A low life in high society

BORN in a Dublin cellar in 1776, Francis Higgins would swindle his way from lowly messenger boy all the way up to the top echelons of Dublin society, eventually becoming owner of the newspaper the Freemans Journal.

His parents—both County Down natives and from poor background—moved to Dublin where his father found employment as a law clerk. Higgins worked from a young age as a messenger boy and shining shoes on Fishamble Street. He struck it lucky when he found work in an attorney’s office, but instead of trying to climb the ladder there he forged documents that portrayed him as a man of means with a large estate and annual income and then set about trying to find an eligible bride that could provide him with money and a place in high society.

Marriage of convenience

He found this in Mary Anne Archer, whose father was a wealthy Dublin merchant. Higgins passed himself off as the son of a gentleman and a nephew of a Member of Parliament, Mr Archer fell for the ruse and granted Higgins permission to marry Mary, even though she found him physically repulsive.

The couple moved to Lucan and through the jigs and the reels Mary soon realised that Higgins was a potless chancer and she went back to her parents house.

Higgins, unhappy with this, followed her and in the struggle Mary’s arm was broken. Charges were brought and in the court case that followed, he was found guilty of fraud and imprisoned for a year. During the trial the judge referred to him as a ‘Sham Squire.’

Hustling and hobnobbing

Upon release from gaol, he started to sell smuggled tea to Dublin merchants, but in turn also reported their names to the revenue and collected the rewards for reporting them. He needed all the money he could get to finance his expensive social pursuits of prostitution and gaming. Higgins even became an attorney of law at one stage and then a loan shark

His biggest coup came when he heard that the owner of the Freemans Journal was in debt and cutely offered him a loan, but then called in the loan when the poor man was further in debt, thus forcing him to sign over ownership of the newspaper.

Higgins became extremely wealthy and lived the life he always aspired to, living in a fine house on St Stephens Green. Among his neighbours was ‘Copper Face Jack’ the hated judge—the famous Dublin nightclub is named after him—who lived adjacent on Harcourt Street. Higgins would meet with him in the Iveagh Pleasure Gardens of an afternoon.

Informing

Among his other lowlife pursuits, Higgins ran a band of castle informers who touted on many a United Irishman. He himself was paid £1000 for information he supplied Dublin Castle that led to the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a leader of the United Irishmen who died in prison as a result of a gunshot wound he received while being arrested.

He also headed up the group of informers that led to the capture of many of the Leinster directory of the United Irishmen in Oliver Bonds House on Lower Bridge Street. They also died in custody.

Higgins died suddenly at 56 years of age and remarkably left the bulk of his fortune to Dublin charities. He is buried in Kilbarrack Graveyard on the coast road in Dublin, but nothing remains of the substantial tomb he allowed for owing to the fact that 50 years later a bookseller, who managed to get his hands on some secret service notebooks worked out that the ‘FH’ mentioned within was the one and only Sham Squire, Francis Higgins. A band of Dublin men travelled to the grave and smashed it to smithereens, a fitting tribute if you ask me!