were born in Ulster. It was also signed in major cities in England and Scotland, and in places further afield including aboard the SS Lake Champlain. From this vessel a letter was received attaching the signatures of 12 second-class passengers, four men and eight women. Among the third-class passengers, 34 had also got the Covenant text, stuck it to a piece of paper and signed.


On the evening of Ulster Day Carson left the Ulster Club in Belfast to travel by wagonette the short distance to the docks, where he boarded the steamer for Liverpool. A journey that should have taken a few minutes took an hour, as around 70,000 people crammed Castle Place beseeching Carson not to leave. As the steamer slowly made its way up Belfast Lough the vast crowd stood singing "Rule Britannia" and "God Save the King". When Carson went ashore at Liverpool next morning a 150,000-strong crowd greeted him with "O God our help in ages past" and conducted him in procession.

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[Will Scarlet]

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One of the most striking features of the Covenant campaign and of its signing was the breadth of support given to it across all classes of Unionism, including labourers, professionals, gentry, aristocracy and clergy. Another feature was the high turn-out of women to sign the Declaration - 228,991 women signed in Ulster compared to 218,206 men, and 5,055 women signed elsewhere as against 19,162 men, making a grand total of 471,414.


It is not clear what effect the Ulster Covenant campaign had on the Home Rule Bill's parliamentary progress. When Parliament reconvened for its autumn session, Asquith tried to force the Bill through the Commons by ruthless use of the guillotine, but on 11 November it was narrowly defeated by 228 votes to 206. Uproar and acrimony ensued in the Commons. By early 1913 things had quietened down again in the House. The Home Rule Bill continued to be debated hotly, and finally passed the Commons only to be thrown out by the Lords at the end of January, by 326 votes to 69. A period of time had then to elapse before the Bill could become law (the Lords had only a power to delay). By then it was 1914, War had broken out, and a compromise was agreed that the Bill would pass into law accompanied by a suspending Act, effectively postponing Home Rule until peacetime.



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First ten signatures of the Covenant.
(PRONI INF/7A/2/51)


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Ulster Covenant commemorative medal.
(Ulster Museum)


Back in Ulster the Covenant organisers had demonstrated their ability to mobilise huge numbers of people for their cause. In January 1913 this was carried a stage further when the Ulster Unionist Council decided that the Volunteers should become the Ulster Volunteer Force and should be given training in the use of firearms. Recruitment was to be limited to 100,000 men between the ages of 17 and 65 who had signed the Covenant. Thus the stage was set for the next phase of resistance to Home Rule.


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View of Belfast City Hall grounds and crowds
(PRONI INF/7A/2/44)

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[Will Scarlet]

Click here (http://www.proni.gov.uk/ulstercovenantsearch/) to search the database of signatories.

Click here (http://www.proni.gov.uk/ulstercovenant/searchtips/index.html) for search tips and hints.

[Will Scarlet]

"Ulster," by Rudyard Kipling
1912

("Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they
cover themselves with their works: their works are works
of inquity and the act of violence is in their hands." --
Isaiah lix. 6.)

The dark eleventh hour
Draws on and sees us sold
To every evil power
We fought against of old.
Rebellion, rapine hate
Oppression, wrong and greed
Are loosed to rule our fate,
By England's act and deed.

The Faith in which we stand,
The laws we made and guard,
Our honour, lives, and land
Are given for reward
To Murder done by night,
To Treason taught by day,
To folly, sloth, and spite,
And we are thrust away.

The blood our fathers spilt,
Our love, our toils, our pains,
Are counted us for guilt,
And only bind our chains.
Before an Empire's eyes
The traitor claims his price.
What need of further lies?
We are the sacrifice.

We asked no more than leave
To reap where we had sown,
Through good and ill to cleave
To our own flag and throne.
Now England's shot and steel
Beneath that flag must show
How loyal hearts should kneel
To England's oldest foe.

We know the war prepared
On every peaceful home,
We know the hells declared
For such as serve not Rome --
The terror, threats, and dread
In market, hearth, and field --
We know, when all is said,
We perish if we yield.

Believe, we dare not boast,
Believe, we do not fear --
We stand to pay the cost
In all that men hold dear.
What answer from the North?
One Law, one Land, one Throne.
If England drive us forth
We shall not fall alone!