John Sadlier: The Prince of Swindlers

As the Great Famine drew to a close in Ireland, a great transfer of land ownership was underway. At the heart of many purchases, especially in the midlands and Tipperary, was John Sadlier, known as the Prince of Swindlers. Sadlier’s was a remarkable tale as he swindled thousands of pounds and duped many people in the process. Here the Nationalist and Leinster Times newspaper recalls his story:

On Sunday morning, 17th February, 1856, the dead body of John Sadlier M.P. for Carlow, and until a short time previously a Lord of the Treasury in the Administration of the Earl of Aberdeen, was discovered on Hampstead Health, near London. Lying close beside the body was a silver vessel which smelt strongly of prussic acid. Death by his own hand saved from trial and penal servitude one of the greatest swindlers and forgers that the world has ever known.

John Sadlier was born in the town of Tipperary in 1814, the son of a respectable trader. He qualified as a lawyer and opened offices in Dublin and Carlow, where he carried on a lucrative practice. Finding that Ireland did not offer sufficient score for his ideas, he migrated to London, where he established himself as a financier. He founded the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank, and found no difficulty in raising the capital of £80,000. Branches were opened in all the principal towns in Ireland, and money poured in rapidly.

Sadlier became President of the Tipperary Bank, and his brother James was general manager. In 1847 he was selected as Parliamentary candidate for Carlow, and was elected by a large majority. In the House of Commons he betrayed his fellow Irish members by accepting a Junior Lordship from the British Prime Minister. His action caused disgust and dismay in Ireland, and indirectly led to his exposure and suicide.

His position as a member of the Government, coupled with his great display of wealth, enabled him to become a member of some of the principal London clubs, where he met with the most aristocratic and wealthy men in England. He became chairman of several large companies and a director of a number of others, and in a short time bad the control of vast wealth.

He gambled heavily, and when his luck changed his losses became large; to recover them he plunged recklessly, and lost again. He swindled the Tipperary Bank of over £200,000 and lost it on the London Stock Exchange. Then he started forging shares in the different companies with which he was connected, on which he borrowed freely.

So skilful were his forgeries that secretaries and others, whose signatures he had forged, were afterwards unable, in some instances, to swear to their own signatures. Things were in a very serious condition with him when the election of July, 1852, came on.

In order to enable him to continue his criminal career, it was most important that he should retain his seat in Parliament. Most of his supporters at the previous election in 1847 had now turned against him and were supporting the opposition candidate. Amongst the number was a Mr. Edward Dowling, who controlled a number of voters.

Dowling was arrested in a bogus charge, in connection with two bills, amounting to £350, which had not at the time to maturity. On application to the Court Dowling was liberated from custody and started an action, not against Sadlier, but against one cf his pawns. Before he had time to go on with his case he was arrested a second time and spent fourteen months in jail.

Fortunately for Dowling, the man, Crotty, with whom the bill transactions had taken place, died, and it was then revealed that the arrests were procured by fraud. It also came out that John Sadlier, M.P., was behind Crotty, who was only a tool in the whole transaction

Dowling now took proceedings against a man named Lawler, who was, in reality, also only a pawn in the hands. This case was tried before a special jury in Dublin in 1853, and their verdict (radically proclaimed the Rt. Hon. John Sadlier, M.P., Lord of the Treasury, to be a perjurer. Dowling now took an action against Sadlier and got a verdict for £1,100 damages. The London Press took up the case, and Sadlier was forced to resign his Lordship of the Treasury. Whispers began to get about that there were a large block of bogus shares actually over £1,500,000, in circulation, and the identity of the forger was more than hinted at. Exposure and suicide soon followed, and next day the Tipperary Bank closed its doors, causing total ruin to thousands of people in Ireland.

For more on Sadlier search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )