Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

Francis Higgins (1746 - 1802):
Newspaper proprietor and spy


Francis Higgins was born in Downpatrick, County Down, and became an attorney's clerk in Dublin. He married, leading his wife to believe that he was a country gentleman, for which offence he was imprisoned and became known as 'the Sham Squire'. He was the owner of gaming houses. He bought the Freeman's Journal and in its pages frequently denounced opponents of the government, in particular the United Irishmen. He was rewarded £1,000 for revealing the hiding place of Lord Edward FitzGerald in 1798. He died in Dublin. [Biography, The Sham Squire by W. J. Fitzpatrick]


Born: 1746
Died: 19 January 1802
Kate Newmann
Acknowledgements:

Richard Froggatt